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With my back pressed against the wall, I remain perfectly still.Dammit.It looks like Mother is in the middle of a strategy meeting with her most trusted lieutenants in her office. What are the chances I can get past them without anybody noticing?
“We outnumber the Antonovs three to one,” Mother continues. “And we have the element of surprise. We’ll go in and take the targets here and here. It’ll cut them off from their allies and leave the rest of their territory for us to take. Now, get a move on. All hands on deck. I don’t want any witnesses anddefinitelyno survivors.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
There’s movement out of the corner of my eye. A fleet of men are leaving. I shrink into myself, sticking to the shadows. Mercifully, nobody looks in my direction.
My ears are still ringing. She means to attack them tonight? I have to warn Pyotr and his brothers.
Only once the house has stilled and I’m sure I’m alone, I slip into the hall and carefully peek into Mother’s office space. There’s no one in sight. On the table in the middle of the room are an assortment of maps and dossiers. At first glance, it’s all very confusing. Curiosity gets the better of me. I step into the office to look.
Several locations have been circled in bright red markings. They’re targets, I realize, the ones Mother wants her men to hit. I count five different spots all over Moscow, but what concerns me most are the areas that have been completely crossed out. By the looks of it, Mother has been carving up the city for a while now. I shudder to think how many lives have already been lost.
Credit where credit is due, Mother is frightfully efficient. Nearly the entire map has been claimed in the name of the Salkovs. At this rate, she’ll have conquered all of Moscow by the end of the week—and I have no doubt she’s willing to get her hands bloody to see it through. There has to be something I can do to warn the Antonovs. If I can save even one life, it’ll be worth it.
I fish out the guard’s phone and take as many pictures of the maps as possible. The first number I punch in is Pyotr’s, but the guard I knocked out doesn’t have an international texting plan. I immediately get an error message telling me it failed to send. I doubt I’d be able to get through to him if I called, either.
“Oh, comeon,” I hiss under my breath. “You couldn’t spring for a better phone package?”
When I hear voices down the hall, I know it’s time to leave. Thinking on my feet, I decide to send the images to Pyotr in an email. Something tells me it’ll go straight to his spam folder, but I have to try. I don’t even have the chance to type in a message telling him I’m alright. I attach the pictures of Mother’s plans and send them off.
“Hey!” a man shouts. A guard stands in the doorway, a darkness in his eyes as he reaches for his weapon. “What do you think you’re doing in here, you little rat?”
Shit.
I pull the gun I swiped early and aim it directly at the man’s head. My finger’s on the trigger, but the last thing I want to do is pull. I’m no killer—buthedoesn’t know that.
“Let me go!” I scream. “Let me go, or I’ll blow your fucking head off!”
He raises his hands in surrender. “Easy, Ms. Salkov. Don’t do anything rash.”
“Step aside!”
“Alright, alright. Just take it easy.”
“What’s going on?” Mother’s shrill voice reaches my ear.
My feet carry me forward. In a flash, I have my arm locked around her neck, choking the air out of her as I jab the tip of my gun against her temple. Her guards have all arrived, their weapons drawn and aimed at us.
“Don’t shoot!” Mother screams. “Don’t shoot, you might hit me!”
I drag her back, keeping my eyes on her men. One step at a time, we begin to retreat down the hall toward the garage. I just need to get to a car in one piece.
“You know,” I growl against my mother’s ear. “I’m not even surprised you aren’t concerned they might hurtme, too. You really are such a shitty mother.”
“What are you going to do?” Violetta hisses at me. “If you’re going to shoot me, then shoot me.”
“Don’t try me!”
“You’re not going to do it.” She cackles. “You’re too much of a coward—”
I fire a single shot into the air, the bullet going straight through the ceiling. Plaster dust crumbles down, showering our hair and faces. “Like I said,don’t try me.”
Stumbling into the garage fills me with a spark of hope. I’m one step closer to getting out of here. Surviving on my own remains to be seen.
“You’re a traitor to your family,” Violetta seethes. “Do you really think you can get away with this? The Antonovs will kill you on the spot because of your last name alone. Your loyalty to them is pointless.”
“I’m not loyal to the Antonovs,” I snap. I’m a few inches away from the nearest car. “I don’t give a shit about the Bratvas or your pointless need for power. All I want is to get back to Pyotr.”
