Chapter 31
Chapter
Thirty-One
Chloe
We made it.
We ran into the building just as we heard the sirens. I didn’t know what cleanup could be done. We left a disaster out there. Not just piles of crushed metal and spent bullet casings. A carnage of bodies, too.
Kolya didn’t want to leave me alone, but Margo insisted I freshen up, wear the outfit she procured for the ceremony, and put me in some kind of bridal room.
Kolya begrudgingly agreed and was currently somewhere on this floor getting changed.
When they said Marriage Ink was a full-service wedding business, they weren’t kidding.
“You guys made it!” The women were on a video call.
I’d just showered and was wearing a fresh pair of lingerie. Although judging from the dress outside, I might not need a bra.
“Yes, we did.” I was still in the grip of an adrenaline kick.
Tremors would shake my body intermittently, but it was a feat that I wasn’t rocking in a corner in tears after all the violence I’d witnessed.
But it was as if all my life I had been waiting for this to happen, for the other shoe to drop, and when it finally did, all I felt was immense relief.
On the screen were Lucy, Irina, and Aralina, and of course they patched in Sloane, since her husband led the De Lucci crew. Dom and the don from New Jersey were dealing with law enforcement.
“You guys turned Manhattan into a war zone.” Sloane laughed. “Dom is grumbling that Kirill should be the one cleaning it up and dealing with the NYPD.”
“Kirill is going to be Kolya’s best man.”
“Don’t worry,” Lucy said. “He’s on the phone with his connections. They mobilized all the tow trucks and cleanup crews. If the airspace wasn’t still questionable, we would have choppered in,” she added. “I still can’t believe I’m missing the blood covenant.”
“They used grenade launchers.”
“I heard.” Lucy’s voice lowered. “Kirill is salty about his Porsche.”
And the Escalade that was meant for Lucy. I couldn’t believe the beating it endured before the windshield caved in.
I heard the click of the door to the suite.
“Okay, I think that’s the stylist who's doing my hair and makeup.”
“You’re really getting married!” Lucy gushed. “But we need a do-over.”
“Well, we’ll have Aralina’s wedding first.” I crossed my palms over my chest in apology. “Sorry, I didn’t want to steal your thunder.”
Aralina grinned and pressed the fingers of both hands to her mouth to give me air kisses.
She was really sweet. Although Lucy said not to mistake her sweetness for being a doormat.
We all said our goodbyes, and the phone blinked out.
“Just a minute!” I called. I pulled the towel off my head and let the damp tendrils frame my face. This felt surreal.
I tightened the sash on my robe and stepped out.
And froze.
Marena stood there with a suppressed gun pointed at me. Despite the blonde shaggy bob replacing her dark hair, and black square frames replacing the cat-eye ones, it was her. A makeup artist's apron covered her front. But I could see she was wearing dark jeans and combat boots.
“How?” I whispered.
“How did I get inside such a secure location? The first floor, with the flower shop and the patisserie, is public space. They receive deliveries. All I had to do was hide out in the flower shop.”
“What did you do to the person who was going to do my makeup…”
“They’ll find her eventually.”
“You killed her?”
Her evil grin transformed her face into one that I would classify as over-plasticized ugly. It might be the layer of makeup on her face to disguise her features, but she’d really overdone the lip fillers to comically enhanced.
“You still don’t know who I am?” she asked.
My conversation with Kolya before the initial attack flashed through my head.
“You tried to kill me and my mother when I was fifteen.” I kept myself from looking at where I’d discarded my clothes.
Underneath it was the gun Kolya had given me.
I lifted my arms in a placating gesture while inching closer to the pile.
“Was that how old you were?” She sneered. “I was one of the Vozhokari. I had one more job before I became a vessel and proved that my bloodline was worth the order, since many of us had been diluted by less worthy lineage. Kolya was supposed to be my partner. I am his fiancée, not you.”
“Your organization is nothing more than slavery, you know that, right?” My anger at the forced breeding within the Vozhokari came roaring back. “How is that different from rape? Oh, wait, you have no problem kidnapping babies!”
“My betrothed tried to kill me. He ruined my face!” Her voice rose. “Because of him, the Vozhokari exiled the Areenova clan; I had to endure facial reconstruction. I had ceased having an identity. And then you came along and I found a chance to belong again.”
“By giving them my baby?”
“Yes.” Her eyes narrowed. “They will accept us back into their organization if we produce the blue-eyed Petrov baby. It doesn’t matter who the mother is. Nikolai is a lost cause. He won’t fuck me because that damned fool has fallen in love with you.”
I tried not to show a reaction even when my insides were disintegrating in regret.
I suspected Kolya was getting attached. He even admitted it could be love.
I knew he was feeling extremely protective of Sebastian, and not because of duty.
We were so close to having it all; I couldn’t let Marena steal my happiness.
“Stop. Moving,” she hissed.
“Or what? You’re going to shoot me anyway,” I challenged.
“I’m still debating. I want to make Nikolai suffer.”
“But you can’t get out of here with me even if I cooperate.”
A muffled pop made me flinch before I realized she’d shot at my left hand. It was a nick on the side of my palm, but it still left me in shock to see the blood bloom and drip.
I let out a broken sob as the sting crept up my arm.
“Shut up.” She moved closer.
I dropped to my knees, holding my injured hand, and started crying.
“Shut up!” she repeated and stalked toward me. “I can’t believe a warrior like Nikolai would choose a sniveling nobody like you. You’re illegitimate. You don’t belong in our world. He needs someone like me!”
Fuck that.
I dove under the pile of clothes and reached for my gun.
Marena cackled and brought down the butt of hers and cracked it over my wrist. I lost my loose hold of it.
She kicked my rib cage, and I curled over to grit against the pain.
“Oh, was that an act?” she laughed softly.
She yanked at my hair to pull me up before she barred her arm against my neck.
You have six seconds to react before you lose consciousness.
She was dragging me to the full-length mirror. “I’m a trained assassin. You’re no match for me, but I’ll let you watch me put a bullet in your head.”
She laughed softly again.
But her movements allowed me to insert my fingers underneath her forearm, which was holding me hostage against her body.
I created enough space to slip out of her hold.
I heard her yell of outrage before the pounding of my heart muffled my ears.
I dove for my gun, spun, and fired.
No hesitation.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Marena crashed into the mirror, sending shards of glass spraying into a mesmerizing spectacle I had trouble looking away from.
That was when I felt the throbbing on my side, and I glanced down. My whole right side was a map of red.
Marena groaned and struggled to get up.
Shouting and pandemonium broke outside the room.
My eyes blurred, and I tried to power through the sudden lightheadedness.
But my arm felt like lead, and I sank to the floor.
I fought to raise my arm and shoot again.
Marena was wearing body armor. My brain was screaming at me to get up, walk over, and shoot her in the head, but my limbs wouldn’t move.
Marena raised her gun.
I’m dead.
The door crashed open.
Marena’s head jerk as a bullet passed through it and splattered blood on the wall.