Chapter 41
ALONZO
I try to get closer to step in, but Ivano steps closer, stopping me with a hand to my chest. I whirl to him, furious, because I still haven’t figured out his role in all this, but he shakes his head and says, “She contacted me before we reached the plane. David and John are still there, making people think she’s on board.
She told me I had to bring her back. When I refused, she sent that asshole to persuade us.
” He nods at Mishka, who is ignoring us and currently watching the two women fighting with clear annoyance on his face.
Though I notice he doesn’t try to step in to stop them. An odd reaction for someone to have watching his ex-wife fighting with a woman who almost got her killed.
“I’ll keep an eye on Hades,” Ivano offers. “You deal with that when they’re done.”
Yeah, I’m going to kick his ass when this is over, but right now, my focus is on getting to my woman before this other crazy bitch hurts her worse than she already is.
Ilya steps forward too, but there’s a look on his face I can’t decipher. He looks pissed, but also pleased. Like whatever this bitch just said has made him rethink a few things. The man is insane if he wants a woman like her.
I jump back when Rori picks up one of the art pieces from the floor and throws it at Tatiana, who dodges it easily. “You fucking bitch.” Rori seethes. “All you had to fucking do was come to me, talk to me, and I’d have fucking helped you. Instead, you ruined my friendship to serve your own agenda?”
“You were the one living in a lie, Aurora,” Tatiana returns, landing a solid kick into Rori’s gut that has her staggering back.
I want to step in, but Rori lets out a low snarl and rushes her, launching a round-house kick right to Tatiana’s face.
Tatiana goes flying, landing against the bed and falling to the floor.
She laughs, rolling and taking Rori out at the legs.
“You really thought that you could live your life that way? Do you know how many times I was so close to you, you had no idea? You were getting complacent, lazy. You were no good to me dead. Bitch!” she hisses when Rori manages to slam her fist into nose, sending blood flying.
“Ouch,” I hear Mila hiss.
Tatiana wipes at her nose and glares angrily at Rori, then she launches herself at her, executing a move that I’ve seen few manage to master. I try to get close to her, but Mishka steps in front of me. “Don’t.” It’s his only word of warning.
“Get the fuck out of my way, fucker,” I hiss. “I don’t give a fuck who you are.”
“These two have business to settle. Let them do it or we’re going to be doing this for months.”
“So you’re just going to let your girlfriend beat on your wife?” I demand furiously.
He doesn’t answer, he shoves me back, and crosses his arms.
I really want to kill him, but something tells me that if I do that, Rori might not ever forgive me. She’s going to have a lot of unanswered questions.
“Enough!” Tatiana snarls, and my fists clench at my side when I see she’s gotten Rori into a chokehold, and she’s almost completely subdued.
“Enough, Rayea,” she hisses again. “You want to be angry with me, you want to hate me, fine, I don’t fucking care.
But whether you want to face it or not, you’re finally free.
All the shit we went through, all the pain and humiliation, it’s over.
It’s done. We can live our lives the way we want.
That’s the only thing that matters. You can marry the man you love, have a bunch of babies, and have a happily ever after.
Rayea Antonova is dead the moment he stops breathing. And you’ll never have to see me again.”
I narrow my eyes at her. There’s something in her voice. Is that pain? Regret? How the hell does that make sense?
“Let her go,” I snap.
No one even glances my way.
Rori struggles a moment more before she stills and goes lax. Tatiana doesn’t ease up, waiting. “Let me go,” Rori gasps out.
Tatiana waits a moment, until she finally does, easing back, breathing hard.
I rush forward, helping Rori to her feet. Rori’s shaky, but she finally turns to Tatiana and stares at her. The animosity is still there, but the murderous rage seems to have lessened. Or she’s just fucking exhausted. Considering the way she’s leaning into me, I’d say that’s more the reason.
I hold her tight, but I don’t speak. She’s not done.
“You’re not my sister, Tatiana,” she rasps out, her voice husky from being in the chokehold. “No matter what he told you, that was never our relationship.”
Wait, sister? What?
“According to the fake birth certificate he had created the moment you married Mishka, he didn’t feel that way,” Tatiana shrugs. “But, no, we were never sisters. Actually, I hated you for a long time.”
“He sold me—”
“Not because you weren’t there,” she interrupts curtly.
She gives a humorless laugh. “You really think that much of yourself? I didn’t give a shit that you were gone.
It let me spread my wings, finally, and it let me learn all the skills I needed to be who I am.
I excelled without you holding me back. You wanted me to help you kill him then, but I had much more to learn.
I needed to hone my craft and become the best he’s ever trained. Far better than you.”
“So, what, you wanted to prove that you were better than me? That was never a question. And don’t act like you didn’t want to kill him. You were all too happy to work and learn from me. You pestered me all the time to help you master things you lacked.”
“And it worked. I learned your moves and how to make them better. And then when he sent me out on assignments, I honed myself more. I worked to be the best because no man is ever going to control me the way he did. So here I am. The very thing he created, that you helped build, only better.”
“You want me to be happy about that?” Her nails dig into my wrist, and I hold her tighter, giving her more comfort.
“I want you to open your eyes. You are not the only one to suffer under his hands, Aurora. You are the only one who has been able to get away and live a normal life. While you were living your life, being normal, the rest of us, we did things that you have never had to fathom.”
“And you enjoyed every fucking second of it.”
She smirks. “You said yourself, I’m very good at what I do.
And well, I’ve been able to put my skills to very good use.
” But her expression cools. “And in that time, I’ve been working to take down your father, while you lived your life.
While you forgot all about what you yearned to do.
You left your actual siblings to suffer under his hands. ”
Rori flinches, and I glare at Tatiana. She’s trying to hurt her. “It wasn’t Rori’s responsibility to rescue anyone. If you were so concerned, you should have stepped in.”
Tatiana ignores me. “I hated you for a long time,” Tatiana continues, watching Rori.
“Until I saw the day you rescued that baby from the fucker she was sold to.” Rori’s head jerks as she stares at Tatiana, eyes widening.
“Oh, yes, I saw that. You think I didn’t keep track of you?
I had just come back from killing someone on your father’s hit list, and I was so angry that you were getting to live your life while I dealt with the filth.
I tracked you down that night, and it wasn’t long before I realized what you were doing.
You found him, you got the baby, and you killed him just the way he deserved.
Actually, it really inspired me.” A cold smile pulls at her lips, a brightness in her eyes that makes my gut clench.
“You could actually call it the day I realized that my skills weren’t just useful for hire, but for some good.
The dick stuffed down his throat was a very nice touch; I hope you don’t mind that I’ve copied it. ”
I stare at Rori in shock, and her face is unreadable. She did that? I’ve never been prouder.
And I definitely need to stay on her good side if she’s got that kind of anger and skill.
“He deserved it and more,” Rori finally rasps. “So, what, you watched me kill him and you didn’t hate me anymore?”
“Oh, no, I still hated you. It took many years and a lot of dead bodies to get that out of my system. Then I was interrupted one night while I was working by a noise, and well, I met Mila.” She gives Mila an annoyed glare. “And I realized then that teenagers never fucking listen.”
I look at Mila, who gives her a smirk, but her face is tight. Zakhar moves to her, pulling her tight into him. His expression is tortured. My chest pangs with sympathy. Knowing what his daughter suffered, I’m surprised he hasn’t gone on a murderous rampage long before this. I certainly would have.
“And then you met Ilya and, what, you just decided to stop?” The doubt in Rori’s voice is clear.
“More like I wanted to fuck his brains out, but he just had to try and capture me and ruin the moment.” Tatiana grins, glancing over at Ilya. “But it did clear a few things up for me.”
“And because of that, you started to look into Ilya a bit more?” I ask, trying to follow along with how this all ties together.
“Awww, he does have some brain cells still going on up there,” Tatiana coos.
I glare at her. “That’s exactly it. I don’t just sleep with anyone.
Makes the job kind of tricky. But much to my surprise, I started to dig and realized the connections.
Not enough for me to make some decisions until we ran into each other a couple more times.
” The heated look she gives Ilya makes me roll my eyes.
Ilya’s own heated gaze stares back at her.
“Great, so you fucked him,” Rori snipes.
“Again, ewww,” Mila groans. “I really don’t need to know that.”
I have to agree with her.
“So you fucked me and used me to set your plan in motion,” Ilya finally states, his voice low, tight, but I can’t get a read on if he’s angry or impressed. Fuck, probably both.
“I fucked you because I wanted to see how well you used that perfect cock of yours,” Tatiana replies, a salacious grin spreading across her face, even as Mila gags again.
“And I wasn’t disappointed. It caused me some problems, but I forgave you for it.
Especially with how hard you’ve been searching for me. ”
“And yet you came back. You’ve sent me notes. You stole my plane.” His lips pull up into a slow, smug smile. Desire shines in his eyes.
Am I seeing this right? Is this son of a bitch really flattered and turned on by all this?
I glance at Zakhar, who is staring at his brother like he’s lost his mind. Alright, so I’m not the only one seeing this and finding it fucking weird.
“Get back to the point and do your weird eye-fucking shit later,” Rori snaps. “You fucked him, so it made you look into him more and, what?”
“That’s when I realized just how deep into trafficking dear old daddy over here is,” Tatiana says, never looking away from Ilya.
“Considering I was part of that chain, and it now touched someone who was in my focus, I decided enough was enough. It’s also how I found out the plans to grab Mila again when it was found out which boarding school she was sent to. ”
“You sent someone to watch over her,” Zakhar supplies. “Why? Because you wanted an in with my brother?”
Tatiana finally looks at him, her gaze sharp.
“Because she’s a good kid, and she’s fucking strong.
But also, yes, if she mattered to my Pet, then she was on my radar.
Knowing that she might suffer again because I did nothing…
it didn’t sit well with me. So I had people loyal to me work their way into the school for her protection. ”
“I…I can’t process that yet,” Zakhar finally mutters. I can see the reality hitting him. That his daughter hadn’t been safe; how many times he might have lost her if this woman hadn’t stepped in. He doesn’t like the idea of owing anyone, and now he owes this woman more than he can ever repay.
Tatiana looks at Rori. “I’ve been tracing the routes and the major backers of the ring and pipelines your father was helping to run.
His men, and some of us by extension, were in charge of keeping things off the radar by sending us out to conduct other, more attention-grabbing contracts.
And the largest customer? Timur Belov. And he was gunning for Ilya’s entire operation. ”
“That fucker Abrham, he was the plant from Timur,” Oleg muses. “That night we were attacked by Timur’s men and you took them out a couple years ago.”
“Smart boy,” Tatiana praises. He spears her with a glare that she ignores. She looks back at me. “You should take a few notes. Use that noggin’ of yours more.” She ignores my deep glare and adds to Oleg, “It’s exactly why I sent you Freya. An apt name, by the way.”
“You left her in the blizzard for me to find?” The barely restrained fury in his voice clear.
She rolls her eyes. “I didn’t spend months training her just to leave her to die. She was outside in it for maybe a minute before you opened the door and took her in. And I checked in on her when I could.”
“All those times she disappeared for a day or two at a time, that was you?”
“Couldn’t have her forgetting me, could I? She was my additional protection for Mila, and Ilya by extension. And also my way of making sure if Timur decided to try and invade with one of his beasts, you had one of your own.”
“You’re just a regular Mother Theresa,” Rori snarks sarcastically.
“I try,” Tatiana replies cheekily. “Though I can’t take all the credit.
I kept track of you, and any time you brought in a pedophile, or you sent through notes to Timur about someone in the organization on the radar that I knew was part of it, I handled it.
And Butcher here, he was none the wiser.
I was always careful, but it pissed me off that he was trying to take out Ilya through Timur to try and expand his pipelines.
So I just ensured that couldn’t happen.”
Rori looks up at me, and we share a look. This entire situation is a giant mind-fuck.
“Lisichka, come here,” Ilya orders, an unmistakable timber to his voice that makes me roll my eyes. “I think it’s time we sorted a few things out between us.”
“She’s not going anywhere until we figure out what the hell is going to happen next,” Rori snaps. She looks at Mishka. “And you. What you’re doing next too.”
I fight back the jealousy at the hint of longing in her voice.
Is Rori still in love with him? Does Mishka being alive mean she no longer wants to be mine?
I look at the man, this ghost from the past. A ghost that might just be returning to a fresh new grave if he thinks Rori will ever be his.