When Conner came out of that room, out by himself, I knew he had won the argument. I knew he was going to kill me. I knew this was for the best, if I returned home a failure my brother would have strangled me, or worse. Volkov's never failed, and if they did, they went out in gunfire. But as Conner picked up my own gun and held it to my head I felt something pulling at my heartstrings. I felt something I thought was dead to me. I felt fear of death. The cold hard end of a life I had excelled so well at living. The uncertainty of what was waiting for me after I died, after he put that bullet in my skull. That didn't matter, not now. It was too late, and I accepted that.
I tried to seem unconcerned, like the gun to my face didn't scare me even though it did. I looked him in the eyes with all the courage and dignity I could muster in that single humiliating moment, but I felt water welt up in my eyes. I felt the burn sensation of tears that I fought back. It was bad enough I was going to die tied to a chair, I wasn't going to be crying too. I watched his eyes as he watched me; so stern and certain but something started to change. I saw the same look of understanding Murphy had given me as I held that gun to his head, now in Conner's eyes as he held that gun to mine.
He lowered the gun, looking down at it in his hand. I saw the conflict in his mind, he knew he should kill me but he started to wonder whether or not he actually wanted to. He looked back at me, now with a decision in my mind but one I couldn't read from his face. I bit my lip, waiting for what he'd do next. He dropped the gun, he dropped it and held his arms up and behind his head, "Fuck me." Was all he said as he started to pace.
"Conner?" I heard Murphy's voice from the room just before he came out. His eyes took in the scene; me in the chair, still alive, and Conner pacing with the gun dropped to the floor. "Conner?" He said his brother's name again, trying to make sense of what he saw.
I watched them exchange a single look, as if they could tell everything the other was thinking with just a glance and a sense of understand seem to fall between them as they looked at me. "You don't want us to kill you, do you?" Murphy asked me with a soft tone as he stepped closer to me. I wanted to tell him to fuck off, I wanted to be a cold hard ass like before and insist they put that bullet in my head, but I couldn't. The tears won my little battle and fell down my face as I shook my head no. "And you're not going to kill us, are you?" He wasn't really asking, he was more or less stating a fact that we both knew was true. I shook my head again, biting my lip to fight the urge to sob. "Tell us your name."
"Valentina Volkov." I didn't hesitate, I didn't give a fake name, I was honest, as honest as I ever was because I told them more than just my name, I gave them my entire life. I saw their eyes, I saw something in them just from that. With my name I seemed to have earned their trust.
"Tell us who sent you." Conner asked now, stepped to stand next to his brother.
"My brother has a contract with the Yakavetta family. We work for them."
"You work with your brother?" Conner further questioned me.
That was when I told them everything. About my family's business, about our entire empire. I told them Vladimir arranged everything and I just carried out my orders. I also told them if I didn't report back, Vladimir would personally come to retrieve me, dead or alive, and finish the job if I had failed. They said nothing, only listened, very closely. I could see the wheels in their heads turning, trying to figure out their next steps.
"Will he come alone?" Conner asked me.
"Honestly, I don't know, as we've never been in this predicament before. I wouldn't know why he'd need to bring others, but backup would only be a quick phone call away."
"How soon will he come?"
"He'll be waiting for my report tomorrow morning; once it's late he'll arrange everything to come down here. After he arrives, he'll take a night to recover from his travels, freshen up a bit, and be on his way the next morning."
"Then we have till then to figure out how to proceed." Conner mused out loud.
"He dangerous, your brother?" Murphy asked me.
"Well, he's no killer, but he packs a pretty rough punch. I would know."
I saw concern in Murphy's face, and I didn't have to explain for him to know. Vladimir often hid his fear of me by abuse, trying to assert his dominance by violence. I never hit back, I knew it wouldn't hurt him so I never saw a point. "What will he do to you if he gets you back?"
"Well…" I thought back to one time a spy in our employee betrayed us, warned a target we were coming because he felt the target didn't deserve death. "First, he'll most likely break my legs so I can't run from him. He won't tie me up, just leave me on the floor. He'll leave me alone for days, no food, no water. I've never seen him torture a woman before, but I know he's fond of rape, I don't imagine he'd spare me that treatment. I don't know how long he'll keep me alive, but when he does grow bored of me I imagine he'll beat me to death, with his bare hands. He says weapons leave too much room for human error."
I saw the look of horror and disgust on both their faces. Murphy was the first to say anything, "Would you stop us from killing him?"
"I really don't think I would."
"He's your brother…" Conner sounded so confused.
I was eager to correct him, "He's my business partner. In an ideal world all siblings are as close as you two, but this isn't an ideal world. In my world my brother is nothing more than an abusive power hungry son of a bitch who uses me to get rich. I can't say I've ever felt any sort of love or closeness to him, only content because I had to, because it made things just a little easier to stand. But I promise you, he'd lock me up in a cold dark room, beat and rape me till I die, so I'd have no problem watching either one of you blow his brains out."
Conner seemed rather off-put by what I had to say and I watched him back away, less than pleased with me. That was when Murphy asked me, "If we kill him, will more come?"
"Not from my family. We don't 'do' revenge. If a team fails, they fail. We move on. We don't honor their failure by getting even. I can't say what the Italians will do. I'm sure they'll be less than happy that you're both still alive, but I doubt any other assassin they hire will have the resources my family does and be able to find you."
"So we kill your brother, no one else comes for us, and then what do we do with you?"
"Let me go, I suppose."
"Where will you go?"
"Does it honestly matter?"
"It does to me." Murphy looked at me, his eyes filled with so much regret. Regret for what, I wasn't sure, but I knew that was what he was feeling, what was eating away at him as he looked at me then.