Page 71 of Frozen Heart

She pressed herself to my side. She’d stopped shaking but she was still pale and drawn. Considering what she’d just been through, she was holding together amazingly well.

Just a few minutes later, the hotel phone rang, and I snatched it up. I could hear Gennadiy breathing at the other end, but he didn’t speak. “What is it?” I growled, and held the phone so that Bronwyn could listen, too.

He took a deep breath. “The Eight have thrown us under the bus, brother. They’re denying they told us to kill Spartak’s brother. They’re saying we broke the truce, all on our own. They told Spartak last night that the ceasefire is over and that it’s open season on us.” Gennadiy swallowed. “They’ve cut us off, Radimir. We’redead!”

49

BRONWYN

I’d always thoughtof Radimir as unbreakable. But he just slumped, all his power and confidence gone. It was terrifying. He was the one who protected me from people like Spartak. If he was beaten…

But then I forced the fear down inside. ThePakhanneeded his wife.

I gently put a hand on his back. He turned, but his eyes were distant, and it took him a few seconds to focus on me.

“It’ll be okay,” I told him. “You’ll figure it out. You’ll find a way. You always do.”

He took a deep, shuddering breath...and then he straightened up a little and nodded gratefully. His eyes locked with mine and a little of his strength seemed to creep back. His hands reached for his waistcoat and then he realized he wasn’t wearing one. But he tugged his polo shirt straight instead. “Let’s get back to Chicago,” he said.

A few hours later, we were on a plane. I had a blanket wrapped around me, but I couldn’t get warm: a cold fear was sinking into my bones. We’d escaped...but we weren’t flying to safety. We were heading back to Chicago, right into the lion’s den. I looked across at Radimir. I’d almost lost him tonight.

And that’s when I realized something. If I couldn’t drag him away from the Bratva, there was only one option left. It scared the hell out of me, but it was the only way I could at least have some input, and maybe help keep him alive.

I had to become one of them. Part of the Bratva. A mafia wife.

50

BRONWYN

We were metat the airport by two of Radimir’s men, who escorted us back to the penthouse so that we could freshen up and change. Radimir looked much more like himself, back in his normal three-piece suit. But he still looked grimly serious. I remembered the early days, when I’d wondered if I’d ever see him smile. Now I wondered if I’d ever see him smile again. He told me he had to meet with his brothers, and I nodded. “I’d like to come too,” I said nervously. “If that’s okay.”

First, he blinked at me. Then he cocked his head to one side and gazed at me for a long time, and he must have seen the change in me because his eyes suddenly became warm, as if I’d just made him very, very happy...and a little sad, at the same time. “Yes,” he told me, his voice ragged with emotion. “Yes,Krasavitsa, of course.”

When we arrived at Gennadiy’s house, a steady, ice-cold rain was hammering the roof and windows. We got soaked just running from the car to the door. Gennadiy showed us in, but seemed a little surprised to see me.

Radimir fixed him with a glare. “I told you: she’s family now.”

Gennadiy sighed and nodded and took us through to a wood-paneled room with a huge oak table. We all sat down and it was only when Gennadiy reached for the vodka bottle to pour himself a shot that I saw his hand and gasped. He was wrapped in bandages up to the wrist.

“Burns,” he muttered. “Spartak torched one of our casinos last night. I went in to make sure all the staff got out okay. Everyone’s alive but it was close.”

Valentin was hurt, too: someone had side-swiped his car and he’d rammed into a lamppost. The airbags had saved him, but his head was wrapped in bandages. And Mikhail was glowering, his hands shaking as he petted his dogs. He had two nestled on either side of him and was hugging them protectively. “We were walking downtown, and someone threw a piece of meat right in front of them. I managed to get it out of their mouths, and it was full of fucking rat poison. What sort of bastard tries to poisondogs?!”It was the only time I’d ever seen him angry.

Gennadiy got up and started to pace. “Spartak has put a price on all our heads.” He looked at me sadly. “Even yours. He has a lot more men than we do and they’re well trained. This place is fortified but you’re not safe outside these walls. Don’t go anywhere, not even down the street to get a cup of coffee.”

I nodded, feeling sick. Someone wanted me dead. Someone was willing to pay money toend my life: I couldn’t wrap my head around that.

Gennadiy sighed and leaned forward over the table. “I’ve called The Eight over and over. They’re still denying they told us to kill Spartak’s brother. They say this is all our fault and they won’t rein Spartak in. In the last twenty-four hours, he’s hit seventeen of our places. Bars smashed up, warehouses torched.” He dropped into a chair, defeated. “I’d say we’ve lost about a quarter of what we have.”

A quarter!A quarter of the Aristov empire justgone,in a day. Three more days and they’d have nothing left. Then I corrected myself and sat straighter in my chair.We. Wewould have nothing left. I was a part of this, now.

“Why would The Eightdothis?” asked Valentin. “Call us, give us the order and then deny it? We’ve always obeyed them. And they want peace: that’s the whole reason all the families obey them, to keep the peace. They must have known this would start a war.”

We all looked at him hopelessly. No one had an answer. But then I frowned. A half-idea was slowly forming, a reflection of something Valentin had said. It felt like looking at the moon in a rippling puddle: there was something there, but I couldn’t see it clearly, yet.

“Our legal businesses aren’t doing much better,” said Radimir. He’d spent most of the flight making phone calls. “Three construction projects have just stopped because politicians have withdrawn their approval at the last minute. They’re people I have no hold over, I was relying on the other families to pressure them, because we all benefited. But no one’s playing ball anymore. We’re losing about two and a half million a day.”

Even the Aristovs would be bankrupt soon, at that rate. I kept frowning, still trying to make my idea come into focus.