The time has come for our monthly Vory meeting, and today, Viktor will demand his answers.
He will want a proposal for Ana, and he will want to know my prisoner’s fate. If I tell him the truth about my mother, he will expect Nakya to pay. But to lie would mean sparing Manuel from the vengeance I rightly deserve. Already, I have waited too long. He should have been dead weeks ago, and if things were not so complicated, he would have been.
I would like to believe that in time, Nakya would forgive me for murdering her father. Their relationship is not without its own complications. She loves him, and she hates him, perhaps equally. It would be difficult at first, but she would come to accept my justifications. Not only for my own mother, but for hers as well.
Regardless, it should be the least of my concerns. For now, I must navigate the troubled waters with Viktor. He will not give me another extension. My time is up, and I still haven’t decided what to tell him.
Slipping into the meeting at the last possible second is not my finest moment, but it gives me the benefit of extra time to make my decision. Viktor issues a sharp look when I arrive, the last Vor to take his seat. There will certainly be a discussion to follow, but for now, he directs one of the boeviks to the front of the room to operate the presentation Alexei has prepared. Today’s agenda will be no different than every other month. Gambling operations, gun shipments, and whatever else makes the brotherhood money.
But when the presentation loads, it isn’t the usual reports that fill the screen. It’s a surveillance video from Alexei’s home. A video that, by the expression on his face, he hasn’t seen before. His housekeeper Magda is on the stairs, and beside her is Talia. His wife calls out to him from behind, but he does not turn, so she tries again.
Confused whispers begin to circulate around the room, but it only takes Alexei a moment to understand what’s happening. Someone has betrayed his secret, exposing his hearing impairment for all the Vory brothers to see.
“Turn it off,” he demands.
The boevik fumbles with the computer, but even when he removes the flash drive, the video doesn’t stop. Alexei glances across the room, and his eyes land on Sergei, the accusation clear. It would be my first assumption as well, given the bad blood between them. But the embarrassment doesn’t end there.
What happens next is worse. Far worse.
A sordid display of images emerges out of nowhere, flashing across the screen. Images of Alexei’s wife. Strung out. Gaunt. Lifeless. And in every still, she’s being fucked by a different man. They are from a time before Alexei took her into his possession, when she was still a slave. Logically, only two people should have access to these pictures. Talia and her former captor.
It’s difficult to witness this insult to my brother. He is a man who loves his wife more than any other, and he’s a man who has just been betrayed. One last slide presents itself, the final blow for all to see.
How does it feel to know your beloved Sovietnik is deaf and married to a whore?
Blind rage drives Alexei to smash the computer, and there isn’t a single word spoken among us. Viktor is the one to clear the room, instructing us all to wait in the bar. I’m the last man to leave my place, eager to help, but understanding that in Alexei’s present mental state, he won’t see it that way.
Viktor stops me at the door. “Nobody is allowed to leave this building.”
I nod, and the door closes behind him. My Vory brothers drink and speak quietly among themselves while we wait for a resolution. My eyes are fixed on Sergei, acknowledging the smug expression on his face. Soon, that smug expression will be replaced with a lifeless one.
If he did have his fingers in this, he’s covered his tracks well. I have witnessed the genuine love between Alexei and his wife, and it’s difficult to comprehend that she would ever do this, but that’s how it appears.
I know my brother. Like me, he is quick to believe the worst in others. And I know when he emerges from the control room with Viktor, he has come to believe the worst of his pregnant wife.
Viktor moves to the front of the room with Alexei in tow, and there is no explanation needed for what happens next. The Vory way is simple, but brutal. By hiding his secret from his Vory brothers, Alexei has committed a betrayal. The brotherhood doesn’t tolerate secrets, but Alexei has kept his for good reason. He considers his deafness a weakness.
It will not save him from punishment regardless. This is the Vory way. He strips his shirt and takes the drink that Viktor offers him first, draining it in one swallow. With a nod, he signals that he is ready to accept the consequences, and Viktor has the first honor of punching him.
He strikes Alexei in the gut, and then gestures for the rest of his Vory brothers to follow suit. Every man has his turn. Sergei takes pleasure in the act, pummeling Alexei twice. When my turn comes around, I apologize in advance, and then hit him where I hope it will hurt the least. He takes it like a man, and when the ordeal is over, he earns another tattoo. A symbol that he has earned his way back into the brotherhood with honor.
But there is no honor in what happened to him. I’m murderous on his behalf, but I don’t know what I can do to help him. Viktor calls for Franco and sends Alexei home to recover.
It’s only once he’s gone that it occurs to me I still have my own problems to deal with. And Viktor is not in a pleasant mood now. When he approaches me, I’m almost certain he will demand either Nakya’s death or Ana’s proposal by midnight tonight.
Instead, he slaps me on the shoulder. “We will discuss the marriage later. For now, I need you to do what you can to see Alexei through this. I foresee a difficult road ahead.”
I nod, but Viktor is quick to remind me that this isn’t over.
“Soon. You will make your proposal soon.”
Viktor’s orders have given me a renewed sense of purpose. It’s easier to focus on problems when they aren’t yours, and I have made it my objective to prove to Alexei that his wife did not betray him. However, my brother has proven himself to be more stubborn than I initially gave him credit for.
He’s too blinded by anger to listen to reason, and I stand little chance of redeeming Talia without proof of her innocence. Mischa is on surveillance detail, analyzing the video from the club that day, but his work takes time. Time is not a luxury I have when Alexei grows colder and more resistant from one day to the next.
He spends hours locked away in his office, obsessing over every piece of evidence. Cognac has become his only ally because he trusts no one. The natural and logical progression in this situation is a simple one. Alexei won’t let this go. At the risk of his own life, he will determine that the answers lie with Talia’s former captor. The only possible end to such a visit will be bloody and messy.
In many ways, his situation is reflective of my own. Impossible and doomed to failure.
This morning, I am reminded of business left unfinished when I study the pieces still waiting in my vault. It’s been too long since I painted, and it’s as if time has stopped, preserving the memory of that day for an eternity. Her image still rests on the easel, untouched, and I think if I could, I would hang it in my bedroom.
She catches me in a vulnerable moment when she enters the room, her eyes moving to the painting, and then to me. I avert my gaze to avoid the discomfort of this situation.
“Everything okay?” I clean up some odds and ends to keep my hands busy.
“You haven’t been here.” Her words are an accusation, and she is past the point of hiding it.
“I haven’t been with anyone else, zvezda. I’ve been helping Alexei.”
“Is Talia okay?” she asks.
“She is healthy, according to Alexei. But I imagine, given the circumstances, she could be doing much better.”
“I thought better of him,” she answers quietly.
“It’s easier to believe the worst in someone, is it not?”
When she doesn’t answer, I’m left no choice but to look. She has always been light on her feet, but today, she appears to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders.
“What’s going to happen to us, Nika?”
I release a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding. She deserves to know the truth. She’s waited for it so long. Nakya is not ignorant to the ways of our world, but it doesn’t mean she will understand. There is no softening the blow of the only words I have to offer her.
“I have but two choices, my sweet. And you will not like either option.”
“Tell me,” she insists. “I can handle it. I want to know.”
I’ve tried to stay away from her, but when she’s close enough for me to smell her intoxicating sweetness, I can’t remember why I needed to avoid her in the first place. When I gesture for her, she comes, and it only makes it worse.
“The truth is, zvezda, it was never our fate to end up together. The stars are not in our favor, and the only way this can end is in tragedy.”
“I don’t believe that.” She shakes her head, hair falling loosely around her pretty face.
“You know this world. Nothing is ever easy, and choices must be made. I can either forsake you and marry Ana, or I can let you go.”
“Forsaking yourself,” she finishes for me.
I toy with her hair and kiss her gently on the lips. Her eyes fall shut, and she leans her forehead against mine, soft and sad.
“Why can’t we change our fates? Let’s realign our stars, Nika. We can do it together. You can use your talents for your own benefit. You can paint, and I can dance, and—”
“You speak of impossible dreams.” I close my own eyes and inhale her, drowning in her innocence. “This is not the way our worlds work, pet.”
“It can be. Whatever we have to do—”
“I’m going to kill your father, Nakya. I’m going to torture him slowly, and I will take his last breath. So tell me now that we can be together.”
Her body turns rigid in my arms, and just as I suspected, she retreats. I feel the loss of her everywhere, but I don’t force her to come back. I want her to know that when her father dies, it will be at my hand.
The man abused her, and for that alone, he deserves to die. But it is her blood. And just as I’m trying to make peace with killing my own father, she will not easily find peace with my decision.
“Why?” she implores. “The debt?”
“It was never about the debt.”
She paces the length of the room, collecting her thoughts and shaking her head. “I knew it couldn’t just be about the debt. You knew too much about my life. You were so angry with me, and … tell me why. I deserve to know.”
“He murdered my mother.”
She stops, and her sweetness turns to venom. “His mistress?”
“His slave,” I answer. “A forced whore.”
She blanches and rubs absently at her arms, visibly choosing denial. It’s easier for her to believe that the many women who stole her father’s attentions away from her sick mother were by choice. She has made it a full-time job to resent them. Her childhood gifted her a front row seat to the damages of infidelity, ensuring that she would remain steadfast in her resolve that she will never be a mistress. But she never saw the opposite side of the coin.
“I choose the second option.” She squeezes her arms around herself. “Let me go. Have mercy, Nika. Let me leave while I still have a chance.”
“Nakya.” I step toward her, and she retreats.
“No,” she says. “I think this should stop here. Please, let it stop here. I can’t do this anymore.”