AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He had to have gone to the bathroom. Maya closed her eyes again, right on the brink of sleep. In a little while, she’d hear the toilet flush, or the shower turn on, or the sound of his bare feet as he came back to the bedroom. The bed would dip beneath his weight, and he’d draw her to his chest and stroke her hair.
Pchelka.
Zolotse.
Ya lyublyu tebya.
It felt like she was living in a fairytale, and her beastly prince was finally coming around and opening himself up to her. What a difference a few days could make. Maya had gone to work for New Beginnings so she could make a positive difference in the world, and now, she felt like she was doing the same with Kostya. Her Mad Dog wasn’t so mad anymore.
Or is he still every bit as feral as he was before?A treacherous voice whispered in her head.What about the address?
Maya opened her eyes and sat up suddenly. How could she have forgotten? Last night, she’d given Kostya the address she suspected her father was staying at, and now…
Now he was gone.
Maya checked the bedside table for the piece of paper she’d written the address on. It was gone. So were Kostya’s clothes. Bile rose in her throat, and she scrambled out of bed and grabbed her bathrobe on her way out of her bedroom. Kostya’s shoes were gone. There was no note in the bathroom, or in the kitchen. The more she looked, the more she realized that there was no trace that Kostya had ever been there at all.
He’d gone after her father. Was that all he’d been waiting for, all this time? Had he played her for information? She’d given him the note because she’d wanted to show him that she believed he could be trusted. Over the brief time they’d known each other, he’d demonstrated that trustworthiness again and again. The incident with Michael, the revelation of her identity, and his responses toward her during their argument had made her believe that he would respect her wishes.
Had she been deceived?
Maya sank back against the kitchen doorway and ran a hand nervously through her hair. After everything Kostya had done for her, and after everything he’d said, could she trust him not to kill her father like she’d asked? Maya had no way of knowing. He’d left without a word while she’d been asleep, and he’d taken the address with him. Logically, she had to believe that he was going to finish what he’d initially set out to do, but her gut told her that whatever was going on was more nuanced than that, and that she owed him the benefit of the doubt.
At the same time, how could she give him the benefit of the doubt when doing so meant the potential for bloodshed? If she did nothing, there was a chance that Kostya would kill her father, and as vile as that man was, Maya didn’t believe he deserved death. If she allowed him to die, then how was she any better than him? She’d vowed long ago not to go down the same dark path, and that meant that she needed to show mercy, no matter how hard mercy was to give.
Her father’s blood would be on her hands if he died, and Maya knew she would feel equally as responsible if anything happened to Kostya. She’d given him the address in an act of trust, and if he followed it, only to die at the hands of her father…
The small, simple world she’d maintained since coming to London was crumbling to pieces around her, releasing her into the world she’d left behind. All of the connections she’d once had were too distanced to depend upon, and all of them were loyal to her father. She needed to make sure Kostya lived, and if she told anyone loyal to the Popovs that he was on his way, they would take measures to make sure that he never made it to her father.
But Maya couldn’t sit back and do nothing.
She couldn’t sit by idly while Kostya put his life on the line, and when the life of her father hung in the balance. She’d devoted her life to helping others, not to sitting on her hands when there was work to be done.
No matter how uncomfortable it was, and no matter how much she didn’t want to, she knew that there were steps she could take to make sure that Kostya stayed safe. All she needed to do was get over her own hang-ups and accept that the past was the past, and that people changed. The past had changed her, after all.
There was no reason to believe that it wouldn’t have changed her younger sister.
CHAPTER18
Kostya
Kostya watched, and he waited. In matters like this, one wrong move could mean death. Kostya had flirted with it often enough to know that there was no glory in an early grave. As aggressive as his upbringing had made him, he also understood that there was a time and a place for violence. For now, he bided his time and observed.
He knew that Daniil and Niko had run background checks on the Popovs. They’d checked all the known addresses. Elena had been able to give them addresses of a few additional locations in the United States that had been hidden behind shell corporations and other obfuscations. The address for the London safe house wasn’t in any of the research—but now that he was here, he knew that he hadn’t been led astray. He’d passed by the automatic gates at the bottom of the driveway on foot and casually observed the concealed surveillance system, thanks to the glare of the lenses beneath the sun. He’d been careful to keep his face angled against the lenses to obscure his identity and walked far enough away that he believed anyone who was watching the footage wouldn’t be able to differentiate him from any other pedestrian.
Beyond the gates, at the main building, the place had been locked up tight. Kostya already knew the score—only those approved by the Svodnik went in, and that was fine, because it meant only those approved by the Svodnik came out, and he’d have his chance to see exactly who he was dealing with.
Along the sidewalk outside the compound were strips of green space where mature trees lined the walkway and provided shade to pedestrians. The street was one-way, which Kostya thought was a clever tactical move—it was far easier to supervise traffic that only flowed in one direction.
And, luckily for him, it was far easier to intercept one-directional traffic, as well.
When he’d come to the corner of the street, he’d stopped and assessed his surroundings, then scaled the tree nearest the corner while avoiding detection from any CCTV cameras. As far as he could tell, there were no cameras angled in the direction of his chosen perch. One of the tree’s sturdier limbs stretched out over the street right near the stop sign, but for now, Kostya positioned himself against the trunk in a place where he could access the overhanging limb easily.
He was ready. He would not let an opportunity pass him by.
Kostya would catch the Svodnik and end the blood feud between their families. He would exact vengeance for his father.
The question was, could he honor Maya’s wishes while doing it?
