Chaptee 192

Chaptee 192
Burak’s POV
I have stood in front of men with guns pointed at my head and felt nothing.
Tonight my hands are shaking.
The Vasilios estate is quieter than it should be after a war night. Smoke still lingers in the air. Burn marks stain marble that once shone. Guards move through the corridors with weapons drawn and eyes hollow from exhaustion. Every step I take deeper into the estate feels like walking into a judgment I may not survive.
I asked to see Nikolai Vasilios.
That alone could get me killed.
Two guards flank me as we walk. Neither hides their hatred. One of them spits on the floor when he thinks I am not looking. I let it happen. I deserve worse than spit.
My shoulder burns where the bullet tore through earlier. Blood has soaked through the bandage, but I refused further treatment. Pain is easier than words. Pain I understand.
Words are dangerous.
We stop outside a reinforced door. Voices murmur inside. Orders. Tactical updates. The sound of leadership being carried like a weapon.
The door opens.
Nikolai stands inside the command room, broad shoulders squared, dark eyes cold and sharp. He looks older tonight. Harder. Like something vital was cracked open and forced back into place with iron.
He sees me.
The room goes silent.
Ajax’s hand goes immediately to his gun. Ares stiffens. Demetri’s expression darkens in a way I recognize too well.
Hatred sharpened by loyalty.
Nikolai lifts one hand.
“Leave us,” he says.
No one argues. That surprises me.
The door closes behind them, sealing us in a room that smells like gun oil and smoke and blood.
He does not invite me to sit.
I would not accept if he did.
“I saved your children,” I say first. Straight to the point. No theatrics.
“I know,” Nikolai replies.
His voice is calm. Too calm. The kind of calm that comes from standing on the edge of something violent.
“That does not erase what you came here to do,” he continues.
“No,” I agree. “It doesn’t.”
Silence stretches.
I force myself to meet his eyes. I have looked through sniper scopes. I have watched men beg. I have ordered executions without blinking.
This is harder.
“I was wrong,” I say.
The words taste like glass.
“I built my life around a lie. I let that lie turn me into something I cannot take back.”
He studies me like a problem that might explode if solved incorrectly.
“My brother Murat is dead,” I continue. “So is the woman I loved. So is her unborn child. And for ten years I believed you were the reason.”
His jaw tightens but he does not interrupt.
“The Broker made me his weapon,” I say. “And I aimed myself at your family without ever questioning why the story fit so neatly.”
I exhale slowly.
“I know now who the real enemy is.”
“You knew before tonight,” Nikolai says quietly.
“Yes,” I admit. “And I still stayed.”
His eyes flash. “Why.”
Because I was afraid that if I stopped hating you, I would have to face what I had become.
“I needed proof,” I say instead. “And I needed to see your family with my own eyes.”
A muscle jumps in his jaw.
“I watched your children,” I continue. “Not to hurt them. To understand what kind of man could raise them.”
His hand curls slightly at his side.
“That was a mistake,” he says.
“I know.”
I take a step closer, ignoring the sharp pain in my shoulder.
“I am not asking for forgiveness,” I say. “I do not deserve it. I am asking to help end this.”
His eyes narrow. “Why should I believe you.”
“You shouldn’t,” I answer honestly. “Trust is earned. And I burned mine to ash.”
He says nothing.
“The Broker is not finished,” I continue. “Tonight was a message. Not the end. He wants all of us dead because together we threaten his control.”
“I am aware,” Nikolai replies.
“I know his patterns,” I say. “His routes. His fallback networks. His money trails. I know how he thinks because he used me the same way he uses everyone.”
I pause.
“And I will give you all of it.”
He studies my face again. Searching. Measuring.
“What do you want in return,” he asks.
Nothing.
That is the truth that finally breaks something open in my chest.
“I want Murat’s name cleared,” I say. “I want his death laid at the feet of the man who ordered it. And if that means I die doing it, so be it.”
He takes a step toward me now. The air shifts. He is dangerous up close. Not loud. Not explosive. Controlled. Deadly.
“You offer your life,” he says slowly.
“Yes.”
“And your loyalty.”
“Yes.”
“To a family you tried to destroy.”
“Yes.”
His eyes flick briefly toward the ceiling, toward where his children are hidden underground.
“I don’t trust you,” he says.
“I wouldn’t if I were you.”
Another long silence.
Finally he turns away, pacing once before stopping with his back to me.
“You will give Demetri everything you have,” he says. “Names. Locations. Accounts. Routes. No omissions.”
“I already have the files ready,” I reply. “Encrypted. They die with me if I disappear.”
He glances over his shoulder sharply.
“You planned for betrayal,” he observes.
“I planned for survival,” I correct. “Including yours.”
That earns a reaction. A flicker of something unreadable.
“If this is a trap,” he says quietly, “I will not hesitate.”
“I know,” I answer.
“And if you are lying,” he continues, “I will kill you myself.”
“I would expect nothing less.”
He turns fully to face me again.
“For now,” Nikolai says, “you stay alive.”
Relief is not what I feel.
Purpose is.
“You will operate under watch,” he adds. “One wrong move and this ends.”
I nod. “Understood.”
The door opens behind me. Ajax and Ares reenter, tension thick in their shoulders. They look at Nikolai for confirmation.
He gives a single nod.
Ajax does not like it. I can see that clearly. But he steps aside.
As I walk past him, he leans close and murmurs, “If you hurt them again, I won’t wait for orders.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to,” I reply.
I leave the room wounded, hated, and alive.
For the first time in ten years, I am no longer hunting the wrong enemy.
The Broker made a war.
I intend to finish it.