by Natalie Grey
“This is it,” Alexi said grimly. “Are we ready?”
“Ready,” Ecaterina said. She turned to look at Ashur. “You ready too?”
Ashur chuffed.
“Good.” Ecaterina took a long stick and reached out to tap the trap.
The sound of it clanging shut made everyone jump, but Bellatrix and Ashur didn’t miss a trick. Ashur yelped as if he were in terrible pain, and Bellatrix started keening.
“Okay, quick… Ashur, you come lie down here.” Ecaterina patted the ground next to the trap and smiled when Ashur flopped down in the leaves. “Good, now I’m going to put some of this on you…” She splashed the fake blood on him and it was vivid against Ashur’s white fur. “They won’t even think to question that you’re wounded. No, don’t lick it yet.”
Ashur informed her that he would be licking it.
“I know, but hold off. They have to see it. We want them to think we’re all distraught and you’re out of the fight.”
Ashur agreed that it was probably best they thought he was out of it, or they’d never try to take the group on. He was too formidable an opponent.
“Yes,” Ecaterina agreed with a straight face. “Exactly. You’ll have to act very well to fool them or they won’t even come close.”
Ashur flopped his head back dramatically on the forest floor. It was the same pose he always used when his food bowl was empty.
Nathan hid a snort of laughter behind his hand.
“All right, now everyone start wailing,” Ecaterina instructed. “Make a big fuss, as if we have no idea what to do.”
She could already spy three more figures making their way through the forest nearby.
Ioan had come out to play.
He heard the yelp and the howl. Ioan’s eyebrows shot up and he looked at the guards in amusement.
Was it possible? Had they actually been so foolish as to let one of their own team be taken down by traps? His lips curved in an involuntary smile. And one of those magnificent pelts Andrei had mentioned…
Yes, this was a delicious irony.
Ioan enjoyed trading in furs. While drugs were always good money, and guns as well, those markets were crowded and vicious and there was always the risk of losing one’s goods to the border patrol.
Furs, on the other hand…
Furs were used only by the rich. Ioan’s trade, illegal as it might be, was protected from all but the most zealous customs agents, and even they were easily made powerless by the immense weight of the bureaucracy above them.
He’d had numerous arrest warrants thrown out and citations wiped off the slate. He had cultivated relationships with the customs agents, the sort of relationships that would last for years if only he continued to slip them some good brandy here, some caviar there.
If he ever got stopped the rich would demand to know why their furs weren’t available any longer, so he was never stopped.
Now he was rolling in cash, and absolutely untouchable in a market few others had even tried to claim.
It was a good place to be.
And he liked the furs. It was foolish, but they were gorgeous and he enjoyed the sheer luxury of it all. He’d even kept one or two.
His breath quickened as he saw the wolf lying on the ground, bright red blood against its white fur. It was magnificent, and he was torn—the thought of what he could get for that pelt, not only in cash but in gratitude, was exhilarating.
On the other hand, he might like to keep this one for himself.
He pressed the hidden button at his wrist to signal Mathieu. Now he just had to keep the idiots talking.
“So.” He stepped out of the trees nearby and was delighted to see their shocked expressions. Some attackers they made! They’d been so caught up in their own worry about the dog that they weren’t paying attention to their surroundings.
The other dog, jet black to the first’s pure white, growled low in its throat.
“I trust you will control the animal.”
Ioan had no fear of this situation. Those with numbers and even weapons were still easily cowed by confidence, and he had confidence in abundance. He would simply promise them that all the legal trouble he could get them in would go away if they just left now.
He was lying, of course, but it would be easy.
He scanned the trees. Constantinou’s team wasn’t visible yet, but they would be soon. He could see Grigore hiding, waiting for his moment.
“What do you want?” a woman demanded of him. Her eyes were wide.
“Ah.” Ioan smiled. “I’m so glad you asked.”
Mathieu stared at the phone. His hands were shaking.
He needed to call the number. Ioan had signaled him, and he needed to call Constantinou. The man would bring his guards around and all of this would be over.
He wasn’t quite sure why he couldn’t seem to make himself pick up the phone and dial, but something in him was telling him not to do it.
What was it?
He had been terrified since they had brought Andrei back with his grandfather. Andrei they had kicked around until his screams echoed through the house. The grandfather they had only slapped around a bit—but the bruises were vivid enough.
Whatever Andrei had done, the grandfather surely hadn’t done anything.
Mathieu swallowed hard. He didn’t like helping Ioan in little schemes like this. He knew that Ioan was going to play with these people and then kill them painfully just for fun. Ioan was like that, and Mathieu hated it. If he hadn’t had debt he needed to pay off, he’d never have gotten tangled up in this mess.
Truth to tell, he admired the people who were attacking them. Every time Ioan mentioned a customs agent or a police officer who didn’t want to take bribes, Mathieu secretly hoped they’d shut Ioan’s operation down.
He had been disappointed when none of them had.
And he didn’t want to help Ioan now. On the other hand…
His eyes went to where Andrei was lying, breath wheezing. To his surprise, Andrei was watching him and he whispered something.
“What?” Mathieu crossed the room. “I couldn’t hear you.”
“I said…” Andrei winced. “Don’t do it. Don’t help him. You were right, we never should have gotten involved.” He pressed a hand over his ribs.
“I have to help him,” Mathieu said despairingly. “He knows where my family is and he spared your grandfather once, but he won’t again.”
He jumped when Andrei’s bloody hand clamped down over his. The man’s eyes were bright, almost manic.
“Not if these attackers kill him,” Andrei whispered. “We could let it happen.”
“They’d only kill us too.”
“Maybe, but won’t Ioan too someday? You know he will.” Andrei closed his eyes and grimaced. “And there are the…others. In the basement. They should know about them.”
Mathieu wavered.
“Don’t help him,” Andrei repeated. “Let’s make sure the others go free. Whatever happens, isn’t being free of Ioan worth it?”
Chapter 10
“Listen.” Ioan spread his hands. “I know that you two, at least—” he looked at Ecaterina and Alexi, “are locals. You understand the way things must be. You know that the laws and the police only aid the rich. You know that in order to survive, common people like you and me must break those laws.”
He looked around. Constantinou really was taking a very long time.
From a few paces away, Nathan looked at Ecaterina. He said in rapid-fire English, “I thought you said you wanted to kill him immediately, not take any chances.”
She gave him a delighted smile. “I did, but you see, I think he’s waiting for someone and I don’t think they’re showing up. And now that we’re here, I want to watch him figure that out.”
Ioan was definitely worried now. He took the time to adjust his face into a pleasant smile.
“You know that whatever the laws are, they can be bent for the very rich, and it is the very rich who enjo
y these furs. Now, it is clear to me that you came here to halt my operation, and for that you would find yourself in jail for a very long time. As I said, the laws can be bent and the rich will not be pleased to be deprived of their goods. But if you leave me this pelt, I will forget you were ever here. I will let you go back to your village, and nothing more will ever be said. In fact…”
His voice trailed away and he stared at them.
“Why are you smiling?” he asked finally.
Ecaterina took a moment to enjoy his discomfort. It was risky, she knew—the backup could arrive at any moment—but in the meantime Ioan showed the annoyance of a man accustomed to obedience warring with the self-preservation instincts of a man who knew his minions weren’t obeying him anymore.
She spoke in Romanian now, strolling forward. “I think you know why I’m smiling. As you say, I came here to halt your operation. You thought you held all the cards, but you don’t, do you? I don’t know who you’re waiting for, Ioan, but they’re not coming.”
Ioan’s face twisted.
“Shoot her,” he instructed curtly.
The guards frankly never had a chance. From where they stood they had the very brief impression that two wolves came out of nowhere.
Very brief, because within seconds they were dead.
They were quick. Both had gotten their hands to their holsters, ready to draw their guns, but they didn’t get the chance to fire.
Ecaterina raised her head from one guard’s throat and looked Ioan in the eyes. In this form she could smell the fear rolling off him.
“It was true.” He crossed himself. “It was true! My God, he was telling the truth. You’re a… You’re a monster.”
“Iiiii ammmm noooo mooonnnnster.” The wolf’s voice seemed to have the echo of howls and cold nights even as it reverberated inside Ioan’s bones. It seemed to him to be something entirely beyond the Earth he knew.
He didn’t realize how right he was about that.
“Youuuuuu hurrrrrt people. Iiiiii willll ssstoppp youuuuu.”
Nathan prowled behind Ioan, teeth bared. He had been ready to shift since they had entered the forest, but instinct and rage had made him quicker than he would otherwise have been when Ioan ordered Ecaterina’s death.
The guards had signed their own death warrants when they hadn’t even wavered. They had been willing to kill a woman simply because their boss requested it.
They had known, as Nathan had, that Ioan’s offers of mercy were lies, but unlike Nathan they had no moral distaste for what Ioan asked them to do.
They were the sort to say a job was a job and morals were for others.
He wondered where Andrei was.
Ioan, however, had now realized just how alone he was.
“Spare me.” He thudded to his knees in the leaves. His expensive suit was out of place in the forest. It was his armor when he was dealing with other smugglers and his rich clients, but here and now it was only a hindrance.
“Spaaaaaaare youuuuuuu?” Ecaterina gave a laugh that made Ioan scream. “Whyyyyy?”
“Because I was doing what I needed to do to survive! I brought money to your little town, I helped your people! They could never have done this on their own, could they? Have you no mercy in your heart for them?”
“Forrrrr themmmm, yesssss.” The Pricolici paused. “Sommmmmme mercyyyyyy,” it amended, “noooooot unliiimiteeeeed.”
Nathan huffed a laugh and Alexi grinned where he leaned up against a tree.
“I’m a businessman, nothing more! You would hold me to standards that mean nothing? You would make a world out of a fantasy!” Ioan’s voice was desperate.
“Hmmmmmm.” The giant wolf came to stare into his eyes. “Iiiii thiiiiiink … Iiiii willlll giiiive youuuuu to Ashuuuuuur and Belllllllatrix.”
Ioan had no idea what that meant, but he knew enough to see the end result plainly.
“Grigore!” His voice was raw. “GRIGORE! HELP!”
Alexi’s head whipped around. The man who had been following them was crashing back up the hill. He didn’t even pause when Ioan screamed, but Alexi didn’t find that funny at all.
Grigore was bumbling right toward Yelena and Christina.
Mihai was testy about being locked in one of the storage rooms.
“In all my years—” he started.
Andrei cut him off. “Please, Grandfather. Let me make things right without having you suffer for my mistakes.”
Mihai’s old face softened. “Ah, you were always a good child.”
Andrei smiled ruefully, and winced when his lip cracked. “You said I was always a selfish, cowardly child.”
“That too.” Mihai lifted his shoulders. “I feared you would be just as selfish and cowardly as you grew older instead of following your better nature.”
“I was,” Andrei admitted.
“Well, the day’s not over yet.” Mihai stepped back into the storeroom and gestured to the door. “Do what you need to do, then.”
“Thank you, Grandfather.” Andrei closed the door and began limping along the hall. “Give me the phone,” he told Mathieu.
“Why?” Mathieu asked nervously.
“Just give it to me.”
Mathieu hesitated, then handed it over. In truth, he was a little bit scared of this new Andrei. The friend he remembered from childhood was, exactly as Mihai had said, a good boy, and one who was selfish and cowardly.
In grade school, Andrei was always the one to give you his snack if you said you were hungry. He waded into a spring river once, overflowing its banks, to save a cat that had gotten stranded. When their friend’s parents had grounded him over a schoolyard incident, Andrei was the one to go over and argue that the grounding wasn’t fair, that the friend had been standing up for a younger child.
But he was also the one who might lure you into ditching school and then leave you to get caught if he had a way out. He was the one who would snatch candy from the store sometimes, and even if he shared it with you, you were just as likely to get caught as well.
Always, Andrei had been…more than other people. He laughed more, he shouted more. He seemed to contain more energy in his body.
When he had talked Mathieu into joining Ioan’s group he’d done so with the same silver tongue he’d used to persuade people all his life, and Mathieu had agreed with the familiar despairing thought that this was just as likely to go well as poorly.
Andrei had changed today.
It was as if the beating had freed a man Mathieu had never seen before. Andrei was calm and determined. He did not deny the risks anymore.
The only thing that remained was his insistence that Mathieu should do something risky and defy Ioan.
As Mathieu watched, Andrei talked to Constantinou.
“Ioan just called. They’re heading back from the forest, so they won’t need you.” He listened to the words. “You’ll still get paid. Of course you will.”
He lied as easily as he had when they were children, Mathieu thought with a grimace.
He hadn’t changed that much.
“No, they were scared by the mention of the customs agents.” Andrei faked a laugh, and though he winced in pain he kept his voice level. “And the police are on their way to their house. They’ll regret meddling.” He listened to the voice on the other end. “People here are tightly knit. It is too risky to kill them if he doesn’t have to. He already made two examples today. That’s enough.”
Another pause while Constantinou argued.
“No, no, you can go back to the city. The money should show up in your accounts in a few minutes. Just remember this, eh? Remember you got good pay for doing nothing, and maybe when you have to choose jobs you choose us?” He smiled. “Good, good.”
He hung up and smiled at Mathieu. “There. Now they’ll leave Ioan to rot, and no one’s the wiser.”
Mathieu groaned and dropped his forehead into his hands. “But if Ioan survives…”
“Mathieu.” Andrei put his hand on his
friend’s shoulder. “You and I both know Ioan deserves to die. If he comes here, I know what I will do. You should think about what you will do?”
“Why?” Mathieu asked nervously.
Please, please let Andrei not be turning into another Ioan.
“Because a lifetime is very long, and you will think of yourself with pride for all those years if you do the right thing, but you will carry shame in your heart if you do the wrong thing,” Andrei said seriously. “I already have more shame than I want to carry. I want no more.” He nodded his head to the basement stairs. “I am going to free the others. Will you come with me?”
Will you come with me? It was a risky plan and a silver-tongued speech, but it was different than it had been before. Andrei was taking all the risk for himself, and merely offering for Mathieu to follow him.
And if Andrei could change, Mathieu thought, so could he.
“I will come with you,” he said, and was rewarded by Andrei’s smile.
Ioan demanded complete loyalty, and it made sense to give it when he had all the power and wealth in his hands.
But when he was clearly going to die, it was every man for himself.
That was Grigore’s opinion, anyway. He’d been raised in these forests, so he knew that wolves did not hunt humans unless they were starving or sick—or unless there was something very wrong with them.
He also knew what he’d seen: wolves larger than any should be which had appeared from nowhere. A white one rising from the trap apparently unharmed and a black wolf just as big who had participated in tearing Ioan to shreds.
He’d thought they were dogs, those two wolves. He must have been wrong, though.
Dogs didn’t get that big, did they?
And he knew the humans who controlled those wolves were coming back this way. He couldn’t outrun wolves, so he had one choice: find a hunter’s stand and hide there.
It was a risk, but it was the best option.
He saw the faint outline of one ahead, the littlest distortion in the way the branches lay, and he kept running. He’d always hated hunting. He wasn’t quiet, it was always either too hot or too cold, it was boring, and he wasn’t a good shot.