Page 119 of Ruthless Lullaby

You should have kept your mouth shut, girl!

There will be consequences to this!

I gulp, trying to swallow the growing lump in my throat. Is he angry? Is he about to lash out and hurt me?

After a long silence that seems to stretch on for an eternity, Maron puffs his cheeks and pushes himself up into a fully seated position. “Fine,” he says. “Let’s lay all our cards on the table. Ask me anything,lisichka."

I exhale a breath I didn’t know I was holding. My heart rate gradually returns to normal and I realize I’ve been clenching my fists. I know I’m treading a dangerous ground “interrogating” a mob boss like Maron Korolev, but my need for answers outweighs my fear right now.

“Honest answers only. Deal?" I ask.

A sly grin spreads across his lips. "Deal. Go ahead."

My eyes lock onto his and my heart pounds with a mix of fear and apprehension. “Who was that man in the room?” I get straight to the point. “And why did he have to die?”

Maron's response is slow and calculated, but his demeanor betrays nothing. “That was Oleg Robarov. The captain of one of my cargo ships.” He pauses, his gaze hardening. "He hit an iceberg and sank the ship, along with several of his crew and millions of dollars’ worth of cargo. He was transporting Tramoxine samples and a valuable kidney.”

A sense of foreboding washes over me. "A kidney." I repeat. I suddenly remember Betty's silly gossip about Maron.How he procured a kidney for one of his staff at Global Media. It doesn’t seem so silly anymore. "Why was a kidney on board?"

He furrows his brow, taking a sip from his cup. "Tea’s gone cold," he says.

"Don’t change the subject, Maron," I insist.

He rubs his eyes, heaving a long sigh. “Do you really want to hear this story? It's long, complicated and boring."

"I’ll try not to fall asleep," I say, giving him a side-eye.

“Fine.” Maron's smirks and shifts his body into a more comfortable position. "It all started back in the nineties. Leonid Shirkov and my father were business partners until they weren’t. One day, an important shipment went missing. Shirkov blamed my father, and my father denied it. Nobody knows what happened exactly, but the whole thing turned into bloodshed and several people died on both sides.”

“Oh my, God,” I blurt and my eyes fly wide in shock. This is the kind of stuff you see in mafia movies, with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. Except this is real life.

“The two men never sorted out their differences,” Maron continues. “And so, when my father died, I was left to pick up the pieces of his legacy."

I shake my head in disbelief. So, there was definitely truth in Betty’s gossips after all. All the secrecy, the aura of danger that surrounds Maron, it’s all starting to make sense now. Hell, he even told me that he’s the head of the Bratva, but I guess I didn’t fully realize what that means until now.

"You still with me,lisichka?" Maron chuckles with a hint of amusement in his voice as he observes my shock.

Urging him to continue I nod, but a tiny voice in me is telling me that I might regret this later. Except there’s no going back now.

“One day,” Maron says, “old Shirkov appeared in my office, telling me that his daughter, Jennifer, needed a kidney transplant. He made me an offer. I get his daughter a healthy kidney, he buries the hatchet with my family. I agreed. Except things didn’t go according to plan. Oleg sank the ship along with the kidney, and Shirkov got pissed."

I’m speechless. This is all so foreign to my own world that I don’t even know what to say. "Did anyone die on that ship?" is all I manage, but it sounds ridiculous after everything I just heard.

"Over a dozen," Maron grunts. "And that’s on Oleg. That’s why he had to die. He was too busy getting drunk and banging a chick that worked on board instead of doing his goddamn job."

"I… I don’t know what to say," I mutter, horrified.

“It’s the truth, Mindy.” He looks at me with concern, then falls silent, allowing me time to absorb what he’s just shared. A heavy silence stretches between us, like a dark chasm - deep and desolate.

“So,” I begin, my voice shattering the silence. “Did you find a new kidney?"

"Yes. Maurice took care of it. The new kidney was delivered and Shirkov is happy."

I let out a sigh. "Oh. So, the danger’s over?”

"Yes. Besides, I have bigger plans," Maron says, keeping his tone flat. "Remember Tramoxine? The medicine I told you about?"

“I do. You needed my help with the launch. Until I bailed on you.”

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