Page 165 of Lethal Abduction

“Would you prefer me to call you Jacob Cohen?” Leon’s face is barely inches from the other man’s. “The name we chose together when we planned our defection to Mossad? The name you had when I went back to Russia for my wife and son and you betrayed me to the KGB? You must like that name, after all. You had it put on your headstone in Israel after faking your death on that yacht. And you’ve called yourself by those initials ever since.”

Jacey,I think.

J.C.

Jacob Cohen.

“You didn’t want to be Yakov, did you?” Leon crashes thebutt of his pistol across Jacey’s face, adding to the blood Dimitry has already drawn. “Because then you would have still been Ekaterina’s adopted brother, and you never did accept that, did you, Yakov? Did you think that all it would take for her to love you was changing your fuckingname?”

A spasm of something crosses Jacey’s face. “We were never brother and sister. My parents adopted her—”

“She was yourfamily, you bastard.” Leon slams his gun across his face again.

“You stole her from me!” The darkness in Jacey’s face makes me shudder. “You went behind my back—”

“We were in love, you sick fuck.” Leon cuts him off brutally, grinding his knee into Jacey’s bleeding stump. “You know it’s the truth. She told you herself. You were our child’sgodfather,for Chrissake.”

He shakes his head furiously.

“None of this matters. Not anymore.” He jams the gun between Yakov’s eyes. “I know she went to see you. She sent me a letter, the last one I ever got from her, telling me she was going to the yacht to kill you.” He pulls back the hammer on the gun. “She told me where to find Dimitry, in case she didn’t make it back. By the time I finally got out of prison and came looking for her, you were supposedly dead. But there was no trace of Ekaterina—and my son was gone.” He presses his knee down harder. “Don’t waste my time,” he says harshly. “We will not stay here long enough to die with you. You took my son from me once. I won’t let you do it again. You can give me answers now, or I’ll take you with me and torture you until you do.”

Dimitry smashes his gun over the man’s head. “Talk,” he snarls.

The sound of gunfire is coming closer. Roman eyes the door uneasily. His eyes meet Juan’s across the room, and he tilts his head at the door.

Juan nods and murmurs something to Rodrigo, who nods, though he still looks dazed.

“Turbo,” Juan calls in a low voice. “You told me you want to lead the Banderos and take over our business in Australia?”

Turbo nods emphatically.

“Well,muchacho—now is the time to show us why we should trust you.”

Turbo’s smile widens. He claps my father on the shoulder, then heads for the exit with Juan and Rodrigo, throwing the latter a pistol as he nears them.

“Get ready to run,” Roman says in a low voice.

I nod, but my eyes are still glued to where Dimitry and his father loom over the man in the chair.

Dimitry hits him again, and Yakov spits blood to the floor. He eyes the two men sullenly.

“Ekaterina hid herself on the yacht.” He says it flatly, without emotion. “I didn’t know she was there. I didn’t,” he repeats, when Dimitry snarls low in his throat. “Or I never would have blown it up. By the time she came up on deck I was already in the lifeboat, fifty yards away. The charges were set. It was too late to go back,” he says, his voice dropping. He shakes his head slowly. “It was too late, Leon.”

For a moment there’s nothing but the horrible, ragged intake of Leon’s breath. When he speaks, his voice is broken as well.

“You’re telling me you watched her die.” His voice cracks on the word. “You saw it with your own eyes.”

“I saw it.” Yakov nods, his expression an odd mix of defiance and something that almost looks like pain. “I can still see her silhouetted on the deck when the flames came for her.”

“You bastard.” Leon’s voice shakes with fury and grief. “You absolute fucking bastard.”

Whatever genuine emotion I either saw or imagined in Yakov’s face darkens into spite.

“I could have killed you many times before today, Leon.” His voice is low and insidious. “I knew about your little shop in London, about the secret auctions you attended, trying to draw me out into the open. I even know about the secrets you trade to every intelligence agency from London to Moscow. Do you want to know why I let you live all this time?”

Leon stares down at him, every muscle in his body rigid.

“Because this was my revenge.” Yakov smiles silkily. “The years of pain I can see in your eyes. The endless nights of not knowing. The useless rage and frustration at the years you can never get back.” He puts his face so close to Leon’s they almost touch. “Now you know how it feels,” he whispers, “to lose the only family you ever had. And I didn’t just take Ekaterina and your son, Leon. I broke them. I broke them both. Over and over again.”

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