Page 77 of Lord of the Underworld

"Let her go," I'm talking faster, trying to convince him, he has to believe me. "You do not want to bring the wrath of the Volkov Bratva down on you. I can promise the Turgenevs will be bad enough."

"No- no, look-" Anka says, grabbing my hand with her tied ones. "You're going to take the wife of the Angel of Death? How badly do you want to die? He's literally skinned a man alive before."

"What a good idea," one of the hunters says. "We should finish this one off in the same way." He nods at me.

My ears are ringing. I dig my nails into my palm until the sting brings me back. "You must be very popular with the ladies, you little freak."

He laughs, blowing me a kiss.

"It's me. I took Rossi's wife and children to safety." My smile must not look right, because Anka sucks in a breath. "Then, my husband took the Don and his brother and tortured them to death. It wasn't quick."

The men don't even blink.

"We're wasting time," John says irritably. "Let the Volkov girl go."

"No!" Anka grabs me with surprising strength as they cut her zip ties and pull her away. It takes two of them and she manages to kick one of them in the jaw. "Oksana, it'll be okay Vadim will find you -"

The SUV's door slams shut behind her mid-sentence as she's wedged into the car and I'm left alone with the hunters. The ringing in my ears is back.

John steps closer, smiling at me, almost fondly. "My real name is Michail Dimakos. You're going to tell us everything you know. Eventually, you'll beg me to let you talk. They always do."

It's cold, I can feel the snow seeping into my boots. The ties on my wrists are cutting into my skin. Everything sounds and looks so vivid.

Maybe that's just what it's like before you die.

"Oh, Michail? Fuck. You." I enunciate clearly, each word with mindlessly gleeful precision. "Fuck you and the dickless, gutless pieces of shit who hired you. You're just a fucking dog, barking for his masters."

His hand comes up too fast to track, smashing my forehead against the side of the van and everything goes dark.

Waking up was the worst idea I've ever had.

I'm lying on the floor of the van, and everything is black. It takes me a minute to understand that there's a bag over my head. This is the second time someone's slammed my face into something. Maybe I'll have a stroke that will kill me before they can. There's something red and pulsing trying to jackhammer its way out of my skull.

Think of something else.

I cursed for the first time in my life. Anka always laughed at me when I refused to swear, she told me that the phrase "fuck you!" was the most satisfying thing to shout at someone. She is absolutely correct.

"Fuck you." I shape the words in my mouth, liking how they feel. Thinking of all the things I'm going to call these fucking, shit-eating, cock-sucking bastards makes me smile, hidden in the bag over my head.

Chapter Thirty-Five

In which love means sacrifice.

Vadim…

After the meeting with the weapons dealers, Stepan and I hold back so I can show him the video Ivan sent me. He filmed the ground-shaking explosion at the little airfield beautifully. The detonation was massive, a mushroom cloud curling up into the sky. Ivan's camera panned gleefully over the blackened crater left in the earth and what's left of the two helicopters and the plane is nothing but a spray of shredded metal. Ivan and Yegor are laughing uncontrollably in the background.

"Too much Semtex, I think," Stepan says. "Though I appreciate their enthusiasm. Do you think it will send the right message to whoever was snooping around?" The video pans back to the crater. A section of the plane's wing is leaning drunkenly on the edge.

"It will," I say. "They traced the bank transfers. It was Dariy Agapov."

"You're kidding," he says incredulously. "Agapov is strictly small time! He really thought he could muscle in on our production?"

"I'm not sure," I say, "but he will regret it."

When my phone rings, my grip tightens until a crack appears on the screen.

Don't answer it. Nothing has gone wrong if you don't pick up.