by A. Zavarelli
“Mommy.” Josh’s voice is small. He’s nervous.
I turn to find him extending his arms to me, so I take him from Lev.
Gleb looks at Josh, and Josh looks back at him. Josh’s hair is a shade darker than Lev’s, and I wonder if that’s from Gleb’s side.
“He has it too,” I say, and Gleb looks back to me, eyebrows raised. “The birthmark.”
Gleb smiles, then looks at Josh’s pretzel. “What is that? Are you hungry, boy?”
“Josh. His name is Josh.”
“Are you hungry, Josh?”
Josh buries his face in my neck.
“Sit down,” Gleb says and calls someone over.
I sit with Josh on my lap, and Gleb’s eyes go from me to Josh and back like he can’t quite believe what he’s seeing.
“What do you want to eat?” he asks Josh. “They’ll make you anything you want.”
Josh looks at me.
“No marshmallow pancakes,” I tell him with a wink.
He smiles and turns to Gleb. “Chicken nuggets.”
“Chicken nuggets.” Gleb shakes his head. “Get the boy some chicken nuggets and put something green next to them.”
“He won’t eat green,” I interrupt. “Carrots maybe?”
“Carrots. Put some carrots next to them. What about a drink, Josh?” It’s like he’s trying out the name.
“Coke,” Josh says.
“You’re pushing it,” I say.
He looks from me to Gleb and adds a, “Please.”
Gleb grins and nods. “Polite. Very good. A Coke for the boy. And bring my vodka. Are you hungry, Katerina?”
“Um, no thanks.”
He nods to dismiss the man who disappears then reappears a moment later with a bottle of vodka. I have never heard of this brand, but I gather from the decorative bottle it’s a fairly exclusive one. Gleb pours for Lev and me without asking if we want it, but honestly, I could use it.
We sit in awkward silence while Gleb watches me, drinking three times the vodka I manage to.
When the chicken nuggets come, Lev takes Josh to sit on his lap, and Josh starts to eat.
Gleb watches him for a long minute. “He’s yours?” he asks Lev.
“Yes.”
Gleb nods, then turns to me.
“She named you after my sister,” he finally says. “They were good friends.”
“They were?” I suddenly feel so sad. I know nothing about my mother. Not one thing
“She died young too. Cancer. One year before your mother…was forced to leave.” His voice hardens at the end, and he pours himself another vodka, his grip hard on the bottle.
“I don’t know anything about her. I don’t remember anything.”
“I’ll tell you. Don’t worry. But we need to discuss other things first. You’ll stay at my home with the boy—”
“No. They stay with me, and we stay where we are,” Lev says, his voice authoritative and uncompromising. He reaches under the table to take my hand.
Gleb looks irritated by this, and I get the feeling not many people tell him no. He turns to me.
“I don’t know you,” I start before he can say anything. “Josh has had enough upheaval in his life this past week. I can’t change one more thing.”
He considers my words and then nods. “For the time being.” He touches my hair. “You changed your hair. It’s the same color as Ciara’s?”
I nod.
“For that bastard Vasily, you did it?”
I snap my gaze to Josh.
“Sorry, sorry,” Gleb says, waving off his words and drinking more of his vodka. “You need protection. The hotel—”
“Lev protects us. We’re fine.”
Gleb looks at Lev with a raised eyebrow. Josh finishes his last chicken nugget and picks up his Coke. It looks out of place here, the plastic sippy cup with its brightly colored cartoon characters on it and the bright yellow straw. He slurps the last of his soda and puts down his cup.
“You like to play games, Josh?” Gleb asks.
Josh nods, feeling more relaxed after being fed exactly what he wanted, I guess.
“Dima,” Gleb calls. A man comes over. “Take Josh to play one of those games.”
I look at where he’s pointing at some machines that seem to be a throwback from the 90s.
“Looks like they have Pac-Man,” Lev says to Josh who doesn’t know what Pac-Man is.
“Want to play?” I ask Josh.
“With you.” He casts a still unsure glance at Gleb.
“I’ll be right here. You can see me the whole time, and I can see you, okay?”
He nods, but I see it takes him a minute to slip his hand in Dima’s even though Dima is attempting a smile. I wonder if I should tell him it’s better if he doesn’t.
“He’ll be fine,” Gleb says.
Lev and I both turn back to him. He leans toward me and pushes my hair back from my face. He’s closer than I expect, and it takes a moment for me to remember not to pull back. He runs his thumb over the healing yellowing bruise.
“Andrei Stanislov did this? Laid a hand on you? That bastard, Vasily, knew she was pregnant and put a hit on her. He knew I had a child, and he didn’t tell me.” He shakes his head as if in regret. “All these years. A grandchild too.” He reaches into his pocket and takes out his phone. Someone answers immediately. “Any word on that rat?” I can hear the disgust in his voice.
He nods, mutters something under his breath.
“I want them both. Alive.”
17
Lev
“I have something I want to show you.” Gleb gestures for me to follow him out back. It’s late, past midnight, and I don’t like leaving Kat alone at the hotel, but at least Maxim is in the lobby, keeping an eye out for me. I just hope he stays sober enough to recognize any problems that might pop up.
“Don’t worry so much.” Gleb waves off my concerns. “I got a couple of my guys parked outside of the hotel. If they see anything, I’ll be the first to know.”
It shouldn’t surprise me that he’s already figured out where we’re staying. New York is Gleb’s turf, and he’s got eyes and ears everywhere. Still, they are guys I don’t know.
“You should have spoken to me first,” I tell him.
Gleb stops, meeting my gaze in challenge. “Are you telling me I need to ask permission from you to protect my own daughter? My grandson?”
I consider my words carefully but refuse to back down on this. “She might be your daughter, but she’s my future wife. And I look out for both of them. I don’t know your guys. Kat doesn’t know your guys. You need to understand that she didn’t grow up in this life. If she sees a couple of bozos speaking Russian, the first thing she’s going to do is run. That’s all her experience has taught her.”
Gleb is quiet, his face unmoving, and I can’t tell if he’s going to club me over the head or finish the conversation. He doesn’t give a lot away. I can see now why Ciara would have been worried about coming to him and confessing her sins. But I also know that he can be softer than his reputation. I saw it with Kat. And I saw it when I mentioned Ciara too.
“You make a valid point.” He shrugs. “I’ll give you that. The last thing I want to do is scare her off. But you need to understand that being her father, and the man that I am, I have a say in what goes on in her life. That includes you. Now, I can respect a man who stands up for his family, but if you want to deem yourself worthy of my daughter, you have more work to do.”
He steps away from me and continues toward the door, leaving me to follow without any resolution to the conversation. This is the way of a mafia boss, and Gleb owns it. He doesn’t have to wait for me. He doesn’t have to respect me as a man, a husband, or a father. And even if I’ve known Kat longer than he has, he also has the right as her father to tell me to fuck off. Not that I will, but he has that right.
I don’t know Gleb well, but I think he’s a man I can respect. He doesn’t fly off the handle when he’s challen
ged like Vasily would. He listens, and he can be reasonable. And at the end of the day, I want his acceptance of my relationship with Kat. Because with a man like Gleb, you’re either with him or you’re against him.
The back door to the club swings open, and at least five of his men are waiting for us outside. Their faces are a mask of indifference as they allow him to speak first.
“You get me what I wanted?” Gleb glances at the van that’s been backed up to the club.
“Yes, boss. You want it now?”
Gleb nods, and one of the guys gestures to the driver in the van. A second later, both front doors open, and a couple of guys dressed in scrubs step out. I look at Gleb, but he gives nothing away as they walk around to the back of the van and open the doors, revealing a hospital bed.
It takes me a minute to recognize what I’m seeing. The parking lot is dimly lit, but I can make out the familiar face as four of the guys work as a team to offload the bed and wheel it toward us.
“Andrei?”
I can’t help the grin that curves across my face as they get closer. He’s as quiet as a church mouse, but that’s probably because they’ve wrapped a shit load of duct tape around his mouth. His hands and feet are also bound together, and it already looks as though he’s had a hell of a day. Or a hell of a month, more accurately.
“Take him down to the basement,” Gleb commands.
The guys nod and wheel the bed inside, and I shake my head, a little impressed by the reach that this man has.
“How the hell did you get him out of the hospital?” I ask.
“This isn’t my first rodeo.” Gleb smirks. “Now, let’s get down to business, shall we? You want to prove yourself worthy of my daughter?”
I arch an eyebrow at him. “I am worthy,” I assure him. “But I’m willing to prove it if that hasn’t already been made clear.”
“You’re a cocky son of a bitch.” He narrows his eyes. “I’m sure I don’t have to remind you what he did to Kat.”
“No, you don’t.” My voice hardens. “I remember it clearly.”
Gleb closes the door behind us and leads us back to the stairs. “Then make him pay for it. I want to see exactly what she means to you.”
I doubt anybody would suspect that in the basement of one of New York’s most exclusive clubs is a room that could easily rival a torture chamber. I’ve never been a real creative guy, but as I look around at all the instruments at my disposal, my pulse thrums with possibilities.
Gleb is parked in the corner, vodka in hand, watching me as I make my first selection. It’s a sanding machine in an alternate universe, but in ours, it’s better known as a human meat grinder.
“First order of business.” I set the grinder down on the table beside Andrei’s hospital bed and grab a pair of scissors. “I want to see what we’re working with here.”
I cut the hospital gown away from his body in bits and pieces, leaving him stark naked and shivering. He can’t move an inch, his arms and legs bound to the rails of the bed, but his eyes are free to roam over my face as I examine the nub where his dick used to be. There are still stitches along the skin they’ve managed to piece together, and it’s a gruesome sight to behold.
“Ouch.” I shudder. “Did quite a number on you, didn’t I, Andrei?”
He mumbles something beneath the duct tape, but I shake my head and tap his face.
“I’ve heard quite enough out of you over the years. And I’m long past giving a fuck what you have to say.”
I reach for the grinder, and he starts to squeal as I look around his body for an area that will bring maximum pain. There are a lot of different nerves in the body, easily provoked, but I think the easiest route is the still healing bullet wound in his shoulder.
“This is for Kat.” I meet his gaze as I flip the switch, and despite his mouth being covered, Andrei manages to scream like a banshee as blood sprays across both of our faces. I don’t stop until I see bone and his blood is mixed with the salt of his own tears.
When I’m finished with his shoulder, I move onto his face. The face he always thought so highly of. I know this will hurt him the most. Apart from his own dick, I would say it was his most valuable asset.
But even as his blood drips down my wrists, it doesn’t give me the satisfaction I’d hoped at seeing him cut up like a pig at a butcher shop. Because in my mind, I can still picture Kat, lying on the floor of the safe house with her pants pulled down around her knees. Face bruised, tears streaking her cheeks, while my son screamed upstairs, terrified.
My blood pressure rises as I toss the grinder aside and reach for a hammer, starting in on the small bones first. Fingers, wrists, feet. I smash them all until they are so deformed, he’d never be able to use them again, if I was kind enough to let him live. But this fuse has been lit for a long time. I’ve wanted to put Andrei down for years, before I even knew the full extent of what he was capable of. It isn’t difficult to recall all the faces of the people he’s destroyed. The lives he’s fucked up. The pain he’s caused.
Somewhere along the line, those faces bleed into my mother, and his words come back to haunt me. How he touched her. How she vomited. I want Andrei to feel that pain. I want him to feel as sick as I do every time I think about it.
Gleb shoots me a curious look when I reach for the broom and pry Andrei’s legs apart. At some point, while I was torturing him, his screams turned to faint moans. But he manages to find the energy for another horrific yelp when I shove the broom handle up his ass.
“I bet that medicine is bitter.” I lean down into his face and impale him again. “I bet it fucking hurts, doesn’t it? Is that what my mother said to you? Did you even listen? Did you even care?”
His eyes roll back in his head, and I know he’s on the verge of passing out. Too much of a pussy to take what he’s given so freely in this world. I grab him by the face and slap him around a couple of times, forcing him to wake up.
“We aren’t done yet,” I roar into his face. “We aren’t even fucking close. You think you’re checking out? Think again, motherfucker.”
My fist slams into his throat, and he chokes on the air that gets trapped in his lungs, wheezing and coughing, and then eventually gurgling. I draw my hand back to do it again, and that’s when I feel a hand on my shoulder. It’s Gleb.
“Lev.” His voice carries an undercurrent of sympathy. “Finish him. You’ve proven your point.”
Andrei’s head falls back against the bed as his hair slips from my grasp. And I look down at him, stunned by the violence still churning inside me. Violence and rage I didn’t even know the depths of until this moment. But one glance at Gleb, and I can tell it’s too much even for him.
“Finish him.” He hands me his pistol. “And be done with it.”
“You never mentioned he killed your mother too,” Gleb says.
“I know.” I finish wiping my face with the towel he gave me and sit down at the bar beside him, where he already has a large glass of vodka waiting for me.
“I’ve been in this business for a long time.” Gleb spins the glass around in his hand. “Let me tell you something. Revenge is necessary, but it can also be a poison. You have to make your peace when it’s done. Let it go. Move on. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“I understand.”
My gaze drifts to the wall, and I think about Kat back at the hotel, completely unaware of what I’m capable of. Or maybe she is aware, but she chooses to see past it anyway. It fucking hurts, loving someone so much. Wanting the best for them, but being torn between two worlds, and I think if anyone can understand that, it’s Gleb.
“You don’t have your stars,” he notes. “You were never inducted?”
“No.” I shake my head. “My father wasn’t a Vor. Vasily just wanted me to do his bidding. He never asked me to swear an oath, and I never offered. It was what it was.”
Gleb seems to consider this for a moment, and I worry that he’s going to suggest I swear that oath now. For bett
er or worse, we’re linked for life by the woman I love. The woman I promised I would give a better life to.
“Truth be told, I don’t know if I’d do it again,” Gleb admits. “And I don’t want this life for my daughter. She deserves better than a man she can’t be sure will come home every night.”
“I don’t want that for her either.” I meet his gaze. “And I promised her it wouldn’t be that way.”
“That’s a lofty promise to make,” he says. “But I want you to fulfill it. When this shit with Vasily is done, that’s it. You turn legit, and when we see each other, it will be at a family gathering. You understand?”
“Does that mean I have your approval?” I smirk.
“If Kat says she wants to marry you, then you have my approval.” He nods. “But first, let’s worry about finishing the job we started.”
“Any word on Vasily?” I ask.
“No.” He shrugs. “But I just had my guys send all of his contacts a text with a photo of Andrei. So I doubt it will be long now before he makes an appearance. When he does, I need to know if there are any more surprises, Lev. No more secrets. Not between family.”
I drain the rest of the vodka from my glass and allow the burn to soothe my raw throat before I turn to him. “I’ll give you everything I have on him. But I’m keeping copies for myself until this is over.”
Gleb nods and then reaches for the vodka. “Very well. I’ll come by the hotel tomorrow to pick it up. We can spend the day together. As a family.”
18
Kat
I wake to a tickle on my neck. Scratching the spot, I then settle back into sleep, but a moment later, it’s there again.
My eyelids flutter open to take in the lights peeking around the closed curtain, then close. I roll onto my back, and when the blanket slips from me, I reach to pull it back. When I meet with resistance, I open my eyes, thinking it slid to the floor.
That’s when I see him.