25. Loyalty
Chapter twenty-five
Loyalty
Jolie bolted for the back door, with the desperate thought that Adrik was right outside. She nearly reached the glass when Vincent snatched hold of her wrist and yanked her back. She smacked into the dinner table, falling to the floor. “Where the fuck you going?” He stepped up to her, and she pushed herself back, trying to get away. “He ain’t here for you, mami.” Vincent pointed to Santiago. “Block the door, get everyone that can’t shoot down in the cellar, and make sure my fucking kid is down there. Then let the dogs out; they should be nice and starved for some action.”
With a hand on his ear, Santiago gave orders, but then asked, “Should we let Mr. Stephanov through the gate?”
Vincent hesitated. That’s why they had left so quickly. They knew Adrik was coming. He should be pissed they didn’t tell him, but it didn’t matter. They signed the contract. He owned half of their family now, but that didn’t help him here. He should have enough people on the grounds to withstand any force Adrik could conjure up, which couldn’t be that much. Vincent owned his empire.
Gunfire was increasing every second they stood there. Shouts were everywhere, and a grenade vibrated the ground. Vincent peeked out the window, searching for them. “Fucking asshole. Come to my home—he’s gonna fucking regret it. Ain’t no way he has enough power to take me on.”
Jolie gathered her legs under her, and her dress puffed out around her. The knife she dropped earlier was inches away from her feet. She could see it clearly from her spot on the floor, but it was hidden from Vincent. She didn’t know why she grabbed it, hiding it beneath the folds of her dress. The knife gave her courage, and she found herself laughing at him. “You think you had any control over his family? They were only waiting for Adrik to come back!”
“Shut up!” Vincent snatched her arm and tossed her on the couch.
Jolie wasn’t going to stop. She wanted him to know how truly fucked he was. All the feelings of anger and resentment were bursting forth. Her backbone was restored with Adrik’s presence. Even if he wasn’t here for her, Adrik gave her the ability to fight. “You want to know the difference between you and Adrik? He has real power. While you only pretend.”
“Vinny, shut her up and answer my fucking question. Should I let them through the gate?”
Jolie snickered. “You should run. It’s your only chance.”
Vincent stared down at her. All this time, he thought he could gain back her affection, but it wasn’t possible, was it? She was in too deep. “You think your man is so powerful, but I destroyed his family once. And I can do it again.” He turned to Santiago. “Let them out. They’ll owe me later. Does anyone have eyes on what’s out there? ”
Santiago held a finger to his ear, relaying messages to the other soldiers before he answered Vincent’s question. “Thirty men from the north. They used a dump truck to get through the hedges.” He paused and listened. “Adrik’s men blocked the road. Mr. Stephanov is stuck, but he has backup coming. ETA five minutes.”
Vincent cursed, pulling out his gun from his waist. “He’s going for Helina. Fuck!” He paced for a moment, trying to think. “How many men do we have?”
“Forty, but they’ve already taken the north wall.” A bomb went off, shaking the ground, and Jolie gripped the couch to keep herself steady. Santiago announced, “That was the east. Vinny, I think we need to run.”
“We can’t fucking run. Our whole family is in the fucking basement. There’s no way he was able to build an army in the seconds it took for him to get released from jail. No, I can do this. Just let me think.”
Jolie’s eyes were on the open back door. When Vincent paced by her, she raced for the exit and got outside right before Vincent wrapped his arms around her. “Adrik!” she screamed. Vincent pulled her back into the room, clenching her tight.
But she wasn’t going to be silenced. Jolie gripped the handle of the knife and, with a twisted face, slammed it into Vincent’s thigh. He screamed, throwing her down and nearly falling on the couch. Vincent stared at it, confused by how she did it. Wasn’t this the girl who giggled at cat videos? Wasn’t she the one who woke him up at six in the morning, just to see the sunrise? How could she hurt him? Where did all her love for him go? “You stabbed me?”
The betrayal in his voice shocked her, and her eyes flickered to his face and then to his wound. Jolie had been so sure she had done the right thing, but now she was scared of what she had done. An apology was instinctual. “I’m—”
Vincent backhanded her, and she collapsed on the floor. He couldn’t stand this new Jolie. She’d given up a part of herself that was perfect and undiluted. All the time he wasted loving her innocence, only for her to give it up to a Russian. He stood over her while she twisted in agony, holding her bleeding face. “I’m gonna fix it, JoJo. I’m gonna save you from him.”
Glass shattered around them when a grenade went off right outside the window. Wood and debris poured over them, and Jolie clenched into a tight ball on the floor, screaming.
Adrik barreled through the shattered bay windows. He stumbled on his feet but bulldozed into Vincent, lifting him up at the waist and slamming him to the floor. The usurper pounded on his back, but weeks of reliving this moment over and over in his head left Adrik invincible. He punched him two, three, four times before Vincent got his foot between them and shoved Adrik off. But before Vincent could get up, Adrik kneed him in the face, and he fell back against the floor, holding his broken nose. Even as blood poured out, Vincent reached for a gun, but Adrik's soldiers were all around him now, their rifles aimed for his head.
It was victory.
Adrik flexed his bruised knuckles, turning around the room. Santiago was on his knees with a gunshot wound to his arm while a soldier locked his hands behind his back. Adrik had intentionally kept them alive, if only to have fun in their torture. Pride filled him, until his eyes landed on her .
Jolie patted the ground searching for her glasses. As soon as her bloody fingers wrapped around the frames, she pushed the broken pieces against her face and found him there. She wasn’t sure if she was dreaming or not. The pain in her head pulsed like a hammer. Jolie blinked away tears, trying to clear the fogginess and the confusion. “Adrik?”
Adrik turned from her. “Tie them up and take them out. We have to hurry before reinforcements get here.” Every muscle in his body was tense. Adrik didn’t know what he would feel when he saw Jolie again, and now it was all chaos in his head. He was angry and bitter, and he was relieved and yearning. He wanted to go to her, and he wanted to shun her. With an aggravated sigh, he faced her.
Jolie was thin and pale. Her hair looked dull. Everything about her was different, even the way she was dressed. She propped the glasses on her face, one lens shattered and a broken temple hanging off its hinge. Jolie stood hunched and frightened with blood on her face dripping through her fingers, igniting a blind rage, and when Vincent stood, Adrik turned around and slammed his fist into his stomach. His body slumped but was kept up by the soldier. It wasn’t enough. Adrik wanted more cries and delicious revenge, but it would have to wait. He gripped Vincent by his hair. “Where is my daughter?”
Vincent clenched his bloody teeth.
Adrik pulled a short handgun from his waist and, without warning, shot Santiago in his leg. The man screamed as he collapsed. Adrik kept his gun up, now directed at Santiago’s head. “I won’t ask again.”
“She was taken,” Jolie revealed, knowing he didn’t have time. “By Katia. You can catch them now if you hurry. ”
Did Adrik listen to her? Did Jolie’s betrayal sink into everything she said? He put faith in the fact that even though she lied to him about Mally, she would never endanger Helina. He lowered his gun, allowing his soldiers to move Vincent and Santiago out of the house.
“Hurry,” Jolie whimpered, moving past the lump in her throat. She knew he wasn’t here for her. His inaction was too obvious, but she wasn’t about to let Helina out of their hold. Their destroyed relationship mattered little next to his daughter.
Adrik nodded and moved to go, but there was too much unknown, and he couldn’t leave her. He turned back around and approached. Jolie lowered her head, and the action was nothing that he wanted. It meant she had gotten his text and that things between them were not the same. Adrik rested a finger under her chin and raised her head. Shame danced in her eyes as tears dripped down her cheek. He kissed her softly, gently. It wasn’t how he wished it could be, but it was all he could give right now. Parting, looking down into her eyes, it burned how much he had missed her. “I’ll come back for you.” Adrik pointed to a soldier, and ordered, “Stay with her.” The rest of his soldiers followed him as he ran out the door.
Jolie wrapped her arms around herself, staring at the floor, unseeing. Despite the months apart, she always imagined that being with him again would bring air into her lungs and light into her life. Instead, his actions told her there might be nothing left between them to salvage. She had been waiting for a knight in shining armor that didn’t exist.
Then two strong hands gripped her biceps. Jolie lifted her head and found Alexei. His blue eyes narrowed, and he took hold of her chin, tilting her head to analyze the wound on her cheek. “Who did this to you, princess?”
She tried to smile, but it hurt. “It’s so good to see you.” She fell against him, hugging him. She had been so concentrated on Adrik that she hadn’t put much thought into Alexei, and now that he was here, Jolie found his warmth to be everything she was craving. She wanted Adrik to hold her like this, to tell her that the nightmare was over, and he had finally come to her rescue. She wanted Adrik to run his fingers through her hair and assure her that the time apart hadn’t destroyed them.
Alexei’s arms encircled her like a vise, squeezing until she coughed. “You got a little stronger,” she said, giggling, impressed by his shape.
Alexei held her, closed his eyes, and breathed her in. He felt alive again for the first time in months. He fisted his hand in her hair, reminding himself she didn’t belong to him. But it wasn’t registering. Did she feel for him the way he felt for her? Alexei leaned back and gripped her unharmed cheek, keeping her close as he took in every inch of her face. Could she see it? Everything he ever wanted to say reflecting in his eyes?
He kissed her boldly. She stayed against his lips, and hope began to build.
But her body jolted, and she shoved away so that he couldn’t even pretend that she was his. He thought he had seen something in her face, but now fear was the only emotion present. A ball of guilt invaded his chest. She was backstepping away from him, and it hurt more than he wanted it to.
Alexei stood there and knew how horrible his mistake was. He had just betrayed his brother. Years of loyalty had all come undone .
“Well, wasn’t that something?” Gil stood to the left. He had a gun at his side and sweat on his brow. “What is it with this American?”
Alexei narrowed his eyes in confusion. “Gil? What are you doing here?”
Jolie rushed out, “He’s been betraying you. He’s working with Katia!”
“What?” Alexei waited for a denial, but Gil only lifted his gun, directing it at Jolie. Alexei was quick to grab her arm and put her behind him. “What are you doing?”
“Alexei, I’m begging you, get out of here.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“This isn’t for you.”
It took a minute before Alexei whispered, “What did you do?”
“We don’t have time.” Gil stepped forward, dropping the gun at his side, beseeching in Russian, “You’re in love with her, Alexei. You can have her. Just go.”
Alexei looked back at Jolie. It was a hesitation he hated about himself. In seconds, he imagined if he took Gil’s advice and left with her. Adrik would face whatever Gil had set up, and he’d be there to comfort Jolie. Eventually, Alexei could win her over and finally get everything he’d always wanted. All the moments in his life where jealousy crept in shaped into a giant avalanche he didn’t know how to suppress. When Adrik finds out he kissed Jolie, there would be no forgiveness, so life as he knew it was already over. So why not try to be happy?
But there was no leaving Adrik. They were brothers. He thought Gil could understand that, but maybe he was wrong.
Gil shook his head, sensing Alexei’s determination. “You can’t save him. But you can save yourself. ”
Alexei shifted for the door, but Gil stepped in front of it and begged. “ I don’t want you to get hurt, so take her and go out the back. The army that’s coming will be too big for you to take on. With Helina as bait, Adrik won’t back down.”
“You fucker. We’re your goddamn family!”
“I had a family!” Gil fought back. “Till Yakov hunted them down one by one like a beast. So now I have no one. No one but Katia.”
“Katia,” he spat. “You’re a fucking tool. Whatever she’s saying to you is all a goddamn lie.”
Gil glanced out the window, and Alexei once more stepped for the door, but Gil flinched, shooting the ground at his feet. Alexei sneered. “You gonna shoot me?”
“I can’t let you try to save him.”
Alexei threw the gun at his feet. “Then let’s go. If you ain’t gonna shoot me, then you’re gonna have to fucking stop me.”
Gil clenched his teeth. “You think so? When have you ever bested me? I’ve been kicking your ass since third grade.” Gil glanced out the window again, watching the helicopter come from above. The army arrived, meaning at any moment, Adrik was about to die. He laid his gun on a coffee table and removed his coat. “Fine.” Gil uncuffed his sleeve, rolling it up to his elbow. “Don’t complain to Mama when—”
Alexei attacked before he could finish, swinging his fist around, but Gil ducked and slipped behind him, punching Alexei in the kidney. He groaned and growled, but Gil only smirked. “Always your problem, brother. You think big muscles are better than speed. ”
“Don’t call me brother.” Alexei charged forward with a heavy fist, but like before, Gil ducked and pounded a fist into his chest, forcing Alexei to take a step back. But the hit was barely felt. After weeks of beatings, Alexei was a tank.
A blast sounded, vibrating everything in the house. It set off a panic in Alexei’s heart.
With no time to waste, Alexei swung again. When Gil dived, Alexei slammed a fist into his injured thigh, and Gil fell to the floor with a curse. Alexei didn’t let him get back up. He kicked and smashed his face. Then he jumped on him, sitting on his chest, and pounded a fist into his head. Three hits were all it took for Gil to nearly fall unconscious. Alexei stopped, falling over him. “You were saying about my muscles?”
Alexei looked over at Jolie and held out his hand. She jumped to her feet, and their fingers interlaced. She gave Gil a hard kick in the back, just for spite, and then they darted out the door together.