Page 85 of The Beauty Who Loved Him

Feliks.

He didn’t care about the man screaming and jerking back and forth on the ground.

Igor pulled the SUV out of park, and hit the gas as the first backfire from the exhaust of Feliks’ overheating Porsche cracked through the air. The car exploded before they had the chance to pull out on the road. In the passenger door mirror, the sky lit up from the fire and the sight of cash fluttering into the air made Vaslav chuckle.

What went up had to come down. The river would catch the fluttering, burning money—or what was left by the end of it all and take it straight to the canal.

“I’d rather this entire country wipe their asses with my money than give it to that man,” Vaslav said. Well, now they had something in the range of a hundred million to do so. “Let them bitch about bodies in the canal now.”

“We really need to get a handle on how you deal with your problems,” Igor muttered as they drove further from the scene. “I’m not going to believe you when you tell me you’re dealing with something. You’re absolutely not dealing with it, Vas.”

Vaslav disagreed. This had gone better than he expected. “Can’t imagine why.”

Not to mention ...

“You had every chance to stop me on the way here,” Vaslav said.

The man in the driver’s seat didn’t deny the truth.

Slowly, whether Igor realized it or not, his boss gave him more and more rope to work with. How he used that rope was up to him, of course. Igor could hang himself with it, or the rest of the world. That didn’t change what remained proverbially tied to the end of the rope, however.

The keys.

To a kingdom.

“I want to retire,” Vaslav said, lost in the passing darkness blanketed in a layer of new, fresh snow. “It’s not like the brotherhood would miss me. Haven’t I earned a few quiet, happy years of my own making?”

Coated in desperation, Igor laughed. “Is that what all of this is about ... really?”

What else mattered?

20.

The airport bustled with activity, but Vera only studied the reflection of Hannah’s frowning face in the glass overlooking a snowy car park. Sitting side by side on bench seats in front of the windows, the two friends were far enough away from the rest of the people milling about that no one even glanced their way.

“You should have gone through security fifteen minutes ago,” Vera pointed out.

Hannah scrunched up her nose at the idea. “I’ve still got time.”

“Right, when you’re supposed to be at your gate an hour before.”

“We both know they call passengers for at least another half hour. I can get to my gate in time from here. Don’t worry.”

“Or are you just not ready to leave?” Vera asked.

Might as well get straight to the point. Hannah never minded her friend’s bluntness before. This time wasn’t the exception.

“I didn’t think I’d miss Moscow this much,” Hannah admitted. “This city was the first place I really ... I don’t know, grew up. I learned how to make it my home, and nobody ever made me think I didn’t belong.”

“I know that feeling.”

All too well.

“But then with Viktor, he made sure nothing about Moscow felt like my home,” Hannah added quieter.

Vera didn’t want Hannah to go back down that painful road. “What’s your mom doing about the extra security she’s had on you?”

“I don’t really need it, so. I’ll be glad to see them go.”