Bells. Bells were ringing. It was like church, but not quite. Like… like…

Like a door.

Bas recognized the warm weight partially draped over his chest and burrowed into his neck. He reached out a finger to poke at it. “Door?”

“Okay,” Drew mumbled into his neck, cuddling closer, and Bas allowed himself to drift back to sleep.

And then Drew’s cell phone began ringing.

“Seriously?” Bas demanded of no one in particular. “I thought everyone agreed we were all going to sleep in. Enjoy the day.” Or, more accurately, to gear up for the danger that awaited them at the auction that evening. “If that’s my brother…” He shrugged, unable to think of an appropriately dire consequence.

Drew draped himself further across Bas’s chest - a change in position Bas would have heartily approved of under other circumstances - and reached for his phone on the nightstand. “It’s not your brother,” Drew told him. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, checked the display again, and looked up, blinking. “It’s Gary North.”

“Jesus. The man is seriously not endearing himself to me,” Bas complained, burrowing his head back into the pillow. The man had the shittiest timing.

“He just texted to say he’s outside, and to get my ass down there.” Drew blinked at Bas again. “How’d he even know I was here?”

Bas shook his head. “I haven’t the foggiest idea.”

The bell rang again, repeatedly. “Fine!” Drew touched his forehead to Bas’s chin for one long moment, then threw the blankets back and rolled out of bed.

“Hey!” Bas said as the cold air hit him.

“Hurry up!” Drew told him, already grabbing sweatpants from Bas’s drawer and pulling them on sans underwear.

For half a second, Bas seriously considered letting Drew go meet Gary alone.

And then he realized Drew would be meeting Gary. Alone.

“I might hit him,” Bas said. He rolled out of bed and grabbed the slacks he’d stripped off the previous afternoon, which were still handily strewn on the floor next to his side of the bed. He caught the sweatshirt Drew threw at him, took a second to pull it on, and followed Drew to the door.

“Alright, alright.” Bas heard Drew muttering as he unlocked the door. He reached the hallway in time to see Drew throw the door wide. “What’s the emerg… Oh! Oh, Christ.”

Gary stood on the doorstep, bundled in a thick wool overcoat and black winter hat. His cheeks were pink with cold, the morning air fogged around his face…

And he wasn’t alone.

Beside him stood an older man - barrel-chested, broad-shouldered, and a couple of inches shorter than Gary. He had improbably snow-white hair above a careworn face and he sported the impeccable tan of someone who’d spent the autumn months sitting in the sun. He probably had.

“Pardon me for interrupting,” Ilya Stornovich said, his dark eyes grave. “But when Garik called to tell me your troubles, I knew I needed to speak with you most urgently.”

Drew threw Bas a look that clearly said, “I don’t want to let the Russian gangster into your home,” and Bas shrugged in a way that he hoped conveyed, “Neither do I, but what else are we gonna do?”

In the end, Drew stood back and ushered both men into the living room.

“I apologize for the short notice,” Gary said. He unbuttoned his jacket before taking a seat on the sofa. “I wanted to call you last night, but Ilya persuaded me that it would be better for all concerned if we had the element of surprise on our side.”

“Well, you certainly achieved that,” Bas said. He extended his hand toward the other end of the sofa, encouraging Ilya to take a seat. Then he seated himself in the side chair Drew had occupied during their meeting yesterday.

He pulled Drew to sit on his lap.

Drew immediately popped back up again. “Coffee?” he offered. “I’m going to brew a pot.”

“Please, do not trouble yourself,” Ilya said, holding out a hand. “I am afraid I cannot stay long.”

“Uh. Okay,” Drew agreed. He allowed Bas to pull him back down onto his lap, even though he sat stiffly at first.

Despite the mind-blowing seriousness of having Ilya Stornovich in his living room, something primal in Bas awakened when Gary acknowledged their seating position with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. That’s right, fucker, Bas thought, pulling Drew more firmly against him. Mine mine mine.

“So. What brings you by?” Drew asked, as though this were a social call. Mary Alice McMann would be so proud of the ingrained manners that had him treating Russian criminals with the same polite deference as Boston’s social elite.

“I called Ilya earlier this week and told him what you’d told me - that Alexei has plans to kill all of you tonight, that it’s become a personal mission for him. Ilya is prepared,” Gary said, leaning forward and knitting his fingers together with the polished charm of a high-powered defense attorney. “To make your problem go away.”

“Make it go away?” Drew looked at Gary, dumbfounded. “How?”

“Mister Seaver,” Ilya told Bas. “First, let me tell you condolences on loss of your father, yes? Levi was a good man. A very good man. We work together for many years. He did not always like me, I will not lie. And I did not always like him. But we were same in many ways. Both men with… with… chest.” He looked to Gary impatiently. “Garik, what is this word in English?”

“Er… honor?” Gary said quietly.

“Da!” Ilya agreed, giving Gary a fond smile before turning the weight of his stare onto Sebastian. “Honor. Both men who did what must be done to make our families strong. You understand this?”

Did he understand that? Honor was not the first word that came to mind when thinking of his father. But by Ilya’s definition, he supposed the word applied to both men.

“Yes,” he whispered.

“Yes,” Ilya repeated with a more confident nod. “Yes. But my son, he is different.” Ilya’s voice was low. Sad. “He is…” He waved a hand before him, as if searching for the correct word. “Ruthless. He thinks this shows power, yes?”

Bas inclined his head. It certainly seemed that way.

“When I came to this country, I wanted to give power to the powerless. A voice to the voiceless. That was idea for SILA.”

“You committed a lot of crimes along the way,” Bas commented, not willing to fully exonerate Ilya, no matter how tempting it was.

“Crimes,” Ilya scoffed, smiling broadly. “Means many things to many people, da? Government takes money from poor people, uses it to make rich men richer. Is not a crime. I take money from rich men and use it to help people.” He shrugged.

“Yes, you’re a regular Robin Hood,” Drew said wryly.

Ilya’s laugh was loud, booming, and unexpected. “If Robin Hood had lovely home in Florida and a sports car!” he chuckled. “I am not a saint, Mister McMann. I have never claimed to be. But I am not a killer of innocents.” A shadow moved over his face. “Never on purpose.”

Drew shot Bas a look he couldn’t quite interpret, then turned his attention to Gary.

“This is all very interesting. And I admit, enlightening, as well. But… how can this help us?”

Gary looked at Ilya and raised a single eyebrow.

Ilya smiled and patted Gary on the knee. “Yes, yes, Garik. I’m coming to the point.” He rummaged in the chest pocket of his coat and removed a flash drive. He turned it over in his hand thoughtfully. “This is information I retrieved last night from the server in my son’s home. On here, you will find the information you need to connect my Alexei to several of his alternate identities. This is a service he runs, providing immigrants and others with the names and identities of deceased individuals.” He shook his head like he was disappointed. “Alexei does not use this service to help the desperate, you understand. Only those who can pay. Men who have killed and raped, women who have sold children like livestock. That information is on here, as well.” He sucked in a deep breath and let it out, then set the flash drive on the coffee table with a decisive click.

This time, it wasn’t difficult to read the incredulity in Drew’s expression. Bas knew it had to be mirrored on his own face.

“Is one of the names Michael Paterkin?” Drew whispered.

Ilya nodded. “Yes. That is one of his favorite… aliens?” He turned to Gary as if checking the word.

“Aliases,” Gary corrected, and Ilya nodded.

“Yes, exactly.”

Drew moved to retrieve the flash drive, as though he worried Ilya might change his mind. Bas didn’t blame him, but he was too stunned to move, himself.

“Why?” he whispered.

Ilya watched him for a moment, his mouth turned down in a frown.

“Garik tells me that you wish to make repayment for the sins of your father,” he said at length. “That you feel responsible in some way. But this is not so. Sons should not be held responsible for their fathers’ crimes. Fathers, on the other hand…” He spread his empty palms before him. “I believed I was doing the right thing in leaving my organization to Alexei. I moved to Florida, refused contact with my lieutenants, so that my power would never overshadow his.” He looked up once again. “I had not realized how that power would corrupt him. How it would make my son lose sight of important truths.”

“You understand that we are going to use this information to have Alexei arrested?” Drew asked. “That, between this and the information we have already collected, we have enough for a conviction?”

“I understand.” Ilya’s voice was heavy with sorrow. “I also know if he continues along this path, someone will kill him. They will have no choice.” His eyes were pleading. “I don’t want my son to die. And so, I find myself making a seemingly impossible choice: working with his enemies to send him to prison, instead.”

Gary reached out and laid a comforting hand on Ilya’s shoulder, and Ilya lifted a hand to pat it. “You are a good boy, malysh. Thank the stars that we were fated to be friends.”

He looked at Bas and Drew again. “Prison will be the making of Alexei. He will understand what it means to be truly powerless, a lesson I could never teach him. I plan to hire him an excellent attorney - someone who will get him a short sentence and an early parole.” His words were part challenge, part warning, and ironically, they made Bas feel even more confident in Ilya’s sincerity. He wasn’t switching sides, or working against his son; on the contrary, he was doing what all good fathers do, and giving his son the medicine he needed, even when it wasn’t what he wanted.

He could grudgingly admit Gary was right when he suggested that Ilya was a decent person, despite the bad things he’d done… and the monster of a son he’d placed in power.

“And what will happen with SILA?” Drew asked, ever practical. “Will you hand the reins to one of your lieutenants?”

“Nyet. I will take them myself, hold them for my son. With help from my nephew Dmitri, of course.”

Gary’s nostrils flared and he cast his eyes to the heavens.

Interesting. Anyone who made Gary look like that was someone Sebastian wanted to get to know better, even if he was part of a Russian crime organization.

One corner of Ilya’s mouth turned up. “Retirement was boring anyway.” He slapped his hands on his knees and stood. “Well. I thank you both for meeting with me. I know you will take care of the information I gave you. Good luck tonight.”

Wait, tonight? There was no need to attend the auction tonight if they had the information they needed. He and Drew exchanged another wordless glance.

“Ilya… Mister Stornovich,” Drew began gently. “We won’t be attending the auction tonight. Just being there would be a tremendous risk, and if the information you gave us is enough to incriminate your son, we have no reason to go.”

Ilya raised his eyebrows and frowned once again. “Ah, but you must. My son is a man of many resources. Simply being able to make a case against him isn’t enough to keep you - any of you - safe. As long as he is free, he’s a danger to you.”

“But you could tell us where he is,” Bas protested. “You could let us tell the police…”

“No,” Ilya said calmly, as though he’d anticipated this turn of events. “This I will not do. You’ll find that the information I have provided to you contains nothing that will incriminate my organization. It is all information on Alexei’s dealings alone. I will not invite the authorities to poke their noses into other information, you understand? SILA has no quarrel with any of you.”

There was a sly glint in Ilya’s eye, a hard cast to his jaw, proving that this man, though he looked more like someone’s doting grandfather than a criminal mastermind, was not someone they could afford to take lightly.

Bas clenched his teeth. So this was the compromise? They had gotten the information they needed to prosecute Alexei, but at the expense of being able to dismantle SILA? Fine, then. So be it. Revenge was the furthest thing from Sebastian’s mind - all he cared about now was keeping his family safe.

But their safety was no more guaranteed now than it had been yesterday, and that pissed him off. In order to arrest Alexei, they needed to be able to find him. They could use Ilya’s information to obtain a warrant and search for Alexei at his known locations, but he was unlikely to be sitting there waiting. And, if Alexei learned about Ilya’s flash drive, he was likely to become even more enraged and unpredictable… even more dangerous.

They needed to make sure he was arrested as soon as possible, and that meant continuing with their plan to attend the auction.

“Yeah,” Bas said. “We understand.”

But if he was annoyed by the turn of events, Drew looked resigned… and reluctantly impressed. Probably the admiration of one born negotiator for another. “Thank you for the information,” he offered, and Ilya nodded.

Bas stood, following Gary and Ilya to the door.

“Come on, Ilya. I’ll give you a ride,” Gary said, buttoning his coat.

“Thank you, Garik.” Ilya placed a hand on Gary’s shoulder. “But I believe I will walk for a bit. Boston winter is like mild spring day in Siberia. It will not do for me to grow soft in my old age.” He winked, then turned to extend his hand to Drew and Sebastian in turn. “Mr. McMann. And Mr. Seaver. A pleasure.”

Bas couldn’t return the sentiment, but he nodded and shook Ilya’s hand anyway.

“I’m sure we will see each other again,” Ilya said as he departed.

A chill went up Bas’s spine at the casual words, a chill that had little to do with the cold waft of air through the open door. He could not imagine anything good ever coming from a second meeting.

“Thank you,” Drew told Gary as the three of them watched Ilya walk down the steps.

“Don’t thank me, thank him,” Gary said, nodding in Ilya’s direction. “He’s risking everything, including his own life, to do this.” He sighed, jamming his hands in his pockets. “Just like I suspected he would.”

“Do you think his own son would harm him?” Drew asked, surprised.

Gary sighed. “Possibly, if he thought his father had betrayed him. Ilya and Alexei have a complicated relationship. Alexei covets his father’s approval, but he’s never really understood the kind of man his father is.”

Not like Gary clearly did.

“You care about him a lot. More than I expected.”

Gary turned to give Bas an appraising look.

“Not all of us were fortunate enough to have good fathers of our own. We can quibble about your father’s ethics all you like, but from everything I’ve heard, he loved you and showed it.”

Bas frowned but nodded, and he felt Drew’s hand snake around his back in a gesture of support. Gary was right. Whatever kind of businessman his father had been, Levi had been a loving father. He and Ilya did have something in common.

He extended his hand to Gary. “Drew’s right. Thank you. For setting this up. For letting him risk himself. I owe you.”

Gary’s eyes sharpened and his smile turned shark-like. “Exclusive-interview-level gratitude?”

Sebastian barked out a laugh. “We’ll see.” Assuming they lived to tell the tale.

Gary and Drew exchanged goodbyes, and the moment the door was closed behind him, Bas leaned back against it, exhausted.

Drew took out his phone. “Twenty minutes,” he said, stepping forward to burrow his face in Bas’s chest.

“For what?”

“That’s how long we’ve been awake! Twenty minutes, and the world’s turned upside down.” Drew looked vaguely shell-shocked, and Bas snickered. His little control-fiend was having a rough couple of weeks.

“But at least now we get the fun of waking up Cort and Cam to share the news.”

Drew pulled back to give him a fulminating look. “You take way too much pleasure in winding them up.”

“Nonsense,” Bas argued. There was no such thing as too much. And if Bas had learned anything from this nightmare with Alexei, it was to take his pleasure where he could find it. Speaking of which…

“We could probably wait and call them in half an hour,” he offered, coasting a hand down Drew’s back to glide over his ass. He had no underwear beneath his borrowed sweatpants, which were conveniently loose.

Drew’s teasing smile was wide and gorgeous, familiar and brand new. “I think that would be the considerate thing to do,” he agreed, and he lifted his lips to kiss Sebastian.