Page 147 of For a Price

“This is where the pakhan stays when he is at this hotel,” he explains. “This is where he will be returning if you want your revenge. I will be downstairs with him.”

I watch him with narrowed eyes. “If you’re not on his side, then why would you be?”

A wrinkle deepens at the corner of his mouth. His smirk has returned. “Because I am going to prove to him that I was a threat too.”

He turns to walk out of the room, leaving me in stunned silence and a dozen questions on the tip of my tongue.

It’s not for another hour that the explosion of gunfire comes from the floor below. I’ve waited in the parlor from the moment the sovietnik walked out, using the time to mull over what I wanted to do and if I should wait around for the pakhan to show up.

What if Roman’s father was lying to me? What if this is a trap and he went downstairs to tell the pakhan I would be up here?

“Does it make a difference?” I whisper to myself, pacing back and forth. “He walks in. You shoot him. You end this.”

But what if the sovietnik was going to do it first? He’d sounded so vindictive when he walked out on the promise he would show the pakhan he was a threat too.

As shots ring out on the floor below, I wonder if the sovietnik started the fight or if it’s Roman and his men attacking the hotel.

It’s only a few more moments before I have my answer. Footsteps pound down the hall, headed straight for this room.

I stand tall with a hand hovering over my hip to draw either of my weapons. The Glock or the pocketknife I have tucked away.

The door flings open and in dashes the pakhan with two of his soldiers. He’s heaving deep breaths like he’s been running through the hotel. A thin trail of blood trickles from his ear; he’s been grazed by the bullets in the air.

It takes him and his men a second to realize I’m in the room with them. The pakhan orders his men to stand by the door and await Zver’s arrival.

Roman.

He’s on his way.

Of course he would be. He wouldn’t stop tonight until he got the pakhan himself. And even though that was my mission too, pride beats through me at the thought that Roman is so close.

But it also means that the sovietnik must’ve failed. If the pakhan is still alive, then whatever Roman’s father had planned didn’t succeed.

The pakhan wipes at his ear with the sleeve of his suit jacket and then stops when he spots me at the back of the room near the window.

He’s not bad on the eyes. He’s a man of average height and build with a touch of gray in his otherwise dark hair. He must be in his late forties or early fifties, his complexion an alabaster hue that’s even lighter than Roman’s. His sharp features seem to hold some level of tension no matter the situation, like he’s permanently on guard.

Now is no different as he smiles at me and then says, “Privet, Katerina. I had hoped you would be here tonight.”

I make a decision on the spot. I could draw my gun and point it at him. I could fire and hopefully land my shot.

…or I could take an even more unexpected chance.

Roman will be here any second. I can last a few seconds. I can use the inevitable to our advantage.

Something the pakhan won’t expect.

“Did you think I would break?” I ask him, my voice calm. “Did you think I was so weak that I wouldn’t?”

He chuckles. “Yes, you are so strong. Very strong. You were so impressive as you lay crying and trembling on that bed. It was quite… arousing.”

I stay strong against the heat warming up my skin. It’s a mix of anger and humiliation from how he made me feel that night.

The pakhan starts toward me. “What is the matter, Katerina?” he asks. “I thought you were so strong. Yet here you are, silent as a mouse. Perhaps that should have been your name. You are no feline.”

He’s only a few inches away when the door bangs open a second time and Roman rushes through. The pakhan immediately grabs hold of me; he’s doing exactly what JC did with Lucero.

I’m the shield. The currency he’s going to use to turn this situation in his favor.

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