Chapter 19
ALEXEI
A cold breeze washes through the still air, the city dead quiet in the early morning light. The large concrete building before us looks like any of the others that studs this street, but there’s something inside, someone beyond those walls, who’s alive when they should already be dead.
And, as far as I’m concerned, Vinski is as good as gone to me.
I’m about to crush that fucker on the spot, make him pay for what he did to my family.
Max is at home with Marsha right now, as calm as he can be given the situation.
He pleaded with me to stay when I checked up on him, but I just kissed him and told him that I needed to make sure Nina was safe.
That seemed enough to convince him to let me go, but I could feel his gaze burning into my back the entire time, willing me to turn around and come back.
I hate having to let him down. But this is bigger than us right now.
This is about the rest of my family, the rest of his family, even if he doesn’t know it yet.
His deep care for Nina is obvious, but I need Cara safe and sound at my side too.
I can’t stop turning over the way she looked at me when she begged me to let her leave.
It feels like I’m the reason for all of this, even though Vinski is the bastard who dragged them into this in the first place.
I know she’s going to blame me. And she has every damn right to.
I just don’t want to face up to the reality of what it means for something like this to have happened.
All this time, I’ve made my home a fortress, impenetrable, and since her arrival, the pieces have slowly been pulling away, revealing themselves.I knew that I was taking a risk when I opened up Max’s life to someone else, but I could never in a million years have imagined that something like this might come from it.
I press my hand against my gun as Ilya climbs out of the car next to me, a few other vehicles pulling into the surrounding streets just out of sight of the building so that we can make our attack.
I’m not stupid, and I’m sure that Vinski has planned for the possibility of us making a move like this.
He must be aware that he has brought down a malestrom on his head, and he will be prepared to fight with everything he has to get what he wants from me. But he has underestimated me if he thinks for a second that I’m going to let him walk away from this.
“Throw in the explosives,” I tell Ilya, and he lifts a hand, gesturing for two of my men to approach the bottom of the building, which contains a bar.
I’ve had them doing surveillance since we pulled the CCTV footage and tracked the journey of the car to this place, and I know there’s a decent amount of alcohol on the ground floor.
One well-placed molotov cocktail, and the entire place is going to go up in flames.
I watch as two of my men move forward, their footsteps the only sound in the empty street.
They’re each holding a bottle in their hands, the closest we have to real explosives given that we had to make do with what is kept at the house.
I’ve always kept that place as clean and clear from my bullshit as possible, determined not to expose my son to it, and at least I didn’t have anything there that those fuckers could have used against me given the chance.
They light the bottles and toss them through the window. There’s a loud crash, glass shattering on to the street, and I tense. This is it. Here we go. They pull back, and, with a loud whoosh, something inside the building catches fire, flames licking towards the windows at once.
There are yells from inside, and I gesture to the other gathered men for them to make their move; they close in on each side, blocking off the exits as I move towards the front door.
I could have had one of them deal with the entrance, but there’s no chance in hell I want to make this any easier for them than we already have.
If Vinski is in there and makes a break for it, then he is going to be met with the end of my fucking gun, no way for him to escape what is waiting for him.
Ilya is at my side as the first of the men stumble out of the burning building.
I lift my gun and fire twice, executing them before they even realize what is happening.
I can hear yelling and a commotion from one of the other exits, and I guess some of them thought they might avoid what was coming for them if they moved quickly enough. But I’m not about to let up that easy.
I push their bodies aside and lift my scarf to wrap it around my face—not that it’s going to do much to fend off the smoke that’s already filling the room.
I need to find Vinski. I know the fucker is in here somewhere, no doubt preening and wondering how long it is going to be before I give him what he wants.
He might have expected some kind of attack, but I don’t intend to let him walk out of here alive.
I hear gunshots cut through the air, a crackling inferno behind the bar that is spreading slowly to consume the whole room. I need to find Cara and Nina before it can reach them. I don’t know where they are being held, but I’ll find out, no matter what it takes.
Out of the corner of my eye, in the darkness, I see a figure moving fast. I bolt after them in pursuit, and sure enough, I manage to close the distance between us in a matter of seconds, catching him and pinning him to the wall.
“Let me go!” he yells, and his voice is the same one that came down the line earlier, even if he sounds a whole hell of a lot more panicked now. I tighten my grip on him, narrowing my eyes.
“Shut the fuck up,” I growl. “Where is she? Where’s Cara?”
He tears his gaze away from me, searching through the smoky room for some way out.
But I can hear my men barking orders to each other, moving through this place as though it’s water, and he must be aware that whatever control he thought he had, it’s being stripped from him with no room for recourse.
“She’s… She’s not here...”
I slam him into the wall, smacking his head against the cold concrete behind.
“Try again, Vinski,” I snarl at him. The fire suddenly flares upwards behind us, and the flames dance on his face, picking out the hollow of his eyes and the fear in his expression.
He looks behind me, clearly trying to parse how much of a chance he stands of getting out of this, but I keep my grip on him.
He’s not going anywhere, not without telling me where she is.
“In the back room,” he snaps back, looking up at me once more, as he gestures along the corridor. “The one with the deadbolt on the door. If you just—”
But I have no interest in hearing him out. Now that I’ve what I need, I silently raise the gun to his head and press it against his temple. Terror flashes in his eyes, but he’s not even got time to open his mouth before I pull the trigger.
The sound rings in my ears, louder than even the fire roaring behind us.
Blood sprays across the concrete, and he slumps back against the wall, his face devoid of humanity and soul.
Whatever part of Vinski might have been left in there is gone, crushed out of him once and for all with no chance of coming back.
And even now, as I look at his face, I can see the shock written in every inch of it.
He really thought that he was going to be able to pull something like this off, huh?
Really thought he was going to be able to take a stand against me and make it out in one piece.
I’m glad to have been able to disabuse him of that notion, and hopefully his charred, burned body will be enough to put off anyone who dares try something like this again.
I pull up the scarf once more and stuff my gun into the holster at my hip, moving quickly through the corridor until I spot the deadbolt he was talking about.
It’s on some old, dilapidated door, and it takes a few shoves to pull it loose.
When I throw the door open, there she is, sitting right before me, the woman and the mother of my child I came to save.
“Alexei!” Cara gasps, as she springs to her feet, closing the distance between us. I glance around the room, and spot Nina behind her, seemingly unharmed, thank God. I don’t know what the hell they have done to her, but as long as she is alive, I’ll take it.
I pull her into my arms, pressing my face into her neck and closing my eyes for a moment as I remind myself that she is really, truly here.
I don’t know what I expected, but the shock of seeing her alive and able to come to me like this is ricochets through every inch of my body.
I breathe in the scent of her mingled with smoke, and she pulls back, an urgent expression on her face.
“Is that smoke? What’s going on?”
“Come on,” I tell her, jerking my head towards the door. “Take Nina. We need to get out of here, there is an entrance out the back that takes us to my car.”
“You’re sure?”
“I’m sure,” I reply, and she reaches down to pick up Nina, lifting the girl into her arms like she is a toddler again/ Nina wraps her arms around her tight, clearly not wanting to be apart from her mother for an instant.
I can see how drawn she looks, dark circles under her eyes, her little body tense.
But she’s alive, and that’s all that I can think of that matters right now.
I lead them towards the door, and out into the early morning sunshine beyond.
I can still here chaos inside the building, but I pay no attention to it. My men will put down every single person they come across, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s only what they fucking deserve.
I keep my eyes glued to the car, willing her forward so she’s not exposed to the hell that is taking place just behind her.
As far as she is concerned, she’s safe, and that’s the only thing she needs to worry about.
I don’t even want to think how terrified she must have been when he stole her away like that.
I would do anything to ease the weight of it that must be pressing down on her shoulders, but I get the feeling that it might be too late for that.
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” she murmurs to Nina, as we finally reach the car and I pull open the door.
I just want this to be over already, for them to be home and safe.
I want to see the look on Max’s face when he realizes that he will get to see his new best friend again, and I want to talk to Cara about everything that happened, so I can figure out the possibility of something like this going down again.
Because, if there is one thing I’ll not stand for, it’s someone else taking this nightmare as proof that my family is vulnerable. I’ll make short work of anyone who tries to pull something like that on me ever again.
Taking the wheel, I look into the rearview mirror, to see Nina resting her head against Cara’s chest for a moment, clearly glad to have finally made it out in one piece.
And I swear to myself that this is the last time either of them will have to face something like this. No matter what I’ve to do to protect them, they will stay safe. And I’ll do everything in my power to ensure it.