“Because Vadim never gave a shit—it was always about him. In the end, that was all that ever mattered to him. He would do whatever it took as long as he was the one who came out on top. Konstantin may seem just as selfish when he makes choices that offend you, but the fact remains … Vadim would have never done this to begin with; he would have never looked for Viktoria or tried to save her. He didn’t the first time around, we had to go in for her. Vadim simply gave the okay, and we had to chase him for it.”
Pav sucked in a hard breath, and the air of the plane ached in his lungs. He knew he was being a bit of a shit, sure, but that was only because he felt he would be better if he was just looking for her. Not … going farther away from Viktoria.
“I know he’s not the same man as your father,” Pav eventually replied.
Kolya nodded. “Keep reminding yourself as you need it.”
“This trip is still a waste of time.”
He wasn’t budging on that.
“Look at it like this,” Kolya said, his tone turning uncharacteristically cheerful. That in itself was enough to make Pav give the man his attention. Kolya didn’t get cheery. He was perpetually pissed off and quick to be violent. Cheerful? Never. “At least for this flight, you were allowed to keep your knives. Konstantin made sure of that—wouldn’t want our Reaper having a meltdown over some pieces of metal, would we?”
Kolya wouldn’t be so quick to make fun if Pav decided to toss one of those knifes at him, just to see if he could stick it in his throat from five feet away. Then again, it didn’t seem like a good idea for him to get violent when he might need Kolya later on in this trip.
Pav weighed the pros and cons of tossing the knife that he was dangling between his fingertips at Kolya. The cons won out, eventually. Surprise, surprise; he never got to do the things he wanted anymore.
He let the comment slide.
Barely.
“Mmm, yes,” Pav said. “I do like my knives.”
It was the little things.
Kolya grinned coldly, all the cheeriness gone in a blink as his ice-blue gaze turned on Pav once more. A weaker man might have looked away from Kolya then, but Pav was far from weak, and he didn’t scare easily. “And if I’m lucky, maybe we’ll get to use them on Vadim.”
Pav didn’t reply.
What could he say?
• • •
“Ready?”
The comm buzzed in Pav’s ear. He instantly wanted to rip the fucking thing out and toss it to the ground. Listening to the mutterings of the other men in their ambush party as they surrounded the estate property where Vadim was hidden away from the rest of the world was enough to drive any man insane.
Pav was already crazy.
He didn’t need to add to it.
It was only the look Kolya shot him from the side—a silent order of, don’t you fucking dare or I will beat you into the ground right here and now; test me, you stupid fuck. Pav greatly disliked that he had spent so much time with Kolya that he was basically able to know what the man was saying to him without him saying anything at all.
“All right, let’s—”
“Go,” Pav snarled into his own comm.
Kolya nodded at him. “Yeah, let’s go.”
It seemed like even Kolya was done with waiting. Good. Pav couldn’t take this shit for one more second. They were either ready, or they were never going to be able to go in on this asshole. It wasn’t so much Vadim in the mansion at the middle of the estate property that they were worried about, but more like the loyalists he might have surrounded himself with.
None of them could trust the men Konstantin put here to watch Vadim. How many had been turned to Vadim’s side of things? How many were feeding the prick information, or helping him in some other way?
No.
They couldn’t assume anything.
Certainly not trust.
“Oh,” Pav said, tossing the statement to Kolya as they broke through the tree line, “and there’s dogs, yeah?”
“Fuck,” Kolya grunted.
“Watch for them. I liked them.”
“Right.”
Pav shrugged.
He had other things to do now.
Thankfully, they didn’t have to deal with the dogs. Or rather, if the dogs did come out, they attacked the others who came in from different directions. Kolya and Pav, on the other hand, came in from the back of the property with four extra men. They had no problems crossing the property, not even when they entered the house by kicking in the back door.
Pav knew that was strange …
To say the least.
Why wasn’t anyone fighting back? They were storming the fucking property, fifteen men coming in from every direction. One man for every man they knew should be in the house or on the property with Vadim, and yet, no one fought back. Not a single one of those men came out of the shadows to defend the property like they should have.
Yeah, strange.
Pav tried not to think on it for too long. He had other things that he needed to focus his attention on and be done with it.
Kolya entered the house first, but Pav was right behind him. The back hallway, darkened with dimmed lighting, also didn’t have anyone waiting to answer their attack. The men who came with them to storm the back of the house slipped in behind them, guns ready just in case.
It wasn’t until they neared the middle of the house that they finally found someone waiting for them. Or rather, three men. Pav recognized the older
