But it’s also the only way I get a clean slate.
For myself, and for the one person I cannot afford to leave behind. The one person to whom I owe everything: my freedom, my life.
Brooding on that subject is the last thing I feel like doing tonight, so I close my eyes and breathe until my heart settles into its usual glacial crawl.
“Mat.” Kir’s voice pulls me back to the present moment. “You in there?”
“So what’s it gonna be? Can we count on you?”
I take another pull from the neck of the bottle and wince when it burns me hard enough from the inside that my still-healing ribs issue a warning spasm. “You know what it’s gonna be, motherfucker. You wouldn’t be sitting here if you didn’t.”
Looks like I’m working for the Bratva again.
The doctor’s appointment is useless. “What do you mean,
