His (Ties That Bind #2) - Natasha Knight Page 0,32

are you?” Gleb turns to me, eyes dark and hard.

I have a feeling we’re both about to get shot the fuck up, but before he gives the order, his eyes move to Maxim, and recognition sparks.

“Hold up,” he tells his men. “I know this one. Aren’t you supposed to be dead?”

“Something like that.” A smile curves Maxim’s lips. “But I’ve got a few more lives left in me yet.”

“Maxim,” Gleb says his name. “You worked for Vasily back in the day, right?”

“The one and only.” Maxim nods.

“What business do you two have here?” Gleb asks, his eyes darting to me. “And who the fuck are you?”

“I’m Vasily’s nephew,” I answer carefully, hoping that Vasily hasn’t spoken with him yet. “Lev.”

“We were hoping to have a private audience with you,” Maxim says. “Just a few minutes of your time.”

One of his soldiers steps forward, glaring in our direction. “Boss, I don’t know if that’s such a good—”

Gleb holds up his hand, silencing him immediately. “What’s this about?”

There are a lot of ways I could spin this, but all I can think about is what Alexei said, and I know he’s right.

“It’s about Ciara March.”

For a split second, the hardness in Gleb’s eyes vanishes, washing away beneath a tidal wave of pain as he repeats her name. “Ciara?”

I nod. Maxim shifts beside me. We wait in tense silence, uncertain how he’s going to react. Even after all these years, it’s obvious she still affects him. The mere mention of her name opened a raw wound, and for all I know, it could be something he wants to forget.

“Pat them down and take them inside.” Gleb gestures to his men. “Make it quick.”

He leaves us on the sidewalk while his men disarm us and take our phones while they’re at it too. Once they are satisfied that we aren’t wearing a wire, they lead us inside, through the club, and down to the basement.

Maxim glances at me in question, and I just shrug. Either we’re walking to our deaths right now, or this is where Gleb conducts his business.

When we get to the bottom of the stairs, Gleb is waiting at a bar that appears to be set up for his own private use. He gestures for us to sit down beside him, and then looks at his men.

“Put in some headphones. We’re going to have a conversation.”

The soldiers do as he requests. Standing like sentinels at the entrance to the stairs, they watch us carefully as Gleb pours three glasses of vodka.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve heard her name.” He slides a glass in my direction, following up with one for Maxim. “How did you know her?”

Maxim looks at me, and I nod at him to go ahead.

“Ciara used to come into the club,” he tells Gleb. “In Philly.”

Gleb stares at him like he’s reaching into his soul, and already, I can see the tension creeping in around his eyes. We need to tread carefully here, and I just hope Maxim chooses his words with caution.

“Once a week, she’d meet with Vasily. I never spoke with her at that time and didn’t know much about her. But I started to piece together what I suspected their business was after I saw her at a Vory gathering with you.”

“Go on,” Gleb orders.

“Then one day, out of the blue, Vasily tells me I need to take care of her. That she’s a problem. So that’s exactly what I went to do.”

Gleb’s fingers tighten around his glass, and I feel my own muscles responding in kind as Maxim rushes to get the rest out.

“But then I saw her, and I couldn’t do it. No fucking way. I didn’t like to run jobs on women, and excuse me for what I’m about to say, but I was tired of Vasily’s shit. Every other week, someone new was marked for death.”

“What happened to her?” Gleb growls.

“I spoke to her,” Maxim says. “Told her to get the fuck out of town. I explained to her that I wouldn’t be the only one Vasily would send. She understood that. And that’s when she gave me these.”

Maxim retrieves the photocopies of the notes he took last night, pulling them from his jacket and setting them onto the bar in front of Gleb. For a minute, Gleb just stares at them, thumbing through them before he closes his eyes, revealing an obvious shudder when he speaks.

“She betrayed me.”

“At first,” Maxim concedes. “That was her intention. But I think what