Total pages in book: 215
Estimated words: 217988 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1090(@200wpm)___ 872(@250wpm)___ 727(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 217988 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1090(@200wpm)___ 872(@250wpm)___ 727(@300wpm)
“Who was he?”
“I didn’t know at the time. My mother died. Drug overdose. I kept telling the people at the orphanage that my father was alive and would take me in. I was beaten every time I tried to run away to find him. Life was hell in that orphanage. But I’m sure you know what it was like to be an orphan in Russia thirty years ago. Oh wait, no, you don’t. Because you were a privileged son of a great Russian crime boss, weren’t you? Isn’t that what you told me when I tried to see my father? I think I was eight when you threw me out, told me I was trash. That I had no father and that he would kill me rather than claim ownership of me.”
There was silence down the earpiece. This wasn’t quite how he’d meant to reveal that part of himself. But for years he’d suppressed who he really was.
It was time that this man paid for what he’d done to him.
“You told your men to beat me. My guess is that you hoped they’d leave me to die, yes? Only someone found me in that alleyway. They picked me up, took me home, nursed me back to health. Do you know who that person was?”
“This is good story you make up,” Pavel said, his nervousness making his accent thicken. “But this all untruth.”
“Really? How quickly you forget. Anyway, I’ll tell you if you’re not going to guess. His name was D’yavol.”
His guard sucked in a breath and took a step back.
“Ahh, see your friend here knows who that is,” the Fox said.
“Devil,” the guard muttered.
“Aye. The Devil. The most feared man in Russia. Even more than your father. Well, our father, I guess you could say. D’yavol watched me fight back. He saw something in me. He healed me. He trained me. I wouldn’t say he raised me. The Devil doesn’t nurture. The Devil does what he needs to survive and feed the burn inside him. He taught me all that I know.”
“D’yavol died long time ago.” Pavel didn’t sound certain as he said that, though.
“Did he? He had no love for Russia anymore so he brought us here. Where he continued to train me. I lost my accent and gained many others. Lost my past and became everyone and no one. Now, I am the Fox. So tell me, why would I not kill the man who threw me out like garbage? Who had me beaten?”
“You are surrounded by my men,” Pavel told him. “It will be you who dies. You and the girl.”
“Will it?” the Fox said smoothly.
“So this was all to get to me? If you’re that good, couldn’t you have gotten me anytime?” Pavel asked.
“Oh, I had plans to do that. But while D’yavol was around as he was dead set against me returning to Russia.” And as much as he’d hated the other man, he’d also been the only person in his life. He had helped save him as a child and he’d felt the need to do as he wished.
“Once he left, I set plans in motion. But then I thought I could start closer to home.”
“With me.” Markovich stepped out into the house. He didn’t look at the Fox.
“Ivan,” Pavel spat out.
“Pavel. It was you all along? Running everything? I didn’t think you’d have the balls to move things onto an international scale.”
“Fuck you, brother. What are you doing here? This was set-up?”
“Yes, idiot. This was a set-up,” the Fox said. “Goodness. It took you a while to work it out. I figured out that Mr. X wasn’t running the show. So I decided to draw you out. Really, I should thank you.”
“Thank me? Why?”
“For not making me go to Russia to kill you. That would have been a real pain for me.”
“Me? You cannot kill me!”
“Why not?”
“I am blood. Bad things happen when you kill those of your own blood.”
Ahh, his superstitions. So that’s why he hadn’t ordered his men to kill him outright all those years ago.
“Pavel, why did you never tell me?” Markovich asked. He looked over at the Fox and the ring he wore. “I never knew.”
“Why would I tell you?” Pavel spat out. “You were always his favorite. I didn’t need more competition. I was already being left with the slops. I was constantly pushed aside and ridiculed. I wasn’t having some kid come in and claim my place.”
“Dear God,” Markovich breathed out. “You’re insane. A monster. You did that to a child!”
“He wasn’t a child. You should have seen him. He had old eyes. Freaky.”
Wow. What an idiot.
“How did you manage to run your father’s empire all these years, you dumbass?” the Fox asked.
“Because he wasn’t running it. I was.”
Someone walked out of a back room.
“This house is a Tardis,” the Fox said as a woman walked into the room. She had two men behind her. “Anyone else lurking back there? Maybe a ten-piece band? Or a cheerleading squad? Pack of hyenas?”