“And them?” he asked, glancing toward the kneeling men.
“They can go home.” The lieutenants looked stunned. I was stunned myself because only earlier I had decided to kill them, but something about the whole thing had changed my mind. They were the Chernykh men after all, and they had done nothing wrong except follow Kliment’s orders. It would be unwise to kill them.
“No message?” Viktor asked.
“Oh, there will be a message. But not by killing innocent men.”
I stepped into the humid night air, already dialing Kliment’s number. It was not as if I could hide this from him forever, and the best way to tell him what I had done was to tell him myself. I did not want him to unleash his wrath on our soldiers when the only person who deserved it was me. The call connected on the third ring.
“I gather that you interfered?” Kliment said without greeting me, his tone harder than usual.
“You escalated operations without consulting me.”
“You have already undermined me and my orders by marrying a Chernykh, and I no longer think it is necessary for me to consult you regarding anything.”
“You are trying to provoke the Chernykhs, knowing fully well it will do nothing but invite a war we are in no position to fight.”
“They need reminding, and I need to bring my sister back, and the only way to do this is war.”
“Ilana left of her own will, and she is not coming back,” I reminded him sharply. “And as for war, you are forgetting that this is not Russia. We are not home. We will all be dead if the Chernykhs decide to attack us with their allies.”
A pause.
“You think they won’t strike until we provoke? You think that you marrying a Chernykh sister will go unavenged? The war is going to happen whether you like it or not, Fyodor. I prefer knowing exactly when it will begin,” Kliment replied.
“I know they will strike.”
“Then why don't we strike first and get it over with?”
“Because this isn’t about revenge or about Ilana or about me. This is simply about your pride, Kliment. You are letting your ego come in between every single decision you are making, and that is not going to be good for any of us.”
“You think this is about my pride?” he demanded.
“I know it is.”
His breathing shifted on the other end.
“You’ve grown soft since you married the enemy,” he said.
“That is not true.”
“You think I don’t know how you have moved your teams and operations into your penthouse like some corporate executive? My eyes are on everything that you do, Fyodor.”
“I have nothing to hide.” I stepped away from the warehouse lights, rain finally beginning to fall in thin sheets. “I prevented a firefight on their doorstep tonight. A fight that would have cost us, men.”
“It would have cost them more.”
“And what would that solve?”
“Dominance.”
“We already have dominance.”
“You think they respect you?”
“I don’t need their respect.”
“You need their fear.”
