That’s when I turn to my last card: begging.
“Stop!” I blurt out. “Please. We don’t want any trouble.”
“Then you shouldn’t have gotten involved with Matvey Groza.”
The men descend on me. I see it play out as if in slow motion: a thousand shadows, falling upon me as one.
I decide to pull the trigger, but again, I’m too late.
My finger twitches, but before I can even squeeze it all the way down, the gun is slapped out of my grip.
As the back of someone’s hand descends at the base of my neck, one last thought crosses my mind.
But darkness takes me first.
I’m startled awake by someone shaking my arm. “Matvey,” my brother’s voice calls, “wake up. Something’s happened.”
I pull myself up and check my watch: 2:33 A.M.
“It’s the dead of f*****g night,” I snarl. My head’s pounding with a h
