Chapter 49
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
KIRILL
A row of white chairs stretches across the grass, flowers lining the aisle while lights twist through the trees and overhead, enough to make the whole yard glow once the sun goes down. At the end of it all, a canopy waits for her.
For Sloane.
My wife.
I never thought I’d marry again. Never wanted to. Then she came into my life and made a liar out of me.
Anton sits alone on one side, while Konstantin and Aleksei are seated together in the front row, their wives between them, whispering with small smiles.
Lev stands beside me as my best man in his matching suit, his fingers wrapped around the ring box.
I crouch down in front of him. “Are you happy that Papa is getting married?”
He considers the question before he says, “Love…Sloane.”
My arm curls around him. “She loves you too.”
For the first time, he’s going to have a mother who loves him exactly as he is, not for who she expected him to be.
Father Pasha stands beneath the canopy, waiting for the ceremony to begin, and just as I start to grow restless, the music starts to play from the in-ground speakers.
That’s when I see her. She steps onto the grass holding a small pink bouquet, the lace of her strapless gown catching the light and making her look almost unreal, like something fragile and beautiful that wandered into my life by accident and somehow stayed.
Milo marches beside her, arm looped through hers, while waving toward my brothers the second he spots them.
“Aww,” Fiona gushes, looking over at me with a grin.
Even Aleksei dips his chin, which from him is practically enthusiasm.
“You look beautiful,” Emilia whisper-shouts just as Sloane passes, gripping Konstantin’s arm.
He kisses the top of her head, and the way he loves her…I hope I can be half the husband he is.
As soon as Sloane stops before me, my chest splits open. I’ve never felt this level of emotion in my goddamn life except when Lev was born. It’s as though the world narrows until it’s just the two of us standing here beneath the sky.
I take her hand, my thumb brushing over her knuckles. “You’re beautiful. I don’t deserve you.”
She smiles up at me, her eyes warm. “You deserve more than you realize, Kirill Marinov.”
I don’t have time to argue about how wrong she is, and when her fingers tighten around mine, she moves to stand at my side.
Father Pasha clears his throat just as Milo moves toward Lev.
“We are gathered here today under the eyes of God to witness the union of this man and this woman.”
His Russian accent wraps around every word, but I only catch half of what he says. The rest drifts past me because all I can focus on is her, looking like the future I never let myself imagine.
Her eyes. Her smile. The quiet trust in the way she holds my hand.
All I want to do is kiss her.
Finally, Father Pasha turns to me. “Do you take this woman to be your wife?”
“I do.” The answer leaves me without hesitation.
“And do you take this man to be your husband?”
“I do.”
“Then by the power given to me by God, you may now kiss the bride.”
The words barely leave him before I pull her in, my lips capturing hers.
Right now, everything feels perfect. But even with her in my arms, I know what comes next. Tomorrow, I send her and the boys away, and I’ll hate every blyadsky second of it.
But this is my family now, and I will protect them. No matter what it takes.
SLOANE
I hate goodbyes. Even the ones that are supposed to be short. Because sometimes you don’t know how short they’ll really be.
Mist still hangs over the lawn when we step outside, the grass damp beneath my shoes while the cars idle at the end of the driveway.
Four men are already waiting, two inside the SUV that will follow us and two standing beside the one we’ll be riding in.
Kirill pulls me into his arms, one heavy hand settling at the back of my head as he presses a kiss to my forehead. His mouth lingers there, and I can feel in the way he holds me that this hurts him just as much as it hurts me.
“This will be over soon,” he says. “Then we’ll be together with our boys.”
I lift my face and kiss him, my fingers twisting into the front of his jacket. The kiss deepens almost instantly, desperate and nowhere near long enough, and when he finally pulls back, I already miss him.
Then he crouches in front of the boys, who are standing there hand in hand, waiting for us.
“You two behave.” A small smile touches his mouth as he glances between them. “And listen to Mom. Okay?”
“Okay,” Milo says right away, bouncing on his feet. “But I’m excited for our trip. Right, Lev?”
He bumps Lev gently with his elbow, but Lev doesn’t answer. He just keeps staring at his father with a quiet, watchful expression, like he knows this isn’t just a trip.
Kirill opens his arms, and Lev goes straight to him, wrapping himself around him.
“I’ll be with you very soon,” Kirill tells him. “I promise. Papa loves you.”
Then, gripping both boys’ hands, he helps them climb into the backseat before waiting for me to get in after them. He leans in and gives me one last kiss before I slide into the backseat, the two bodyguards getting in the front a second later.
As the doors shut, Kirill stays where he is, hands in his pockets, expression tight as the driver starts down the long driveway. I can still see him through the window.
Then the trees close in and swallow him from view, and it feels like a part of me is still standing back there with him.
The drive is supposed to take a couple of hours, and I keep hoping the boys will do okay. After about forty-five minutes, Lev still seems fine, staring out the window with his headphones on, while Milo fills the car with a hundred questions at once.
“Where are we going, exactly?” He leans toward me as I sit sandwiched between Lev and him. “Is there a pool there? Or a swing set? Can we get ice cream?”
“We’ll see when we get there. Sit straight, please.”
The trees grow thicker the farther we drive, tall pines closing in on both sides. There are only a couple of cars on this road now.
I have no idea where we are anymore. But I trust Kirill. He said we would be safe there.
“Mom,” Milo whines a few minutes later.
“What?”
“I have to pee.”
“We can’t stop right now, buddy.”
“But I really have to go.”
“You’re going to have to hold it a little longer.”
“I can’t.” He groans dramatically.
I glance over, trying not to let my frustration show. “You can. Just hang on until we get to a rest stop.”
“Ugh, fine.” He sinks back with a pout.
At that exact moment, the driver jerks the car forward. The SUV lurches, the engine roaring louder as he hits the gas.
“What’s going on?” Unease twists through me.
He doesn’t answer right away. His eyes stay fixed on the rearview mirror, his jaw working like he’s trying to figure something out fast. I follow his gaze and find a van behind us, while the other SUV carrying Kirill’s men is still ahead.
Our SUV jerks hard as he guns it, whipping us into a sudden U-turn sharp enough to make Milo yelp, and I reach out to hold his hand.
“Everything is fine.”
But I’m not so sure.
The second SUV makes a U-turn too just as Lev lowers his headphones. The tires scream against the pavement while the trees smear into streaks outside the windows.
My heart slams against my ribs as I gaze through the windshield and reach for both boys, squeezing their hands and telling them everything is going to be okay even while I know I’m lying now.
The van does a three-sixty and follows beside us, going the wrong way and veering toward us, trying to cut us off the road, not slowing down for anything. The bodyguard in the passenger seat is already on the phone, speaking fast in Russian.
We swerve to the right, trying to avoid the van, but out of nowhere, a huge truck appears behind the second SUV. The men inside lay on the horn, trying to get clear, while our driver guns it with nowhere left to go.
Then the truck slams into the SUV.
The impact sends it spinning into the air. When it crashes down on its roof, both boys scream. My pulse pounds so hard I can barely breathe as I curl myself around them, trying to shield them from every bit of the terror clawing through me.
When the SUV bursts into flames, they scream again. Milo is crying now as I jerk back, my hand flying to my mouth.
“Oh my God.”
The driver curses and yanks the wheel again, sending us swerving off the road as he tries to keep the van and the truck from boxing us in.
We drop into a grassy ditch running alongside the trees, the SUV bouncing so violently, it’s like my bones are rattling.
Everything blurs after that. Milo is screaming. Lev is shaking so hard his breathing turns sharp and panicked.
“We’re okay,” I tell them, even though nothing about this is okay. “Just hold on.”
Branches whip against the sides of the SUV as we tear over uneven ground, the whole vehicle bouncing so violently, it’s like it could come apart at any second.
Behind us, the van is still there, engine screaming louder as it gains on us.
The driver jerks the wheel, trying to cut toward another road that opens just past the trees.
The hit comes before I can even brace for it. The truck plows into us head-on with a crash so loud it shatters my skull. The force lifts the SUV off the ground, and suddenly the world tips.
Everything spins. Sky flashes through the windows. Then dirt. Then sky again.
The vehicle rolls once. Then again.
I scream the boys’ names through their wailing, but the sound that comes out of me is high and broken, nothing like my own voice. My head smashes into the side window, and pain bursts across my skull, so hard and hot that it blinds me.
Then everything stops. The world hangs upside down, and I can’t breathe at all.
Gasoline stings the air. Broken glass trickles around us in soft little falls, and the seat belt cuts hard across my chest, holding me suspended in the wreckage.
“Milo…Lev…” I can barely get the words out.
Both boys are crying. That means they’re alive.
I move my arms to them, trying to reassure them, and pain shoots across my torso.
“Mommy,” Milo sobs while Lev shrieks, the kind of scream that tears straight through my soul.
“I’m here, boys. Mama’s here.” I reach for them even as everything blurs, trying to soothe them, trying not to let my own panic swallow me whole.
When I look toward the driver and the bodyguard in the passenger seat, my stomach turns. They’re hanging there in their belts, heads slumped at awful angles, faces smashed and bloodied.
“Oh my God…” I whisper.
I need my bag. Where the fuck is my bag? I just need to call Kirill. I fumble for the seat belt, trying to unclip it, but it won’t move.
No.
No, no, no.
Then the rear door on Lev’s side flies open, and for one brief, desperate second, I think someone is here to help us.
Cold air rushes in. Boots crunch over broken glass. Until a masked man leans inside.
And I know that voice before he even finishes speaking.
“I told you what would happen if you played me.”
My blood turns to ice.
Eli.
“Now you’re gonna learn.”
Hands reach in, cut the seatbelt, and grab Lev first, and he shouts for me. “Mama!”
I lunge for him, but I can’t reach. “Don’t touch him! Eli, please. Leave him alone!”
He ignores me and goes for Milo next, prying the other door open.
I claw at Milo, fighting from where I hang, my boy clinging to me while I cling to him, both of us desperate, both of us losing.
“Mommy! Help me!” he yelps, his face wet with tears.
“No!” I thrash against the seat belt, trying to rip myself free. “Stop! Please stop! I’ll do whatever you want. Please! Please don’t do this!”
I’ve never felt fear like this. It’s raw. Alive. Ripping through me from somewhere so deep I know it will never leave.
“Tell your boyfriend I want twenty million for each kid.” A cold smirk snakes up Eli’s face. “Or they die.”
“No!” The word tears out of me. “Please, take me instead! He’ll pay. Just don’t do this to them!”
Eli only smiles wider. “He has twenty-four hours.”
I shriek after them, calling the boys’ names while they cry for me. I shove against the door, fighting the seat belt with shaky hands, sobbing like that might make any difference at all.
Then a gun appears inches from my face.
Another masked man holding it grabs me by the hair. “You’re fucking annoying.”
The pistol crashes into my head, and pain bursts behind my eyes so hard it wipes out everything else.
The last thing I hear is Milo screaming for me to help him. Then everything goes black.