Chapter 28 Nikolai
The bulletproof vest felt like a second skin under my black button-down.
I adjusted it one more time in the mirror, checking the fit, making sure it wouldn't be visible beneath my jacket.
Tonight was the night. Thursday. 8 PM.
The meeting with Pavel that I had been planning for weeks.
Marcus sent a text. In position. Car running. Snipers confirmed on rooftops. We're ready.
I typed back: Five minutes.
My reflection stared back at me from the bathroom mirror. I looked sharp, ready for this but I felt heavy inside, Like something was pressing down on my chest that had nothing to do with the vest.
Marlena was one floor below me.
She'd been quiet all day, claiming that headache, staying in her room. I'd checked the security feeds twice and found her sitting by the window, staring at nothing but probably planning something. But I didn't have time to worry about that now.
Tonight, I'd finally get the information I needed.
Everything else could wait.
I left through the private elevator, avoiding the main floor entirely.
The Mercedes was idling at the curb, Marcus behind the wheel, his expression sharp and focused.
I slid into the back seat.
"Status?" I asked.
"Clean. No tails. Anton's team has eyes on every entrance to The Met." He pulled away from the curb smoothly. "Pavel arrived twenty minutes ago. Two bodyguards with him, both armed."
"Expected."
"Snipers have clear shots if things go sideways."
"They won't."
Marcus glanced at me in the rearview mirror. "You sure about that?"
I wasn't but I said, "Drive."
The Met loomed ahead, grand and imposing against the night sky.
We weren't meeting in the main building. It was too public and there were too many cameras.
Instead, Pavel had chosen a private room in the administrative wing used for donor meetings and board conferences and accessible through a side entrance that most people didn't know existed.
Marcus parked three blocks away.
"I'm coming in with you," he said.
"No. Stay with the car. If this goes wrong, I need you mobile." I said.
"Nikolai –"He tried to argue but I cuf him off.
"That's an order."
His jaw tightened, but he nodded.
I checked my weapon – a Glock 19, fully loaded, tucked in the holster at my back. The recording device was in my jacket pocket, small enough to be invisible, powerful enough to capture everything.
"Fifteen minutes," I said. "If I'm not out by then, come get me."
"Copy that."
I stepped out into the cold night air.
The side entrance was unlocked, exactly as Pavel had promised. I moved through empty hallways, my footsteps echoing on marble floors.
The private room was at the end of a long corridor.
I paused outside and listened. I could hear low, tense voices inside, so I knew he was not alone.
I pushed open the door.
Pavel sat at a conference table, looking exactly like his surveillance photos. Balding. Late fifties. Hard eyes that had seen too much.
Two bodyguards flanked him, their jackets bulging with poorly concealed weapons.
"Mr. Volkov." Pavel's voice carried a Russian accent thicker than I'd expected. "Right on time."
"Pavel." I closed the door behind me, scanning the room for exits. There were two doors – the one I'd entered through, and another on the opposite wall. "Let's make this quick."
"Of course. You're a busy man." He gestured to the chair across from him. "Please. Sit."
I stayed standing.
Pavel smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes.
"Suspicious. I understand. These are dangerous times."
"You said you had information about Viktor Rousseau."
"I do." He pulled out a folder, setting it on the table between us. "But first, the money we discussed."
"Information first. Then payment." I said coldly.
"That's not how this works –"
"It is now." My hand moved to my jacket, ready to draw if needed. "Talk, or I walk."
The bodyguards shifted, hands moving toward their weapons.
Pavel raised a hand, stopping them.
"Very well." He opened the folder. "Viktor is alive. Living in Monaco under the name Laurent Moreau. He's had extensive plastic surgery. Moved there five years ago after leaving Dubai."
My pulse kicked up.
"Address?"
"Villa Soleil. On the coast. Very exclusive." He slid a paper across the table. "Here. Everything you need."
I picked it up, scanning the details. There was the ddress, security layout and known associates.
It looked a little too legitimate.
"There's an auction," Pavel continued. "Next month. Private sale of high-value art. Viktor will be there. He never misses them."
I pulled out my phone, activating the recording device in my pocket as I pretended to take photos of the documents.
"Why now?" I asked. "Why reach out after all these years?"
Pavel's smile widened. "Because you married his daughter. That got his attention. It made him... curious."
"Curious enough to send you?"
"Curious enough to want you dead." Pavel said.
The words hung in the air for a split second.
Then Pavel's hand moved fast, pulling a gun from beneath the table.
I dove sideways as the shot cracked through the room.
The bullet hit the wall where my head had been, plaster exploding.
My hand found my Glock, drawing and firing in one smooth motion.
The bodyguard on the left went down, my bullet catching him square in the chest. His weapon clattered to the floor.
The second bodyguard raised his gun, aiming at me.
The door burst open.
Marcus came through fast, weapon drawn, and fired twice.
Both shots hit the second bodyguard. He dropped like a stone, blood spreading across the marble floor.
Pavel scrambled toward the side door, his gun forgotten on the table.
"Viktor sends his regards!" he shouted, his voice high with panic.
He disappeared through the door before I could get a shot off.
"Go!" I yelled at Marcus. "After him!"
Marcus sprinted through the door, but I knew it was already too late.
Pavel would have an escape route planned. He would have car waiting and was probably already gone.
I stood in the middle of the room, breathing hard, my weapon still raised.
I looked at the wo bodies, blood pooling on expensive marble. The smell of gunpowder was thick in the air.
Of course it was a trap.
Viktor had sent Pavel to lure me here, to kill me in this private room where no one would hear the shots.
But Pavel had talked first. He'd given me the information before trying to pull the trigger.
Why?
Because Viktor wanted me to know where he was. He wanted me to come to Monaco.
This wasn't just a failed assassination.
It was an invitation.
Marcus came back through the door, shaking his head. "He's gone. He had a motorcycle waiting in the alley."
"Fuck." I holstered my weapon, my hands steady despite the adrenaline. "We need to move. Now."
"The bodies –"
"Leave them. Anton's team will handle cleanup."
I grabbed the folder Pavel had left behind, stuffing it in my jacket.
Villa Soleil. Monaco. Laurent Moreau.
Real information or another layer of the trap?
Not that it mattered. It was the only lead I had.
We moved through the corridors fast, Marcus ahead of me, checking corners.
My heart pounded against my ribs, adrenaline making everything sharp and clear.
The vest had saved my life. If I hadn't been wearing it, if I'd trusted Pavel even slightly more, I'd be dead.
And Marlena would be alone, married to a corpse, still trapped in a contract with no way out.
The thought twisted something in my chest.
We burst out the side entrance into cold night air.
The Mercedes was where we'd left it, engine running.
Marcus drove fast, weaving through traffic, taking random turns to shake any possible tails.
I sat in the back seat, blood on my clothes that wasn't mine, and pulled out the recording device.
Pavel's voice came through clear: "Viktor is alive. Living in Monaco under the name Laurent Moreau. Villa Soleil."
Then the gunshots and chaos. I had recorded all of it.
The information I'd been chasing for fifteen years.
"It was a trap," Marcus said, his eyes meeting mine in the rearview mirror.
"I know."
"But he talked first. Why would he give you real information if he was just going to kill you?" Marcus asked.
"Because Viktor wanted him to." I stared out the window, my mind racing. "This wasn't about killing me. It was about drawing me out. Making me come to him."
"Monaco."
"Monaco." I pulled out my phone, already making plans. "We need to move fast. Before Viktor realizes Pavel failed."
"When do we leave?"
"Tomorrow." The word came out certain, "I've waited fifteen years. I'm not waiting another day."
Marcus nodded, but his expression was troubled.
"What about Marlena?"
I was
quiet for a moment, staring out of the window, at the passing cars.
.
"She comes with us," I said finally.
"Nikolai. I don't think that's a good idea,"
"She's the bait. She has to come." My voice was flat"That's the whole point."