Ilya comes in next with his gun. They’re trained to protect me in threats.
The phone on my desk rings and I already know that’s Gayle, my receptionist.
I look on the monitor anyway and confirm it’s her. It is.
“Aiden it’s imperative you think before you speak to this man,” Ilya warns. “Do not kill him unless if you have to. We don’t know enough yet.”
That is the caution of a man who will butcher you and enjoy the thrill of the kill.
His insistence of not killing is a warning I need to heed.
Ilya is right. So, angry and worked up as I am, I need to try and listen.
We don’t know enough yet and I shouldn’t take risks that could stop me from finding Aleksei.
What’s to stop Jude from doing something as simple as deleting all the files to spite me then killing himself the way all the other Order members do to protect their secrets.
I can’t imagine a leader doing so, but that doesn’t mean he won’t.
“How many men does he have with him?” I ask.
“He came with two cars. I don’t know how many are in them but he has four men with him.”
So it begins.
“Maybe you shouldn’t meet with him,” Maksim suggests and I give him a crude stare.
“I need to. the fact that he’s here means I should.”
“Okay. We’re staying here though in case he tries anything.”
His words provides further exclusion of guilt.
I answer the ringing phone and Gayle comes on right away.
“Mr. Romanov, I have Jude Kuzmin here to see you. He apologizes for coming so late but he says it’s a matter of urgency.”
Sure it is.That motherfucker.
“Send him in.”
“Thank you sir.”
I set the phone back on the hook and check for my Glock I always keep sealed in the top compartment of my desk drawer.
Maksim and Ilya stand on either side of me, making their guns visible.
Moments later a knock sounds on the door.
“Come in,” I call out and as the door swings open and I see Jude Kuzmin standing there with his four bodyguards I want to rip him apart.
Rip the skin off his face for everything. What I know in regard to what he must have done to Olivia, and what I don’t know in regard to the past.
I want to hold him down with a gun pressed to his head and make him tell me where my son is.
I would do it too if I wasn’t Pakhan.
If I were the old Aiden Romanov I would do just that, but the leader in me is listening to his bodyguard and that’s what tames the beast inside me.