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Fifteen feet below, Gregory lunges. He misses the bird by a foot, at least, and smashes into the side of the planter. Luna and Kayla howl with laughter as the bird flies off into the reddening sky.
I can’t help but smile. Until I hear the voice on the other end of the line.
“Yakov Kulikov. Long time, no see.”
For a second, I’m positive it’s Akim.
But no, it can’t be. He’s dead. Dismembered. I shattered his skull and broke his body. There isn’t a single fucking way that he is calling me right now.
Then it hits me. “Pavel.”
I haven’t spoken to Pavel since well before his voice dropped, but I know it’s him.
“I’ve been wanting to talk to you,” Pavel says. “Sorry it has taken me so long. Planning a funeral takes up a lot of your time. I’ve been swamped.”
“It takes a lot of guts to call me.”
He huffs out a laugh. “If that’s a roundabout way of asking how I got your number, I’ll never tell.”
“It was a direct way of warning you to keep your head down and stay out of my fucking life. That was a lesson your brother learned the hard way.”
“From what I understand, Akim never bothered you at all,” Pavel says. “You weren’t even home when he dropped by for a visit. And afterward… well, I saw the footage. She was alone in that cell.”
Luna.
Even the tiniest reference to Luna has my top lip curling in barely contained rage.
“You have to be used to her getting attention from other men, though. You have wonderful taste in women, Yakov. Like I said, I saw the footage.”
I don’t need to see the tapes to know what Pavel saw. Luna was locked in that cell wearing nothing but her underwear. She was dehydrated and terrified. I want to kill Akim all over again just thinking about it.
“That footage is the first and last time you are ever going to look at her,” I growl. “Do it again, I’ll rip your eyes out.”
He chuckles. “Relax, Yakov. I meant it as a compliment.”
“You’re still a kid. This feud is almost older than you are. It isn’t worth your life.”
“Aww. Do you care about me, Yakov?”
I grind my teeth. “I don’t want to waste the time cutting you down for nothing other than some bad blood. But I’ll do it. I’ll cut you down if you try anything. Doesn’t matter how small. You come near me or my family, you’re dead.”
“That threat might have been more persuasive a couple weeks ago,” he says. “But now, you’ve murdered the only family I had left. I’m alone in the world and there is nothing you can do to me that would be worse than that.”
I hear the heartbreak in his voice. Pavel is playing the big, tough leader. Under it all, he’s a devastated kid.
“Don’t be stupid, Pavel. This isn’t your fight. It never was.”
I don’t want to kill him. I really don’t. I already killed Akim—I got my pound of flesh. Everything else is a nuisance.
“I’m alone in the world… but you aren’t. You have your little girlfriend and a new baby on the?—”
“Stand the fuck down,” I snarl.
“For a man with your reputation, you wear your heart on your sleeve. Did you know that? It’s easy to see what you care about. Who you care about.” Pavel blows out a breath. “I’ll see you soon, Yakov.”
He hangs up and I spin and throw my phone at the wall. It dents the drywall and clatters to the floor, the screen shattering.
I fucking knew it.
