Chapter 100 Death
Gavin’s POV
Smoke hung thick in Volkov’s office. He sat behind his desk, with another cigarette burning between his fingers. The room stank of tobacco and old leather.
I watched him through the haze of smoke. His hair was now silver. With lines carved deep into weathered skin. For his age his hands should shake but they didn’t.
“I knew you would come sooner,” he said, stubbing out the cigarette. His accent wrapped around each word. “Or later. But I knew.”
He lit another immediately. The gold lighter clicked shut.
“So tell me, why are you here, Gavin Cross?”
I said nothing.
“I heard what you did to Giovanni.” Volkov exhaled smoke toward the ceiling. “Very much your style. To quietly destroy everything in your path.”
His eyes shifted left. “And the infamous Kane Rivers. I thought you went under the radar. How long has it been since I saw you two together?”
“Seven years,” Kane said from the shadows.
Volkov laughed. “Time flies when you’re busy, yes? Building empires. Destroying others.”
He stubbed out the half-finished cigarette and lit another one. Chain smoking.
I leaned forward.His smile faltered.
“Tell your men to stop supplying weapons to Zeus. I’ll take over the Volkov business, but I’ll let you run it.”
For a moment everywhere went silent.Then he started laughing. His whole body shook with it. Ash fell onto his expensive suit.
“What an insult!” He gasped between laughs. “Have you forgotten who I am? I trained you, Gavin! I taught you how to move weapons when you were barely twenty. I showed you how to make money disappear, and how to make governments look the other way. I taught you how to fight.”
His laughter died.
“You think because you steal some ports from spoiled Italian boys that you can walk into my home and demand I bow?”
I reached into my jacket.
Volkov’s hand twitched toward his drawer. But he stopped when he saw what I pulled out.A manila folder.
I dropped it on the desk.
“What is this?”
“Open it.”
He hesitated. Then picked it up with hands that weren’t quite steady anymore.
I watched his face change as he read. All the colour drained from his face as his eyes were widening, bulging from the sockets.
The cigarette fell from his fingers.
“What is this?” His voice came out strangled.
“Twenty years of evidence. Every weapon deal. Every shipment. bribe. With full names, dates, and accounts.”
His hands shook now.
“Sales to embargoed nations. Terrorist organizations. Every group on every watch list.” I leaned back. “You’ve been careful, Dmitri. But not careful enough.”
His face went purple.
“This is blackmail.”
“This is business. Work for me, the evidence disappears. Refuse, and by tomorrow morning, every federal prosecutor, and intelligence agency, together with every news organization has a copy.”
“You wouldn’t…”
At that moment the door opened, cutting hom short on what he was about to say.A young girl walked in, she looked thirteen or maybe fifteen.
She wore scraps of fabric that barely qualified as clothing. Makeup caked on her young face…too much rouge, too much eyeshadow. Trying to make her look older and failing completely.
Her eyes went wide when she saw us.An older woman rushed in behind her, looking frantic and terrified. Like she might faint at any moment.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Volkov,” she stammered in Russian. “She got away from me.”
She grabbed the girl’s arm and dragged her toward the door.
But I’d already seen.
The fear in those eyes. The flinch when the woman touched her. The marks on her wrists…it was very faint but there. And I also noticed the bruises under the makeup.
Everything stopped.The temperature dropped so fast I could see Volkov’s breath.
Something shifted inside me. That place where I ended and the weapon Zeus forged began.
Kane moved. I heard his hand go to his gun.Volkov’s face went white.
“Gavin…that’s not…she’s not…”
I stood slowly.Volkov flinched like I’d hit him.
“How old is she?”
“I don’t know what you’re…”
“How old.”
I didn’t bother raising my voice. I didn’t have such energy at this moment. The rage filling me was deadly and I didn’t want him dead yet.
His mouth snapped shut.
I took a step toward the desk. “So this is what you do?”
His hand shot toward the drawer.
Kane’s gun pressed against the back of his skull before his fingers even touched it.
“Don’t,” Kane said.
Volkov froze.
I walked around the desk. Looked down at the man who’d trained me. Who’d taught me the weapons trade.
Who trafficked children.
My hand wrapped around his throat resting against his windpipe. I could feel his pulse hammering beneath my palm.
“You’re going to tell me where every single one of them is.”
“I can’t…they’ll kill me…”
“I’ll kill you.” My voice dropped to barely a whisper. “Right here. Right now. And I’ll make it hurt.”
His eyes went to Kane, desperate. I almost laughed at that. Kane was harder than I am when it came to issues like this.
Kane’s face was stone.
“The safe house,” Volkov choked out. “Brighton Beach. That’s where they keep them before… before distribution.”
“How many?”
“Ten. Fifteen. They rotate them.”
I tightened my grip slightly.
“Who runs it?”
“Alexei. Alexei Petrov.”
“Who else?”
“That’s all I know! I just provide the space,and the security…”
“The children.” My fingers pressed harder. “You provide the children, Dmitri.”
The air around me changed. To death. Tears streamed down his face.
“Please. I’ll do anything. I’ll stop. I’ll shut it all down…”
“You’ll do nothing.” I released his throat. “You’re done.”
He collapsed onto his desk, gasping.
“Kane. Call Marcus. FBI. Interpol. ICE. All of them.”
“On it.”
I looked at Volkov one last time.
“You trained me. You’re right about that.” I walked toward the door. “You taught me how to move weapons, how to hide money, how to build an empire in the shadows.”
I stopped in the doorway.
“But you taught me something else. You taught me exactly what kind of monster I never want to become.”
Volkov looked up with hollow eyes.
“The authorities will be here within the hour. You can run, but I’ve already frozen your accounts. You should be grateful my little bunny is waiting for me at home. And I don’t want to reek of blood .”
I walked out not wanting to see his slimy face one more time. Kane followed me out.
The hallway was empty.
“You good?” Kane asked as we took the stairs.
“No.”
I wasn’t.
But I would be. Because I was going home to Melissa. We walked out into the cold night.The aura of death followed me into the darkness.