Chapter 56 About Him
The fire had burned down to embers by the time Natalia finished speaking.
Anya sat in her father's chair, her hands wrapped around a mug of tea that had gone cold hours ago, her eyes fixed on the woman who had just told her that a new predator had entered the game. The words echoed in her head, settling into her chest like stones dropped into still water.
Dmitri Smirnov the General's son wants you and he's not here to negotiate.
She'd known, somewhere deep, that Smirnov wouldn't let her disappear. Men like him didn't build empires by letting things slip through their fingers. He'd been patient for twenty-three years but sending his son was something else like a message and a promise that he wasn't just watching anymore, he was coming.
Anya set down her mug, her fingers stiff, her hands not quite steady. "Tell me about him."
Natalia was standing by the mantel, her back to the fire, her face half in shadow. She'd been quiet since she hung up the phone, her silence heavier than any words. Now she looked at Anya, and for the first time, Anya saw something in her eyes that might have been fear.
"You don't want to know about him."
"Yes." Anya's voice was steadier than she felt. "I do, I need to know what I'm facing."
Natalia was quiet for a long moment.
"Dmitri Smirnov was born thirty-one years ago," Natalia said finally. "His mother was a woman no one remembers cause she died when he was young. Some says she killed herself while some says Smirnov had her killed but no one knows for sure. What they know is that Dmitri grew up in his father's shadow, learning his father's lessons and becoming his father's weapon."
She moved to the window, her back to Anya, her voice low. "He was brilliant which was exactly what everyone said. Brilliant cold and utterly without fear, he graduated top of his class at the military academy, served in conflicts no one talks about and rose through the ranks faster than anyone thought possible but he didn't want the army, he wanted what his father had which was power and Influence. The kind of control that comes from knowing things no one else knows and being willing to do things no one else will do."
Anya's throat was tight. "What kind of things?"
Natalia turned, her grey eyes dark. "The kind of things that make men like Nikolai look like amateurs, things that get whispered about in rooms where people don't ask questions and things that leave bodies in places where no one will find them."
She crossed to the table, pulling out a chair, sitting across from Anya like she was about to tell her something she'd rather keep buried.
"Your father knew him," she said quietly. "When Dmitri was young, before he became what he is now, Smirnov sent him to your father. He wanted him to learn and understand how men like Alexander Petrova thought, how they operated and how they could be used." She paused, her jaw tightening. "Your father saw what he was becoming, he tried to warn Smirnov, to tell him that his son was dangerous and the path he was on would destroy everything they'd built but Smirnov didn't listen."
Anya's hands clenched in her lap. "What happened?"
"Dmitri happened." Natalia's voice was flat. "He took what your father taught him and twisted it. He used your father's connections, methods and trust, to build his own network. A network that answered to no one but him, a network that did things even his father didn't know about." She leaned forward, her eyes locked on Anya's. "When your father realized what Dmitri had become, he tried to cut him loose. Told Smirnov he wouldn't work with him anymore, teach him or let him anywhere near his family. That was the last conversation they had before your father died."
Anya's breath caught. "You think Dmitri had something to do with his death."
"I know he did." Natalia's voice was hard, certain. "Your father was careful. He knew Nikolai was watching, knew Smirnov was waiting and that any mistake could cost him everything but he didn't know about Dmitri. He didn't know that the boy he'd tried to save had become something that couldn't be saved and when he finally knew and tried to walk away, Dmitri made sure he couldn't."
The words hung in the air, Anya stared at Natalia before saying.
"You said he's worse than his father." Anya's voice was barely a whisper. "What did you mean?"
Natalia was quiet for a long moment. When she spoke, her voice was a little bit soft.
"Smirnov kills for profit, he's a businessman, in his way. He weighs the cost, calculates the risk and decides if the reward is worth the price." She paused, her eyes distant. "His son is different, his son enjoys it. He likes the hunt, chase, the moment when someone realizes they're trapped and there's no way out. He likes watching people break and he's very, very good at making people break."
"He's looking for me?."
"He's looking for the Key, you're just the way to get it." Natalia reached across the table, her hand covering Anya's. "He doesn't know about this place yet cause your father made sure of that but he's patient and he has resources we don't. It's only takes a matter of time before someone talks, remembers or finds the trail your father left behind."
Anya pulled her hand away, standing abruptly, her chair scraping against the floor. She moved to the window, her back to Natalia, her forehead pressing against the cool glass.
The yard was dark, the trees black against the grey sky while the garden she'd been tending for the past week hidden in shadows. Somewhere out there, in the world she'd left behind, a man was looking for her. A man who had killed her father, who had been hunting her since before she was born and who was waiting for her to make a mistake so he could close his hands around her throat.
She should run, take the money Natalia had offered, make a new identity, start a new life cause this is a chance to disappear into a world where no one knew her name.
She should run. But she couldn't.
She turned, her back against the glass, her grey eyes blazing.
"I'm done hiding."
Natalia stood slowly, her hands flat on the table, her face unreadable. "What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to fight," she said quietly. "The way he would have wanted me to”.
Natalia walked up to her, stopping just out of reach, her grey eyes searching Anya's face. "Dmitri Smirnov is not Nikolai or Dima, he's not anyone you've faced before. If you go after him, if you let him find you, he won't stop, negotiate or let you walk away. He'll take what he wants, and then he'll destroy everything you love, just to prove he can."
Anya met her eyes, her chin lifted, her spine straight. "Then I won't let him find me.
Natalia was quiet for a long moment. Then, slowly, she smiled. It wasn't a happy smile but it was the smile of a woman who had been waiting for this moment for fifteen years.
"Your father would be proud of you."
Anya shook her head. "He'd be terrified cause he'd spent his whole life trying to keep me out of this wanting me to have a choice."
"He wanted you to have a life." Natalia moved back to the table, her voice softer. "He knew you'd fight and you'd find your way here, eventually. He just hoped you'd have more time."
She pulled out a chair, sitting heavily, her hands folded in front of her. "The Key your father built isn't just evidence but a weapon. A weapon that can destroy everyone who had a hand in his death but it's not enough especially against Dmitri. He's been preparing for this since he was a boy, he knows what your father built, knows how to find it and knows how to use it. If you want to beat him, you have to be smarter, faster and you have to be willing to do things your father wasn't."
Anya moved back to the table, sitting across from her, her hands steady on the wood. "What kind of things?"
Natalia's eyes were dark, unreadable. "The kind of things that change people, leave marks and things your father couldn't bring himself to do, even when he knew it would cost him everything."
She reached into her pocket, pulling out a small, old and worn-out key, the metal dark with age. She set it on the table between them.
"Your father left you more than this house, he left you a way to find the truth not just what he found, but what he couldn't bring himself to use." She pushed the key toward Anya. "There's a box in the basement, buried under the floor. He put it there the night before he died telling me to give it to you when you were ready and strong enough to use it."
Anya stared at the key. It was small, ordinary and the kind of key that could open any number of doors. But she knew, looking at it, that this key opened something that would change everything.
"What's in the box?"
Natalia stood, moving toward the door, her footsteps soft on the old wood.
"Everything your father couldn't bring himself to destroy, about who Dmitri Smirnov has been hunting for since before you were born and everything that will end this, once and for all." She paused at the threshold, looking back. "But once you open it, you can't close it again, whatever you know, can't be unknowed. Once you start down this path, there's no going back."
She left, the door closing it softly behind her, leaving Anya alone with the key, fire and the weight of everything she was about to become.
Anya picked up the key. It was warm in her hand,warm like her father's.
She closed her fingers around it, feeling the metal bite into her palm.