Alexi Ivanov pulled the collar up on his jacket to keep the early May chill at bay. Had he known when he left the house that morning that he'd be sitting on a bench in the cold for almost an hour, he would have made different choices in wardrobe.

He took his final cigarette out, wadding up the now empty wrapper and throwing it into the last remnants of a dirty, melting pile of snow already polluted with a garbage can's worth of trash. Not for the first time, he considered leaving.

He replayed the details of the anonymous phone call he'd received on his personal cell phone hours before. The phone that no one but his Volkov brothers had the number to. The mysterious voice on the other end had been brief, but had dangled a carrot he couldn't resist; information on enemy number one.

Only the promise of getting a lead on tracking the traitor Nicolai Romanovski kept him waiting in the chill.

Alexi may not share the Volkov last name, but he was more aware than ever before that he shared their blood. Now that his cousins had been murdered like their father before them, the remaining members of the Bratva were looking to him for leadership.

To say he was in over his head was an understatement.

All his life, he'd been a second-class member of the family at best. Unlike his cousins, his mother had shielded him from the harsher realities of growing up a Volkov, making sure he enjoyed the freedoms of attending university and traveling abroad. He hadn't been groomed for leadership since he was a kid like his cousins Artel, Vladimir and Oleg had been, and it was already showing.

He didn't know the first thing about setting up arms deals with the dangerous underground criminals of the world or smuggling drugs or flesh across the Russian boarders. He'd been a simple soldier. A mule.

Muscles who took orders.

With his cousin's sons all under the age of ten, the remaining Volkov Bratva henchmen now looked to Alexi as the heir apparent to the Volkov kingdom. He was to give the orders now instead of take them. He had dived in, determined to learn as fast as he could. So far the hardest part of the job had been figuring out exactly who he could trust.

While there were many things he was still unsure of, there was one mission he knew he needed to carry out with great clarity. His Uncle Viktor would never rest easy in his grave until Nicolai Romanovski was hunted, tortured and killed. That he and Nicolai had been good friends only angered Alexi that much more. He had trusted the arms dealer and he'd been duped; made to look like an idiot and he didn't like it.

It was dark, almost nine, when a nondescript sedan pulled up to the sidewalk in front of the bench he'd been perched on. The back passenger door sprung open, but no one exited the vehicle. After a few long seconds, Alexi rose on his stiff legs and slowly approached the vehicle. The windows were tinted so dark, he couldn't see anything or anyone inside.

"Please join me, Mr. Ivanov."

That voice. It was so familiar, yet he couldn't place it. Desperate for information, Alexi took a leap of faith and took a seat in the back of the black car. There were no interior lights to see by, so the passenger in the seat next to him remained a shadow. The eyes of the driver met his in the rearview mirror as they passed under an overhead street lamp. He was relieved to see it was George, his uncle's chauffeur.

"It wasn't wise to get into the car without knowing who was picking you up."

His fellow passenger choose to lecture him, which Alexi found ironic.

"Considering you refused to identify yourself to me on the phone, I'm not sure what option you left me."

"Considering the men in your family have been hunted like prey, I'd think you'd be a bit more careful."

Alexi tried not to get defensive, but failed. He needed to know who the fuck dared to talk to him with such superiority. He pulled his cell phone from his jacket pocket and turned on the flashlight app, shining it directly into the face of his fellow passenger.

"Yurdin. Why didn't you tell me you wanted to talk with me? I would have driven out."

Relief to find his uncle's longtime butler sitting next to him was quickly replaced with confusion.

"It wasn't safe to make contact until I knew you weren't being followed."

"And how did you do that?" Alexi inquired.

"I had you followed, of course."

The men rode for several minutes in silence. Alexi's mind raced, trying to understand why the longtime Volkov household servant had contacted him.

He took a guess. "Is this about uncle's will?"

Yurdin growled. "No, although it is about his legacy."

Weren't they the same thing?

After ten minutes of driving through the back streets of Moscow, Alexi recognized they were on the way out to the mansion in Barvikha. He hadn't been there since the night Nicolai had shot and killed Viktor.

The night everything had changed forever.

The drive took much longer with George at the wheel of the sedan than Alexi in his beloved Ferrari. If Nicolai had done nothing but steal and crash his prized possession, it would have been enough to want to hunt him down and make him hurt. But Nicolai had done oh so much more. That night had been the beginning of the end of the Volkov Bratva as he'd known it the entirety of his life.

The driver pulled the car to a stop at the entrance to the estate. The guards at the gate had changed. Gone was the carefree banter of his last visit. Tonight's security sweep was all business. The visual inspection of the guard holding a bright flashlight on the occupants of the sedan wasn't enough. One by one, each of the three men had to place their palm on the screen of a tablet and wait until their identity was confirmed before the guard finally stepped back, nodding to his counterpart in the guardhouse to open the recently repaired and fortified gate.

No one would be crashing a car through the entrance barricade again and live to tell about it.

It was odd to have Yurdin scaling the tall steps at the front of the house next to him instead of waiting to open the front door as was the custom for the butler. It was even more strange when the portal was opened by an unknown servant who bowed regally to them as they were ushered into the house.

Alexi didn't need to be told where they were going. Tonight's visit was business and all family business took place in the underground fortress. Memories of his last trip down the winding stairs with Nicolai beside him flooded back to him. On his last visit, it had been Irena Volkov who been there to surprise them. Today, it was his Aunt Yana, Viktor's widow, standing at the bottom of the steps, dressed from head to toe in black and looking like she hadn't slept in weeks. She probably hadn't. Losing one's husband and all three sons would do that to a woman.

Alexi was unsure of the protocol for their meeting. On the one hand, this was his aunt. He had fond memories of a woman who'd taught him how to color Easter eggs and swim in the sea as a child.

Yet he knew that tonight's visit was about business. It suddenly dawned on him that he and Yana had something in common. The family was looking to her, like Alexi, for leadership in the vacuum left by the men in her life.

As the awkward meeting extended, Alexi leaned in, placing customary kisses of greeting on first one and then the other cheek of the grieving woman. "Aunt Yana, I am so sorry for your loss."

She surprised him with fiery words. "We have no time for such things," she scolded. She turned to Yurdin to ask, "Did you inform him?"

"No, ma'am. It was not my place and it was not secure."

"Very good. Goodnight, Yurdin."

The stately servant bowed and turned to retrace his steps, having been dismissed.

Alexi watched as the mourning woman reached into the pocket of her black slacks and pulled out a key ring before turning to approach the fortified doors to the Volkov man cave. It was a testament to how much had changed that the lady of the house was leading him into a space he was certain she'd never been before her husband's death. The only women to enter before had been hookers and enemies who'd come there to die.

The space was almost empty. Remnants of their past carefree life remained of course, out of place now with such heaviness. The billiards table sat unused. Card tables had no gamblers. Even the spanking bench where there had always been a woman on display for the men's use was bare.

At least his uncle's blood had been cleaned from the stairs. In fact, the pungent scent of cleaning solution permeated the enclosed space.

His aunt led the way silently to the thick, carved double-doors that marked the entrance to the heart of the Volkov Bratva. The fortress within the fortress.

Not surprisingly, new security features had been installed since his last visit. Two cameras had been installed at the upper corners of the doors. One was currently scanning the room for threats while the second zoomed in on Alexi and his aunt.

A retinal and biometric panel was now a fixture on the wall to the right of the doors, yet his aunt did not move to open the door. Instead she turned towards her nephew to stare up into his eyes. He felt like he was being weighed and measured by her weary, yet experienced gaze. Yana may have married into the Volkovs, but in that moment, he was reminded how strong she was. Those eyes had seen things most women would have shrunk away from, yet here she stood, defiant. A Volkov at her core.

"Alexi, our family has suffered great loss."

"Yes, matriarch."

"I've received reports of your efforts to keep the family's businesses together during this time of uncertainty. Your uncle would be proud and grateful for your efforts."

Conflicting emotions warred inside him. Pride for being recognized for his leadership was overshadowed by the knowledge that he was doing a poor job at best. He was relieved when his aunt did not criticize him.

"Thank you, Yana. Your support means the world to me."

She paused, inspecting him in silence before speaking again. "I suspect that, like me, you are finding it hard to know who to trust in this time of uncertainty."

"It is my biggest concern," he answered truthfully.

"As it is mine." She paused again before adding, "I have decided to trust you, Alexi, with my biggest secret."

His pulse quickened at her words. Secrets were the bread and butter of the crime family, but having lost all those she loved to violence, he knew how hard trust must come to his aunt, particularly now.

"I am honored by your trust. I pledge my undying loyalty to you and the memory of my uncle and cousins."

"This makes me happy, Alexi, at a time when I have had very little to feel happiness about." She paused. Her words did not match her expression. There was no joy as she continued, "There is one favor I must ask of you. Do not take my request lightly, for if you agree to my appeal, much weight will be added to your shoulders."

He didn't doubt her warning, yet there was nothing, short of a bullet to the head, that could stop him from pledging his loyalty to her and what remained of the family.

"It will be my honor to grant you any favor you wish."

"So be it. From this day forward, you will be known as Alexi Volkov. Alexi Ivanov is no more. He was your youth. Alexi Volkov is your future."

There had been a time when he'd have given anything to be asked to change his name. He remembered a recent discussion about it with none other than Nicolai himself. Yet tonight, recognizing that it was open hunting season on the Volkov men, he recognized the gravity of his aunt's request.

They stood silently for several long seconds, each unsure of the proper protocol for the momentous occasion. Acting on instinct, Alexi reached for her wrinkled hand and lifted it to his lips. He first kissed her weathered skin and then the large ruby ring his uncle had put on her finger the day they had married almost forty years before.

"You honor me, babushka."

He used the term of endearment and respect his cousins had used for their mother. It brought tears to her eyes that she swished away impatiently.

"We have no time for weakness. There is much work to be done."

Her strength awed him as she stood a bit taller and added. "You must not speak of what you are about to see outside of these fortress walls. Your life... the lives of my grandchildren... depend on it."

She turned and placed her palm onto the electronic pad while she leaned forward to let the retinal scanner read her unique eye print. The sound of a pop coincided with a low buzz coming from the thick, double doors in front of them. Yana turned the now unlocked old-world brass knob to gain access to the private Volkov cave.

The room was dark and empty. The long dining table bare. Alexi scanned the space, half expecting to find his uncle or cousins sitting in the lounging area, but it too was empty. The naked serving girl, absent.

The raised platform where the poor Linenkos woman had been tortured on his last visit was now hidden behind a velvet curtain that gave the room the feeling of being at a dinner theater or maybe the ballet. Alexi hoped his aunt never found out about the despicable horrors that had been perpetrated against dozens of women and a more than a few men within these walls.

Alexi was confused. He had been led to believe there was some secret here, yet the room was bare. He turned to look at his aunt who simply nodded towards the velvet curtain.

He moved slowly, walking around the long table with deliberate strides before climbing the three steps that took him to the stage level. He reached out to pull the curtain aside with trembling fingers.

Alexi's heart stopped beating. His lungs stopped breathing. Time froze as he tried to comprehend what he was seeing.

A hospital bed stood exactly where the Linenkos spy had been strung up his last time there. A stately nurse in an all-white uniform stood at the head of the bed, examining the many electronic displays and writing notes on a clipboard. A bag of IV solution hung from a clear bag at the head of the bed.

Movement from the corner of his eye drew his attention. An elderly doctor who looked vaguely familiar sat behind a small desk along the back wall of the stage. The men's eyes locked briefly before the doctor nodded tersely in his direction before returning his attention to the computer monitor in front of him.

But it was the unmoving body in the bed that captured and held his attention for long minutes. He found himself inching forward, taking small steps, trying to get closer to get a better look at the lifeless form hooked to all of the life-saving equipment.

The closer he moved, the more distressed Alexi got. Despite being only a few feet away, it was not possible for him to recognize the man in the bed. White gauze covered most of his skin, but that which was exposed was burned and raw. Round, deep holes were randomly dispersed where fragments of hot explosives had burrowed into the victim's body, burning deep below the skin.

He felt rather than saw his aunt step next to him. They stood silently, each looking down at the shell of a man in front of them. It was difficult to know for sure because the entire left side of his face was burned beyond recognition, but as he stared at the lifeless body, Alexi filled with hope for the first time.

He prompted his aunt. "Vladimir?"

"Yes. My strongest son. Our family's hope."

Unbelievably, at the sound of them talking, the patient's eyes fluttered open, although it seemed to take his cousin a moment to focus through the clear agony of pain he was suffering.

His mother motioned to the nurse, "He needs more morphine for the pain."

It was her son who silenced her. "No. Can't... think..." he gritted out.

Tears blurred Alexi's vision and he hated himself in that moment for the weakness. If Vlad could survive the bombing and the excruciating pain, he sure as hell would be tough too.

Alexi didn't know what words to say. He finally got out, "Cousin."

Vlad opened his mouth to speak, but his reply was only a whisper. Still, it filled Alexi with pride and courage.

"Alexi... my new brother."

* * *

Black Sky Ops will debut in early 2018.

I hope you'll look forward to the continuing story of Ryder, Khloe and the Volkovs as we begin the next Black Collar Press suspense series. Billionaire, Chip Marshall, will be bankrolling Ryder, Axel and a team of talented mercenaries they assemble to take on the world's most dangerous crime families. Both men will need to make hard choices when it comes to fulfilling their duty to their country while protecting those they love.