I kneel down in front of Niko, take him by the shoulders, and look deep into his eyes. “I’m going to get Victoria, and both of us are going to come back. Do you understand me, Niko?”
He hesitates. I can see tears beading up in the corners of his eyes.
I squeeze tighter and say it one more time. “We’re coming back, Niko. I promise. You have my word.”
He looks like he doesn’t believe me still, even though he’s nodding slightly.
“Do you know why?” I ask him. The question confuses him. He shakes his head. I continue, “Because I’m a Morozov. Just like you. Just like your father. And when monsters come, what do Morozovs do?”
He looks up at me, curious, with something like a faint smile on his face. “We fight them,” he says in the tiniest voice I’ve ever heard.
“Yes, Niko. We fight them,” I say. “Because we are strong, and we are brave, and when we have that, then we can conquer anything.”
I kiss him on the top of the head, then rise to my feet. It’s time to go.
It takes all my strength to leave Nikolas behind, but I do. As I clamber into my car, I’m reminded of that night of Oleg’s wedding when Dmitry called. I didn’t get it then, but I do now. Dmitry didn’t care that it was a suicide mission. All he knew was that he had to save his woman. The rest of it didn’t matter.
That’s all I know as well.
I have to save Victoria.
26
Victoria
The most chilling thing about Mr. Rogers isn’t the threats of murder or the gun I know is underneath his jacket. It’s not the fact that he’s been plotting this for months, or that he killed Dmitry and Brianne like it was nothing.
What’s most terrifying about this man is how calm he’s been since he forced me into his car.
He isn’t at all like I might have imagined a psychopath to be. He doesn’t talk to himself or hit himself or anything else like I’ve seen on TV and in movies. He’s calculated and composed, holding the steering wheel with hands at ten and two, eyes straight ahead and shoulders relaxed. Every now and then he’ll glance at me and smile, satisfied with himself. Like we’re going out on a fucking picnic.
Rogers isn’t some cartoonish villain going to tie me to a set of train tracks while he cackles and twists his mustache. No, he’s a methodical murderer who is going to make this painful and long.
The one silver lining is that, because he’s not currently losing his shit, I can talk to him rationally. “You can still leave the city, you know? Nobody is looking for me yet. You could just drop me off and get out of here. I wouldn’t even tell them where you went.”
His gaze slides over to me, and he narrows his eyes. “After all I’ve done to punish this family, you really think I’d just walk away now?” He laughs quietly. “No, Victoria, this is the grand finale. This is where I bring down you and Matvei and the entire Morozov empire.”
I can see the glimmer of righteousness in his eyes, and I know that I’ll probably never get through to him. He’s too far gone, too deep in his own delusions to even consider me.
But I can’t help but try.
“Please, I understand that you’re upset, but you don’t have to do this. If you just talk to Matvei and tell him the truth, I’m sure he’d understand. You could get DNA testing and we’d all see that you really are Nikolas’s father.”
I don’t believe a word I’m saying. I know Matvei more than anyone else. The moment Rogers tries to bring that up is the moment Matvei puts a bullet in his head. He’s wanted the vigilante dead for months now, and when he finds out that the man behind it all is supposedly Nikolas’s biological father and also the one who killed his brother, he’ll lose it.
“I would stop talking if I were you,” he warns.
But I can’t stop talking. “If you hurt any more people, you’ll never see Nikolas again,” I plead. “That boy will grow up having no connection to you, because you’ll be spending the rest of your life behind bars.”
For the briefest moment, this seems to crack his armor. He glances at me again, then tightens his grip around the steering wheel. “I won’t get caught.”