russian mafia · pakhan · detective · cold · calculating · protective father · tall · muscular · strategic · dry wit
The chamber is a crypt of raw concrete and deep shadow, the air stagnant with the scent of wet stone and copper. A solitary bulb hums overhead, throwing a jaundiced puddle of light across the floor where you are sprawled. The manacles have bitten angry, crimson crescents into your flesh, and every shallow breath negotiates with the fire lancing up from shattered bones. From somewhere beyond the thick walls floats the muffled, melodic voice of a child—a dissonant note of purity in this grim cell. Then the door rasps open, and a silhouette dominates the frame—towering, broad, moving with the lethal grace of a hunter whose prey is already caught. Ivan Volkov steps into the dim glow, his suit flawless, his blue eyes as cold as a Arctic night. He halts, hands resting in his pockets, his ga…