by Brook Wilder
“I’m going to have Lukas take you to a safe house until this is over.”
“What? No, I’m staying with you.”
He sighs and shakes his head. “I don’t know who the players are or what’s going on. I am not going to have you waiting around here to be a target. You are going with Lukas, and you’re going to be safe.”
“And what about you?” I argue as he tries to take my arm. “No, I want you to tell me that you’re coming with me.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Then you’ll be there later, right? Danya?”
His lips thin, and when he meets my gaze, there’s no sign of a promise in them that I’ll see him later tonight or tomorrow. Instead, it’s like he’s saying goodbye. “Stella,” he says, and I stumble back from him.
“You are not allowed to leave me. I won’t let you.”
“You can’t stay here, and I have to do this.”
“No, you don’t! You can stay with me. Please, just come with me. We’ll run away. Fuck them all, all right? Just come with me.”
He opens the front door as Lukas parks the SUV. When Danya turns back for me, I try to make a run for it, but he snatches my arm and throws me over his shoulder. I scream at him to let me go, but then he’s handing me off to Lukas. I catch the large man in the face with my foot, but all he does is grunt. Danya stands on the porch watching. He doesn’t say anything. Doesn’t make me any heartfelt promises. He only watches. I scream his name and then I’m thrown in the back seat. The door slams shut, and I can’t get it to open again. He locked me in.
As soon as Lukas slides in behind the wheel, I scream at him to let me out.
“I can’t do that. I’m sorry.”
“No, Lukas, don’t drive off. I can’t leave him like this.” I bang my fist on the window. “Danya!” He stands on the front porch as Lukas drives away.
I sink into the back seat as tears roll down my cheeks. Streetlights fill the interior with a yellow glow every few seconds. I have no idea where I’m being taken. All I know is there’s a chance I’ll never see Danya again. He’s going to get himself killed for the fucking families that have ruled our lives since we were kids. I slam my head back onto the headrest and glare at the roof of the car.
Dad’s dead. Mom’s dead. And Danya, I have no idea what’s going to happen to him or me. I should be asking Lukas where he’s taking me, but I just can’t care right now. I shut my eyes and cry silently, wondering how much worse my life is about to get.
Chapter 20
Danya
Stella’s screams play over in my head the entire drive to my childhood home. Sending her away was the only way to keep her alive and out of this mess. If a war did just start tonight, I won’t be safe to be near until it’s over. The drive is crowded with vehicles. It looks like Mikhail has called in everyone. I climb out of my jeep and nod to Brandon, standing guard outside the front door.
“How’s it been here?”
“All quiet, for now.”
“Any word on the twins or Vlad?”
Brandon’s face darkens. “Not a squeak. I don’t like this.”
“Do we have any idea what the hell happened?”
“Aside from the twins ordering the attack early and it being a trap? No. Something tells me Francesco and Joseph planned to take out Mikhail tonight just like we were going to do to them.”
“And instead of Mikhail showing up, the twins did.” It could be true, but there are too many loose ends that don’t add up. “Who called in the hit on the Russo family?”
Brandon shakes his head slowly. “Mikhail ordered Joseph to be killed, not the family.”
“I just heard Hannah Russo and every last member of that household be slaughtered. So did Stella.”
“Shit, Danya.”
“Who carried out the hit?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve been here keeping an eye on them. Where’s Stella?”
“Safe, and she’s going to stay that way. Keep your eyes peeled. Something tells me this night is far from over.” I head on inside and follow the trail of posted guards to the study. Mikhail is in there smoking a cigar and holding a glass of bourbon in his other hand. He’s away from the shuttered windows and has four guards with him. “Father.”
“Where the fuck have you been?” he snarls.
I glower right back at him and cross my arms. “Tending to my wife who just heard her parents murdered over the phone.”
“Is she with you?” he asks, peering around me. “Or did you leave her at home?”
“She’s safe since no one else with the name of Russo is. Who did you send over there?”
Mikhail sips his bourbon and shrugs as if the loss of so many lives means nothing to him. Who am I kidding? Probably doesn’t. “Men I trust since I can’t seem to trust my own family anymore.”
“I can leave if you want.”
He slams down his glass on the desk, sloshing liquor everywhere. “I told you to make sure tonight went off as planned and instead we’re left looking like fools. Where are your brothers?”
“How the hell should I know? How are you sure they’re not the ones behind this?”
“They wouldn’t betray me.”
“And I would?”
“Your loyalties might’ve just changed thanks to your wife,” he snaps.
I laugh bitterly. “A wife you gave me. I told you not to do this. I told you going after Francesco and Joseph was a bad idea, but you never fucking listen. Here you are on death’s door, and the sharks are circling. Now they’ll know we’re gunning for them.”
He takes a long drag on his cigar, the embers lighting up his face. I hadn’t noticed earlier how sickly pale he appears. “I want to know who the fucking traitor is,” he tells me stiffly. “And I want to know who the fuck helped those students with that goddamn film. You understand me? You are to hunt the parties down responsible and ensure they serve as a lesson to others, no matter who they are.”
I keep my mouth shut, not about to say anything about Stella. I can already see the gears turning in his mind about his next move once we get through tonight. If we do.
“I want you to find your brothers and bring them home.”
“What for?” I say as I walk slowly around the study. “They can take care of themselves, they’ve told me plenty of times before.”
“You will go out there and find them.”
“Or what?” I shout furiously. “If they’re not traitors yet, they will be soon enough.”
“Who are you shouting about?” Andrei’s voice comes from behind me.
I whirl around to see him and Aleksandr standing in the doorway to the study. Both have blood speckling their clothes. Neither appears to be wounded. That’s too bad. Mikhail hurries around me to pull his younger sons into tight embraces. He kisses their foreheads, too, and I cross my arms at the spectacle. Not once has Mikhail ever treated me like that when he thought I was dead. The twins leer at me over his shoulders.
“Where have you two been?” Mikhail asks.
“Fighting our way back to you. There’s a traitor.”
“No shit,” I mutter at Andrei’s words.
They take a step toward me when the power to the mansion goes out. I draw my pistol and aim it at the floor as I fall back to cover Mikhail. The guards in the room do the same, surrounding their boss. I keep the twins in my sights and catch the glint of steel in their hands.
“There’s no response from Brandon,” one of the guards says.
“We need to get you and Mom out of here, now,” I tell Mikhail.
“I will not be chased out of my own home,” he argues. “I am not a coward.”
The last word is barely out of his mouth when gunshots erupt outside the house. Men yell, and I grab Mikhail’s shoulder and shove him to the hall, then toward the rear of the house and the back door. The twins and the other guards stay right behind us. I duck as bullets slam into the walls around us. Sheetrock and wood explode. We’re almost to the kitchen when glass
shatters and a hail of bullets sends us to the floor to avoid being struck.
I spot a shadow moving in the kitchen and yell for the twins to get Mikhail to safety then go find Mom. I’m still not a 100 percent certain I can trust them, but I have no choice right now if I want to get out of here alive with Mikhail. He might be a bastard, but if he’s murdered in his own home, our troubles will just be starting.
I crouch near the kitchen door and wait until the intruder steps out. I shoot his knee, and he screams as he falls. I place the gun to his temple and pull the trigger. As his body crumples, more shots crack into the doorframe. I duck to the side, then roll into the kitchen, firing in all directions. Two more men go down, but a third charges in through the back door. A boot strikes my face and then the gun is knocked from my hands. I lunge forward and take out the bastard’s legs. We roll into the kitchen table and I bash his head into the tile floor. It knocks him out, and I dive for my gun just as more shots shatter the rest of the kitchen windows.
Using the cabinets for cover, I stay low and see two of our men in the hall. They nod, ready to join me, when both are struck from behind.
“Shit. Andrei! Aleksandr!”
Neither answers me. The fight isn’t over, but if I couldn’t get out this way, I doubt they got out the front. I raise my head over the counter. When I see shadows rushing toward the house, I aim and fire. They dodge out of the way, ducking behind the trees in the back garden. Taking a chance, I make for the hall again and charge back to the front of the house, dodging dead bodies as I go.
There’s blood everywhere. The study is empty, and I make for the main stairs. Staying quiet, I stalk down the long stretch of hall, following the sound of raised voices. One of them is Mikhail. I can’t figure out the other, it’s too muffled. I can’t tell if it’s the twins or not. I rush forward as quickly as I can until a gunshot rings out. Mikhail yells, and a second follows.
I kick open every door on my way down the hall until I finally stumble across Mikhail. He’s lying on the floor, gasping for air as blood spreads across his chest. He’s been struck twice. I press my hands to the wound and do a quick glance around. We’re alone. The curtains flutter from the breeze blowing in through the open window.
“Who?” I ask Mikhail even as his eyes flutter. “The traitor, who is it?” Where are the twins?
Mikhail sucks in a ragged breath, then his eyes widen. He lifts his finger and points to the door. I turn to see who’s there but can’t make out a face in the shadows. I raise my gun, but the intruder has caught me off guard. A bullet slams into my chest, sending me crashing into the wall behind me. I struggle to keep hold of my weapon and raise it, but the man takes a step into the room, ready to finish me off. I fire, unable to aim from the dizziness taking hold from the loss of blood. When the gun clicks empty, I throw it aside. I grit my teeth, realizing I’m never going to see Stella again. This is how it’s going to end. I failed to keep Mikhail safe and stop a war from coming to the families. The great son of Mikhail Ivanov is not so invincible after all.
But when the next gunshot explodes in the room, no bullet strikes me. The intruder yelps and then falls to the floor. I slump over, glancing down at my chest to see the wound. I’m losing blood fast. My vision blurs and as more shadows rush into the room, I let myself drift off into nothingness, hoping Stella will be able to find a way to have the life she wants and cursing whoever betrayed me.
Chapter 21
Danya
I bolt upright, and then grimace as pain explodes in my chest.
“Take it easy, Danya,” a familiar voice says as a firm hand pushes my shoulders back down. “You were shot in the chest. Damn lucky to be alive.”
“Lukas? What are you doing here?” I snag his arm and try to sit up again. “Stella?”
“At the safe house. No one came for her. She’s fine.”
I glance around, not relieved at his words. I’m lying in a hospital bed hooked up to an IV. This is the clinic the families use when we’re banged up. Bandages cover my bare chest. The fight at the mansion. It comes back to me in bits and pieces.
“Mikhail’s dead,” I state, and Lukas nods. “Who the fuck shot me?”
Lukas frowns. “According to the twins, it was a man working for your uncle. Damn lucky it missed anything vital. You lost a shit ton of blood.”
“Vlad? He wasn’t at the mansion,” I say, confused. The power went out and then we were under attack. I didn’t recognize any of the intruders. “They’re sure he was working for our uncle?”
“That’s what they claim. Say he admitted to trying to take over the family from the inside out. Plotted with Francesco and Joseph.”
I sit up, and this time, after I glare at Lukas, he lets me. “Where’s Vlad now?”
“Dead.”
“Who the fuck killed him?”
“Your brothers. After they shot the man who came after you, they executed Vlad. His body’s lying beneath your feet in the morgue.”
“Making it so no one can question him.”
How did this shit fall apart so easily? I’m not ready to believe anything the twins say. They might’ve shown up at the mansion, but where were they before that? And what reason did Vlad have to kill Mikhail? He knew his brother was sick and dying. Mikhail might’ve been more ready to leave the family in his hands instead of mine. He would have power, money, control, whatever he wanted.
So why betray my father now?
With Mikhail dead, there’s going to be chaos in the families. Francesco is on the run and the Russos are dead, or at least most of them. I’m not sure about the extended family, and right now I don’t really care. I wait for grief to hit me at my father’s death, but all I feel is fury at the traitor who did this to me. The other families will know what we were trying to do, and they’ll be out for blood. Anyone connected to us will be a target.
That includes Stella. And that damn movie she’s a part of, even after the tragedies that befell us last night, won’t be enough to make them all forget what they saw. She’ll have more than just the families trying to seek her out. Police, politicians, they’re all going to want to take her down. How am I supposed to keep her safe now? I can’t be the good guy she sees me as, not anymore. Mikhail is dead, and whether I like it or not, the weight of the family has fallen on my shoulders.
I stand with Lukas’ help, ignoring his grunt of annoyance. Maybe I should let her go. Give Lukas enough cash to see her out of the state or to Europe, maybe. The sooner I get her away from me, the better off she’ll be.
But the notion of not having her by my side to help me hold onto the humanity I know I might lose in the coming weeks or months stops me cold. Stella is the only woman who’s ever made me feel any real emotion aside from anger or regret or hate. If I let her go now, there’ll be no coming back for me. I’ll turn into Mikhail without a doubt.
I remove the IV from my arm with a curse then start for the door.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” Lukas asks as he follows me.
“Going to see my wife.”
“You sure that’s a good idea?”
“No, but I can’t let her go, Lukas. I can’t. Not again. Besides, not like Mikhail’s alive to condemn her anymore.”
He hands me a T-shirt then holds open the door for me. “No, but your mother is, and so are your remaining uncle and your brothers. They’re not going to like that you’re staying with her.”
“Fuck them,” I mutter as I drag the T-shirt over my head with some difficulty. “Fuck anyone who stands in my way of being with her again.” Once I’ve got the shirt on, Lukas helps me out of the clinic and to his truck. I climb into the passenger seat and we start the long drive to the lake.
I probably should’ve checked in with Mom and my brothers, but I’m not sure I can stand the sight of any of them right then. There are too many unanswered questions. Lukas and Stella are the only two I can trust until I get the truth, and I will get it no matter how many bones I have to break or li
ves I have to steal.
Chapter 22
Danya
“Danya, we’re here.”
I blink away the sleep and look through the windshield at the small cabin by the lake. Four men are posted outside on the porch. They nod to Lukas as he parks the SUV and turns off the engine. The front door opens slowly, and Stella appears. Her hair is a mess, and she looks like she’s been crying. I assume Lukas hasn’t told her anything about everything that occurred after he brought her here. The window is too darkly tinted for her to make me out.
But the second I open the door and climb down, she sprints toward me. I catch her with my right arm, cringing at the jarring pain that shoots through my left side. I breathe her in, letting that sweet smell of apples and spice surround me and keep me on my feet.
