Page 169 of Silenced

“Turgenev was waiting for me,” I sign.

He nods. “We heard. The Krestniy Otets has men scouring the hospitals for Maxim. That’s why we’re this far out—they’ll be starting close to the center and moving outwards. He wants Maxim.”

“Well, he can’t have him.” Maxim might be a pain in the ass, but he’smypain in the ass—my family. Right now, he looks like shit. “How’s he doing?”

“Bad. It’s not ideal, him traveling, but if we stay here much longer, they’ll figure out our location.” He studies the men in the doorway. “Never expected this much help.”

“No, I didn’t either,” I admit. “Get him ready for travel. I have some business to deal with.”

Misha disappears, obviously seeking the doctors, while I turn to the waiting men. “My jet will hold fourteen more passengers,” I sign. “Whoever wants to come with me can fly out today.”

Mutters pass among the crowd.

“I’ll get more planes chartered too. You won’t suffer for helping me.”

Lev shakes his head. “We didn’t help out for this, Nikolai. And we’ll be okay. The K.O. won’t know for sure that we were involved.”

“Perhaps, but I didn’t save you from the streets and keep most of your butts alive until you were sixteen to have them offed now.

“It’s up to you. I won’t ask again. But if you want to come, you need to make the decision so that I can get things underway.”

I have no strategy in mind here. Stealing Bratva men from the Krestniy Otets is asking for trouble, but then, so was killing Turgenev and I didn’t think twice about that.

Whatever, our community is going to be unsettled in the upcoming months and I’d prefer to have men who’d save my brothers at my back than over here in Moskva.

Turning aside, I grab Lev by the arm and tug him into the room.

Once I’ve glanced at Maxim’s chart, taking note that he’s got burns from the blast as well as some bullet wounds to the chest along with some broken ribs, I sign, “You still have that friend at the airport?”

Lev’s brows lift. “Sure, Nikolai. What do you want me to do?”

“See if we can charter another private jet if needed.”

He snorts. “That won’t be enough. You’ll need a commercial airliner. The rats want to leave the sinking ship, Niko. Moskva’s been a mess for a while. I swear the Krestniy Otets is losing it.”

“Crazy?”

“Delusional.”

For a moment, I scratch my chin, but my mind is mostly focused on Maxim.

“You always did cut him too much slack.”

I scowl at Lev.

“What?” he mocks. “You do.”

The last time I saw Maxim in a hospital bed, he had more burns than these. More burns thanIdid.

I’d stolen a car after the orphanage fire and had driven us to Podolsk, forty minutes from what had once been our home. That was the first time I’d made a legal claim that both he and Misha were my kin after I’d bribed a doctor to tend to us all.

Scrubbing a hand over my head, I mutter, “My brother.”

Lev claps me on the shoulder. “I know, Nikolai. I know. I’ll see if we can charter a plane. If not today, sometime this week. It’s short notice,da?”

An hour later, Maxim is in an ambulance and we’re heading to the airfield.

There are three cars in front, three at the back. He’s sandwiched in the middle.

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