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“Alive?” Maya blinked back another onslaught of tears, her thoughts racing.
“Father threw her into a nursing home and pumped her full of…” Elena shook her head, a haunted expression on her face. “It was terrible. I found her by accident. Well, Niko did first, then Roman put it together. But she’s out now. She’s safe. We brought her back to the Sokolov mansion as soon as we could. She’s doing so much better now.” Elena paused, shook her head, and then added almost apologetically, “I was going to call again soon. We thought—Ithought—it made sense to wait till she was stronger, more ready for you to visit.”
The words Elena spoke probably had meaning, but Maya couldn’t discern it. She was stuck on the main fact: her mother was alive.
“N-no…” Maya had struggled to speak at all. Stringing together a sentence felt like an impossibility.
“That’s when I knew that Father had been full of shit this whole time. He’d always told me to trust in family, and that everyone else was out to get me, but when I found out what he’d done, I came to my senses. A man who’d do that to his own wife—the mother of his children—didn’t deserve my respect or my loyalty.”
“And if I told you that your mother deserved what she got?” Their father lifted his head, glaring at them both. Maya remembered that look from her childhood. It was the same look she’d been given for stepping out of line.
Hatred.
Vile, bitter hatred.
There was no hope for her father. The darkness in his heart was too wild to control.
“I’d tell you that you were wrong.” Elena’s hands trembled. She stepped toward him and raised her open palm, but before she could slap him, Roman caught her wrist. “Let me go! He deserves to hurt! Did you see what he did to her?”
“I did,” Roman said. His other hand found its way to Elena’s waist, and he guided her back against him. “But you’re better than that. You’re above him.”
“We all are,” Maya said. She trembled from the news of her mother, but she held herself together. She wouldn’t allow her father to see her in a weakened state anymore. If she had her way, this would be the last time their paths crossed, and she wanted him to remember her strength. “It’s time for us to go. I think all of us have seen enough.”
“What do you want me to do?” Kostya asked. He came to stand beside her, and Maya took hold of his hand. “Say the word and I’ll end him here and now.”
“No.” Maya shook her head. No matter how evil her father was, she didn’t wish him dead. To do so would be to stoop to his level. “I’m going to call the police and let them deal with him. I know for a fact that they know who Anatoly Popov is, and if they’re tipped off that he’s here, they’ll lock him away for good. It’s the reason he’s stayed away from London—he’s wanted here, with good reason.”
“There are a lot of people, in different countries, eager to get their hands on the Svodnik,” Viktor said. “Including his good friends in the Tambov bratva in St. Petersburg. You do remember them, don’t you, Popov? We’ve had some interesting conversations since you killed Boris.”
“You think that you’ve won, but you haven’t,” her father hissed. He thrashed against his bindings, and Maya’s heart went out to him. As a child, she’d seen her father as a frighteningly powerful man. Now, old and bound to a chair in a warehouse, he was a husk of his former self. She didn’t fear him. With Kostya there to protect her, he would never hurt her again. “One day, you’ll understand the mistake you’ve made.”
“And I hope that, one day, you’ll understand yours, as well.” Maya took her phone from her pocket. She looked at the others in the room—Kostya, whose hand was still in her own; Elena and Roman, who’d fallen silent as Roman held Elena from behind; and Viktor, who glanced toward the door now, his gaze cautious. “Everyone?” she prodded them. “I’m going to make the call. We should all get moving. We don’t want to be here when the police arrive.”
“Did you drive?” Roman asked her. “We brought a van. There’s space for you if you want to join us.”
“I do.” Maya nodded at the doorway. “Go get a head start on getting settled. I’ll be out there in a minute.”
“Do you want me to go,zolotse?” Kostya asked. “I will move into the hall if you want me to.”
“We’ll go together,” Maya said. She glanced at her father one last time. There was nothing more for her here. “I hope you find it in your heart to realize what you’ve done wrong. I really do.”
He scowled. “You’re dead to me, Maya. You and your sister both. When I’m released, both of you will pay. The Sokolov family will be destroyed.”
Maya stopped in the doorway and looked back. She shook her head. “After what you did to our family, threats like that must come naturally to you. Goodbye, Father.”
With nothing more to say, Maya left the room. Kostya squeezed her hand as they walked. “You did good,” he told her.
She smiled, but didn’t look at him. Instead, she lifted the phone to her ear. She dialed 999.
Anatoly Popov’s reign of terror was over. She would never have to fear him again.
* * *
“Where are we going?” Maya asked. She sat with Kostya in the back of the van Roman had brought them to. They drove through the streets of London, distancing themselves from the building. Every time she heard a siren, she tensed. A life of crime wasnotthe right choice for her. She’d stick to humanitarian work.
“There’s a Sokolov safe house on the outskirts of town,” Roman said. He took to the traffic like it was nothing and seemed to be navigating the streets by memory alone. Elena sat at his side in the front seat, and they’d been at war with flipping the heat on and off since the van had started. Roman had to have the patience of a saint. “We’ll head there and lay low until we decide what to do next. Now that the Svodnik is being taken care of, our objectives have likely changed.”
Maya looked toward the others. She’d heard her father referred to as the Svodnik before but didn’t understand why. Before she could ask, the conversation continued.
