Chapter-2, part-3

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“Take your time, man.” Josh was already distracted by the

blonde and brunette who’d been all over me earlier and who found

a much more willing audience in my best friend. By the time I

stepped into the backyard and answered my call, they had their

hands beneath his shirt.

“Дядько,” I said, using the Ukrainian term for uncle.

“Alex.” My uncle’s voice rasped over the line, scratchy from

decades of cigarettes and the wear and tear of life. “I hope I’m not

interrupting.”

“No.” I glanced through the sliding glass door at the revelry

inside. Josh had lived in the same rambling, two-story house off

Thayer’s campus since undergrad. We’d roomed together until I

graduated and moved to D.C. proper to be closer to my office—

and to get away from the hordes of shrieking, drunken college

students that paraded through campus and the surrounding

neighborhoods every night.

Everyone had turned out for Josh’s farewell party, and by

everyone, I mean half the population of Hazelburg, Maryland,

where Thayer was located. He was a town favorite, and I

imagined people would miss his parties as much as they missed

Josh himself.

For someone who always claimed to be drowning in

schoolwork, he found a lot of time for drinking and sex. Not that it

hurt his academic performance. The bastard had a 4.0 GPA.

“Did you take care of the problem?” my uncle asked.

I heard a drawer open and close, followed by the faint click of

a lighter. I’d urged him to quit smoking countless times, but he

always brushed me off. Old habits die hard; old, bad habits even

more so, and Ivan Volkov had reached the age where he couldn’t

be bothered.

“Not yet.” The moon hung low in the sky, casting ribbons of

light that snaked through the otherwise-inky darkness of the

backyard. Light and shadow. Two halves of the same coin. “I will.

We’re close.”

To justice. Vengeance. Salvation.

For sixteen years, the pursuit of those three things had

consumed me. They were my every waking thought, my every

dream and nightmare. My reason for living. Even in situations

when I’d been distracted by something else—the chess-play of

corporate politics, the fleeting pleasure of burying myself into the

tight, warm heat of a willing body—they’d lurked in my

consciousness, driving me to greater heights of ambition and

ruthlessness.

Sixteen years might seem like a long time, but I specialize in

the long game. It doesn’t matter how many years I have to wait as

long as the end is worth it.

And the end of the man who had destroyed my family? It

would be glorious.

“Good.” My uncle coughed, and my lips pinched.

One of these days, I’d convince him to quit smoking. Life had

driven any sentimentality out of me years ago, but Ivan was my

only living relative. He took me in, raised me as his own, and

stuck by me through every thorny twist of my path toward

revenge, so I owed him that much, at least.

“Your family will be at peace soon,” he said.

Perhaps. Whether the same could be said of me…well, that

was a question for another day.

“There’s a board meeting next week,” I said, switching topics.

“I’ll be in town for the day.” My uncle was the official CEO of

Archer Group, the real estate development company he’d founded

a decade ago with my guidance. I’d had a knack for business

even as a teenager.

Archer Group headquarters called Philadelphia home, but it

had offices across the country. Since I was based in D.C., that

was the company’s real power center, though board meetings still

took place at HQ.

I could’ve taken over as CEO years ago, per my uncle’s and

my agreement when we started the company, but the COO

position offered me more flexibility until I finished what I had to do.

Besides, everyone knew I was the power behind the throne,

anyway. Ivan was a decent CEO, but it was my strategies that had

catapulted it into the Fortune 500 after a mere decade.

My uncle and I talked business for a while longer before I hung

up and rejoined the party. The gears in my head cranked into

motion as I took stock of the evening’s developments—my

promise to Josh, my uncle’s nudge about the minor hiccup in my

revenge plan. Somehow, I had to reconcile the two over the next

year.

I

mentally rearranged the pieces of my life into different

patterns, playing each scenario out to the end, weighing the pros

and cons, and examining them for potential cracks until I reached

a decision.

“Everything good?” Josh called out from the couch, where the

blonde kissed his neck while the brunette’s hands became

intimately acquainted with the region below his belt.

“Yes.” To my irritation, my gaze strayed toward Ava again. She

was in the kitchen, fussing over the half-eaten cake from Crumble

& Bake. Her tanned skin glowed with a faint sheen of sweat from

dancing, and her raven hair billowed around her face in a soft

cloud. “About your earlier request…I have an idea.”

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