Page 32 of Be My Vengeance

Maksim’s lips were pinched as if he were trying to stop himself from speaking, so my guess was that the drugs were still working their way through. Sodium pentothal wasn’t a truth serum, like Penn had said, but it did loosen the lips so hopefully he’d tell us something.

Gideon was a patient man. “Okay, how about this? Were you ordered to come to the US?”

Another attempted shrug. “Maybeeeee.”

“By whom?”

Maksim tried hard to keep his eyes on Gideon, but they wandered as the drug sank deeper into his body and soon he was looking at everyone, even smiling at Toni.

“Maksim, who ordered you to come to the United States?” Gideon pressed.

“My dad, always Daddy.” He blew a raspberry. “But I like it here, better than home.”

I imagined that had everything to do with the fact that here, Maksim could be open, free, and love who he wanted without persecution.

“And why did your dad send you to the US?”

“Stupid business…trouble, need to fix it. Dumb.” He was acting almost drunk at this point, his words slurring. Sentences were fragmented, but we were able to understand him enough.

“Tell me about this business.” Gideon pulled a chair over to the bed and sat.

Maksim sighed. “He always has business. Different kinds.”

“And which were you here for?”

“There was an accident. I came to fix it.”

Gideon nodded. “Did this accident happen to involve Sasha and Ruslan Smirnov?”

Maksim grinned. “You know the brothers?” Then he frowned. “They died,” he whisper-yelled.

“Yes, I heard. They were here on business as well, isn’t that right?”

Maksim nodded. “Thas why I’m here.”

“Maybe you know somebody else. Have you heard of Oleg Trudov?”

Maksim made a as though he’d sucked on a lemon. “Unfor…unfortunately.”

It seemed more likely now that Oleg Trudov and Vladimir Ivanov were connected. I’d expected that since there had been too much coincidence; this just confirmed it for us.

“How do you know Oleg?” Gideon asked.

“He’s like some sort of attack dog for my father. Mean…no…cruel. Yeah. So, so cruel.”

“How is he cruel?”

Maksim adjusted himself in the bed and tried to lean closer to Gideon as if he were going to tell him a secret. Gideon played along, knowing this was more information than we thought we’d get from him.

“One time this man wasn’t doing what my father wanted, and he sent in Oleg…Oleg sent the man home in pieces, delivered to his wife, on Valentine’s Day.”

How charming.

“What didn’t this man do for your father that warranted such a punishment?”

Maksim leaned back again and huffed. “No idea.”

“I notice your accent isn’t very thick,” Toni surmised. “Why is that?”