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“You’ve finally come for me,” he says in Russian, voice hoarse and rough. “Go on, then. Get it over with.”
I look around. There are no signs of other occupants. It’s just him.
“Youwantme to kill you?” I reply in my mother tongue, mildly confused.
“Would you rather I fight?” Nicolai lets his head tilt back so he can stare blankly at the ceiling. “I know no matter where I go, Konstantin Antonov will have me put down like an animal. I am tired of running. Tired of hiding. If you are going to kill me, I wish to face my death like a man. This life… It has already taken the people dearest to me. I only stay out of obligation, but you would know all about that, hm?”
Sensing no immediate threat, I decide to take the seat across from him at the table. I set my gun down, a sign of a temporary truce.
“What are you waiting for?” Nicolai asks. “Are you trying to torment me?”
I remain perfectly still. “No. I only wish to talk.”
“That’s a first. I’ve only ever known you Antonov fuckers to shoot first and ask questions later.”
“I’m a different kind of Antonov.”
“Oh?” Nicolai squints at me. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before. Are you a new recruit?”
“No, an old one.”
“You make no sense.”
“Believe me, I don’t understand any of it, either.” I strum my fingers against the table. “I’ll admit I was expecting far more resistance.”
“What’s the point?” he asks, defeated. “Either way I lose. Konstantin already wants my head for moving in on his territory. If I kill you, he will declare war. If you kill me, the Stokayevskis will also declare war. Either way, I will end up dead in the crossfire.”
“You think it’s a war he wants?” I ask. “My uncle.”
Nicolai’s eyebrows shoot up. “I was unaware Konstantin had living nephews. Rumors suggested he killed you all off.”
“I suppose in a way, he did.”
“Families,” he scoffs. “Can’t live with them, can’t live without them. It gets tiring, no? Being someone else’s puppet.”
“I know all too well what you’re talking about. That’s why I want to propose a deal.”
He eyes me suspiciously. “What kind of deal?”
“You and I… We are better than the old guard. People like your father, my uncle… They have been in power for far too long. All they crave is bloodshed. Think of all the things we could achieve if we actually workedwithone another.”
Nicolai sits forward, resting his elbows against the table. “I’m listening.”
“I don’t want to kill you,” I continue. “But Konstantin is holding some very important people to me hostage. He ordered me to take you out, and he wants proof.”
Nicolai sighs. “Let me guess. He wants a picture?”
“Video.”
“Harder to fake.”
“That’s what I said, but I have someone who can help.”
He stares me down, squinting suspiciously. “You are not Bratva. Not really. No soldier would dare go against the orders from on high.”
“I’m a new kind of soldier, one with my own interests at heart. I can tell just by this conversation that we have a lot more in common than you think.” I lean forward against the table, too. “I harbor no ill will against you or the Stokayevski Bratva. I don’t want a war, but clearly Konstantin does, and he’s using me to start it. That makes him a mutual enemy.”
“And the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” Nicolai says, as if reading my thoughts. “What do I call you,friend?”
