"we'll be able to start shipping weapons across

be better spent finding a woman for the night. Pr

mouth for his insolence. Oleg is looking at him sideways, as though

ignoring me. "Five minutes, it would take. A

right to be," I say calmly. "Be ha

always ge

put my hands on the edge of the table. "Are you

up his nose as though the vodka has infused him with courage. "Fyodor wo

," I sa

. "Yes, I believe I have had enough." He rises to his fee

Anatoly places his hand on my arm. "Erik," he says quietly. "You wil

at gap has been causing me sleepless nights of late. A w

signs of disloyalty. I am still very much the b

r," I

did not look up during the exchange, even when his name

ine. Make it clear that he will

inscrutable smile on his face. He inclines his head. "

r. "If that happens again," I murmu

ut give the drunken fool a chance

dier who thinks h

cking these past couple of weeks, nothing more significant than that. Tall, with legs that can wrap around a man and make him

here?" she whispers

falls onto the chair beside me. "Y

retty girl cannot interrupt me, who can? I am done anyway

thigh. "Seeing as it's just the two of us ... Y

. "If we leave, it

She knows I am not ready-will never be ready-to invite her into my personal s

od to forget, just

Alena breathes, t

me love her, eyes burning into me, tugging and sighing and moaning. But now she is glancing at the door

me

a giggle, though it sounds somehow off. I do not know Alena as well as she w

g is wro

rship in the Bratva, Damir and his stomach-churning desires to forge alliances with racist monsters, the remnan

s born f

she is playing a part. But of course she is. She has been playi

here a pit

urselves into the foreplay, but again there is something amis

rt having sex, she gives me a lit

s. "I've got this new toy I

neath me like a serpent. She makes toward her ba

Merely a man on edge, imagining monsters u

ings it open, everything I suspected p

myself for a fool. My pulse is pounding in my th

e other side

ough with the pistol,

s only raw survival, or death. Nothing mor

e here tonight, I w

nd Radovan's broad ba

quite the pair

ave any wits," he says

stop him from r

gun flash winks. He fires again and lav

r, throwing myse

that will end my life. I wrestle with him, my muscles straining so hard that veins bulge on my forearms. I knock

es a glass

tum

leaps fo

etween his eyes, killing this man

ng into the back of his head

Alena diving at

Radovan; maybe she needs the money from whoever is paying for t

t then Radovan twitches behind me, not quite dead. Men n

iring three more shots: one into