Chapter 61 Petyr
PETYR
The second I’m against the window, I see it.
Sima, at the top of the stairs.
Her father, dragging her by the hair, then tossing her to the floor.
I watch her as she rises. My gaze snags on her hands, small and trembling, trying to push the monster away. It’s only a handful of seconds, but it takes forever in my eyes.
I don’t even think before I pull the trigger.
Nikolai’s brain explodes. It isn’t pretty, but it’s effective. Satisfying enough, though a part of me isn’t happy with it.
I’d wanted to make him suffer. Bring him back to the warehouse and watch the light fade from his eyes as he understood he was going to die because of what he did. He killed my father, and I was going to kill him.
But I couldn’t let him hurt Sima for one more second.
My heart clenches as I break down the door and rush to the top of the stairs. I hadn’t wanted her to see it. When I killed her brothers, it happened far away from her eyes. She forgave me for those, but what if she doesn’t forgive me for this? The thought terrifies me.
Then I see her body, swaying at the top of the staircase, and all thoughts evaporate.
“Sima!” She’s pale, swaying. Her hands are clutching the railing, but her grip slips fast.
My first thought is, She’s going to fall.
My second, I won’t let her.
I speed up. Take the stairs three by fucking three.
She tips over, and I catch her around the waist.
We tumble into a heap on the floor. I’m breathing hard, but unharmed. Sima’s face, though, is a sheet. White with specks of red between her freckles.
I hate myself for putting them there, but I’d never go back. Not if it meant losing her.
“Sima.” I touch her cheek gently. “You’re safe. I’m here.”
Her eyelashes flutter briefly. “Petyr?”
“Yeah,” I croak. “It’s me.”
She blinks at me like she can’t believe it. Her hand reaches up, trembling, and lands on my cheek.
Then she breaks down sobbing.
I pull her into my arms and hold her through it. “Hush. It’s okay now. It’s over.”
“You’re real?” She starts touching me everywhere. “You’re not a dream?”
“I’m not a dream.” My lips quirk up. “Though I am flattered.”
A wet laugh breaks out of her. “You jerk.”
“It’s why you like me.”
“No.” She shakes her head softly, still smiling. “Not ‘like.’ I love you.”
Her words choke me. I’m flooded with a feeling I haven’t had much use for in my life: gratitude. Because Sima’s okay, alive and well and breathing, and I got to her in time to save her. To break her fall for her.
Before I can say it back, however, her breath catches.
“We need to go,” she blurts. “Nikolai’s men are going to be here at any moment. And Maksim—”
“It’s fine.” I stroke her hair gently, careful not to touch the top of her head.
Rage still boils inside me when I remember how her father was manhandling her moments ago.
If I wasn’t such a good shot, I might have had a chance to show him what real cruelty looks like later.
“Maksim is with us. He told me where to find you.”
Her eyes grow lucid again. “Really?”
“Really.” I press a kiss to her forehead. “He’s a good brother. You can be proud of him.”
“I am.” Her smile is wobbly, but real. “So, the war…?”
“It’s over.”
“Really?” Sima looks like she’s about to cry again, but for a wholly different reason. Happy tears for once. “You mean that?”
“I do.” I brush a stray lock out of her face. “No more bloodshed between our families. There’s been enough.”
We both glance at the bottom of the stairs. Nikolai’s corpse is lying there, in a pool of his own blood. Dead.
He’s the man I was at war with. He and Anatoli. Feliks found his death when he decided to take a shot at me. But Maksim—I’ve got no beef with him. Especially after the way he acted tonight.
He protected Sima. Put her first. As far as I’m concerned, that makes him trustworthy in my book.
Speaking of trust, we still need to get to the bottom of something else.
“How did Nikolai’s men find you?” I stroke circles into her back, hold her close. “Did they ambush you at the diner with Kira?”
Sima blinks. “The diner?”
“Yes. You had dinner with Kira there, didn’t you?”
Finally, her eyes widen. “Petyr, no.” She shakes her head frantically. “Kira—she’s not who you think she is.”
“What do you mean?” I frown.
“She’s the one who took me.” Her voice trembles. “She said she wanted to go out to eat, but then she just—she kept driving. I asked her to stop, but she wouldn’t. And then she brought me to this parking lot at the edge of the woods, and there was an SUV, and—”
“Stop.” She flinches when I say it, so I rephrase. “Calm down, Sima. What are you saying exactly?”
“I’m saying Kira’s a traitor.” She looks shaken. Afraid, even. Like she’s terrified I won’t believe her. “She did this, Petyr. She sold me out.”
I take a deep breath. Think long and hard about Kira’s story when she came home.
“I think she ran off again.”
That goddamn liar.
Fury overtakes me. If there was a wall anywhere near me, I’d be punching straight through it.
But there isn’t. Instead, there’s Sima, still looking like she’s scared half to death of my reaction. So I bury my rage and put her first. Like I should have done from the beginning.
“I’m sorry.” I look Sima in the eye. “I should have been there to protect you.”
She seems surprised by my words. That I’m choosing her instead of my anger. “You couldn’t have known.”
“I should have, though.”
“No.” She shakes her head. “She fooled us all. But…” Her face goes pale again. “Where is she now? Where’s Lilia?”
“At the house.” Realization dawns on me. “We have to go. Now.”
I pick Sima up and carry her down the stairs. “Is Luka there?” she asks, agitated. “Can you call him?”
I’ve already got my phone to my ear.
He picks up before the second ring. “Boss? Did you find her?”
“Yes. She’s safe. She’s here right now.”
“Thank fuck.” A sharp exhale. “You scared us, Sima.”
“Luka, you can’t trust Kira,” she cries out as I hold the phone between us. “She’s the one who kidnapped me. You have to protect Lilia, please!”
“It’s fine,” I whisper to her. I don’t want her to get all worked up again after the shocks she’s already had tonight. “I’ve got it.”
“Okay,” she murmurs. Open, trusting.
I won’t betray that trust again. Ever.
I move the phone to my other ear so I can hold her better in my arms. Then I speak to Luka. “Sima’s telling the truth. Secure Kira until I’m back there. I’ll get answers out of her at the warehouse.”
“Kira isn’t here,” he says after a beat. “I think she left earlier. Though her car is still around, so she can’t have gone far.”
“Send a search party into the woods,” I growl. “Find her. And do not let her anywhere near the baby.”
“That’s not going to be a problem,” he assures me. “Anya has been standing guard like a freaking Dobermann.”
“Good. That’s her job now. Tell her, too.”
“Right away, boss.”
“And double Dimitri’s security.”
A beat goes by as the implications of my request sink in. “Of course, boss.”
I end the call and turn back to Sima. “Lilia’s safe. She’s with Anya.”
Her shoulders slump in relief. “I never thought I’d say this, but thank the stars for that woman.”
“You’re saying you don’t like my housekeeper?” I tease.
“If we get past tonight, I’ll make her Lilia’s freaking godmother.”
We get to the bottom of the stairs. Mikhail is waiting for me, standing with Maksim in the middle of the foyer.
I put Sima down and let her go to him. Costs me a lot, though.
“Maks.” Her smile is so radiant. “You really helped Petyr?”
“I helped you.” He shrugs like it’s no big deal, but I know it is. By the looks of her, Sima knows it, too. “You’re my sister. I wasn’t going to let our father take another one.”
The reference to Lara makes them both misty-eyed.
“Besides.” Maksim clears his throat. “Now, there’s no feud anymore. It was a stupid thing anyway. Better to work together than against one another.”
She smiles, then hugs her brother. “Thank you, Maks.”
“I didn’t do anything,” he says gruffly.
“You did. More than anyone in this family except…” Sima trails off. “Well. You know.”
He looks like he does. Maybe it wasn’t just Sima that Lara grew up protecting.
“I have to go now,” she says. “Lilia, she’s—”
“Go,” Maks interrupts. “I’ll call you. And I’ll tell Mom you said hi.”
Sima’s face twists into a complicated expression at that. Half joy, half sorrow.
I can’t blame her. Her relationship with her mother is fraught at best. Sima might love her, but she won’t forget that the woman wasn’t there for her when she needed her. Or for her sister.
But now, they have something they didn’t have before. They have time. And the freedom to make things work again, if they so choose.
I wrap Sima into a side embrace. She curls up against me. “I leave the rest to you,” I tell Mikhail.
“Of course. Give ‘em hell, cuz.”
He has no clue how right he is.
Kira may be Dimitri’s wife, but what she did tonight was inexcusable. She better have a damn good explanation for it, or I won’t have any mercy to show her.
None at all.