Chapter 56

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It was Yuri’s first time on an airplane.

He had once purchased a ticket for Alexei to New York, but this was the first he had ever bought for his own travel.

Even when he had crossed from Saratov into Canada, he had traveled strictly overland. After that, he had possessed nowhere to go and had never once considered something as indulgent as a vacation. And so, Yuri’s first flight did not carry him to some foreign country beyond North America—a place he had never seen before—but brought him back to the United States, the very country he had once escaped, fully prepared to die.

Boston felt distinctly different from Saratov.

Although Yuri had been born and raised in America, he had never truly seen the version of the country admired by foreigners. In truth, it was less impressive than he had imagined. The city resembled downtown Vancouver so closely that he almost felt as though he were still in Canada. Even so, the broad, manicured lawns in the city’s heart and the European-style architecture were novel to his eyes.

SWOOSH

Yuri surveyed his surroundings impassively with blue eyes, then began walking toward the rendezvous point Alexei had arranged. On the way, he passed a cemetery sprawling with thousands of gravestones. The sight was so unexpected in the middle of the bustling city that it demanded his attention.

Yuri stopped briefly, his gaze lingering on the vivid grass and white flowers flourishing between the weathered markers.

It was entirely different from every cemetery he had ever known.

The people buried in this sunny, peaceful heart of the city must have been far more important or famous than the anonymous dead of Saratov. At the center of the cemetery stood a tall, pointed monument. Several passing tourists whispered to one another that it was an obelisk, then glanced curiously toward Yuri. Two Omegas looked him over from head to toe—his thin black jacket, jeans, and gray T-shirt—and exchanged quiet remarks. Yuri briefly met their curious gazes, then left. He was left with an uncomfortable prickle on his skin, the distinct feeling they had somehow noticed his ignorance of this place.

After passing the strange but beautiful sight, Yuri finally reached the alley Alexei had named. It was not particularly secluded, merely a narrow passage beside a failed shop where few people walked. Alexei had lost weight in the nearly ten days since Yuri last saw him. His cheeks had hollowed, sharpening his jawline, and his eyes shone with the fierce blue light they had carried in the past. He was leaning against the wall at an angle, smoking.

At the sound of Yuri’s footsteps, he turned his head. The moment he saw Yuri, he flashed a grin filled with genuine pleasure. Alexei’s characteristic smile revealed the tips of his white canines, and a quiet smile appeared on Yuri’s face in return. As Yuri approached, Alexei opened his arms and embraced him. Yuri had forgotten about cigarettes while staying beside Cherriot, but the scent of tobacco clinging to Alexei made him crave one.

“Got a cigarette?”

When Yuri held out his hand, a pack and a lighter dropped into his palm. He pulled one cigarette from the red pack, lit it, and inhaled deeply. The smoke passed down his airway, filling his lungs. A sudden sense of nostalgia rose with it. He exhaled the familiar comfort, and the scent immediately settled into his hand. For a moment, Yuri stared at the burning tip in silence, struck by the unsettling illusion that his time with Cherriot was already fading.

“Did you get paid?”

“Yes.”

Before they separated the previous day, Benji had given Yuri two hundred thousand dollars. He had truly brought the promised advance in cash. There had been two gunfights, but receiving that much money for them made Yuri uncomfortable; he had even tried to return his share. Benji had told him he had only two choices: keep it or throw it away.

“Did you?”

Alexei repeated the question with mild confusion. “We received a hundred thousand each as the advance. Two hundred thousand in cash. Why?”

“Five hundred thousand was deposited into my account. The transfer note said it was the success fee, so I assumed that was the end of it.”

Yuri’s apartment in Saratov had been worth fifty thousand dollars. Igor had exploited him his entire life, yet Yuri had never managed to save even that amount and had spent his years living in a rental. After moving to Vancouver, he had found it strange that money accumulated simply through time and honest work. Receiving such an enormous amount at once left him with an oddly hollow feeling.

“I suppose that amount means nothing to a rich man.” Alexei sounded faintly annoyed as he added, “What pisses me off is that he sent it as a ‘success fee’ when the job isn’t even finished.”

Yuri listened quietly, then corrected him. “He isn’t an arrogant bastard.”

Alexei narrowed his eyes and studied him. The blue eyes that looked similar to Yuri’s at first glance swept sharply over his face. “I noticed it on the phone… You fell for that bastard.”

Yuri did not deny it.

Instead, he raised the cigarette he had been holding to his mouth. He stared at it, already half burned for no reason, then pinched the ember out between his thumb and forefinger. The smell had made him want to smoke, but once the acrid heat entered his mouth, he lost his appetite for it.

“I suspected as much when you agreed to come to Boston without an argument.”

Alexei’s voice was neither pleased nor displeased. When Cherriot had first flirted with Yuri—remarks Alexei had surely assumed were at least half joking—Alexei had teased Yuri to give it a chance. Now, however, he looked as though he had never expected Yuri to reach the point of acknowledging his own feelings.

“Does that bastard know?”

After some thought, that was Alexei’s first question.

Yuri knew it came from concern, and his rigid expression softened slightly. “More or less.”

“What kind of answer is that? Are you together, or did he reject you?”

“We decided to remain friends for now.”

Alexei opened his mouth and silently mouthed a string of curses. Apparently, because Yuri had admitted liking Cherriot, Alexei could not bring himself to say them aloud. It made little difference; Yuri could read his lips well enough to understand most of it.

“We aren’t twenty-year-old idiots, Yuri. He’s a grown man too. Stop feeding me that ‘friends’ bullshit and tell me what happened.”

“I simply fell for him on my own.”

“Why?”

Being interrogated this way made Yuri feel as though he had become the Alexei of the past. For years, Yuri had been unable to understand why Alexei protected Valeri so fiercely and had been frustrated watching him sacrifice himself alone.

“He’s kind. Being with him is enjoyable, and… he makes me do things I never even considered trying.”

Yuri spoke calmly about Cherriot. Then he remembered Cherriot turning toward him beside the lake, smiling, and the corners of Yuri’s mouth rose softly.

“His smile is beautiful.”

Even after the quiet addition, Alexei said nothing. Wondering what was wrong, Yuri looked beside him. Alexei’s brow was deeply furrowed, his expression grave.

“Alyosha?”

“Listen to me.”

When Yuri nodded, Alexei asked firmly, “What if you withdrew from this?”

Yuri had wondered what Alexei intended to say, but he heard something unusually timid instead.

“Remember that I came here because you called me.”

“From the look of you, I think you would’ve come even if I hadn’t.” Alexei dragged both hands down his face, then rubbed his eyes. “I didn’t expect you to fall this hard for him.”

“Alyosha. Don’t exaggerate.”

“I’m not exaggerating. T-Mac would tell you the same thing. Hell, even Lerusha would look at you and know you’re in love. Every man in love, Alpha or Omega, makes at least one idiotic mistake. He becomes reckless. Brave.” Alexei stepped closer and pressed one finger firmly against Yuri’s chest. Concern filled the distorted line of his brows. “You know as well as I do that people are going to die in this mess. Of course I’m getting home safely to see my pretty one, and you should do the same. But after seeing your face just now, I’m no longer certain you will.”

“I have no intention of dying, Alyosha.”

“Swear it.”

Yuri lowered his gaze to the finger pressing into his chest. He could not understand why Alexei was this anxious. When Yuri failed to answer, the pressure of Alexei’s finger increased.

“Swear it.”

“I swear.”

The answer emerged slowly.

Alexei sighed and stepped away. Living with Valeri had apparently taught him to worry like an ordinary person; now, he demanded promises over things like this. Yuri did not intend to die either. If possible, he wanted to live and remain beside Cherriot. But if a moment came when Yuri had to weigh his own life against Cherriot’s… His lips moved faintly. He forced the ominous thought away.

“If you show even the slightest sign of doing something reckless, I’m dragging you out myself. Understand?”

“Now that I’ve sworn, why don’t you tell me what this is about? What did you find?”

“Follow me.”

Alexei had apparently been in Boston long enough to know the streets. He handed Yuri a cap and put on a black baseball cap of his own. Their hair was the same color and their builds similar enough that, once their faces were partly hidden, they resembled brothers.

“Tomorrow, there’s a party at a seaside cottage owned by the Goodnight family. Cherriot was invited too, since he returned yesterday. His grandparents and the rest of the family are gathering to see the grandson who hasn’t visited the United States in a long time.”

Alexei’s pace slowed briefly, and disgust crossed his face. “And the plan I heard is…” He paused, his mouth twisting. “Gang members from the Hell’s Watchmen headquarters are coming down to kill every direct heir attending the party. Everyone except the person who arranged it.”

“What?”

Yuri stopped dead.

Seeing his face harden in an instant, Alexei muttered that he had expected this and pulled him by the arm. “Get a grip, Yuri. If we follow the plan, we can finish the job and save your prospective boyfriend—“ Alexei corrected himself. “No. Not even prospective. You’re nowhere near qualifying for that yet. Whatever. We can complete the assignment and keep that Cherriot bastard alive. I didn’t infiltrate them to stand by while innocent people were slaughtered.”

The massacre had not happened yet.

Rationally, Yuri knew they had enough time to prevent it. Even so, the idea that someone intended not merely to kill Cherriot, but to massacre the entire family and end the matter completely, was so revolting that Yuri lost his words. He was glad Cherriot had not heard any of this. If he had, he would undoubtedly blame himself. The criminals committed the evil, yet it was always the innocent victims who carried the guilt.

“What kind of bastard comes up with a plan like that?”

“The second or third son. One of Cherriot’s uncles. I don’t know exactly which.” Alexei’s expression hardened. “The two of them jointly inherited and now manage their parents’ investment company. The IP address used for the contract’s VoIP call came from that company. Realistically, anyone with access to the building is a suspect.”

“How did you learn all of this, Alyosha?”

Since beginning work as a fixer, Alexei had become remarkably skilled at uncovering information. Heather had helped him on occasion, so perhaps he had learned from her. Still, gathering this much as an outsider, without the decades of family knowledge Dolly possessed, meant Alexei must have infiltrated deeply.

“After helping dispose of Samuel’s body, I used the Vancouver middle boss to get closer.” Alexei shrugged. “I may be exceptionally charming, but there’s a limit to how much two Alphas trust each other. He wasn’t stupid enough to hand sensitive information to a hitman who appeared from nowhere.”

So Alexei had stolen it.

“I’ll at least give you this: the phone you recovered was extremely useful. Without the messages on it, I never would’ve found the boss’s home address.”

“There was an address?”

“The men you subdued were mercenaries, but they also belonged to the Hell’s Watchmen. They weren’t temporary contractors. There were several recent messages exchanged directly with the boss.”

Yuri listened, then found one point strange. “But you didn’t have enough time to travel back and forth to Yoho National Park.”

“I sent T-Mac.”

“You are paying him, aren’t you?”

No matter how close they were, Alexei seemed to use T-Mac far too casually. At Yuri’s question, Alexei shrugged as though offended. “What do you take me for, Yuri?”

Yuri decided he would confirm that with T-Mac himself when they next met in Vancouver. For now, he returned to the matter at hand. “I understand what you found. How do you intend to stop it? If you have evidence, wouldn’t it be better to pass it anonymously to the police?”

“Then we won’t catch the person responsible.” Alexei’s expression turned cold. “We need to put the mastermind behind bars or otherwise stop them permanently. If we don’t, they’ll try again. Who hires killers to murder their own family, Yuri? Even that piece of shit Volkov never touched his own blood relatives.”

It had been a long time since Alexei mentioned Igor Volkov. Yuri considered the many things the man had done, then nodded. “They may not be comparable to the Volkovs, but whoever planned this is still monstrous.”

“Exactly. So we catch them.” Alexei continued, “The culprit will be the one who prepared in advance to survive the attack. My plan is to enter the party as part of the catering staff, observe how everyone behaves, and identify them. A recording made at the scene would be ideal, but even finding the right lead will increase our chances of obtaining evidence.”

“If the plan proceeds that far, the attackers will enter the party, Alyosha. People could be hurt.”

“That’s where you come in.”

“…How?”

No matter how skilled Yuri was, he could not single-handedly neutralize a large group of gunmen. If he fought prepared to die, he might somehow succeed. But had Alexei not just become furious at the thought of Yuri considering death?

“You met the two people guarding Cherriot, didn’t you? One of them is a detective here. We tell him the plan in advance and arrange for police to remain undercover nearby. The moment the gunmen arrive, they move in and take them down.”

Alexei had constructed the plan with considerable care. If events unfolded as he described, they might narrowly catch the culprit in the act. There would be many guests and therefore countless uncontrollable variables, but Yuri and Alexei could handle those on the ground as they appeared.

“How did you learn about the two guards?”

“Their information came with the updated order.”

Alexei glanced toward him. “More precisely, the file was updated after Cherriot arrived in the United States yesterday. One woman who appears to be in her fifties, one red-haired man, and…” With a strangely proud expression, Alexei showed Yuri his phone. “An extremely dangerous Alpha in his early thirties.”

The screen displayed a blurry image of Yuri captured by a security camera. Yuri understood now why Alexei looked so proud; he seemed pleased that his friend had earned such a title.

“You must have beaten the hell out of every one of them.”

After returning to an environment where being himself was acceptable, Yuri was no longer called trash or treated as pathetic. The fact that he could exist as Yuri Kiselyov without immediate consequence unquestionably eased something inside him. Still, unlike Alexei, Yuri could not take pride in being dangerous; it merely was what it was.

The cigarette, the happiness of seeing the person he had once treasured most, even the familiarity of standing beside Alexei—none of it felt as intense as before. Yuri was always at ease with Alexei; that had not changed. Yet, separate from that comfort, Yuri could not shake the feeling that he was no longer where he belonged.

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