Chapter Twenty-Nine
Lilianna Genovese
When Aelita tugged my chair back into the room, the legs lifted far enough from the ground that I could slip the rope away from the chair. The restraints remained on my ankles, but they didn’t bind me down, and they’d been too ignorant to bind the sets of ropes together.
I kept my legs in the same position to hide my partial freedom as she slammed the chair down on the ground.
The wrist restraints were loose, but not loose enough. I felt the rawness of my skin as I pulled again, crinkling my nose as pain seared my skin. I pressed my thumb down and slid the rope across the back of my hand before pausing.
I could free myself.
It would be uncomfortable, but I could do it as soon as the time was right.
Thanks, Si.
Aelita slammed the door closed after dragging me into what looked like a small office. A large mahogany desk sat in the space with a few miscellaneous supplies atop it. Boxes were stacked beneath the window and across a corner of the room, and a bookshelf held dozens of old books. She turned and deadbolted the door twice before whipping back toward me. She immediately lunged forward, lifting the gun in her hand and slamming it down across my cheek.
I cried out, wincing through the pain of the blow.
I tugged my wrist free of the restraints as she shouted. The sharp burst of pain was worth every second of freedom.
“You did this!” she screamed, a tear running from her eye. “You started all of this, and it’s going to end with you, bitch.”
She lifted the pistol in a shaky hand and pointed it to me. I jumped forward, and she stiffened, her hand going unsteady as she pulled the trigger. My momentum pulled me from the path of the gunshot as I lifted my arms and tackled her to the ground, the rope falling away entirely.
Aelita felt so small beneath me. I could hardly wrap my head around the thought of someone so tiny—someone seemingly so frail—taking so much from me. I felt like I could overpower her so easily, so how could she possibly take Silas ? He was nearly as massive as Matteo. He’d been trained, and he’d defended himself from people who were much more dangerous.
She screamed and kicked up her knees, both of them colliding with my stomach and sending me launching backward with a strength I hadn’t expected from her.
I didn’t stay down long.
I leveraged myself to my feet and set myself up for a roundhouse kick. My foot collided with her hand, and the gun went flying across the room as I lifted my fists. It was instinct to fall into a defensive position, and it paid off as she threw herself at me with a bony fist extended. My forearm caught it easily, and I launched a more powerful blow at her face.
“You fucking cunt!”
Her angered, erratic scream rang through my ears as she flung her body forward, limbs flailing in a way that showed no control. She would kill me. I had no doubt that, given the first chance, she’d watch the life drain from my eyes remorselessly. She thought I was the reason for all her pain and heartache.
She thought I’d killed her brother, and she wanted to kill me for revenge.
But she had killed my brother, and I couldn’t let that go unanswered.
My attention veered around the room just long enough to take in a cup of supplies on the wooden desk, and I ground my teeth as I pushed my body forward. I took a hit to my shoulder before sending a round of punches into her face and neck.
She fell back with a cry.
It gave me enough time to grab a pair of scissors from the table and duck away from her next advance.
Aelita wasn’t thinking. She was too enraged. Too set on killing me.
“You took everything from me!” she shouted again, tears streaming down her face.
“And you killed my brother to pay me back!” I shouted back. “You know the ways of our people. An eye for an eye. But you took more than you were owed.”
She reached forward and wrapped a fist in my hair, jerking my head back as she grabbed a pocketknife and flipped the blade open.
I slammed the scissors into her stomach, using all my strength to plunge them upward. The guttural sound that left her lips made my stomach turn. Blood slithered through my fingertips as I held my grip firmly on the scissors buried in her flesh.
She pulled her body backward, and the scissors skidded across her skin as she fell away from me, tears streaming down her face as she gasped and placed a hand over the wound.
Gunfire exploded outside the building, and I flinched.
I prayed this was all a part of the plan. I hoped that Matteo had brought an army to take out as many of these people as possible.
I didn’t allow myself to think about Matteo’s plan anymore as I refocused on Aelita and where she sat. I needed to focus on this.
Aelita glanced toward the window before shooting her gaze back to me. When her eyes met mine, my heart skipped a beat.
Rage.
Pure, undiluted rage rested there.
I watched as her fingers went white on her pocketknife, and she threw herself at me faster than I could move. I raised the scissors again, but she grabbed my wrist and slammed it into the ground as my body fell back beneath her weight.
I hadn’t expected her to move so fast with the injury I’d dealt her, but rage had seemed to numb her senses. Her anger blinded her as she lurched the knife downward.
I reached up and wrapped my hand around her wrist, halting the momentum centimeters before the blade sunk into me. She gritted her teeth, screeching as she put her weight behind the knife, trying to push it into my chest.
My arm shook, barely able to hold her back. She sat across my hips, pinning me beneath her. When the knife didn’t fall, she released my other wrist in favor of pushing her blade downward.
I dropped the scissors, trying and failing to add another sliver of space between us.
She was too close. If I made a wrong move, the glinting blade would run through me before I could draw another breath.
All my years of self-defense training had been for this moment. It had been so I could defend myself and my son.
My son.
He needed me.
I wouldn’t leave him motherless. I hated the Petrovs for taking everything from me. I wouldn’t let them take everything from Callum, too. I wouldn’t let them take more.
I sucked in a deep breath and hooked my leg around Aelita’s. I adjusted my grip on her wrist, and the knife dropped a centimeter more, pressing into my chest.
I couldn’t let it drop anymore.
I exhaled a breath, adding just enough space between the blade and my chest to pivot my hip upright. It threw Aelita off balance enough that her weight shifted, and I used the momentum to throw her to the side, and the knife went wide. She landed on her side on the floor, the blade flying from her hand and sliding across the floor.
I shuffled for it, grabbing for the blade as I threw my body weight on top of her. She thrashed, but I didn’t give her even a second more to fight me.
This fight hadn’t been fair from the start. She never planned to let me fight back, so I wouldn’t let her.
I grabbed a fistful of her hair and pulled her head back as I sat on her back. She arched as I lifted her head. “This is for my brother. This is for my father and all of my people who you massacred at that wedding.”
I slammed the blade into the back of her skull. It caught, the vibrations reverberating through my hand as I pulled it free and plunged it down once more. It sunk deep into her head, and she went limp.
I kept my gaze raised as I stood, backing away from her with a deep breath. I rubbed my chest where the knife had scraped my skin as I leaned back onto the large wooden desk, using it to balance myself. I shook so viciously that I wondered how I was able to stand on my own.
I’d killed her. I’d expected to feel better, but the death hung heavily in the air as I forced myself to take a deep breath. I’d done it partially for Silas, but I hadn’t had another choice. I hadn’t had the time to explain my grief to her.
I couldn’t wrap up this situation as neatly as I’d hoped, but it was still over.
I had faced a situation where it was either me or her, and I wouldn’t leave Callum without a mother. It had to be her.
The popping gunfire outside the building had me jerking back to reality. This wasn’t over. Not yet.
A heavy weight slammed into the door, and I stiffened.
It slammed again.
I glanced around the floor and found the gun that Aelita had dropped.
Boom.
Boom.
I took one step toward the gun before the door slammed from its hinges.
Like an avenging angel, Matteo stood in the doorway, assessing the room. When his eyes took me in, they didn’t linger anywhere else. He trailed his gaze up and down my body, and I couldn’t stop myself from moving toward him. He was a magnet. Wherever he was, I would go, and nothing could stop me.
I launched myself into his arms, wrapping both arms around his neck and burying my face into his shoulder. “Matteo,” I whispered.
He didn’t flinch backward at my weight. He stood just steady with both arms wrapped around my waist. I felt the cool metal of the gun he held against my back as he held me, but I didn’t let go. I couldn’t.
“Where are you hurt?” he growled. I felt the rumble of his voice deep in his chest, but I didn’t release him.
“Callum. Where is he?” I asked immediately.
“He’s safe with Sophie. He’s safe. Waiting for you to come home.”
I’d never felt so relieved. Maybe it was my proximity to death, or maybe it was the pure relief of seeing him alive and well. But emotions and gratitude filled me so quickly that I didn’t know what to do with them.
“I love you!” I cried. “I love you so fucking much.”
His voice grew gentler as he spoke again. “I’ve always loved you, Lili.”
I squeezed him harder, bringing a hand down his arm as I moved back to see his face. He winced, and I paused, glancing down at where my hand rested on his forearm.
Blood covered my fingertips.
“Oh, my God.”
“I’m fine,” he said. The pop of gunfire came from outside the building again, and I glanced toward the window before he spoke again, drawing my attention. “Vlad is dead.”
“Aelita, too.”
I gestured at the body on the floor, but he didn’t look. He just nodded.
“We need to get out of here,” he said. “Anthony and Marcus are outside, and we have attacks happening all over the city. We need to be out before more people learn we’re here.”
I nodded and released him, but I eyed his arm again, finding that it was continuously oozing blood. We needed to get that taken care of quickly . But with all the gunfire outside the building, I knew there was a threat out there that was more significant to both of us.
“Who’s out there?”
He shook his head once. “We’ll find out soon.”
My heart sank as he admitted that this wasn’t a part of the rescue plan.
I pursed my lips and turned, grabbing Aelita’s gun from the floor before following behind him and out the office door. My eyes caught on a pile of soldiers leaning by the door. I recognized a few faces, covered in blood and peppered with bullets. They were all our men.
A deep ache filled my chest, but I stepped over them, careful not to step on them.
Matteo raised his gun as he took in the hallway outside the main room and checked both directions before glancing over his shoulder at me. “Keep close.”
I nodded as we made our way down corridor after corridor.
The only people inside seemed to be the men they’d already killed, lying with guns still in their hands.
The smell hit me as we moved down the basement stairs. Matteo didn’t react to it, but I crinkled my nose as it intensified. I saw the source within seconds. A wide sewer grate had been pushed open, and two of Matteo’s men stood inside of it. They stepped back as we climbed down the grate. One of them closed it behind us.
He guided me down the tunnel, our feet sloshing in a liquid I didn’t want to consider. Matteo didn’t falter as he led us toward another grate.
Marcus looked down at us as we came up.
“Thank God!” he shouted. “They had signal jammers, too. We couldn’t get through to you. Anthony is still on the roof. Another team came, and I called in backup. We’re buying time. Anthony can end it, and we’ll get out of here.”
I looked between them, hoping that this had been enough. Vlad and Aelita had been the ones with a vendetta.
Now that they were gone, it had to be enough.