There’s a second of silence. “Sir… if I go in now, it’d be public.”
“Good. I want Sobakin to get the message loud and clear. Send me your location and wait for me. I’ll be there soon.”
I’m on my way out of the house, relieved to be fucking doing something for a change, when I notice Lev skulking in the hallway just in front of the basement stairs.
“Lev.” He flinches, wringing his hands together so tight that the knuckles go white. “Are you going down to see Alyssa?”
He starts rocking back and forth. “Video games,” he mumbles. “Video games.”
Sighing, I put my hand on his shoulder and he jerks away violently. “It’s okay. Just go down.”
“You won’t be mad?”
Would it matter? Would it change anything? My anger hasn’t stopped a goddamn thing in this house from happening up to this point, so I don’t see why it would start working now.
“No. Go ahead.”
He gives me a big, goofy grin and lopes down to the basement. I watch him go with a weight on my chest that feels suspiciously like jealousy. Then I force myself out of the house and head to the location Stepan has sent me.
My motivations for taking down Sobakin are as strong as they ever were. Revenge for my parents. Closure for me and my siblings. Safety for Alyssa.
But now, there’s a question in the back of my head that keeps distracting me from the task at hand. It cuts sideways, like a splinter that just won’t let me pull it free.
What happens when it’s over?
When I arrive at the location, Stepan is waiting for me outside. “He’s not one of Sobakin’s senior vors but he’s on the fringes of the inner circle.”
“He’s good enough for our purposes. His head on a spike will send the right message.”
Stepan looks excited as he follows me into the bar. I should be, too. This is the kind of thing that I’m used to. This is the kind of thing that I’m good at. I’m inching closer and closer towards my goal and soon, Sobakin will be dust underneath my boot. I can avenge my parents and protect my siblings in the same breath.
So why do I feel so dissatisfied? Why do I feel like, in gaining victory, I’d be losing something else?
The answer is obvious. Once Sobakin is gone and Alyssa is safe…
There won’t be anything to stop her from leaving.
55
ALYSSA
ALYSSA: I’m so sorry. Please don’t hate me.
LIAM: Of course I won’t hate you. Just please tell me what’s going on?
Lev took his headphones upstairs, so I’m back to text conversations with Elle. Which I honestly don’t mind. If we were talking, she might hear the turmoil in my voice and that would only make her panic.
ALYSSA: I’m fine. I swear. I’m safe.
LIAM: You say that a lot. Which is why I don’t believe you.
I sigh. It would be so easy to tell her exactly where I am. She’d get the cops involved and I’d be out of this basement in no time. Except for one thing—
If that happens, Uri and I would be done.
You’d think that’d be a good thing, right? But as it turns out, no part of me is actually onboard to believe that. Everything in me is screaming that it would be a catastrophic mistake. If there’s even a slim sliver of a chance for the two of us, I don’t want to destroy it by calling in reinforcements.
Which means I’m forced to wait this out. I’m forced to trust that Uri will let me go one day.
I wonder how long it’ll be until I regret this.
ALYSSA: Things are just a little… complicated, Elle.
LIAM: Does this have anything to do with the series of murders and freak accidents that have been happening all over the city?
ALYSSA: What do you mean?
LIAM: There was this warehouse in WeHo that burned down last week. The cops ID’d eleven bodies, all of whom were linked to this mafia guy named Sobakin. And then two days ago, this young guy who was murdered in a local bar in broad daylight.
ALYSSA: He was connected to Sobakin, too?
LIAM: That’s what the news is saying.
ALYSSA: Yeah, I think it’s all connected. Which is why I have to stay put for now. That also means I won’t be able to come to your wedding. I’m so sorry, Elle. You have no idea how much I hate myself right now.
LIAM: Hey now, don’t hate yourself. As far as excuses go, being targeted by a scary mafia dude is a pretty good one.
ALYSSA: You’re the best, you know that?
LIAM: You’re not completely off the hook. I expect you to make it up to me when you’re out of… wherever the hell you are right now.