Page 91 of Frozen Heart
The rain was pounding the streets, and I was soaked before I’d gone ten feet, but I barely noticed.Chyort! You fucking idiot! How could you leave her, even for a few hours? Where is he taking her?What is he doing to her, right now?
When I marched into the store, the guards I’d left were waiting for me, their heads hung. “He was already inside when we got here,” one of them told me. “He took her out the back, we never even saw them. I’m sorry.”
I stalked over and stood chest-to-chest with him, my breath coming in huge, shuddering pants. I wanted to smash something, wanted tohurtsomeone, and he stood there stoically, waiting for his punishment. But hitting him wouldn’tsolve anything. And this was on me, not him.I was here! I was right here, all I had to do was check the fucking back room!
I looked around at the bookstore—herbookstore. A wonderful, magical place that was nothing without her in it. She was gone because I failed utterly to protect her, I let him just walk in here andtakeher?—
I roared and upended a table of books, sending it crashing to the floor and scattering paperbacks everywhere.
Baba walked over, careful and shaky on her twin walking sticks, but determined. “Not your fault,” she wheezed. She looked me right in the eye. “Just get her back.”
I panted, the rage still pounding through me. Then I nodded and pulled out my phone.
As soon as Spartak picked up, the words spilled out of me. “If you hurt her, if youtouchher, I will hunt you down and break your fucking neck. I don’t care if you run back to Russia, I don’t care if it takes me my entire fucking life, I will find you and I willcut. Your. Fucking. Throat.”
“Your life for hers,” said Spartak coldly. “Tonight. Midnight. At my club. Come alone and unarmed.” And he hung up.
My life for hers.It wasn’t even a decision. Of course I’d take that deal. And of course Spartak wouldn’t let her go. But it was my only chance of maybe getting her out of this alive.
I’d be walking intohisbuilding, filled withhismen, unarmed. I needed some way to even the odds. I couldn’t just show up with an army, or Spartak would just kill her. I needed one person, someone who could sneak in undetected. My brothers couldn’t do it: their faces were known; they’d never get into the club. And there was only one other person I’d trust with something like this.
I stared at my phone. It had been so long...and I was the one who’d ended our friendship. He might not want to know me anymore…
I sighed.That woman knows me better than I know myself.Iwasscared. But that didn’t matter, not now.
It’s been years. His number will have changed.I called Konstantin. “I need you to put me in touch with a guy who used to work for Luka Malakov. His name is Alexei.”
64
ALEXEI
I was stretchedout on my back in the kitchen with my head and shoulders in the cupboard under the sink. A flashlight clamped between my teeth was shining up at a leaking U-bend. The apartment was almost silent, only the quiet little skitters and pecks of Gabriella’s fingers on her keyboard, down the hall and the splatting of drips on my forehead. So, when my phone rang, a few feet from my head, it wasloud.Anyone else would have banged their head but years of lying in wait for my targets, sometimes for hours or days, have given me superb self control. I groped for the phone and brought it to my ear, feeling smug. “Yes?”
Two shaky breaths. Then, “Alexei, it’s Radimir.”
I sat bolt upright. My forehead slammed into the U-bend, and I fell back down again, the world spinning. Suddenly, it was seventeen years ago, and I was a green young thing, not long out of the Russian army and still finding my feet in the Bratva. Andhe’dbeen green, too, him and his brothers, brand new to Luka’s organization. They’d clearly been through hell. But they had a sophistication I never did: it was Radimir who got me into wearing suits. He’d always been cold but, when we got close,I’d found he had a softer side. Between jobs for Luka, Radimir and I used to go see movies, or go to upmarket bars where he’d coach me on how to talk to women. I remembered helping them all move into their first, tiny apartment, trying to maneuver a mattress for the youngest, Valentin, up four flights of stairs.
And I remembered how he’d changed. I’d always been happy to be a soldier, killing who they told me to kill and not asking questions. But Radimir was always ambitious and the higher he climbed, the colder he became. He laughed less, scowled more. When he and his brothers broke off from Luka to go and make their way in Chicago, we’d almost lost touch. But there’d been one more chance: after I saved Gabriella. I’d called Radimir to tell him I was out of the Bratva and...he’d beenangry.Like I’d betrayed him, somehow, by getting out...or by falling in love. At the time, I’d been shaky and uncertain: I was high on love but I was alsolost:I’d walked away from the Bratva and that meant leaving everyone I knew. I’d reached out to my one friend and his rejection had hurt...more than I wanted to admit. That had been ten years ago, and we hadn’t spoken since.
My head was throbbing. I closed my eyes. “What do you—” I didn’t even know what to say. And then it bubbled up from inside. “Are you okay?” I still cared.
A pause. “No,” he croaked.
My eyes opened. Radimir admitting weakness? That never happened, not when I knew him. But I could hear the pain, even in that one syllable. The man was hurting. “What’s wrong?”
A deep, shuddering breath, like he was fighting to control himself. “He took her.”
I snaked my body out of the cupboard and slowly stood up.Radimir...fell in love?“Your girlfriend?”
“My wife.”
His wife?!I frowned at the floor as I carefully picked my way through all the junk I’d had to clear out of the cupboard.
“I was wrong, Alexei,” said Radimir. “I’m sorry.”
I stopped.Sorry?Radimir would never be this...open. Not the Radimir who’d left for Chicago, coldly ambitious. But not even the Radimir I’d first met, when he’d come to work for Luka. He sounded more vulnerable, more humble. And I felt the apology slide down deep and lock into place, healing something I hadn’t realized had still hurt, after all these years.
“Is okay,” I grunted.