Page 47 of His Ruthless Vow

"Fatherhood's making me tired," I correct, wiping my mouth with a paper napkin that's already translucent with grease. "Alana's due any day now and she can't sleep, which means I can't sleep, which means I'm eating truck stop burgers at two in the morning just to stay conscious."

Maksim's smile fades and he leans forward, elbows sliding through the ring of condensation his glass has left on the table. "That's actually why I drove out here," he says, sighing hard. "It's bad, Dimitri—worse than I told you in the messages."

I stop chewing and set the burger down, my appetite vanishing as I watch his face shift from old friend to serious messenger. "How bad?" I ask with my mouth full, then finish my bite as he explains.

"Your brother's losing control," Maksim admits, leaning back. His hand stretches out to pick up the straw wrapper, and I watch him tie it in a knot and tear it as he speaks. "Alexei's trying—he's really trying, but he's young and the old guard doesn't respect him. They see him as a placeholder, someone keeping the seat warm till you come back or until your father totally loses it and hands over the reins."

"Well, my father will never step back," I say, though even as I speak, I wonder how much time he has left. This war might just take him out. Then what? "He's too old, too set in his ways. He built the organization to run a certain way and he's going to make that happen."

Maksim shakes his head, jaw tightening as he glances out the window where the trucks are lined up in the parking lot with their engines idling and their lights glowing. "Your father's exactly the problem. He's been pushing Alexei to escalate, telling him that mercy is weakness. He thinks the only way to end this is to wipe out every Volskaya alive. He's got your brother convinced that if they don't destroy Nikolai completely, the Volskayas will regroup and come back stronger."

I reach for my coffee cup and sip the black brew, thinking of Alana. She'd be devastated if someone killed her father. It doesn't matter that they're not on speaking terms. "Nikolai won't back down either. He's proud and angry about Alana leaving town. He thinks we corrupted her, turned her against her own blood."

"They're both dinosaurs," Maksim says as a waitress passes by with a pot of coffee, refilling cups at the counter without looking our way. "They're tearing everything apart, burning through resources, destroying the infrastructure that took decades to build. But that's not even the worst part."

I study the fear in his eyes that I've never seen there before. Like me, Maksim doesn't scare easily. We've seen the worst of the worst things a person can do and if this is scaring him, it must be bad.

"What's the worst part?"

"There's a third party involved," Maksim says, scanning the diner behind me like he's waiting for someone to pop out of the woodwork. "Someone's been watching from the sidelines while your families destroy each other, and they've been moving in, picking off territory, buying up assets at fire-sale prices, recruiting the younger guys who are disillusioned with the leadership."

I feel the blood drain from my face, leaving me cold despite the heat blasting from the vents above the counter. The Korelovs are animals, worse than anything my father or Nikolai ever dreamed of being. They traffic in things that even the Sokolovs wouldn't touch, and they've been looking for an entry point into Moscow for years. He doesn’t have to say who it is, and in my gut, I know immediately that's who put that picture in my locker that night at the gym.

"They know about Alana," Maksim says, and his words make a chill creep up my spine. I'm a two-hour drive back to the apartment and he tells me this now? "And they're using that knowledge to manipulate both sides. It's only a matter of time until they out you—if they haven't already."

I push the plate away, the half-eaten burger suddenly nauseating in its greasy excess. "What are you saying?" I ask, wiping my mouth again and dropping the napkin on the plate. He didn't bring me here to chat. This is about manipulating me into coming back. It has my father's fingerprints all over it, and if I didn't know better, I'd say they got to him. Maksim would never sell me out, but play a pawn? Maybe.

"I'm saying you need to come back," Maksim says quietly as his head drops. "Before there's nothing left to come back to. Alexei can't hold this together, and if your batya takes direct control again, he'll burn Moscow to the ground trying to destroy Nikolai. And the Korelovs will be there to sweep up the ashes."

I stare out the window at the trucks lined up in the parking lot and hate how trapped I feel. I'm cornered and I don't know how to process this. Alana and I talked about coming back, but on our terms. We aren't going to let this war dictate our direction. If we go back to Moscow, it will be when we're ready and not before.

"I can't," I say, hating how weak I sound. "I have a responsibility here. Alana's due any day now. I can't leave her, and I can't bring her back into that hell."

"You think you're protecting her by staying away?" Maksim asks with an edge of desperation in his tone. "The Korelovs already know where you are, or close enough. They're circling, man. They're waiting for the right moment to strike, to grab her and the baby and use them as bargaining chips against both families. The only way to protect her is to end this war, and the only way to end this war is for you to step up and take control."

I shake my head, watching a trucker at the counter pay his bill and shuffle toward the door. "I left that life," I say quietly. "I'm not that man anymore."

"You're always going to be that man," Maksim growls. "You were born for this. And right now, you're the only one who can stop what's coming. Alexei respects you. The old guard fears you. Even Nikolai might listen to you if you approached him as the father of his grandchild."

I turn back to look at him. He risked everything to drive out here and warn me. "If I go back," I say slowly, "I don't know if I can walk away a second time. Alana will never forgive me for becoming what I promised her I'd left behind."

"She's stronger than you think," Maksim says, picking up his water and taking a long drink. "She survived Nikolai Volskaya. She'll survive this too. But only if you give her something worth surviving for. A future where your son isn't looking over his shoulder every day waiting for the Korelovs to come knocking."

We sit in silence for a while, listening to the clatter of the diner. I used to think I could choose too, that love could be enough to rewrite the code written into my DNA, but sitting here with Maksim, I'm beginning to understand that some debts can't be outrun. The war that started now almost six years ago is still raging, and my effort to turn down the heat only made things worse. I have a lot to think about.

"Thank you," I finally say, pushing back from the table, "for telling me the truth."

"I'm not just doing it for you," Maksim says, pushing his chair back too. "I'm doing it for all of us. If the Korelovs take Moscow, we're all dead or enslaved. At least with you in charge, we have a chance."

I stand up and drop enough rubles on the table to cover the meal and a tip, and Maksim stands with me, clasping my shoulder in a grip that feels like goodbye.

"Be careful," he says. "You know they probably have eyes on you."

"I will," I promise, though I know "careful" isn't going to be enough anymore.

I'm halfway home before I gather the courage to talk to Alana about this. We did decide that Moscow is our future, just not how or when yet. She knew my meeting with Maksim was to discuss the possibility that someone is watching us, though she doesn't know I already knew it was a reality. When I tell her, I have no idea how she's going to take it, but I think Maksim is right. I think we have to go back now.

She answers on the second ring, breathless and worried. "Where are you? I thought you'd be back an hour ago."