“Mercenaries,” she says simply.
My gaze snaps to hers. “Surely he wouldn’t be so desperate already.”
“Then you’re overestimating him,” she says. “You know Spartak. He doesn’t care about Bratva rules. He doesn’t care about honor or loyalty. It doesn’t matter to him where his men come from, so long as he has the numbers. So long as they fight for him.”
“He needs money for the kind of mercenaries it would take to go against a Bratva.”
“He’s got money,” she says. “He’s got access to all Semyon’s bank accounts. The old man is getting bled dry.”
“All of them?”
“All of them,” she confirms.
“Speaking of Semyon, where is he?”
“Out of commission. Most days he stays locked inside his room with no one but his nurse.”
“Just the nurse?” I ask.
“Just the nurse,” Ariel confirms. “Most days, I think she’s the only one who sees or speaks to him.”
I nod. “That’s just as well.”
“Leo, after both buildings went down…” She shakes her head. “Spartak lost his shit. No one saw it but me. He likes to give the illusion of calm, but I’ve never seen him more furious. It’s the reason he sent me into Willow’s room. He watched from cameras he had installed. He wanted me to hurt her.”
I clench my jaw. Ariel notices and hurries to explain.
“I couldn’t get away with not hurting her at all, but I hurt her as little as possible. The only reason I got away with it is because Belov never entered the room. If he had, he’d have known just how much I was pretending.”
“How much could you be pretending?” I grit out. “She looks at you like you’re the devil himself.”
“She’s lucky it was me,” she says softly. “When Spartak tortures his victims, it gets a lot worse. The only thing that spared her was her name.”
The thought of Spartak laying a single finger on Willow makes me want to tear this room apart. Just so I can wrap my hands around something. Burn off some of the rage I’ve been holding onto for far too long.
But I’m not about to lose it in front of Ariel. Especially since I know it’s not her fault.
It’s mine.
She’s been undercover for too long. She’s in way too deep. If I could save her, I would. But pulling her out now will change the course of my mission. And I can’t afford to change plans now. We’ve come too goddamn far.
“After she disappeared that night, his anger only multiplied. The sole reason he managed to retain control over the Bratva is because there was literally no one left to lead,” she says. “Semyon was locked away in his room, Anya had disappeared, and Willow… she wasn’t a player yet. Men left the Mikhailovs after that night.”
“How many?”
“Not many, only a dozen or so,” she says. “Enough that Spartak’s ego took a hit. He hunted down the men who ran. He murdered all of them.”
“Ariel—”
“And I helped,” she says, nearly choking over the words.
“Ariel…”
She looks back up at me. Her eyes are shining with tears she’s struggling to hold back.
“You can let it out. You don’t have to lie with me.”
She shakes her head slowly. “No. No, I can’t. If I let it out, I’ll never stop. And you still need me in there.”
“We’re close, Ariel,” I tell her, putting my hand on her shoulder. “We’re so fucking close. And after it’s done, you’ll be free.”
“Will I?” she asks, searching my face. “I’m not sure freedom exists anymore, Leo. Not for me. Not the way I once had it. These ghosts will haunt me forever. Pavel. Petyr. Logan. And if we succeed, Belov will haunt me, too.”
“I won’t let him,” I say fiercely.
She looks at me and a smile flits over her lips. She’s managed to stave off the tears. But just barely.
She reaches up and cups the side of my face. “You remind me a lot of him, you know.”
“Do I?” I ask. “I didn’t think I was anything like him.”
“When you started this, no. But now… I can see it.”
“Is that a good thing?”
She nods. “Pavel was the best man I knew. He restored my faith in people.”
I take a step back. As much as I’ve missed Ariel, being around her is hard, too. The weight of our shared loss is too much to bear sometimes. And being with her reminds me of it constantly.