Chapter 50
CHAPTER FIFTY
VIKTOR
The moment I get the call, I leap into my bulletproof SUV.
My knuckles are white as I grip the steering wheel. I’m tearing through the neighborhood. Tracking the GPS of Artyom’s vehicle.
Four other SUVs are behind me, filled to the gills with my men.
We’re a few clicks out from the Strip, cutting north through the industrial sector.
The kind of place where buildings are more rust than steel.
Where businesses come to die in the quiet.
It’s a place to make backdoor deals—or make a point.
I should be comforted Avelina is in one of our bulletproof vehicles. That she’s got someone trained with her instead of driving her own car.
But I’m not. Because I know that she’s in danger. And I’m not with her.
My chest tightens like a goddamn vise. I grit out an order into the comms in my ear. My men behind me confirm as we take the off-ramp.
Roaring into a construction site, our other SUVs are behind me and block the exit.
My pulse ticks faster as I close in. I can’t see her inside the car. I need eyes on her. Fucking now. “Tap into the interior camera,” I bark.
Matvey’s voice crackles through the earpiece. “Still working on it. Give me a few more seconds… Got a visual. She’s in the back, ducked down. Artyom’s alert.”
But the tension doesn’t break. It just gets worse. Like a knife twisting in my gut.
“Fan out!” I yell. I want her protected. I want her safe. And I want these bastards dead.
Our SUVs fan out like jaws clamping down. The two enemy vehicles panic and retreat, speeding down a service road that we didn’t know about. Fuck! They’ve got another way to get out of here!
I want to rush to Avelina’s side. But I know she’s now safe and has got Artyom to protect her. I turn hard, engine roaring as the tires squeal. “One SUV stay with Artyom and Avelina!” I yell into the comms. No fucking way am I leaving her at risk again.
The chase takes us past empty warehouses and blown-out windows.
The road narrows. Turns into a gravel yard behind some plant. One way in. One way out.
I know this place. No cameras. No witnesses.
Perfect for the slaughter that’s about to happen.
“Box them in!” I order.
My door shoves open before I can fully throw the SUV into park. My boots hit the dirt, gun drawn.
Shots fire.
The crunch of gravel behind me tells me my men are following.
I don’t even blink before one drops. Then another. We take them down hard and fast.
Silence reigns for a few long seconds.
Then my men drag one of them toward me as he coughs up blood.
I crouch down to his level as they throw him at my feet. My hand grips his stupid man-bun, lifting his head. “Why?”
He gives me a red-stained smile.
The butt of my gun hits his face. It busts his lip and knocks out a tooth.
“Why her?” I shout. “Did the FSB send you?” We already worked out a deal with the Russian government—it cost us a hell of a lot of money, but as part of the deal, they agreed they’d leave Avelina and her kids alone from now on.
But is this the Russian government fucking reneging on the deal?
And is this their way of telling me that Avelina will always belong to them?
Defiance is still lingering behind his eyes. And a smugness.
I don’t like it. I strike again. Hard. Enough to shatter his cheekbone. “Answer. The. Fucking. Question!”
He spits blood. “We were told…it was you in the SUV,” he splutters.
I freeze. Ice water floods my veins. “Told it was me?”
“Orders were clear. Hit the…car. Kill you. The Albanians want you dead. Your old comrade, Geliy, was working…with them too. Just sometimes…when he needed the money. He gave them info about the layout of your compound…”
A kill order from the Albanians. To kill me. But it was Avelina who nearly got killed. And Geliy was also fucking involved before his death. That was why he visited me at our compound.
I rise slowly, letting my boot come down hard on him before I step over his crumpled body.
“Nikolai said he was almost hit too,” Matvey says over the comms. “Someone tried to take him out at one of our restaurants twenty minutes ago.”
My gut tightens. And fear spreads like poison through my chest. “Grigory?” I say slowly.
“Just texted me to say he was run off the road coming back from the casino. The soldier driving his SUV didn’t make it.”
Didn’t make it. Someone’s already dead. “It’s retaliation.” I say my immediate thought out loud.
“Definitely,” Matvey replies, the anger in his voice clear. “We’re meeting back at the Kremlin as soon as possible.”
I nod, yanking the comms from my ear. It makes sense.
The Albanians aren’t just pissed that we ruined shit for them.
They want us off the board completely. And Geliy was happy to take their money, giving them info about our compound and whatever he learned about our set up, not caring that it might be putting Avelina and the kids in danger.
There’s no doubt in my mind now. This was a coordinated attack.
The Albanians were trying to get in with the Russian government and become their main suppliers, but we burned their bridge before it could even get started.
This isn’t about sending a message. It’s war.
And now, they’ve made the mistake of making Avelina a target of their fucking actions.
I leap back into the SUV and race back to Avelina. Getting back to Artyom’s vehicle, I push past my men as I rush to her, nearly pulling the door from its hinges to get to her. She sits there, eyes closed tightly, whispering something I can’t make out.
Her face is pale. Too pale.
I don’t even waste a breath before I tug her to me. One hand cradling the back of her head, the other wrapping tight around her waist like I can hold her together. “You’re okay,” I whisper. “It’s okay. I’ve got you now.”
I don’t know who I’m trying to convince more. Her or me. But it doesn’t soothe either of us as she clings tightly to me. I breathe her in deeply.
She’s safe. The words repeat over and over. Because I protected her. This time.
“I’ve got you,” I murmur. “No one gets to touch you, Avelina. You’re mine, and I’m going to protect you. Always.”
She nods slowly, letting out a trembling breath.
“You’re coming back with me.”
She doesn’t argue and lets me lead her back to my SUV.
I give a nod to my men, and they file back into their vehicles. One in front of us. One behind.
By the time we return to the Kremlin, I’m vibrating. Not with fear. But with rage.
Avelina is quiet the whole drive back, and I don’t blame her for that. It’s a hell of a thing to go through. Babulya, Sofia, and Leon are waiting for us in the courtyard when we get back. I hold her tighter to me as we start toward the door.
A soft sigh leaves her as she lets go of my hand and takes Leon from Babulya, hugging him tightly to her chest. She pulls Sofia in too, and my heart squeezes.
My family.
My gaze shifts to meet Nikolai’s as he stands to one side, watching us.
Neither of us says anything as we stride toward the office to talk with Grigory and Matvey, who’ve also just arrived back at the Kremlin.
Grigory sits behind his desk, Matvey leaning against it, arms crossed. We all wear the same grim expression.
A map of Las Vegas and its surrounding districts is spread out over his desk, pins and marks dotting the thing and making a pattern. And at the center, a bleeding red mass of dots, which indicates that fucking arrogant Albanian syndicate.
My jaw tightens. Come after me all they want. But Avelina? My brothers? This is fucking personal now.
“She’s safe?” Grigory asks as he watches me carefully.
I nod.
Matvey leans over the map, running his finger along a highlighted stretch near the northern strip of the county. “They’ve been using abandoned warehouses as drop points. This one is scheduled for renovation next quarter, but it’s been empty for goddamn months.”
“A good place to store weapons,” Nikolai mutters. “Or stage another hit.”
The fear claws at my chest again. They could try again. They will try again.
Grigory leans back in his chair, tossing a thick dossier onto the table. It flops open, spilling grainy surveillance photos and other intel across the desk. “That’s the Albanians’ chief strategist. Keeps his hands clean, but his handiwork is all over this.”
I lean forward, dragging the files and photos toward me. They blur slightly in front of me, my head throbbing from the sensory overload crash I’m about to face. But I force myself to focus. “How many enforcers are we talking?”
“Eight, maybe ten,” Matvey replies. “But they have proxies—paid locals.”
“Then we start with the enforcers and go on from there,” I say, my voice low and cold.
No one flinches. They all know what I mean. We don’t scare these men with warnings. We end them. We make them afraid to ever breathe near Vegas again. They made it personal, so we’re going to show them what a big fucking mistake they’ve made.
Grigory narrows his gaze. “We go in hard. Coordinated hits. Same night. Zero survivors.”
“We wipe them out before they can goddamn blink,” Nikolai adds.
Matvey closes the file. “It’ll take a couple of days to get everything in place.”
We nod in unison. No argument. No delay. This is how we work. And this is how we win.
I exhale slowly. The quiet buzz of the AC hums around me, and it’s just frequent enough that it gets to me.
But I’m not here really. I’m thinking about the image of Avelina curled up in the SUV, hands over her ears.
I hate it. But there are no safe corners in the world.
Not for me anyway. All I can do is burn down anyone who tries to come for her—until there’s nothing left but fucking ash.
“She’s a strong woman,” Grigory says, knowing what I’m thinking.
“I know.”
“And she’ll be okay,” Nikolai adds.
I nod once. I want to believe that. To know that for sure. But I can’t, and I don’t. The fear sits in my chest like a fucking rock. Each of my brothers gives me a grim look.
We know what we have to do.
We know what it means and what it could cost us.
But this war has already begun.
Because it started when they targeted her.
When they targeted someone I love.