CHAPTER 13
KAI
The penthouse feels like a fucking tomb. My head pounds with each heartbeat, blood rushing in my ears as I pace the floor. I can’t process what just happened. Maisy. Our Maisy. The words keep looping: betrayal , Viktor , children , over .
Logan’s cell is already pressed to his ear as he stands by the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city. His face may be carved from stone, but I see the tremor in his hand.
I slam my fist against the wall. Pain shoots through my knuckles, but it’s nothing compared to the gaping wound in my chest. Maisy knew where to aim. Right at the fucking heart.
“Angelina,” Logan says into the phone, his voice controlled despite everything crumbling around us. “Are the children okay?” After a short silence, he exhales. “Good. Now listen carefully. You and Celina need to bring them home immediately.”
Orion collapses into a leather chair, elbows on his knees, head hanging. He’s never looked so broken. The most powerful man I know, reduced to this.
“You will have to wake them up. If you take the next plane to New York, you’ll be here by the morning. And not a word to anyone,” Logan continues. “A man called Viktor Mrozovski, a very dangerous man, knows they’re in Chicago. I don’t know what his next move is, but I’m not taking any chances.”
Orion’s head snaps up at the mention of Viktor. His eyes are bloodshot, his normally perfect appearance utterly disheveled. “She told him where our children are,” he whispers, more to himself than us.
I slide down the wall until I hit the floor, my legs giving out. This feels familiar—this emptiness, this void where everything meaningful used to be. I’ve been here before, ready to give it all up.
Maisy . Even thinking her name burns.
“No, Angelina, you don’t understand,” Logan says, his voice rising slightly. “Maisy betrayed everything. Everyone.” He pauses to listen for a moment, then says, “Viktor knows where the kids are. She told him. It’s over.”
His words hang in the air like smoke: it’s over. The life we built, the family we created—destroyed by the one person we all trusted completely.
“You’re probably being watched,” Logan adds. “No one must know you’re coming back.”
I stare at the ceiling, letting numbness wash over me. Maybe this is better. Maybe I was never meant for happiness, for family, for love. Boxers like me, criminals like me—we don’t get happy endings.
“I trust Rosa, so you can tell her, but no one else,” Logan instructs. “I’ll be waiting for your call about pickup.” Another pause. “I don’t care what you think, Angelina. I don’t give a fuck if you believe me or not. Just get our kids home safely.”
He ends the call with a vicious jab of his finger and hurls the phone onto the couch. “They don’t buy it,” he says flatly. “They trust Maisy more than life itself. Think she must have had a good reason.”
“There is no good reason,” Orion says, his voice hollow. “Our children. Our fucking children. Betrayed by their mother.”
The thought of Viktor—that sadistic fuck—knowing where our children are makes me want to tear the world apart.
“We’ll kill him,” I say, the words automatic. “Then her.”
Before either can respond, the elevator doors ping. Lisa appears, cheeks flushed, eyes wild. “What the hell’s happening?” she demands. “I just saw Maisy leaving with someone called…Viktor. What’s that all about?”
“Not now, Lisa,” Orion snaps, not even looking at her.
Lisa steps further into the room, taking in the state of all of us. “What happened?”
“I said not now!” Orion growls.
She doesn’t budge. “No! Tell me.”
Logan blocks her path. “We don’t want to talk about her.”
“ Her? ” Lisa echoes, confusion evident on her face. “Have you seen her lately? Something was definitely off. Her cell is not working, she hasn’t responded to my messages. I mean, aren’t you worried?”
I lift my head, studying Lisa’s expression. There’s genuine concern there.
“She was with someone called Viktor.” She shakes her head like she still can’t believe what she saw. “Kai, they were surrounding her like she was their captive.”
My heart punches into my ribs. “Maybe she wanted to be with him?”
Lisa glares at me like I’ve lost my mind. “Don’t be ridiculous. She tried to play it off—said Viktor was her very close friend. But she was lying. She looked right at me like she wanted to scream.”
Orion finally lifts his head to look at her, her words grabbing hold of something inside him.
“Where the hell have you been, Lisa? It’s midnight,” he asks, his tone sharp.
Lisa straightens, brushing her hair behind her ear. “I was on a date, okay? He was a bit... unpredictable. I didn’t feel right going home, so I asked him to drop me off here—just in case.”
Orion stares at her a beat longer, then shifts his attention back to the moment at hand.
“She was about to get into a black SUV,” Lisa continues, “And when I called out to her, his men had guns on me in a second. She stopped them before it got bad, but I clearly heard her telling them I was nobody, just some jealous woman.”
“CCTV,” Logan mutters, moving fast toward the security monitors.
I follow him and watch as he pulls up the footage. We cycle through angles until we catch them. Maisy. Viktor. His brothers. Moving toward the SUV like it’s just any other day. I can barely recognize her beneath that mask she’s wearing—detached, smiling like she belongs with them.
I feel my nails biting into my palms. “Fuck.”
Lisa crosses her arms. “Then, as they drove off, she yelled through the window that she’ll never leave Viktor.” She glances at Orion. “Which was uncalled for, really.”
Orion stares silently at the screen. Logan leans in closer, his jaw clenched so tight I think it might crack.
“Whatever she’s doing, it’s for a reason. But we don’t want her to run out of time,” Lisa says.
I shake my head, trying to steady my breathing.
Logan flicks through more footage, zooming out to different angles of the street.
Slavs. Everywhere. Leaning against cars, smoking, enjoying life.
But I know better. I can see the outlines of guns beneath their coats, the way they shift, the readiness in their stances.
“They’re ready for a fight,” I say, the words tasting like iron. “All of them.”
Logan nods, eyes glued to the screen. “If we start shooting down there, we’ll lose. Too dense, too many innocent people around.”
Lisa pipes up. “Think about it, Orion. Maisy would never do this, unless—”
“Unless what?” I cut in. “Unless she was playing us from the beginning? Unless this was always her plan?”
“Unless she had no choice,” Lisa counters. “You need to get to her.”
Logan’s face hardens. “Not before our kids are safe. I don’t care about that traitor. My children come first.”
“Maisy is not a traitor,” Lisa says firmly. “I know her. Something else is happening.”
Orion stands up, agitation visible in every taut line of his body. “Once the kids land,” he says, “we’ll bring her home.”
The coldness in his voice should shock me, but it doesn’t. Part of me feels the same—rage and betrayal.
Logan checks his watch and turns to Orion. “Did your friend have any luck with their CCTV system?”
“I’ll make sure he gets everything ready by tomorrow night,” Orion says.
“We gotta figure out what game Viktor’s playing.” My fists clench at my sides. “And if Maisy’s really part of his life, I’m gonna enjoy killing her.”
The emptiness inside me transforms into purpose. Whether it’s to save Maisy or kill her—I don’t know yet. But either way, Viktor is a dead man walking. Has been for some time.
Orion catches my eye, and for a moment, I glimpse the same conflict there. The three of us, bound by blood, and by her. By what she gave us. By what we thought we had.
“Kai, Logan, get some rest. We haven’t slept in days, and we’ll need every ounce of strength if we’re going to take that bastard down. We’ve got five, maybe six hours until the children land. Then it’s a full day keeping them safe before we head out to DC in the evening.”
ORION
“We’ve landed,” Angelina says, her voice tight with tension. “Private airstrip. No one followed us.”
Having just opened my eyes, relief floods through me.
“The kids?” Logan demands. He sounds as if he hasn’t slept at all.
“Safe,” Angelina responds.
“Stay alert,” I interject. “Emilio should be there to pick you up.”
Celina’s voice comes through the speaker now. “Logan, what’s happening with Maisy? The children keep asking for her.”
Pain lances through my chest. The twins always ask for her first. Mama, then Daddy. Always in that order.
“We’ll explain later,” Logan says curtly. “Just keep them calm.”
“Kai, hey, wake up.” I nudge Kai a few times before he responds by swinging his fist, luckily not towards me.
I’m already on my feet. My suit’s wrinkled, the fabric worn, I don’t think we’ve slept at all since Maisy disappeared.
“It’s time.” I cross the room to Logan’s desk. “I’m letting my guy know, he must be through Ma Molly’s security by end of day.” I hunch over the laptop. I feel haunted, hollowed out. Like a man preparing to burn his own heart.
Maybe that’s exactly what I am about to do.
LOGAN
The children arrived sleepy, wide-eyed, and clinging to the familiar hands of the three women who had kept them safe in Chicago—Angelina, Celina, and Sasha.
It was early in the morning when they got here, and by the time they arrived, they were exhausted.
Angelina carried Grace and Ava inside; Celina had Damien tucked against her shoulder.
Luca clung to Sasha’s hand like his life depended on it.
Maxim held Mila’s hand and lead her to her bedroom.
While the women, including Leila, brought the kids upstairs to get them cleaned and rested, I pulled up the camera feeds in the surveillance room. I reset all access codes and added a new layer of firewalls just in case. This wasn’t just a safehouse anymore—it was the last line of defense.