I have no intention of killing her, he admitted.
“And Leeza?” Krystoff demanded. “You can let her go too. She wants nothing to do with all this bullshit. She just wants to raise her son, be a good mother.”
They both knew Jozef wouldn’t be able to leave Leeza alive. She and her husband were a direct threat to his takeover. A takeover forced by his uncle. Had his uncle tried to negotiate rather than move against Jozef, he wouldn’t have to target Krystoff’s eldest child. Now he had no choice. Vory law would insist he take out any potential threats on his bloody path to the throne.
The truth was, Jozef didn’t want the Koba seat of power. He never had, and Krystoff knew it.
Fucked up circumstances had forced both of their hands and a part of Jozef wanted to lay down weapons and call a truce. Tell his uncle that no one else had to die.
He knew Krystoff wouldn’t go for it. He might be a fair man when it came to most things, but he was still a mafia man through and through. There was no give. He was old-school. He would protect his family no matter the consequences; he would protect his wife, even though her machinations had brought him to this point.
Instead of answering Krystoff’s question, Jozef signed, what happens now?
“I have to put you down, boy,” Krystoff said heavily, his tears starting once again as he lifted his gun hand. He didn’t point it at Jozef but held it loosely between his legs as though trying to find the will to kill his nephew.
Jozef nodded.
Do what you have to do, he looked over at his uncle.
“You’re not going to try to stop me?” Krystoff asked, his voice skeptical.
He knew better.
Jozef had never taken the prospect of death laying down. He was ready for every possibility, including being attacked in his own living room. But he needed Krystoff to make the first move so he could act.
Krystoff didn’t disappoint. He lifted his gun, saying, “I’m sorry it’s come to this.”
Me too. Except Jozef thought it instead of signing it, because he was busy grabbing one of the grenades strapped to the underside of the couch.
As Krystoff started to squeeze the trigger, his gun aimed at Jozef’s head, Jozef lifted the grenade, yanked the pin and tossed it at his uncle. He dove to the side of the couch, using Krystoff’s momentary confusion to drag himself to safety.
Krystoff reacted quickly, diving over the back of the couch as the grenade hit the floor where his feet had been seconds earlier. A second later the grenade exploded, shattering what was left of the coffee table and sending shrapnel into the couch, destroying it.
Jozef hunched his entire body into the couch, which had been reinforced with Kevlar panels. He’d done the same with the bed. Havel had laughed and called him paranoid when he’d ordered the furniture from his prison cell. Jozef wasn’t laughing.
He peeked around the side of the couch in time to see Krystoff scramble across the floor, his semi-automatic clutched in his hand. As he swung his gaze back around, he caught sight of Fitzy cowering under the table, his eyes huge and shining with fear. Jozef regretted not moving the cat into the safe room. If it was killed, Shaun would be devastated. He didn’t have time to deal with the cat now though.
Jozef reached back under the couch and grabbed his Makarov handgun and yanked it from the straps. He crawled out from behind the couch and took aim at his uncle.
Krystoff must’ve sensed his imminent death because he rolled onto his back and started spraying the apartment with bullets.
Jozef was forced to duck back behind the couch as he listened to his uncle chew up his apartment. Bullets hit the windows, but they didn’t shatter. Bulletproof.
By the time Krystoff stopped shooting, Jozef had pulled an RPG from beneath the destroyed couch and loaded it. Once again he was glad he went with overkill while weaponizing his apartment. There was a panel in the wall behind the TV that held an assortment of weapons, including an Uzi.
Under the stove tray was another cache. Another in Jozef’s closet in a hidden panel and more strapped to the underside of his bed.
He’d been preparing for this exact situation, knowing one day that someone would come after him, trying either to keep him from taking his position as a Vory or to take him out and take his place. Revenge was another possible motive for Jozef outfitting himself, but he rarely left people alive who might want revenge.
Family was different though.
He’d been naive to believe he could leave Krystoff’s employ, leave his position as enforcer, and not face any consequences.
Now they were in a standoff, and Jozef had the upper hand. He knew where every weapon in the apartment was hidden. He was outfitted to take out an army, instead of a tired old mobster who’d given Jozef the upper hand by not pulling the trigger as soon as he walked into the apartment.
This had been a suicide mission and they both knew it. Krystoff was going to let Jozef kill him. That was why he’d breached the apartment with no backup and why he hadn’t put a bullet in Jozef’s head when he walked in the door.
Pain gripped Jozef as he realized what his uncle was doing.
It didn’t change what Jozef had to do. Krystoff was still dangerous. If Jozef didn’t use every skill he had to take his uncle out, then Krystoff would kill him and find a way to kill Shaun. He might be on a suicide mission, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t try to take Jozef
