Red Reaper - Soldiers of Fortune [book one]

Chapter FORTY THREE

Konstantin Ivanov

"It iz done, Sir.." Luka's highly skilled fingers finally cease blazing over the keyboard before he looks up from the computer with a prideful smirk of satisfaction.. To work off my excess tension, I pace back and forth across the floor of my office, puffing on a cigarette and seething over the finer details of the whole night.. Again and again, I can't bear to stop myself from imagining every worst case scenario, past, present and future..

The past has shown me how easy it is to lose everything I care about..
The present is a constant reminder of the unpredictability of each and every day..
The future, as ever, remains an unforseeable abyss into which we fall endlessly..

What exactly had Diago been hoping to achieve by visiting Lucky in the dead of night? Part of me suspects his intention was to frighten her, or to gain her favour by telling her lies about the fixations of her curious mind.. Another, darker part of me suspects he was there to do far worse..
Whoever it is he was working for, I can't risk them discovering Lucky's obsession with the Abigail Brightly case..

Why is it that my sunshine refuses to concede to the mystery of this girl's death?
People die every day, it is the one certainty of living, yet for some infuriating reason, Lucky is relentless in her persuit of answers, she is like the proverbial dog with a bone..

What will come of us if our paths continue to dissect? I want to believe I have what it takes to protect and provide for her.. But the simple truth is that there are threats to our happiness around each and every corner..

Her life has been compromised by unknown Shadow Loop sickos and mine remains dictated by The Red Devil himself.. And to add more fuel to the fire, I am sure Paxton will continue to judge and interfere from the sidelines as he is well known to do..

My options have become limited and my objectives have become clear.. There is only one way I can think to give Lucky cause to leave the mystery of the young lady's death alone and that is to find the killer myself and put a bullet between his eyes..

The murderer is probably some Meksikanskiy mudak who is already on The Pakhan's hit list.. So all I have to do is convince Nika to reveal to me the identity of this 'Big Digs'.. A task I am sure that is easier said than done.. Nika is a heartless dog, a liar, a perversion of a man.. It is no secret among the brotherhood ranks that his loyalty is not to the Bratva, but rather to himself.. He would spill any blood, harm any innocence, punish any treason..

But I am already aware there are seeds of discontent that sprout among his soldiers.. More and more I am beginning to believe I must cultivate those saplings, foster their spread and use that disharmony to achieve the inevitable.. That is the only way to prevent the very worst of my nightmares from coming to fruition..

There is no longer a way out, no escape.. There will be no retirement for me, no quiet life in the mountains.. Nyet, my only option now is to wade deeper into the organisation and climb higher in rank.. To seize control and capture the power that would allow me to protect my Solnyshko..