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“Take her to an address and leave her there” He gags and coughs again “An apartment in Brooklyn”

The answer“What’s the address?”

“I don’t knoas supposed to call a number—a burner, I think—once I had the woman Instructions with the address were supposed to follow”

“On whose order?”

He blows a string of snot from his nose “Cut me loose”

I raise a hand The men lower the rope

“Wait,” Vadim cries out “It was Stefanov Vladimir Stefanov”

My rage is so enorest the naest bratva bosses in St Petersburg? What the fuck is Stefanov’s problem with me? We’ve never done business We haven’t even crossed paths

“Why?” I grit out

Vadi “I don’t know It’s not my job to ask questions”

I believe hih up in the hierarchy to share his plans or motivations with a lowly cockroach like Vadim

I flick ers

The men lower the rope Vadily gargling sounds as he twists his upper body

Gripping the neck of the piss-stained young —in a fist, I push him closer and to his knees so he can witness what it looks like when a man drowns in shit

He shakes and whi from his mouth

“You see this?” I say, pressing his face to the rim “This is what happens to a man who touches my family”

He gags, trying to turn his face away, but I hold fast

For such a big ht lasts no oes still The bubbling stops and the sloshing of the water over the sides of the toilet stills

I let the fool on the floor go with a shove The moment he’s free, he scurries away on his knees and uses the wall for support to claw himself to his feet

“You’re the lucky ets to live another day,” I say “Go tell Vladis to me”

He backs up to the door, watchingto kill him after all