Page 69 of For a Price

I stop short, my jaw clenching. It takes every ounce of self-control I have not to charge at him like a wild beast. Not to continue the attack from the night he had hurt my kitty cat.

“Zakroy dver?*,” says my father.

One of his guards follows his orders and shuts the door.

“What is this?” I ask. “Why is he here?”

“He is here because I asked him,” answers my father in his gravelly Russian accent. “He is here because he has very interesting information. Information it seems you have been keeping from me.”

* vstryakhnut -shakedown

* Ty moy yad -you are my poison

* Zakroy dver -close the door

CHAPTER 21

Roman

A heavy silencefollows the sovietnik’swords.

I refrain from giving any reaction, my face stoic like always. “You will have to be more specific. I am no mind reader.”

“More specific?” he repeats, then glances at Leonid whose beady eyes are lit up like tiny bulbs. “Skazhi yemu to, chto ty skazal mne?*.”

“On snova napadet na menya?*.”

“Skazhi yemu seychas ili ty razberesh’sya so mnoy!?*”

Leonid scowls. The glint goes out from his beady little slits. “It appears that your successor has been up to things you are unaware of.”

I grit my teeth, the first dent in my steely armor. “It appears that you are a fucking pussy who I will chop into pieces the next time your protector’s gone!”

“Roman!” hisses my father. “Silence!”

“He has not been honest, brat?*. He has been deceitful.” Uncle Leonid shirks back against the sofa cushions as I rear a couple steps forward, fists balled. He’s never resembled a bloated toad more, pudgy and bulbous with his squashed face gripped byfear. “Sovietnik,” he breathes, “he has been meeting the pakhan without your knowledge.”

I stop short, my head slanting to the side.

I admit I wasn’t expecting my piece of shit uncle to mention the meeting I had with the pakhan. I wasn’t aware he evenknewabout it.

But if he does, that poses the question: how?

How would Leonid have found out the pakhan recently paid me a visit?

I assumed he would bring up Katerina. He’d tell my father of her involvement in the kidnapping plot.

In the uncertain seconds that follow, I realize why he’s revealed what he has. Why he’s chosen to tell my father about the pakhan’svisit and not Katerina.

This is a warning.

Some move by him in a strategic game.

He wants to hold Katerina over my head but also make me aware he’s not above divulging info to the sovietnik. The pakhan’svisit is simply the warning shot being fired.

The two of us hold unblinking eye contact for a long moment that excludes my father. He’s on the outside, still hovering by the window with his gold-encased cane.

“Pakhan?” he says into the tense silence. “Explain yourself, Zver.”

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