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Igor's mismanagement of the organization meant Russian intervention would come sooner rather than later, an eventuality that would be no better on the honor front. Other innocents would be hurt and killed, and so Roman held fast to his initial plan.
Dethrone his father. Ruin him.
Destroy him.
But first, rescue Ruby.
"You good?" Max asked.
Roman met his gaze across the shadowed interior of the van. "All good."
Concerned about Roman’s lack of objectivity, Max had expressed reservations about Roman’s presence on the rescue team, reservations Roman had attempted to assuage by assigning Max the job of finding Ruby once they were inside the grain terminal.
Roman would be on kill duty where he belonged.
It hadn't been an easy compromise — Roman wanted to see for himself that Ruby was okay — but it had eased Max’s mind about Roman’s presence on the mission. Plus, Roman didn't want Ruby to feel anything but relief when they got her out, and to say their relationship was complicated was an understatement.
He looked at the men inside the van who were waiting expectantly for his orders.
Max. Always.
Mat and Tima, both brigadiers who’d left the street behind when they’d gotten crews of their own but who’d insisted on coming.
And Pavel for good measure, because even though he was green, Roman saw potential in him.
If Roman was right about the number of his father’s men inside the grain terminal, it would be more than enough. Most of Igor’s crew was aging — like his business strategy — and Roman had chosen carefully when he’d selected men from his father’s ranks to join his side. He’d chosen only the most ambitious, only those with something to offer in the way of youth and strength or wisdom and strategy.
Vasily and Yuri were in their fifties, still capable but not as young as they once were. What they brought to the table was gravitas, the loyalty of their crews, and the wisdom that came from years of dealing with Igor Kalashnik.
Mat and Tima were Roman’s age, street-smart enough to handle themselves in a gun fight and young enough not to be liabilities if the rescue proved challenging.
“Will we have enough men?” Pavel asked nervously.
“We’ll have enough.” Roman wasn’t as sure as he sounded — he’d even considered calling in another favor from Lyon Antonov in Chicago — but the drone footage had given them as clear a picture as they could expect. “The footage shows four-man teams rotating on a ten-hour schedule, but be alert for surprises.”
They’d surveilled the old building via drone for the past twenty-four hours, but the terminal was huge. There were no guarantees they hadn’t missed something.
“And remember," Roman added, "the hostage is all that matters. Whatever else happens, we get her out alive.”
He avoided Ruby's name. Calling herthe hostagekept his blood cool enough that he stood a chance of thinking clearly.
He had every intention of killing his way through the grain terminal while Max looked for Ruby, but a clear head was still required if he didn't want to get shot in the process.
And he didn’t, because he also had every intention of seizing his father's empire, if only to watch the bastard topple from his throne.
"Any questions?" Roman looked from Mat to Pavel to Tima.
The men shook their heads. This wasn't their first rodeo, except for Pavel, who looked impressively calm under the circumstances.
"Like we talked about then," Roman said, reaching for the door. "Let's go.”
They exited onto a small street across the Gowanus, a canal that ran between Park Slope and Red Hook. The canal front was almost entirely industrial, a series of large steel buildings — many of them empty — standing sentry alongside the water, once a hub of commerce, now empty and silent except for a lone tugboat farther upstream.
“Let’s get to the boat,” Roman said, his breath fogging the frigid January air as they headed for the water.
They were downstream about a half mile from the grain terminal, and Roman made his way to the motorboat that Pavel had left tied to one of the pilings earlier that afternoon.
The men inside the grain terminal would likely be focused on the ground-floor entrance on the street-facing side of the building, which was why Roman and his team were approaching from the water and then planning to scale the terminal from there.
