Page 43 of Inheritance
“Tell me what you have,” Ivan said lazily, cutting him off.
Nikolai’s eyes dragged across the page. He swallowed. “A flash drive with all their logistical information. Dead drops,stash locations, safehouses, blackmail they hold over politicians, everything.”
“Where are you?” Ivan demanded.
“The old fishing docks across the harbor.”
Another pause. Then Ivan: “The ones at Red Hook?”
“Yes. East pier.”
A long beat.
“I’m sending someone,” Ivan said at last. His voice sharpened with threat. “Don’t move.”
The line went dead.
I took the phone from Nikolai’s shaking hand and leaned in close to his face.
“Get. up.”
Gabriel
Isat in the back of the boat next to Damien while he guided us through the choppy harbor water toward the abandoned dock. The wind dragging at the edges of my coat. Nikolai sat opposite me, pale as a ghost, his breath rasping through his nose as if he were fighting to contain the fury of being caught—and of knowing he was being used.
"Why did you betray us?" Damien asked with real hurt in his voice, but he masked it well. He didn’t look back, just kept his hands steady on the throttle.
Nikolai sneered but didn’t respond. Just when I thought he’d stay silent, he turned his head toward me, voice low and steady.
"February tenth. Nineteen ninety-two."
I frowned. "What?"
"That’s the day I came to America. My father opened a convenience store in Brighton Beach. No bank would lend to him, so he took a loan from your father."
His jaw clenched.
“The interest bled us dry. My parents sold everything. Our apartment, the furniture, my mother’s jewelry, just trying to keep up. Eventually, we were living in the store.”
He looked down at his feet.
"I was sixteen. Working night shifts at the shipping yard to help pay the loan, but it wasn't enough."
He paused, breath shallow.
"I wasn’t there the night it burned. When I got back in the morning... there was nothing left."
His eyes lifted, sharp with memory.
"My parents died. The fire marshal blamed faulty wiring."
Damien scoffed. "No one forced him to take a loan. Not our fault your family couldn’t pay what they owed."
Nikolai stared at his feet, voice barely audible over the sound of the water.
"I did what I had to do to survive. For a while, I wanted revenge. But I was powerless. Stranded. And the path I ended up on… it led me back to your father. Made revenge possible."
He looked up, gaze steady now.
