Page 72 of The Pakhan’s Heir

That makes him turn his head, a slightly surprised look in his eyes. I don’t think that angle has even occurred to him before this moment. He looks away from me again. “Pakhans often choose others to carry on after they’ve passed, Nona. Heirs are not exclusive to blood relations.”

“I know,” I say. “But… but maybe once this war is over, I can come back home and you can raise this baby as your own. He won’t ever have to know who his real father is.”

At that, he lowers his head and maybe for the first time ever, I see a little sadness in his eyes. After a few seconds, he turns to me. “Nona…” he starts, then stops, his eyes drifting over my shoulder.

And just like, that the air changes around us. His eyes dart back to me, and he says, “Does he know? About the baby?”

“No,” I lie. “There’s no telling what he might do if he knows.”

“I see. Then I think that the wise thing to do is for you to come home. Now.”

“W-What?”

“I understand how hard this has to have been on you,” he goes on. “You must think that I’m so cruel to have made you a party to this. I think that now that you’re pregnant, your duty to this Bratva is over. You’ve gone above and beyond what I have asked of you.”

He reaches for me and I instinctively flinch away. “What about the notes?”

“We can talk that over later.” He reaches again, this time grabbing my arm as he stands. “Come on, Nona. It’s time to come back home to where you belong⁠—”

A poof of smoke and he jerks back. His hand releases me, and I stumble away from him. In his right shoulder is a dark, smoking hole. He looks down at it and it starts to bleed as if the very action of his acknowledging it caused it.

“That,” he says, “was a big mistake, Dochurka.”

26

ALEX

Iknew it was him from the moment he sat down. Kostya and I agreed to keep things simple with this setup, only the three of us taking positions in the park versus every brigadier and boevik under my command. Slavik is an experienced Pakhan. He’d see a flock of his enemies surrounding him a mile away.

But one or two of us could fly under the radar. Rikki was positioned at one end of the lane near the entrance, shadowing him as he walked toward Nona. I was at the other end, watching from my place at a park bench around fifteen or so yards away. And Kostya was hidden in the rocks behind us, camouflaged, his sniper rifle at the ready.

And in the moment that Slavik sat down, I immediately wondered what was taking Kostya so long. The shot was wide open.

Now I understand.

I saw him grab her arm and I went to stand. That’s when I felt the gun in my back.

“Don’t move a muscle,” the hard voice in Russian said behind me.

Now I’m glancing around myself. At least twelve of his guys are in different spots all over the park. Fuck me for being so focused on Nona that I didn’t notice them.

“You don’t want to do this,” I tell the guy with the gun in my back.

“It’s nothing personal,” he says. “This is just business. You under⁠—”

Slavik grabs Nona and yanks her to her feet. Shit.

Kostya takes his shot, but it hits him in the shoulder. I see the poof of the silent gunshot go off in his coat, then Slavik stumbles back in surprise.

The guy with the gun in my back is surprised, too. I feel him take a half-step back. I whirl around and grab his arm, pulling it forward while I slam my elbow into his face. His nose crunches under the impact and blood sprays from his face. He stumbles and falls backward, dropping his gun.

I dart away, running for Nona as she struggles to get away from Slavik. He sees me when I’m steps away and yanks her to him, grimacing hard as he uses his bad arm to hold her around the waist. He pulls out a gun with his free hand and puts it to her head.

“Not another step,” he shouts. I stop in the middle of the lane.

“Let her go,” I growl at him.

“You know, it’s been said that you’re good at noticing your own in a crowd,” he says, a little smile at the corner of his mouth. “I’m surprised you decided to try this without taking stock of who was around you. Fatal mistake, it seems.”