by Hamel, B. B.
Hedeon smiled. It looked sour on his lips. “Your cousin’s an addict,” he said. “Does that change your mind?”
She seemed surprised. “I find that hard to believe.”
“It’s true. That’s how I first made contact. He bought from one of my corner boys, and ever since then I’ve maintained a good relationship.”
“No… Uncle Maksim wouldn’t tolerate it.”
“Perhaps that’s why he’s willing to turn,” Reid said.
“If he’s angry and your uncle found out, that’s possible, isn’t it?” I asked.
Robin chewed her lip. “I don’t know.”
“Either way, he fucked us over,” Aldman said. “He sent us into a death trap.”
“I’ll admit, I can’t trust everything he says anymore,” Hedeon said. “We will be more careful in the future.”
“No more sending people in blind,” I said, staring at Hedeon. “That could’ve been me, taking that bullet.”
Hedeon inclined his head. “True, but I’m glad it wasn’t.”
Enrico snorted, but said nothing.
“Where do we go from here?” Reid asked.
“We’ll have to hit, man,” Aldman said.
“I agree,” Enrico said. “Hit them back twice as fucking hard. Two eyes for an eye.”
“Yes, I agree.” Hedeon sighed and looked tired. “It’s going to be on you then, Leo. Since you were there for the attack and the girl’s working with you.”
“Get the girl to turn over a good target,” Aldman said. “You can handle that, can’t you, Volkov?”
Robin flinched. “I’m not a Volkov anymore. And I think I can manage.”
“Good,” Hedeon said. “Show Leo an acceptable target. I’m giving you full authority to act as necessary without prior consent.”
Aldman looked surprised. Reid only nodded. Enrico snorted and shook his head.
“Mistake, boss,” Enrico said. “He’s going to fuck it up.”
“I’ll take care of it,” I said, looking at Hedeon.
“Sooner rather than later.” He stared back at me. “No mistakes. Nothing sloppy. We can’t afford it right now. There are angry voices in the crew right now. Nobody’s happy about what happened to Pavel.”
“Consider it done.” I stood. Robin did the same. She looked profoundly shaken and pale.
“Good luck, shithead,” Enrico said.
I walked around the table and faked a punch at Enrico’s head. He flinched back and I grinned viciously.
“Be careful,” Hedeon called as I took Robin’s hand and led her away from the table. “We can’t afford sloppy right now. We can’t afford mistakes.”
“When have I ever let you down?” I asked.
Aldman rolled his eyes. Reid only grinned.
I tugged Robin along and headed back down to the side door and exited into the afternoon sunlight.
12
Robin
I didn’t speak as Leo drove away from the school and did slow loops around the neighborhood. I didn’t ask what he was doing or why, and it didn’t matter.
I kept thinking about Cousin Rolan.
We weren’t close growing up. I wasn’t close with any of my cousins. They were all good little Volkov soldiers, which meant they weren’t interested in giving the time of day to trash like me. I was a half-breed nothing and barely deserved any part of the family at all. Of course they didn’t want to spend time with me.
But Rolan was a little different. He was kind to me at least. Maybe he didn’t go out of his way to play with me, or invite me places, or really speak to me much. But he didn’t show me the disdain the others did. There were small kindnesses here or there, a shared drink, a slice of cake, small gestures that reinforced my humanity.
I always thought it was because Rolan didn’t quite fit in himself. Oh, he was a good soldier, all right. But he was overweight, slower than the other boys, not as smart, not as strong. He got picked on and teased mercilessly, and he was always the last in everything.
In some ways, I thought we had a lot in common.
Rolan went his own way as we got older and I didn’t see much of him. But I always remembered those small kindnesses.
Now he was an addict and intertwined with some other gang. I couldn’t imagine how he ended up here, but I believed Hedeon.
I could see him turning to drugs. I could see him shooting up just to escape the merciless teasing, the anger, the derision.
It made me mourn. It made me feel guilty.
“You’ve been quiet.”
I let out a sigh and looked at Leo. “Thanks for what you did in there.”
“Enrico?” He shrugged. “I’ve been meaning to do that to him for a long time. He just gave me a good excuse.”
I smiled a little. “Thanks all the same. Will that cost you anything?”
“Oh, sure. Hedeon likes and trusts me, but the other core members mostly think I’m a hot-headed asshole.”
“I wonder why.”
He laughed. “The other two you saw in there? Aldman and Reid? They’re both original members too. It’s uncommon to get four original members in one room these days, but I think they’re pretty shaken up over Pavel.”
“I’m surprised Pavel was an original guy. He seemed so…”
“Stupid? Impulsive? Disgusting?”
“Pretty much.”
“They’re not all saints. Pavel was probably the weakest, but he wasn’t always like that. I think the years have been hard on him and he couldn’t quite hack it in the end.”
“I can understand that.”
He looked at me out of the corner of his eye as we lingered at a stop sign. “So, where should I go?”
I blinked. “You’re asking me? I thought you knew. We’ve been diving around for like a half hour.”
“I’ve been waiting for you to come out of your little silent spell. But I guess I got impatient.”
“Yeah, sorry.” I looked out the window.
“Hearing your cousin’s name tripped you up. I don’t understand why.”
“I like Rolan. He was nice to me.”
“Ah.” He let out a breath. “Sorry to hear that then. If it makes you feel better, I doubt Hedeon will have him killed. Unless we find out that he set us up, then we’ll have to end him.”
“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.”
Leo made a dismissive gesture. “Might not come to that. But either way, we need to make a play here, and I set you up back in that cafeteria.”
“What do you mean?”
“You need to give me a spot to hit. Otherwise, Hedeon’s not going to trust you.”
“Oh, right.”
He started driving again. “They think you’re the one that betrayed us,” he said. “Only Enrico’s dumb enough to outright say that, but they all think it, including Hedeon. So we need to prove them wrong.”
“Which means you need something good from me.”
“Exactly. Time to pay up, little birdie.”
I shook my head. “I’m not sure I can do that.”
“You’ll have to try.”
“What do you want? I mean, what’s a good place to hit?”
“Strip clubs. Parks. Houses. Anyplace your family congregates.”
“There’s the diner. But I don’t want to hurt anyone there. The girls don’t deserve it.”
He nodded. “I hear you. Somewhere else then. Your uncle’s got to own a house in the city.”
“He does, but he moves a lot. I’ve only ever seen the one and I don’t think he’s there much.”
“Somewhere else then. Bar, restaurant, hell, even some retail store.”
I frowned a little. “Retail store…” I trailed off. “There’s a place, actually.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“It’s a flower shop. Over in Old City. My uncle goes there all the time, and I’ve heard my cousins talk about it. I think it’s a front, but I’ve never actually been.”
“Sounds promising. Give me d
irections.”
I nodded slowly, heart beating fast. I didn’t want to do this. I didn’t want to be the reason that people in my family got killed.
But then again, I was forgetting the attack. I was forgetting the man that tried to strangle me to death, and would’ve finished me off if it weren’t for Leo.
I took him along the back streets up toward Third and Market. The flower shop was just north of Market on the left, tucked in between a small park with a fountain in the middle and an art gallery. A tight alley cut down along the side of the park.
Leo slowed and parked on the right across from the shop front. He put on his flashers and we stared at the storefront.
“You sure this is it?” he asked.
“Positive. I remember it because I always thought it looked too nice to be a mob front, you know?”
He grunted. “Exactly what I was thinking.”
“We can go inside. I bet there’s guys in there right now.”
“Then we definitely don’t want to go in. They’ll recognize you, remember?”
I blushed a little. “Right, yeah. Sorry.”
He waved a hand. “Let’s hang here and watch a bit. Maybe something interesting will happen.”
We sat and watched the building. I’m bored out of my mind in approximately five minutes. Sitting on a stakeout is like watching paint dry.
Except when paint dries, something’s happening.
“So, uh, where did you grow up?”
He glanced at me. “Why, you want to meet my family?”
“Uh, no. Just trying to make small talk.”
“Good. They’re dead anyway.”
I grimaced. “Shit. Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. I’m just fucking with you.” He half turned to me. “I mean, they are dead, but it’s not a big deal.”
“What happened?”
“The usual sob story. Mom was a drunk, dad was an addict. He got her hooked on smack around the time I turned three and they were both dead before I turned five.”
“That’s awful.”
“Yeah, it’s awful. I lived with my grandmom for a while but I was a little too much for her to handle. I dropped out of high school and struck out on my own when I turned sixteen.”
“What’d you do to survive? I mean, you were sixteen.”
He shrugged, ran his hands over the steering wheel. “You can probably guess. A little of this, a little of that. Robbed people, broke into stores, got into fights. Joined a few gangs. Crashed on couches. Petty shit for a while, at least until I met Hedeon.”
“That’s when things turned around for you and made you into the sterling, upstanding gentleman you are today, I guess.”
“Exactly.” He laughed. “You think I’m rough now, but you should’ve known me then. I was young and invincible, and the idea of showing another human compassion was a foreign concept to me.”
“Oh, what, and now you’re basically Mother Theresa?”
He snorted. “Gran always said she was a fraud.”
“Yikes. Rough.”
“Gran was like that. But no, I’m not Mother Theresa. I’m just the guy that decided your life wasn’t disposable.”
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Yeah, okay, that’s fair. I guess I do need to cut you some slack.”
He inclined his head and stared out the windshield. A bus rolled past crammed with bodies. A small group of teenagers carrying skateboards jostled each other down the sidewalk. Two businessmen in suits stepped out of a bar, blinked at the light, started smoking. The city pulsed around us like a rotten heart, or a bleeding lung. I tried not to look too close, but once I saw it, I couldn’t see anything else.
All the corruption. All the violence.
Maybe I was just bitter. I’d lost everything I knew in the world. My own family tried to kill me and now I was working with the enemy. I was barely holding it together.
Philly once felt like heaven. The bustle, the commotion. I loved getting lost in crowds and watching people go about their lives. I’d pretend I was one of them, not some forgotten, neglected daughter of a violent mafia.
I pretended I was someone worthwhile.
But it occurred to me, sitting there and watching the storefront, that for the first time in my life, I wasn’t defined by my family. They didn’t have control of me anymore. Uncle Maksim’s word wasn’t law.
Not for me, not anymore.
“Look.”
Leo’s voice pulled me from my thoughts. “Where?”
“Those two.” He nodded toward the shop. “Walking past the front.”
I squinted and saw the guys he was looking at. Two men in their twenties wearing sweatshirts and jeans. They looked like every other guy in the city.
Except they were walking slowly in front of the shop and staring at its window.
“Think they’re just looking for flowers?” I asked. “Maybe the one’s got a date.”
“Maybe, but they’re carrying guns.”
“I don’t see anything.”
“You wouldn’t. Bulge on their backs. Telltale sign.”
“Seems suspect.”
“Watch.”
The two guys moved to the left of the store and headed down the side of the building opposite the park. They stopped in front of a side door and the taller guy leaned his back against the wall and lit up a cigarette while the other knocked.
They waited a minute then the door opened. They said something to someone inside then the smoker put out his cigarette. They went inside and the door closed behind them.
“There we go,” Leo said, voice soft. “That was easier than I expected.”
“What do you mean?”
“Back door. That’s where shit goes down.”
I chewed on my lip and nodded. “Yeah, I think you’re right. It makes sense too. They probably don’t want the guys going through the front if they’re trying to run a legit flower shop.”
“Exactly. Don’t want to scare the little old white ladies.” He turned the car on. “Let’s go. I think I have an idea.”
He pulled out into traffic and I sank lower into my seat. For some reason Leo getting an idea didn’t exactly make me feel safe.
Leo’s ideas tended to be violent in nature.
But that’s what we were doing here. Scouting out a spot to get revenge for Pavel, even though I didn’t particularly like the guy. Even still, I felt a weird sense of anger over what happened to him, and more than a little guilt.
Those men in that flower shop used to be family of a sorts. Maybe I never met them before and never would, but they were a part of the Volkov organization, which meant they mattered to me in some distant and abstract way.
Now though, they were nothing. They were strangers.
They might’ve even been the ones that killed Pavel.
I had to leave my old life behind. As much as it hurt, I couldn’t keep thinking like there was anything for me to go back to.
This was it for me now, like it or not.
13
Leonid
“I’m going with you.”
I stood in front of the floor-length mirror in the bathroom and shoved the magazine into my Glock. I pulled back the slide and pushed it into my waistband.
“No, you’re not.”
Robin sat on the bed wearing all black. She stared at me, a touch of anger in her expression. It made her pouty lips drive me crazy.
“I was thinking, back in the car. About my future. What I’m going to do after this.”
“Yeah?” I turned to look at her. “What’s that?”
“I need to learn something. Maybe I can learn this.”
I raised an eyebrow. “What, learn how to kill people?”
She looked down at the carpet. “Maybe not kill people. But maybe learn… the big picture stuff.”
“You’re already learning that.”
“Just let me come.”
I let out an annoyed breath. “The last time I let you came, we got ambus
hed. You really want to risk it again?”
“If you go out there and get yourself killed, I’m screwed. You think Hedeon and the other guys are gonna let me live?”
He frowned. “That’s a good point.”
“My life is tied up in whatever happens to you right now. So I’m not getting left behind. I’m not just sitting in this room wondering whether you’re alive or dead and whether I’m about to get killed or not.”
I held up my hands.
“Fine.”
She looked surprised. “Really?”
“Really. Fine. You can come.” I lowered my hands and pointed at her. “But you do what I say. No bullshit. Remember how fast it all went down with Pavel?”
“Yeah, I remember.”
“Then you need to make sure you listen. I tell you to run, you just run, no questions, no hesitation. Got it?”
“I can do that.”
“Good.” I stepped out of the bathroom. “Get ready. We’re leaving in ten.”
She nodded and stood as I brushed past her and into the living room area.
Bringing her along was a mistake. I knew it but couldn’t do much about it. I didn’t want to risk making her do something stupid. If she acted impulsively or irrationally while I was out laying this ambush, shit might go sideways.
And besides, I sort of liked that she wanted to learn my trade.
It wasn’t going to happen. But it was cute.
I didn’t have a problem with women in the crew. We had women, not a lot of them, but a few. They could be just as dangerous as any muscle-head asshole. But Robin didn’t have the stomach for this work, and I didn’t think she deserved it.
She’d been trapped in that Volkov hell for long enough. Killing, violence, uncertainty, it was all she knew. I didn’t want her to have to live it forever.
If I could, I’d make sure she needed up somewhere safe and stable after all this was over.
Ten minutes later, she emerged, her hair pulled up into a tight bun.
“Let’s do this.”
I nodded, grabbed my phone, sent a text with an address to a number Hedeon had forwarded an hour ago.
Robin followed me downstairs and out into the night. We got into my car and drove west toward the flower shop. It was late, just after midnight, but there were still people walking through the streets.