Page 107 of Essence of Fear

“Cut the shit,” Kolya uttered.

His father smirked. “I’m having fun—let me enjoy myself. I’ve waited a while for this.”

“You are—”

“Still very much five steps ahead of you and Konstantin, son,” Vadim countered easily. “As for Boris … well, I cannot help if I spoke to him during his time in the chambers, and that he took it a certain way. I never deliberately told the man to do anything. I never gave him orders, or anything of the sort. I certainly didn’t help him find his way out of there. I simply talked, and he may have learned from it, that was all.”

Vadim scrubbed his hand over his unshaven jaw and his gaze drifted to Pav when he added, “People often remember those who showed them mercy during their darkest hours. Isn’t that right, Zhatka?”

Pav said nothing.

But the man wasn’t wrong.

Unfortunately.

Kolya decided it was his turn to begin speaking again. “Where are the others who Konstantin put here to watch the house and you?”

Vadim lifted his glass up for a drink and winked. “Dead, of course.”

“Dead?”

“They were in the way, Kolya. I didn’t need very many to work. Just a couple that I could trust, and even then … I knew they would have to go in the end. I didn’t tell them that, you know. It wouldn’t have been good for this thing. But you took care of them.”

At that, Vadim glanced at the dead bodies just beyond the entryway. He smiled again.

Something was broken in this man.

Pav knew it.

Vadim chuckled as he set the glass down on the table beside his large, red leather chair. “Konstantin allowed too many of my loyalists to remain, hmm?”

Pav had every strong urge in the world to lift his gun so he could shoot Vadim right in the mouth to shut the man up, but he managed to hold it back. That probably wouldn’t do them any good right now.

Kolya eyed his father. “Your plan is pointless, and you know it. We’re here … we will get the information about Viktoria, and then where will that leave you?”

“Oh, will you?” Vadim scoffed, and glanced away from his son. “You must think I am stupid. After all these years, I assumed you might have learned something about me. Who is your brother going to ask to handle Boris, hmm? Can Konstanin really trust any man of ours back in Chicago to take care of business? How many of them do you think I have been able to turn to my side of things since he put me in exile? All those loyalists who remained … I didn’t have to do much, did I?”

“I—”

“It is a death sentence for Konstantin and the rest of them back in Chicago, Kolya,” Vadim continued, refusing to let his son get a word in edgewise. “The Boykov men cannot be trusted, and even if he does use one who can be, there are still many others waiting in the wings to step in when needed to put him down. He never should have turned against me. It was only a matter of time.”

Yeah, Pav had enough.

He dropped the gun, and in an instant, had two of his three knives in his hands as he crossed the room with steady, long strides. Vadim didn’t even have the chance to move or fight back before Pav had the tip of one knife digging into the man’s throat, and the other pressing into his gut. He put so much pressure on the blades that, already, a trickle of blood from the one at Vadim’s throat started to dribble down the blade. A small red stain began to appear on Vadim’s silk shirt from the other knife, too.

Pav didn’t lighten up, either.

“The one at your throat,” Pav said, “it will go in slowly, Vadim. You will feel every fucking inch of it as I cut your vocal cords and slit your esophagus in two. I will see what the inside of your throat looks like by the time I am done with you. You will choke on the blood—you will drown in it, and I will watch you do it.”

Vadim swallowed against the blade. “And the other knife?”

“Just for fun. You know how I like having a bit of fun.”

“Not a good move, Zhatka,” Vadim said.

“I think it’s just fine, actually.”

“No. Kolya, who will call off a man who believes he’s answering to me, hmm? Consider that while this knife gets deeper in my throat, son. If Boris truly believes he is working for me and I am the only one who can give him orders he will follow before I can return to my position in Chicago … who will call him off? Think about what I am telling you.”