Chapter 30 Shadow

Chapter 30 Shadow
FIN
The perimeter walk is supposed to clear my head.
It never does though.
I can feel the gravel under my boots, the fence line stretching into the dark, and the faint orange glow of the burn pile still breathing in the distance. I keep my pace steady and slow enough to notice anything off, but fast enough to look like I’m doing my job.
The radio is clipped low and muted. There's no chatter tonight, Nikolai cleared most of the night shift after the executions, said he wanted only people he could trust.
He didn’t say my name when he gave the order but he didn’t have to, we've known each other since we were kids and there's no one he trusts more than me… but clearly he still has some reservations

I stop at the old service gate. It's rusted chain-link, padlock that hasn’t been touched in years, weeds clawing up the posts. I lean one shoulder against the fence post, pull out a cigarette, and light it with the Zippo I’ve carried since I was sixteen. The flame flares and dies, smoke curls up and disappears.
I take a long drag, hold it and let the burn settle in my lungs.
I’m not stupid, I know what Nikolai did in the yard was necessary. Traitors get bullets, always have. But something shifted when he looked at me in that room with the intruder. His look was cold, expectant, like I was just another piece of equipment he needed to function, it cut deeper than any round I’ve taken.
He just did whatever he pleased and ordered me to clean it up.
And I did.
Because that’s what I do. I’ve been doing it since we were kids, cleaning up after him, covering his blind spots, standing one step behind so he could stand one step ahead. His father’s favorite. The heir. The one who got the empire, the women, the respect. The one who got to be seen.
I exhale smoke through my nose and watch it drift. The Miami week flickers behind my eyes again.
Her laugh in that shitty bar. The way she leaned in when she kissed me like I was the only man worth her time. We both used fake names, and I'm sure a lot more than that was faked, but it was all real feelings. For one week, I wasn’t second, I was first.
Now she’s in his bed, and doesn't even remember my face. I grind the cigarette under my boot.
This is not about Mia though, it's about Nikolai and I and how he just keeps taking without thinking about how it may affect the people that care about him, and he claims to care about. It's about the fact that my best friend turned brother of over twenty years doesn't trust me enough.
Fuck I don't even know what it's about anymore!
I hear footsteps on gravel moving slow and deliberately, coming from the other side of the fence.I don’t draw my weapon, not yet.
A man steps into the faint glow of the security light. Tall, lean, wearing a black coat with collar up. His hands are visible with palms out. No weapon I can see.
“Fin,” he says.
His voice is calm, with an accent. Eastern European, maybe Russian-adjacent.
“We need to talk.”
I keep my hand near my hip.
“You know my name. I don’t know yours.”
“Call me Viktor.” He stops a meter from the chain-link. “I work for people who see what Nikolai doesn’t.”
I snort. “And what’s that?”
“You.”
He lets the word hang, but I don’t bite. He continues anyway.
“You’ve been carrying his weight since you were kids. Training harder. Bleeding more. Cleaning up every mess he leaves behind. And what do you get? Being treated as a side piece? Disposable?.”
My jaw tightens, but I don't say anything.
“You’re smart, Fin. Smarter than he gives you credit for. You see the angles he misses because he’s too busy being the king. You’ve run ops he never even knew about. You’ve kept his empire standing when he was too arrogant to notice the cracks. But he still treats you like the second son. The backup. The guy who’s good enough to die for him, but not good enough to sit at the table.”
I feel the words settle in my chest like lead.
“Have you been watching us?”
Viktor steps closer to the fence and his voice drops.
“He’s going to keep you in the dark. Keep making decisions alone. Keep you out of the rooms where the real power moves happen. Because deep down? He believes you’re not capable of handling them. Not without him. He sees you as less than him, always have, always will.”
My fingers flex near my gun. I could shoot him right now and end his manipulation, but it's hitting way too close to home.
“But you are more than he'll ever be,” Viktor says. “You’ve proven it a hundred times. You’d run this organization better. Men would follow you because they respect you, not because they’re terrified of the alternatives, You’d be the Don this family actually needs. Not the one who inherited it.”
I meet his eyes. “You think flattery’s gonna make me flip?”
“It’s not flattery.” His tone stays even. “It’s fact. And you know it. You’ve known it for years. You just never let yourself say it out loud.”
Silence stretches between us. I can't deny that I've thought about it, what it'd be like to have it all. All the power to make real power moves, do things my way. I think about every time I stood behind him and nodded while he got everything… everything that I wanted.
Viktor watches me.
“I’m not asking you to decide tonight,” he says. “I’m asking you to think. Really think. About what you want. About what you’ve earned. About what you’re still waiting for someone else to give you…”
I pull my gun out in one swift movement and put a bullet in his head. The sound ripples through the quiet night, and his body drops to the ground lifelessly.
I sigh.
The thing about good enemies is that they would never attack randomly, they're always strategic with attacks. The question now remains, is his spy still alive or has he already been executed?
This part is a blind spot, whoever was feeding him information must have known this place quite well.
I walk over to the body and search him, he has a handgun, I toss it next to his body and wait for Nikolai who is probably on his way here as we speak.
Like clockwork, he emerges with some guards behind him, clutching a gun.
It's like predicting my shadow.