Page 92 of Shadows of the Past
Everyone in Ivan’s circle knows me as his secret weapon. The shadow assassin, the one he sent after anybody who ever got in his way.
“Mr. Rastovski.” He nods, a little too low, and I half expect a bow, but I just gesture for him to follow me inside.
In the office, we sit and Carrol pulls out a stack of paperwork from his briefcase.
“As you’re aware, you’re the sole heir to all his properties, accounts, and…other activities.” He drops his gaze, unable to hold my eyes.
Because he knows what Ivan did. He never stopped him. Never reported him. Just sat and watched like a leashed dog while thousands of lives were crushed.
“Aleksandr?” I ask.
“A bank account worth one hundred thousand dollars.”
I know my cousin’s got plenty stashed away somewhere, but I can’t help but feel a wicked satisfaction that all Ivan left him was the dirt under his shoes.
No matter how hard Aleksandr tried, in Ivan’s eyes he was always too soft. He always picked on people weaker than him, and even if he liked the power, Ivan always saw him as replaceable.
Maybe that’s why Ivan never made him an heir. He liked my violence, my efficiency. I was never asked to participate in histaste for children, but he used me to eliminate his enemies, clean up his messes.
Maybe, after all the torture, he thought I’d be drawn to blood, not innocence.
For over an hour, I sign documents, familiarizing myself with the accounts, the companies, and the connections, an endless web. This man built an entire trafficking empire, blackmailing the powerful to look away.
I stare at a list of names, sums of money beside each. The next targets for Smert are right here, in print. The numbers choke me. Billions made off misery. Hundreds of people involved across more than twenty countries.
“Max, it’s time,” Akim calls from the door.
Two hours gone, just like that. Now for the final step.
?
The drive to the factory is silent, twenty miles of black road cutting through white snow. Somewhere along the way, I find my voice.
“Will they be there?” I ask.
Akim just nods. When I laid out this plan, I knew I couldn’t be there when Ivan took his last breath. It nearly made me back out because there’s a lot I don’t deserve in this world—not after everything I’ve done, but I deserved to see the terror in his eyes before the end.
Snow crunches under my boots and I take a single, grounding breath before Akim and I push open the rusted factory door.
Two bulbs hang from the ceiling, casting harsh light through the stench of alcohol and rot. In the center of the vast, empty hall is the man who could never bleed enough to pay for what he’s done.
His eyes go wide when he sees me, and I realize I’m smiling as I say, “Glad to see you’re awake,Dad.”
Chapter 33
?
Julia
I stand outside the house that, for almost thirteen years, has been both my haven and my personal hell.
Maksim is off with Akim, finishing the plan we set in motion a year ago.
I stare at the brickwork of our estate, a place that now, with Maksim holding the entire Rastovski fortune, feels like our stronghold rather than a prison.
I’ve mobilized teams from our arsenal, dispatching them to every port on our map. It’ll probably take years to root out all the evil planted here, but it’s a start. Now the cards are ours, and we finally have the resources to rip out the weeds that choked out anything good long ago.
My hand hovers over my phone, and the moment it chimes, Ilya’s voice comes through.
