Page 15 of Oakheart

His voice was a low, excited whisper on the other end of the line, even more hoarse than me. “I found him.”

Found him.

Found him.

“Where? How?”

He didn’t answer my questions, not that they mattered. Nothing mattered except that he had done what he’d promised to. Done what I had given him every single penny I’d ever had in my hands to get him to do.

“You have to come to Vladivostok,” was his only answer, and... what?

Why would I have to go back to Russia? Anatoliy was supposed to find Viktor and send him to us. No part of that involved me going back to Russia. I hesitated, because... well, I wasn’t sure why. Maybe because living with Grant for years, I’d started to learn that most people’s actions had ulterior motives, and sometimes those ulterior motives were horrific.

Maybe Anatoliy had been taken by the government while looking, and they now had him trying to lure werewolves into Russia in order to kidnap us.

He sighed after a long, pregnant silence, and I could almost see him shaking his head. The way his jowls wiggled just a bit, from age and the bit of extra weight he’d put on since leaving the military. “He’s... they had him for a long time. I don’t think that he’ll get to you if I put him on a boat on his own. You have to come get him.”

They had him for a long time.

I’d known that, obviously. If Viktor had been free, he would have found us, or contacted us, or something. Anything. I had left word for him with people we’d known, and made notes and pinned them in our secret hiding places in case he went back to the abandoned pack town.

And then, when all that had failed, I had found Anatoliy, former military intelligence officer who now worked as something like a private investigator. He’d come highly recommended, and I had been told that if Viktor was alive and findable, Anatoliy would find him.

So I had given him every penny I had saved over the years, struggled to keep my phone on in the wilderness with battery packs I had to charge at the town library, and hoped for the best.

But now... having given him all that money, I had no way to get to Vladivostok. I could sneak my way onto a boat or something like that, but that might take me months to get where I needed to be. This was not something that could wait,particularly if Viktor was so lost that he couldn’t be put on a boat alone.

I took down the address Anatoliy gave me, promised I would be there as soon as possible, and then dressed as quickly as I could. While I was putting my shoes on, Leo silently slid into my room, his eyes shining in the dark. Of course he’d heard, and without question, he would be coming with me.

Sometimes, I felt guilty that Viktor had been my best friend. Yes, Leo and I were close, and Leo and Viktor, being twins, were undeniably close. But as children, Viktor and I had been the kind of inseparable that most people never experience. Practically reading each other’s minds, constantly together, and always in sync.

For a moment, I wondered if there was any way we could still have that, but it didn’t matter. Viktor was my brother in every way that did matter, and if he was disabled and needed to be committed to a mental hospital for the rest of his life, that would not change.

Calling him my brother wasn’t a commitment of right now and only if it remained convenient.

It was forever, and no matter what.

I would do anything for him, and so would Leo and Mama. The three of us were already constantly riddled with guilt for having left him in Russia to begin with, even though there had been nothing we could do.

If I had to rob someone to get the money to get to Vladivostok, I would. Leo and I would go for our brother.

When we finished dressing, I took a moment to grab a scrap of paper and write a quick note on it:

Leo and I have to leave. I’m sorry we won’t be here to help right now. Wewillbe back. If you need anything, ask Mama. She’ll take care of you.

Aleks

It was nothing, and not nearly enough, but it was all I had in that moment. When I finished, we headed into the hall, only to find Mama waiting for us, hair in a messy ponytail, with a threadbare sweater pulled tight around herself. “Was it him?”

“Anatoliy says he’s found him, and we need to go to Vladivostok to get him.”

The look on her face said everything I was thinking.

What kind of shape was my brother in, that he needed to be retrieved? What had he gone through? How deeply had we failed him?

She made a small noise, and both Leo and I jumped to wrap our arms around her. I needed to distract her in the moment, so with one arm firmly wrapped around her back, and my brother wrapped all the way around her, I used my free hand to hold up the note I’d written. “This is for Cash. You’ll”—I paused and looked around, knowing that wherever Grant was in the house, he was likely listening to us—“you’ll handle things with the house while we’re gone?” I deliberately didn’t switch to Russian, because that always annoyed him, and then he assumed we were up to something.

“Of course,” she agreed immediately, and gave me a little wink. “I know what I’m doing with my own house. I can handle things while you’re gone for a while. Just... you have to bring him home. You—” Her voice cracked, and she couldn’t go on.