Chapter 37 Ivan
IVAN
Emil and I led the way. Luka rode with us, but it was different for him to be on the front lines like this with us. He cared. He always did. But he usually trusted us to handle these problems.
I didn’t know if it was because this was my future that was up in the air, and he cared that much about me, or what.
Emil had to be wondering the same thing. “What, are you so bored for action that you want to come with us for the hell of it?” he asked.
I knew he was joking to lighten the mood on the ride. But it was far too late for that. I was locked in and locked down. This was time to kill and time to find my woman so I could keep her forever.
To start a family with her. To give Lev a baby sister and brother, as many as we wanted.
To move into a house and build a home with her.
“No.” Luka’s reply was a cold one-word answer. “I want to be there to see Konstantin Petrov dead, once and for all.”
I didn’t blame him for that.
We reached the waterfront resort that Konstantin once kept to a fine level of hospitality and elegance.
In his years of faking his death, though, he’d let it fall to run.
The dump was a mess. Graffiti and trash showed up everywhere.
It was obvious squatters had been trying to take over the place, but the Cartel members arguing out front set a different scene.
The second we showed up, they got in our faces and started firing.
They were no match for us, a minor inconvenience at the wrong time. We’d come with too many, and we were all packing. Leaving no one alive, Emil and I checked over for any Petrovs in the fallen. None were here. A thorough sweep showed no sign of Raisa, either.
“Fuck.” I grimaced as I met Luka back at the cars. “It looks like we came here to bust up a drug running op and nothing else.” No sign of Raisa at all.
Before we could discuss another plan or wonder why the Petrovs who’d driven here hadn’t stayed, I heard a strange ping on my phone.
“What the hell?”
I set up my emails to come to one main account years ago, but it’d been a long time since I heard the ping for the email I’d used when I was younger.
It could’ve been nothing, but something about that sound brought up a memory.
A memory of how Raisa would giggle and smile so sweetly when we’d spam each other’s emails after we’d first met.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and read the incoming message. “Got her.”
“Huh?” Luka pushed off the car he’d been leaning on while Emil and I checked the scene.
“I’ve got her. She emailed me. They must have moved her or I don’t know.” I was already on the go, getting in the car. “Let’s go.”
The driver took the direction to the large cabin Konstantin once had as another fancy resort.
His real estate portfolio had taken a dive, but it seemed he still thought he had rights to some of the dump.
While the cabin Raisa told me to come to was on the other side of the city, that wasn’t stopping us.
Luka ordered a helicopter to be on standby, and we sped to the landing strip to fly there.
I’m coming.
I will always come for you, Raisa.
I love you too much to lose you.
Please, just be there.
Be alive.
Because I love you too much to lose you again.
Soaring through the air was a much faster means of transportation, but it did mean that we couldn’t take many men with us.
More Dubinin crews were being dispatched to come this way as backup, but when we landed, it was only the four of us heading into the building.
The pilot was armed, so he, too, had his gun up and ready to use as we crept to the cabin.
Anyone within a five-mile radius would’ve been alerted to the sound of the chopper landing. It was a dead giveaway that we’d arrived, but I supposed relying on the element of surprise wasn’t our goal here.
The pilot and Emil went ahead, taking out every single Petrov we found guarding the space. There weren’t many, and I couldn’t decide if that was a good sign or a bad one. Or maybe it just meant that Konstantin was running out of people who’d serve him and defend him.
It didn’t matter who they were, they were dead.
We wouldn’t leave anyone alive.
Emil and the pilot gestured for us to enter the cabin.
They took out a few more men, their silencers reducing the sounds of the shots. It kept the building quiet for us to hear Raisa.
“You will never threaten me again!”
I ran. At the sound of her voice, so strong but strained, like she’d been screaming, I sprinted through the house. Luka was on my heels, shooting a couple more Petrov loyalists who stepped out to stop us.
They were dead. Down. Insignificant.
But the scene that I found once I burst into a room was anything but.
A severe shift of power was happening in here.
With Raisa standing over Konstantin, she bared her teeth and snarled at him.
I wasn’t going to interfere with this brutal, lethal confrontation. She stood over him as he lay on the floor. Blood streamed from wounds on her arms and face, but she didn’t waver. She didn’t flinch.
“You will never threaten me or my family again!” She screamed, pushing the sharp point of a fire poker at his throat. A gun was aimed at him from her other hand, the metal bloody likely from her fighting to get it from him.
“I am your family!”
She growled, shoving the fire poker more into his neck until he squirmed. “No! You ceased being my father, you ceased being my family the day you found me on campus and held a gun to me.”
I froze, riding out this wave of anger.
“Do you remember that?” She jammed the point deeper. “I do. I remember the fear when you aimed a gun at my stomach, ready to kill me and my son if I didn’t walk away from the only man worthy of my love.”
“I—”
She growled again, thrusting the gun at him like she was unhinged, barely in control.
“Shut up! I won’t allow you to beg. I want you to feel that same fucking fear.
I need you to experience what it’s like to look at death in your face and know you can’t survive.
That’s what you did to me. You are not my family and I relish the honor of killing you now.
” She released the safety on the gun. “You threatened my son. You threatened me for daring to love a man of my choice. And you threatened my real family one time too many.” She leaned lower. “Rot. In. Hell.”
With a hard push, she speared him through the throat.
As he protested and squirmed, she stared him dead in the eye and brought the gun to his face.
Pressing it on his forehead, she fired. “That’s for endangering my son.
” Another shot. “That’s for thinking I’m worthless.
” Once more, she shot him. “And that’s for making me almost lose the love of my life. ”
Ever so slowly, she stood. Straightening stiffly like moving her body was a pain to endure, she rose to her full height.
No one moved.
No one spoke.
We gave her time to stare at her father, dead under her foot that remained pressed on his chest. It didn’t rise or fall.
He was dead, three times over.
I swallowed hard, proud of her, and approached.
She turned to face me, her expression blank.
“It’s done,” I said softly.
She nodded. Almost numb.
“It’s done,” I repeated.
Emil watched as I gathered Raisa in my arms and held her tightly.
She would let me know what kind of comfort she’d want.
Deep down, she was too good and sweet, too caring and compassionate to be a killer.
Going this far to kill and seek closure on the danger that damaged our lives, she risked some damage up there in her head and in her soul.
She was in shock, but as long as she’d let me hold her, I would walk her through this destruction and see that she survived this storm, too.
“It’s done,” she said at last.
I nodded, stroking my hand over her back.
“Can you take me home?” she asked quietly.
“I’ve been waiting to do just that for a long time.”
She faced me, sighing and closing her eyes.
“You want him to take you home and meet the parents?” Luka joked, breaking the tension.
She opened her eyes and almost smiled. “Been there, done that.”
“Yeah, and you’ve already had my approval.” He came to us and guided us out of the room. “Welcome to the family, Raisa.” He kissed the top of her head as I steered her with my arm wrapped around her back.
“But… speaking of parents,” she said, leaving Emil in the room to start calling in for the cleanup, “I don’t want Lev to see me like this.”
“He won’t.” I understood what she meant, wanting to shelter him from this gruesome sight.
We wanted Lev to see us as his parents, a loving mother and father, not killers. His childhood wouldn’t be the same as other children’s, but we would balance it out.
“Gabriella, too,” she added. “I don’t want her to see me and think I’m a cold-hearted… whatever.”
Luka patted her back. “She won’t,” he replied with a light laugh, proving we were all on the same page of familiarity with this violent world.
“Even if she were to view me differently, it is what it is.”
“Nah. Don’t worry about that. She’s too obsessed with this wedding to even think about anything else. She’ll see you as a bride and a friend. One I am glad to see in her life.”
She nodded, still so numb but breaking through the shock as we led her to the car.
“And one I will never let go of. Ever again.” Leaning her against me, I felt like peace was finally within reach. She sagged against me like she knew I was the pillar she could count on, the anchor to keep her floating in the stormy seas of life.
“I love you, Ivan.”
I kissed her at the car, keeping it light and sweet but promising my whole heart in the gesture. She needed to be checked over and cleaned up. Comforted and cared for—by me.
“I love you, too.”
And I always would. This strong Mafia queen was mine to cherish until the end of our days. I would never forget the vows I’d made to her. Instead, I would spend every minute of my life making sure she was happy and content, at my side as we embraced our love that even her father couldn’t break.