“You were robbing her house?”
“My men and I go through nice neighborhoods and watch for a while. We know which houses have the dogs, which houses have security systems, which houses have old white women with more money than they can spend in their lifetime. We’d been in your neighborhood for a few days before I realized that the girl’s place was empty. No one was coming or going.”
I step forward and he presses himself hard against the wall. When he’s sure I’m not going to throw another punch, he continues. “We were in the middle of the ransack when these scary motherfuckers walk in. I thought we were dead men. Turns out—they wanna join forces.”
More like they wanted a fall guy.
“Did you meet with Boris?”
“Nah. Didn’t even know his name until recently. I only ever spoke to him over the phone. Which was fine with me. Guy was scary enough as it was.”
“What was the deal?”
“Wait and watch,” he rasps. “If one of three people appeared from behind your walls, I was to catch them, bring them to the safehouse, and keep them there.”
My jaw clenches tight but I nod for him to continue. “Who were the three people?”
“The idiot and the two girls.”
I grab him by the throat so fast that he doesn’t see it coming. He splutters hard, flecks of blood spraying my face. I’m so tempted to take his life immediately.
But I can’t afford to let my emotions get the better of me. I loosen my grip just enough so that he can breathe, but not so much that he forgets who I am or what I’m capable of.
“If you ever refer to my brother like that again, I will cut your tongue out and feed it to you. Is that understood?”
I deliver the threat with the kind of unblinking coldness that promises I will see it through. Alan’s eyes go wide as he nods quickly. Only then do I release him. He hacks up a few throaty coughs before he finally subsides into silence.
“Tell me what happened next.”
He shrinks away from my voice. “Uh, well… things didn’t quite work out. We got the… the boy. But we didn’t manage to get the girl. I called Sobakin and he told me that we could use the boy as bait. To distract you.”
My hands clench into fists. “He wanted the girls all along.”
Alan nods. “I don’t know why, but they were his main target. We were left in charge of the boy, though. Sobakin said he’d take care of the rest.”
My gun is burning a hole in the waistband of my pants. Now that I’ve got everything I wanted out of this rodent, I’m itching to put a bullet in his brain. My hand twitches towards my gun but—
“Uri.” I turn to find Nikolai standing on the lowest step of the stairs. “Can I have a moment?”
I walk towards him, leaving Alan as a quivering puddle in the far corner. “What?”
“Did he give you what you wanted?” Nikolai murmurs.
“He cracked immediately. Which is no surprise. That piece of shit is not Bratva. He’s a low-rent, smash-and-grab moron whom Boris decided to exploit in order to get the job done. He was after Polina and Alyssa this entire time. Lev was just meant to be bait.”
Nikolai’s jaw tightens and his blue eyes flick past me to glance at Alan. “I know you want to kill him—”
“Insightful observation, brother.”
“—but he’s given you good information and he might cough up more. Does he know that the girls have been taken?”
“He claims to have been in charge of Lev only. If he’s telling the truth, then I don’t see how he could know about the girls. They were taken seconds after we attacked him and his men.”
Nikolai nods. “We’ll keep him down here. He could come in handy later.”
I consider that for a few seconds. The bloodlust is coursing through my body right now. For everything he’s put Lev through, for what he’s cost me, this mudak deserves to die. But Nikolai’s solemn scowl is reminding me that I have to play the long game here. I have to think five steps ahead of Sobakin, not just lash out blindly.
“Fine. I’ll let him live. For now.”
Nikolai sighs and mounts the stairs, disappearing overhead. I face Alan again. “Your honesty has earned you your life,” I tell him. “Remember that in the future.”
He raises his blood-smeared chin from his chest. “Y-you’re gonna leave me here?”
“My mercy doesn’t extend as far as giving you back your freedom,” I snarl. “You’re lucky you’re still drawing breath at all.”