Chapter 20
ANYA
T he sight of my father standing in the doorway is not a surprise. I knew he’d come looking for Nadia sooner or later. Guess it only took him about an hour to realize she was gone. For how much he ignores Nadia, I would’ve thought it would have been much longer.
“Sergei,” Erik says, blocking the doorway so my father can’t enter.
“You have my daughter. Let me in.”
“It’s true. I took Nadia.”
“So, you admit it. You kidnapped her.”
“No. I saved her. You treated both of your daughters like shit. I decided Nadia wasn’t safe with you and that she’d be much safer with me. Besides, Anya has a right to be with her sister.”
The way Erik talks about Nadia and me now is vastly different from just a few months ago. He really has changed. And even if he can never love me in return, I know he’s become a better man. Maybe he’ll never be truly “good,” but in the world of the Bratva, a better man is what to hope for.
“Need I remind you Nadia is only seventeen? She’s a minor. I can get you arrested for this.”
“But you won’t because if you called the police on me, it would just put a target on your own back. You know this, Sergei. As Bratva men, we never get the police involved. So, your threat is empty. Nadia will live here. We’re done working together. I’m going to take down Dante tonight on my own.”
“No. You don’t get to just decide to end things when you married my daughter and kidnapped my other daughter. I have a say in this.”
“You really don’t. Not after how you’ve treated them.”
He rocks back on his heel, laughing without any humor. “That’s rich, coming from you. The king of torture. You weren’t kind to Anya when you first married. Don’t lecture me, boy, on doing what’s right.”
Erik stands up taller and towers over my father. “I am not a boy, and I will not have you speak to me this way.”
“It’s ok,” comes Nadia’s soft voice from behind us.
I whirl around and see my sister standing by the stairs, her chin raised and determination in her eyes. I’ve rarely ever seen her look this brave.
“Let me talk to him,” she says, stepping closer to our father. Slowly, Erik backs out of the way. I tense. If my father so much as lays a hand on Nadia, I’ll hurt him. I won’t hesitate to.
“We’re leaving now,” our father says, already turning away like he just expects her to do as he says.
“No.” Nadia’s voice is clear and strong.
“What did you say?” He turns back to her with a glare. “Nadia, don’t play games. You’re coming back home. Now.”
“No. I’m going to stay with Anya and Erik. They’ll keep me safe. I don’t think you can.”
“I’ve kept you safe all your life.”
“Only because Anya took the beatings for me. If she hadn’t, I don’t think I’d be alive right now. You can’t keep me safe, not when you’re the reason both Anya and me have hurt for most of our lives. I don’t want to see you again.”
“You’re still betrothed to Viktor Smirnov. Erik and I made that deal with him together. You don’t get to just end it.”
“I’m not ending it,” she says. “I know my duty. But my duty doesn’t have to include you. I’m staying, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
I go to stand by Nadia’s side. “You heard her. Leave.”
His face contorts into something evil and vile and pure ugly. “You always hated me, didn’t you?”
“I mean, you beat me almost every day, yeah. You tend to hate the man who does that to you. Nadia is staying with me. And if that eats you up inside, well, you’re just going to have to learn to deal with it. You didn’t lose us because we’re evil daughters. You lost us because you’re a terrible father. Remember that.” I slam the door in his face, and, my god, does it feel amazing.
“I’m proud of you,” I tell Nadia.
“And I’m proud of you,” she says in return.
Another loud knock on the door makes us both jump.
“Oh, for god’s sake,” I mutter, ripping the door open. “Can’t you just get the hint?”
I freeze when I see who’s on the other side.
It’s not my father.
It’s Dante.
My father is being held on his knees by Aiden with a gun to his head.
Erik storms forward and pushes Nadia and me behind him. “Run!”
Nadia takes my hand, pulls me away from Erik, and forces me to run toward the kitchen.
How did Dante find us? He doesn’t know where Erik lives. It doesn’t really matter. What matters is he’s here now, and we need to find a way out of this.
We run into the kitchen, and I grab the first knife I can find. “Grab one.”
Nadia does as I say. We huddle together, staring at the kitchen door.
“What now?” she whispers.
“Now, we run outside. Through the back door.” I grab her hand and haul her toward the back door. I slam into it, pushing it open. For a second, I can taste safety.
And then a man appears in the doorway and shoves us both back, closing the door behind him. It’s Finn. The other hitman.
“You really didn’t think Dante would leave the backdoor unattended, did you?”
I pull Nadia close to me. “Stay back.”
“Or what?”
Erik storms into the kitchen and immediately starts firing at Finn. He lands a hit to Finn’s shoulder that sends him stumbling back. Without hesitating, Finn runs out the back door before Erik can get another hit in.
“Are you hurt?” he asks, rushing over to my side.
“No. But, Erik, what are we going to do?”
A grim expression covers his face. “I have a failsafe plan in place something like this were to happen. But I need to get Dante inside for it to work.”
“What’s the plan?”
“I’m going to blow up the house.”
It takes me a second to even process his words. “You’re going to …”
“Blow up the house. Yes. I have a system installed in the basement that I can set off in case of an emergency. But I need to get Dante inside. He needs to be in here when this place explodes.”
“And us?” Nadia whispers.
“We need to get out.”
“This sounds like a stupid idea,” I tell him.
“It’s for a worst-case scenario situation. With Dante here, I think we’re in it. Come on. I have to get to the basement and activate it. We’ll have just ten minutes before this whole house explodes when I turn it on. Which means I need you out of the house.”
“But Finn is out there.”
“I know. We need to draw him, Dante, and Aiden inside.” He goes quiet for a moment before nodding. “Go hide in the bathroom on this floor. I’ll text you when to run outside. Got it?”
“What if this plan doesn’t work?”
Erik grabs my face and kisses me deeply. “It will work. Now, do as I say. You have to trust me.”
This is the ultimate test. I have to trust Erik completely in this moment to save Nadia and me.
I grab his hand. “I trust you.”
“Then, go.”
Nadia and I run into the nearest bathroom and hunker down in the bathtub. I keep my body angled in front of her with my knife out. It won’t stop a gun, but it will hurt any man if I cut him.
Nadia and I keep quiet, but our shared look says everything.
Are we going to make it out of this alive?
ERIK
I run into the basement at full speed. My system is hidden inside a panel on the wall. It requires a special combination to set the bomb off. I didn’t want someone just pressing a button by accident and blowing up my entire fucking house.
It’s a reckless plan. It could end with Anya and me dying instead of Dante. But it’s all I have now.
The machine guns I bought are stored in a safe house to ensure Dante couldn’t get at them. I have my own gun and a few others to help, but my entire plan has gone up in flames.
I send a text to Ivan and Viktor, explaining that Dante is at my house and I could use the backup. Send men. I message James as well to send more men. I have an arsenal of men at my disposal, but none are here to help me now.
And by the time they see this, their men might not be able to get here in time. Sergei is out. He’s caught by Aiden, if they haven’t killed him yet.
For now, I’m on my own.
I plug in the combination and push the button that will activate the bomb in my house. Ten minutes. That’s all I have to get Anya and Nadia out and Dante and his hitmen inside.
I rush upstairs and fling open the front door where Dante is waiting for me. “You want to fight? Let’s fight.” Once glance behind him tells me Sergei is still alive.
Dante smirks as he steps foot into the house. “I thought you’d never ask. Why invite me in?”
“You have my house surrounded. I can’t get out. I thought it would be better to fight like men and end this instead of being bitches about it.”
“Interesting. You kidnapped my friend’s daughter. I would call that little bitch behavior.”
“That was all Sergei.”
“Didn’t stop you from asking her where my home address, though. She told me everything.”
“I didn’t expect anything less. Why don’t you invite your men inside? They’re gonna want to watch as I kill you with my own hands.”
“Aiden is busy with your father-in-law. And Finn is stationed outside so your wife can’t leave. Once I kill you, I’m coming for her.”
“Doesn’t matter.” I swing my fist at Dante, and he dodges out of the way. I’m just going to have to improvise.
He attacks me from the side, slamming me into the wall. I’m still holding my gun, and I angle it toward the open doorway where I can see Aiden. I fire.
The bullet misses him, but it draws his attention.
“Playing dirty,” Dante snarls, punching me in the jaw.
Aiden pistol whips Sergei, making him go unconscious, before stepping over his body and heading inside the house. “Do you need help killing him?”
“Grab his gun.”
Dante holds me against the wall as Aiden takes my gun from me. During that distraction, I knee Dante in the stomach, which makes him double over with a gasp, and grab the back of his hair before kneeing him right in the face.
I grab the other gun from my ankle holster and fire at both Aiden and Dante, but Aiden kicks my hand, knocking the gun from my grasp.
“What the hell is going on in here?” Finn asks, coming in through the kitchen. “A fight? And I wasn’t invited? Shame.” He glances around the room. “Where are the girls?”
Dante barrels into me, knocking me to the ground. He holds out his hand, and Aiden places a gun in it. The gun is cold as he presses it to my forehead.
“Say goodnight, Erik.”
“No!” It’s Anya.
She runs into the room and takes a swing at Finn with a knife, who clearly wasn’t prepared for her. She cuts his arm, causing him to drop his gun.
“Shit,” he mutters. She tries striking him again, but he pushes her back.
And then, there’s Nadia. She runs up behind Finn and stabs him in the side. He falls down with a grunt.
“Brother,” Aiden calls out, running right to his side. He looks at the women, then at Dante and me before shaking his head and helping his brother out of the house.
“Looks like they just left you,” I mock. “That’s what happens when you hire the help instead of inspiring loyalty in them.”
Dante’s face contorts into anger, and he begins to rain down punches onto my face. Every hit hurts, but it’s nothing compared to the knowledge that we have less than five minutes to get out of this house. If Anya dies inside, I know I’ll be devastated.
Anya runs over and stabs the knife into Dante’s back. He grunts and stands up, spinning around to face her.
And right before my eyes, he shoots her in the stomach. Everything goes silent for a long second.
Then, Anya gasps and collapses to the ground. Dante starts to inch toward the door, but I can’t let him leave.
I run over to him, shove him to the ground, and kick him in the head. His eyes flutter closed as he goes unconscious. As long as he’s inside when this place blows up, he won’t make it.
“Anya,” Nadia sobs, kneeling beside her sister.
I rush over to Anya’s side. Blood gushes from her abdomen. It’s deadly if she doesn’t get help fast.
I pick Anya and run outside, with Nadia following. As gently as I can, I place her in the car. Anya reaches out to me, gurgling and gagging.
“Don’t talk,” I order. “Nadia! Put pressure on Anya’s wound.”
Nadia scrambles into the backseat and does as I instruct. “What about my dad? Will the blast from the explosion kill him?”
“I don’t know,” I answer honestly as I start the car and drive away. Aiden and Finn are nowhere to be seen. They cut their losses when they realized they might not make it.
Dante hasn’t come out of the house yet. He has one minute left before he’s dead.
With no time to savor Dante’s death, I drive to my personal doctor, Dr. Bailey. He’ll fix Anya without asking questions.
But Anya has to survive making it to his hospital first.
“How’s she doing?” I ask, my voice ragged. I’ve never sounded so afraid before. I don’t think I’ve ever been this afraid before.
“She’s alive. But she’s bleeding faster. It’s not good, Erik. Hurry!”
I step on the gas. If any police officer tries to pull me over, I’m shooting him in the fucking face. I drive through redlights and take corners fast.
And then, there’s Dr. Bailey’s hospital before my eyes. He’s chief of the hospital and will make sure the cops aren’t involved in investigating Anya’s shooting.
I jump from the car so fast, I almost stumble, and then I pick Anya up and carry her inside. “I need help!”
A nurse runs over to me with a gurney. “Put her on.”
Anya grabs my jacket and shakes her head.
“It’s ok,” I whisper to her. “They’re going to save you, but you have to let go. You have to let them save you.”
Her fingers release my jacket.
The moment she’s on the gurney, the nurse calls for a team of nurses and doctors as they bring her into a private room of the ER.
“Stay back,” a different nurse tells me as the other doctors and nurses get started on cutting off Anya’s dress and attending to the gunshot. “We need room.”
“I’m her husband.”
“And I’m her sister,” Nadia adds. I didn’t even realize she was right behind me.
“Ok. Just wait here. Is she on any medication?”
“No,” Nadia says.
“Not that I’m aware of,” I add.
“Ok.” The nurse looks between us with sympathetic eyes. I fucking hate her for it. Her expression implies Anya might not make it. But she has to.
She just has to.
“Stay out here. We’ll keep you updated.”
Nadia sobs the moment the nurse is gone. I pull her into my arms, and she clings to me, crying hard for her sister.
Crying for the woman we both love.
Anya is transported to surgery to remove the bullet and stop the bleeding. All that means is Nadia and I have nothing to do but wait.
“She put herself in danger,” I say, rubbing the heel of my palm into my eyes. “How could she do that?”
“She was trying to save you. That’s why she stabbed Dante.”
“She shouldn’t have tried to save me. It was my job to save her.”
“You know my sister. She thinks it’s her job to save everyone she loves. I think you’re on that list now. That means something.”
Nadia’s words punch me right in the gut, and all the pain and anger and fear I’ve been keeping inside comes rushing out. I let myself cry in front of my sister-in-law, and she doesn’t judge me for it.
The tears subside within a couple of minutes, and I straighten up, pretending like I didn’t just bawl my fucking eyes out like a baby.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Bratva man cry before.”
“You’ve ever seen your father cry?”
Nadia shakes her head. “Never. You’ve met him. He’s not a crier.”
“I’m not normally, but Anya has done something to me.”
“It’s love.”
I look at Nadia sharply. “I …”
“It’s love, Erik. You love her; otherwise, you wouldn’t be so scared for her right now. You wouldn’t care at all. Embrace it. Be happy with my sister when she makes it out of this. Ok?”
All I can say is, “Ok,” because there’s nothing else to say.
“Do you think my father is dead? Or Dante?”
“Only one way to know. I’ll have to go see for myself.”
“Can you go now? Anya won’t be out of surgery for at least a couple of hours. I just need to know if my dad is dead. Please.”
All I want is to stay here and wait for news about Anya, but Nadia is right. It’ll be a while before Anya is out—if she makes it out at all. There’s nothing for me to do here. What I can do is do my job, and that means seeing if Sergei and Dante survived or not.
Nadia promises to call if anything changes, so I drive back to my home. It’s a pile a rubble now. Nothing left.
Sergei isn’t in the spot where we left him. I call him, and he answers.
“Left me for dead, Erik?”
“Hi, Sergei.”
“I’m coming for my daughter, you know.”
“You’re not getting your hands on either Anya or Nadia ever again. You understand me? Have a nice fucking life, Sergei.” I hang up.
He’s going to be a problem in the future, but that’s not something I need to deal with right now.
I enter the pile of rubble and search for Dante’s body or any traces of it. Blood or pieces of cloth. Flesh or brain matter. Something that tells me Dante is dead.
But there’s nothing.
It’s just a pile of stone and marble and cement and wood. Dante isn’t here.
Motherfucker.
He survived. I feel it in my fucking bones.
He must have made it out at the last moment. I drive down the road to see if he collapsed somewhere and died, but I drive up and down the road a few miles and don’t see him. I even check the woods around my house, but there’s no sign of him. No blood trail. No footprints anywhere.
Dante is alive, which means our war is not over. I failed in killing him, but that just means I’ll have to try again.
For now, Anya is my focus.
I return to the hospital just in time for Dr. Bailey to show. “We got the bullet out and stopped the bleeding. Anya is alive. But she’ll need to stay in the hospital for a few days to make sure there are no complications. Do you want to see her?”
“Yes,” Nadia and I say in unison.
Anya is asleep when we enter her private room. An oxygen tube is in her nose, and an IV is attached to her arm. She looks so peaceful.
Nadia and I stay by her side and wait until her eyes flutter open.
“Anya?” Nadia gasps.
Slowly, Anya looks at her sister for a long time before she looks at me. And even around the oxygen tube in her nose, she smiles.
ANYA
Nadia tells me everything. How Erik carried me out to the car. How they left Dante for dead. How they saved my life.
But Erik is quiet about something.
“What is it?” I ask in a groggy voice.
“Your father is still alive. I’m not sure if that’s good news or bad news, but what I do know is he’s going to make things challenging in the future.”
“We can handle him,” Nadia says. “We have no other choice.”
I look at Erik closer. “There’s something else.”
“How can you tell?”
“I’ve been studying your expressions for a while now. I can tell when you’re not telling me something.”
He clears his throat and inhales deeply before saying, “Dante is still alive. He must have made it out of the house before it exploded. The house is gone. All of it was for nothing.”
A chill spreads through me knowing Dante is still out there, but this is the Bratva and the Mafia. There will always be dangers. It won’t just go away because Erik kills one man.
“At least I stabbed him.” I say. “So, he’ll probably be out of commission for a while. And as for the house … think of it as a fresh start. We can buy a house together of our choosing. A place where we can start our new lives together.” I turns to my sister. “Can I speak to Erik alone?”
“Of course.” She quickly leaves the room without protest, being the good sister she always is.
“What did you want to talk about?” he asks, sitting down next to me and taking my hand.
“You saved my life again. So, thank you for that.”
“I’ll always save your life, Anya. You want to know why?”
“Why?”
“I realized something while you were in surgery. Well, Nadia helped me realize it. You saved me from Dante by putting yourself in danger. She said you only do that for the people you love. And it made me realize there are no more barriers between us, Anya. Because I love you. I know it. I know I’m capable of it. And I fucking love you.”
My eyes widen right before a few tears spill out. “You love me?”
“I really do. I’m not afraid of it. I used to think caring for people was a weakness, but you’ve shown me otherwise. I would die for you, Anya, and if that’s not love, I don’t know what is.”
Gently, I touch Erik’s face and looks at him with so much awe. “Oh, Erik. I’m not just falling in love. I know I’m in love with you, too. I want us to have a new start.”
“Then we can have that. We can start with you getting out of this hospital and healing. We can find a new home, as you said. We can have the marriage you wanted from the start. One where I don’t always have to be the boogeyman and you don’t have to be afraid.”
“I want that. And Nadia can still live with us?”
“Of course. Especially since I just made an enemy of your father, I think it’s the least I can do.”
“Thank you for picking me over him. Thank you for opening your heart up to me.”
“I don’t regret it one bit. You’re my future, Anya. Nothing else matters. I’ve realized that. My business is just my business. It’s important, yes, but it’s not more important than you.”
“You really have changed.” I gives him a small, simple kiss. “Stay with me?”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
The new house Erik and I buy is even farther from the city and more beautiful than Erik’s previous house because this house is one we chose together.
It takes me a few months to fully heal from my bullet wound, and Erik is with me for all of it. And when he has to go to work, Nadia helps me through the pain.
I’ll always have a scar on my stomach to remind me of what happened. Someday, that scar will grow bigger when my stomach grows bigger with children. I’m not pregnant yet, but someday, I know Erik and I will have kids, and I’m not afraid of that idea.
I love knowing we’ll have a little human that ties us even closer together.
Nadia settles into her new life with us, growing braver and stronger now that she’s not under our father’s shadow.
There’s been so sign of Dante, even though it’s been months. As for my father, he keeps making threats to take Nadia back, but so far, hasn’t done anything about it.
In just another couple of months, Nadia will be eighteen, and that means if Viktor wanted to, he could marry her. I still haven’t found a way to get Nadia out of that situation, but she keeps telling me she can handle it. That she’ll do her duty if it means Erik has allies he can trust.
But it will also mean I’ll have to let her go one day, and I’m not sure I’m ready for that anytime soon. I’ve been a surrogate mother to her for so long, I’m not sure how I’m going to live my life without her when she eventually marries and moves out. But I’ll have Erik, and hopefully, I’ll have my own children to care for.
Now, Erik and I lie in bed together, naked. He traces his fingers over the scar on my stomach.
“You don’t think it’s ugly, do you?” I whisper.
“You could never be ugly in my eyes.”
“What if we had children? Do you think you’ll make a good father?”
He curls me into his chest and kissed my head. “Because I love you and because I would do anything to protect you, I think I’ll be a good father one day. I’m already trying to be a better husband.”
“You’ve been great these past weeks. You’ve stuck by my side while I’ve healed. The old you would’ve left me alone. But this new you is open and ready to be with me.”
“That’s because I love you, and I know if we have children, I’ll love them, too.”
I settle my head on his chest, hearing his heartbeat under my ear. Being with Erik like this makes me feel content.
I’m not alone anymore. I have a partner who’ll stay by my side even when times get tough. I don’t have to be so afraid of the monster in my bed. Because he’s not a monster at all anymore.
He’s just my husband now. Neither of us is perfect, but we’ve found a relationship that works for us. And knowing I’m safe with him makes me happier than anything else in this world.
I’ve finally found my real home.
The End