Page 70 of Shattered Empire (Shattered World)

“Yes.” There was no hesitation in my reply.

“Okay.” Ivan took a deep, calming breath. “What do we do next? If we can’t reach Kenzi and she isn’t aware of what the target means…”

Dima beamed.

“We need to make sure Kirill goes down first.” The darkness in his eyes swirled like a hurricane, his pupils dilating at the prospect of shedding blood. Fucking psychopath, that one.

“And how are we going to convince my father that Kirill is the enemy?”

I chuckled darkly. “I’m going to rise from the dead.”

* * *

It was ridiculously easy to slip past Kirill’s defenses. The men guarding his compound were no more than Wal-Mart security guards when it came to alertness. Bone cracked beneath my hands as I separated the guard’s brain from his spinal cord, his body falling lifelessly at my feet.

There were only ten guards in total, with two active sweeping along the perimeter that Ivan had already taken care of. It was sloppy. Kirill believed himself to be untouchable, especially since he believed I was dead.

Satisfaction welled in my chest, knowing I had been the reason he had so many guards before. The moment he learned I was dead, he had loosened his security measures.

Big mistake.

Now I was a viper in his nest.

Silent. Deadly. Ready for the kill.

Andrei’s two guards stood outside of Kirill’s office, ready for action. Their eyes scanned the hallway, continuously on alert. These were the only men we would spare.

Raised voices drifted down the corridor. The two brothers were arguing.

Good.

Neither of them would hear us coming.

“Go,” I whispered into the comm line. Within moments, the men at the door slumped against the wall. Ketamine darts were highly effective in times like these.

Nighty night, fuckers.

“You expect me to believe this bullshit?” Andrei roared, his voice sharp like a crack of thunder. “You’re a disgrace,brother.” He spat the word, as if it was a foul taste in his mouth. “There are dozens of accusations here. With proof. You expect me to believe that none of this was you? That your filthy, greedy hands haven’t tainted our name with this shit?”

Kirill laughed cruelly.

“Tainted our name?” he asked in disbelief. “We are theBratva. Not some fancy fucking corporation. We spill blood. Our name is meant to spread fear. You have made us into nothing but docile little lambs. No one respects the Tkachenko name anymore. No one fears it like they should.”

“You can’t run an empire off of fear,” Andrei snarled. “Father did that, and look how it ended for him. Too many men switched sides. They weren’t truly loyal, just afraid.”

“Fear keeps them in line,” Kirill hissed. “I have tried telling you this.”

Andrei sighed. “We can’t rule like that.”

“If we did, maybe our enemies wouldn’t be making up lies to tear us apart.” Kirill softened his voice, but I could hear the calculated manipulation a mile away. “They see our weakness, and now they are exploiting it. We can’t allow them to do that.”

“Maybe you are right.” Andrei’s dejected tone moved something within me. This man had fought for so long to stay true to some kind of value among a world where values were a weakness exploited by the enemy.

Andrei was fighting against a tide of men who had only known how to rule through fear. Men who, with the guidance of Kirill, perpetuated that cycle behind theirPakhan’sback. It was pathetic. Tomas has shown me that loyalty isn’t earned through fear. It is earned through dedication to your community. To your people.

Knots wound in my stomach, bile chasing up my throat at the thought of Kirill running theBratvaempire in Russia. The Tkachenko family ran everything. Even Tomas paid loyalty to them after his freedom from his ownPakhan. If Kirill managed to gain that kind of power, he would tear everything Tomas built apart.

The war would be brutal and bloody.

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