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Coming for me was the least of my worries.
But my family I would always protect.
So, I would remain as The Lion’s pet, even if only to patronize his son by simply living in the same city.
I just hope Dmitri wasn’t stupid enough to fall for the trap. Again.
“No! Listen to me, Dmitri.” Because as much as I hate him and I hate myself, I can’t put anyone else at risk. I rein in my nerves until a chilling ring echoes from the landline. Our heads snap toward its direction. My throat constricts as I glance at Connor’s dead body. I didn’t even know that phone worked.
Dmitri and I look at one another before he takes two steps back, his gaze never leaving mine, and he picks up the phone. It’s silent for a moment. Leaving me to grapple with a wild imagination of what consequence I might deal with for all of this.
Dmitri was never meant to be here tonight. I’d prayed that he’d never come.
A thick Russian accent coming from the phone breaks the silence, and I can hear The Lion clearly, even over the sound of my pounding heart in my ears. The room is so silent that his voice carries as if it were placed on speaker.
“It’s poor manners to touch what doesn’t belong to you.” My body laces with a crippling fear.
Dmitri’s hand tightens on the phone as he licks his lips. Was this the first time he’d spoken to him since he was five? “I’m taking her with me.”
A dark laugh follows through the other end of the line. “Not if she wants her sister and parents to live as well. Or maybe you can protect them, but what about her friends or previous colleagues? I know, what about the ballet school she taught for six months? What was the age group again… four to ten, I think it was? It’d be awfully sad for them to go missing one by one until she’s returned to me, wouldn’t you say?
You might have significant power and influence there, boy, but you can’t be in all places simultaneously. Maybe I’ll even start with the pretty friends she left behind here in Russia. It’d be sad to see such faces go to waste. Perhaps they’ll do well to service my men.”
My throat constricts as all of their faces come to mind. Anyone who’s held any value in my life is in danger.
“Dmitri. Please,” I beg.
“You have no right or claim in this city. Do you understand? And especially her.” Dmitri seethes. He sounds just as lethal and has as little regard for the others’ lives as The Lion.
“No thanks to you, right? Plucking my businesses off one by one over the years? You were the one who made this personal. I just waited out a few more years to return her. You’ve done well so far to undermine my business, though. I’m impressed, son.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Either way. That little bird belongs to me. It appears that I have to place her in a sturdier cage she can’t escape. And perhaps hire more effective men.” He sighs, and I imagine him looking down his nose at Connor’s corpse. “You passed my test, though. I was curious if you could at least handle this much.”
He did all of this as a test for Dmitri?
It had nothing to do with me. I was simply the bait.
“What do you want?” Dmitri grits.
“Nothing you’ve ever been able to offer. You have two minutes to leave the complex, or I start with her sister. By now, you should have a nice photo sent to your phone. You are not to speak. Touch. Or even be in the same room as one another. Do you hear me, boy? If you do, I’m happy to show you the consequence. But maybe you should look at your mother as a reminder of that. Oh, and don’t worry about Connor’s body; I’ll have someone deal with the clean-up. Consider it a parting gift.”
Dmitri’s hand grips the phone so tightly that it might crumble into pieces—the line cuts. Nothing but slow beeping fills the room. Dmitri rips the phone off the wall and throws it across the room. It smashes into a thousand pieces against the wall, and I jump. He winces, suddenly reminded for the first time that he’d taken a shot to the shoulder. He stumbles a step back in surprise as he touches it and looks down at the blood on his fingers, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. His white dress shirt is spreading further into a deep red.
“You have to leave,” I say shakily.
His gaze narrows. “I’m not leaving you.”
“You have to,” I plead. “You heard him, Dmitri; he’ll kill everyone around me. I won’t endanger other people. Not for you and not for me.”
He goes to say something, but a loud buzz erupts from Dmitri’s pocket. My mouth is dry and my hands are clammy as he fishes his phone out of his pocket. The screen opens to a photo of my sister sitting at a bar casually, talking to the bartender. My eyes soften at the sight of her smile. Of how much she’s grown and how similar we still look, like twins. The difference is that she lives in the real world, and I live only in the parts I’m permitted.
With tightened resolve, I point the gun at Dmitri’s head again. “Leave.”
I won’t risk my family.
Not for him or anyone.
