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Despite the raging fire now destroying my home, I feel nothing but cold, empty bitterness. “No wonder she was so eager to see you first,” I mutter. “She’s a double agent.” I shove my hand through my hair. “She would have easily been able to keep track of my movements. Who I was meeting, where I was going, when.”
Natalya’s mouth drops open. “That day at the park. The drive by shooting…”
“Edvard knew where to send his men because she must have told him,” I finish her thought for her.
“Oh my God, and that’s how he knew to show up while you were out. She tipped him off that you’d left so he could confront me. She must have been keeping tabs on my lack of progress the entire time.”
I shake my head, barely able to sit up straight as wave after wave of confusion threatens to knock me flat. “But if she was working for Levitsky, why didn’t she kill me herself? Why go through the trouble of sending you?”
“Maybe that wasn’t her initial goal,” Natalya reasons as she tears the bottom third of her shirt up into scraps. She diligently uses it to bandage Boris’ wounds. “You’ve said before she was with your family for a long time. What if she was only there to collect intel? As a housekeeper, she would have had free reign of the whole house—including your office. She could have been feeding him information about the inner workings of the Antonov Bratva—”
Realization stabs me through the chest, twisting so sharply it leaves me winded. “And that’s how he’s been able to come after all our operations, always two steps ahead. He probably has spies working for him within the other families, too.”
I’m numb from head to toe. I can hardly believe it. All this time, Levitsky has been playing us for a fool. We thought we were dealing with some vengeful old man seeking out his family’s former glory. Little did we know that he was the mastermind pulling all the strings.
“But what the hell does he want with my son?” I hiss. “Why would Dahlia take him?”
As if on cue, Natalya’s phone begins to ring. It’s not her phone, but the one she lifted off one of Levitsky’s men. She hands it to me, fear in her eyes.
“Hello?” I answer, trying to keep my voice level.
“Ah, Mr. Antonov. How lovely to finally make your acquaintance.”
Rage. It consumes every fiber of my being.
“Where the fuck is my son?” I hiss. “I swear to God, if you hurt him—”
“Hurt him?” Levitsky cackles. “I’m not a cruel man, Mr. Antonov. I would never harm a child.”
I don’t believe him. Not for one second. But no matter how much I want to tear him to shreds, I recognize the power he now holds over me. One wrong move, one thing said out of turn, and he could harm my boy.
“What do you want?” I ask, gritting my teeth so hard my molars squeak.
“Ah, right down to business! I knew I was going to like you. Tell me, is Natalya there? I’d love to thank her for all the trouble she’s caused me lately. I’ve had my people watching her for quite a while now. I hope she doesn’t let it all go to her head.”
I glance at Natalya. The thought of Levitsky knowing exactly where she was this entire time… It makes me sick to my stomach. He could have easily taken her out and I would never have known.
“I saidwhat do you want?”
“The Antonovs have been in power for years now. I’m impressed with the progress you and your brother have made in such a short time. You’ve really managed to carve up Moscow and keep the biggest pieces for yourself, hm?”
I can already see where this is going, but I let him say it anyway. Just to give me an added reason to hate his guts.
“Forfeit your kingdom to me, Mr. Antonov. And in exchange, I will return your darling son unharmed.”
He’s asking the impossible of me, and the son of a bitch knows it. Even if it were my decision to make, my family would be losing everything we’ve worked for and giving up the one thing ensuring our collective safety. If our territory falls into Levitsky’s hands, we’ll have nowhere to hide. Mikhail and his family, my own… We’d be run out of Moscow—run out of Russia—in the blink of an eye.
If I weren’t so livid, I think it would be poetic. Just as when I was a child, I will become a fugitive on the run. Will we make it out like last time? Or will we be hunted down like dogs and torn apart? What if I get separated from my loved ones and shoved into some forsaken hole in the northern most parts of Siberia like my father? Forgotten and abandoned to the point of losing my mind, too. But what choice do I have? That monster has Simon in his clutches. I’m not going to stop until my son is safe.
I’m at an impasse. There is no right answer. Either way, I lose.
Levitsky has made sure of it.
“I’m a reasonable man, Mr. Antonov,” he says over the phone, his words dripping into my ear like hot wax. “I’m sure you’ll have to run things by your brother. I’ll give you twenty-four hours to make your decision.”
The line goes dead.
“Dimitri?” Natalya calls gently. “Dimitri, what’s going on?”
