Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Drago
Song - The Pretender, Foo Fighters
I slam the brakes on the truck as we pull into the stretch of woods buried deep enough that only the dead know we’re here.
I’m exhausted from the flight to Russia. I once called this place home, but now that feels further from the truth than ever. I’m mentally drained by the constant replay of my interaction with Lily.
I’ve studied her for years. Yet, nothing could have prepared me for actually being in such close proximity. Like a drug, one word and I’m hooked.
Never in my fucking life has anyone altered my brain chemistry like this.
Rowan opens his mouth, and I lift my hand to silence him. “Not a word. I need to concentrate.”
Silence settles immediately as I stare out of the window, holding onto my gun tight.
There isn’t so much as a breeze. No birds. No movement. It’s the kind of still that makes the hairs on the back of my neck rise. My body is on high alert the second my boots hit the dirt.
Being back in my home country does that to me. This place knows my blood, and it knows I’m no longer welcome.
Despite the threat, despite the ghosts buried in this soil, Lev is the one man I would walk into a war for without hesitation.
I know this territory better than any of Enzo’s men. Better than Mikhail’s. I ran these trails as a boy. I fought here as a man. I bled into this earth and learned how it breathes.
I studied it.
If our enemy comes, it will be from the right. That’s why I have Mikhail’s men stationed there.
But if someone is tailing Lev, then this stops being an extraction and turns into an execution, which just leads more enemies to me eventually.
I tap my earpiece, patching straight through to Enzo, our eyes in the sky.
My gaze snaps to my watch.
Two minutes.
I lock onto the marker ahead. The tree with the big fucking X carved into its trunk. Same mark. Same place. Same rules. This isn’t the first time Lev and I have had to put our lives on the line for each other.
But that is what you do for family, blood or not. Which is why I can never let Lily that close to me again. Why I can never cross that line with her.
Nothing moves.
My jaw tightens.
“He’s one minute out,” Enzo confirms.
My pulse kicks hard.
One minute is a lifetime in territory like this.
I don’t breathe when I see him.
Lev steps out from between the trees like the forest has finally decided to give him back. I frown; he looks older. Leaner since I last saw him. But, I know he’s still carved from violence and will. His eyes lock on mine, and something tightens in my chest that has nothing to do with the vest.
For half a second, I’m fifteen again. A boy pulled from hell by a man who chose me.
Then training slams back in.
Rowan and I move together, jumping out of the truck. No words. Just muscle memory. Guns up. Bodies low. We close the distance fast, boots sinking silently into damp earth from the melting snow.
Lev lifts a hand before we reach him, and I stop.
“They’re here,” he says quietly. Too calmly. “Three. Been on me since the river.”
My jaw clenches, but I don’t turn my head. I don’t need to. I feel it. That wrongness in the woods, shadows that don’t belong, like still air holding its breath.
“Right side,” Lev adds. “They wanted me to lead them to you.”
Rowan swears under his breath. This has Tatiana written all over it. Let her see me. She knows firsthand the damage I can cause. The things I can survive.
I grab Lev’s shoulder, the grip hard. “Rowan. Take him. Now.”
That’s when the world cracks.
The gunshot rips through the woods, and I don’t wait to see where it’s heading. I know. I slam into Lev, throwing my weight into him, shoving him sideways with everything I have.
The bullet hits me square in the chest.
It’s not sharp pain. It’s blunt. Crushing. Like getting hit by a truck. The sound leaves my body in a rush, and I hit the ground hard, stars exploding behind my eyes.
The bulletproof vest holds. I know that because otherwise I’d be fucking dead.
Thank fuck.
I roll before my lungs even remember how to work, coming up on one knee with my gun already raised. Rage floods me.
“Rowan, take him!” I command.
Three men break cover.
They shouldn’t have.
The first drops when I put two shots into him. He screams, clutching his leg, dragging himself across the dirt like that will save him.
It won’t.
One more shot and the noise stops.
The second comes at me from the side. I feel him before I see him. He fires and, unfortunately for him, misses. I close the distance fast, body moving on instinct older than thought.
My knife is out, and I slam it right under the ribs and twist. He collapses against me, the life draining from his dark eyes. He’s a dead weight, and I let him slide to the ground.
The third runs.
I don’t.
I aim.
The bullet catches him mid-step, and he folds.
Silence crashes down. Not peace. Never peace. Just the absence of threat.
My chest burns as I suck in air, every breath reminding me I’m still alive. I scan the tree line again. Once. Twice.
Nothing else moves.
“Drago!” Rowan yells from the truck. “Lev’s in. You breathing?”
I press my palm to my chest, right over the ache blooming under the vest. “Unfortunately.”
Lev leans out of the passenger side, his brown eyes full of fury. “I told you never to do that.”
He waves his finger at me, like he thinks he can lecture me and I’ll actually listen. Like, I didn’t just save his life without even blinking.
I stalk toward them, blood on my hands that isn’t mine. “You told me they were there.”
“That was a warning,” he snaps.
“That was you trusting me, old man,” I fire back.
That brings a grin to Lev’s face, and then he embraces me, just like a dad would.
“I owe you one now,” he whispers.
I clap his back. “You’re alive, that’s all that matters,” I tell him.
And I mean it.
Lev stares at me for a long moment. Something heavy passes between us. Old guilt. Old loyalty. Old sins that never stay buried.
“Get us out of here,” he says finally.
“You got it, boss.” I joke, jumping in the passenger seat.
Rowan slams the door and floors it.
As the truck tears away from the woods, I look back once.
Three bodies. No witnesses.
Lev is alive.
And I’d take that bullet again without hesitation. I pull up my phone and check in on Lily’s cameras. It’s late at home.
We’ve got a long fucking flight ahead of us, and now that Lev is safe, my focus is back on his daughter. Not that it ever stopped being there.
Charlotte is leading the torture of Madame Eve under the supervision of Declan. But, once they’re done, they’re doing some drive-bys of her home to make sure there isn’t anyone lurking around her house.
I’m not expecting Madame Eve to talk. But I expect that the fact we’re holding her hostage will bring more people out of the shadows.
Leaders don’t like their empires being destroyed. And that’s exactly what we’re doing.
State by State.
Day by day.
The end of the Preacher is coming.