Chapter 20 - Avgust
The second I saw their faces, everything inside me went cold.
It was not fear, but recognition instead.
I knew exactly who they were from the grainy footage and the descriptions Timofey had sent me a few weeks ago.
They were exactly the men I had been looking for, and they were right in front of me.
They had tried to come for Ilana. My Ilana.
The Romanovs.
I was going to kill them.
“Ilana, stay behind me,” I whispered, my eyes locked on the two men standing in front of us.
None of us wanted to do anything in the crowded street, and both of them quickly ducked into the alley to our left.
I followed behind them without hesitation, refusing to run or let them go.
Ilana followed me even though I would have preferred she stay inside the café.
She did not need to see this. She had seen enough blood already.
“Avgust,” she called out my name, running to keep up with my pace.
“Ilana, go back inside the café. You shouldn’t see this. You will be safer there.”
She said something I did not quite catch, my eyes landing on the two Romanov brothers in the alley. I moved before thought caught up, gun already in my hand, body angling in front of Ilana without conscious decision. One shot. Two. I could end it before they even reached for their weapons.
“Avgust, no!”
Her hands slammed against my chest, and I realized she was standing in front of me.
I froze, unable to understand what was happening.
“What?” I snapped, eyes still locked on them. “Get behind me. I don’t want you getting hurt because of these assholes. ”
“No,” she said, voice breaking. “Please don’t kill them. Please.”
She was crying now, my heart aching at the sight of it. I noticed how the taller of the two men smiled then, the smile sealing something I could have never even imagined. Something that sent me into stone-cold shock.
“You know them,” I said slowly, the realization hitting me like a brick. “You know these men.”
Ilana’s fingers tightened around my arm as she continued to sob uncontrollably. “Yes, yes, I do. They are my brothers.”
The word hit like a bullet.
Brothers.
The Romanovs were her brothers. My vision tunneled as I looked at her, my grip tightening on my gun until my knuckles burned.
“You’re lying,” I said flatly.
“I wish I were. But I am not. Kliment and Fyodor Romanov are my brothers. My real name is Ilana Romanov. I lied to you about my identity earlier.”
“You are lying now,” I said flatly, unable to believe anything coming out of her mouth. It could not be true. None of it.
“I’m not.”
Fyodor stepped forward, palms raised. “We are not here to fight. We just want to take our sister back with us. We came looking for her, and that’s it.”
“Shut up,” I snarled, not even trying to control my anger.
Ilana turned to me, eyes frantic. “Avgust, please. Just don’t kill them. I am begging you. Please don’t kill them for my sake.”
I lowered my gun an inch, my head beginning to spin.
“Ilana, come with us,” the taller of the two men said.
“No,” Ilana replied wildly, “I told you not to come looking for me, and yet you did. But that does not mean I am going anywhere with you, Kliment.”
I took her wrist in my hand and dragged her back towards me. “We are leaving, and Ilana is going with me. Don’t even so much as try to follow us or come after her.”
Kliment took a step forward, but I fired into the ground right in front of his feet. Ilana shouted, and Kliment backed away a few steps.
“The next one will not be a warning,” I said.
He stopped then. I took Ilana’s hand and shoved her in the waiting car right by the street, peeling out before anyone could say another word.
My world had come crashing down before me in the matter of a few seconds.
I still was not sure what was true and what was a lie because none of this felt real.
None of it felt like it was happening to me.
My wife was a Romanov. I turned to look at her, but she stayed quiet throughout the drive.
I didn’t speak either. By the time we reached the house, the shock had burned off completely, and all that remained now was rage.
I stopped the car and stepped out, opening her door.
I yanked her out of the seat when she proceeded to stay rooted to the spot and dragged her inside the house.
She followed quietly behind me as I took her to the bedroom, slamming the door shut behind us.
She had only seen two sides of me yet; the unconcerned Avgust and the Avgust who was ready to give her the world.
She was going to see a very different side of me now.
Because I had never felt angrier.
“You knew, didn’t you? You knew it all along, and you chose to keep it from me?”
She flinched at my accusation, her beautiful face streaked with tears, but stayed silent.
“Say something, goddamnit! How long have you known? Did you know, even before the whole thing started, that I told you about the Romanovs myself? Did you know since the day I brought you into this house? Was the auction nothing but a setup to gain entry into my world?”
Her chin lifted, and she looked at me. “No. I only found out after the research. After I saw the file Timofey had sent you, with mention of the Romanov name and descriptions of my brothers. I knew nothing before that, not even the fact that my brothers were somehow associated with the Bratva.”
I laughed, but it came out ugly. “So while you were sleeping in my bed—”
“I wasn’t spying—”
“—while you were painting in my house—”
“I never told them anything! You will have to believe me, Avgust.”
“You knew your family was looking for mine and trying to gain territory on what was our land.”
She swallowed. “I was trying to protect both of you from hurting the other. I cared about both of you and did not want to see either of you suffering or dying. I did not want to become a part of this war that might have only grown bigger until one of the two people I loved would die.”
I stepped back like she had struck me.
“Don’t you dare tell me you love me! Not right now. Not after everything you have already done. I will not sit here and listen to lies to my fucking face.”
“I am not lying, Avgust,” she sobbed. “I was never a part of this, and I did not know my brothers were a part of the Bratva until I saw that email. You have to believe me. Please.”
“You let me walk blindly into that,” I said, feeling furious in a way I hadn’t in years.
“You let me bring you into my family. Into my home. You let me introduce you to everyone important to me as my wife. You let me give you everything I could to make you feel better. You let me care for you and love you, and you did this to me.”
“You love me?” she asked, walking towards me, but I backed away.
“No, Ilana. Not anymore. Anything I might have felt for you is long gone now because I cannot even stomach the thought of being with someone who has betrayed me.”
Tears spilled down her cheeks. “I didn’t know what to do, Avgust. I didn’t know how to tell you the truth about my family, knowing fully well you might have wanted to kill them if you found out the truth.”
“I know exactly what you did, Ilana. Stop pretending you are the innocent one in all of this.”
I turned away, chest heaving, hands shaking with the effort not to destroy something. I did not want to touch her. Not right now. I had always been told that I had excellent control over my anger, but all of that control had evaporated somewhere, and all that was left was pure, blind rage.
“Avgust, please believe me. Please.”
“I saved you,” I said quietly. “Because I thought you were innocent.”
“I am—”
“You are a Romanov.”
The word tasted like poison on my tongue.
“You stayed,” I went on. “Even after you knew. You stayed anyway. Why?”
She opened her mouth, but I didn’t let her speak another word.
“It was because you could watch,” I continued.
“You stayed so you could learn about me and my family and our business and tell everything to your brothers. This was nothing but a move for leverage. You stayed so they could be waiting for me today. You planned and executed it rather beautifully, Ilana. Well done!”
“None of this is true!”
“Isn’t it?”
She shook her head violently. “I never told them where you were or where I was or who I was with.”
“But they knew,” I snapped. “They were there. Waiting for me to come so they could attack me and kill me. They wanted to kill a Chernykh to establish greater control in the city, and you were helping them with their agendas.”
Her voice broke, “No, Avgust. They followed me there. I did not tell them where I was at all, and they came looking for me all by themselves. I promise. Please believe me.”
I stared at her. Something flickered in my chest. Doubt. But it died just as quickly.
“Get your things,” I said.
Her eyes widened. “Avgust—”
“Now.”
“I don’t have anywhere to go, Avgust. Please don’t do this to me,” she sobbed. “I cannot go back to my brothers. You know I cannot, and I don’t even want to. Please don’t kick me out like this. I promise I am not lying to you. Please, Avgust.”
She tried to take hold of my face, but I pulled away at once.
“All of it stopped being my problem the moment you lied to me.”
“Avgust, you cannot do this to me. You married me and promised to protect me forever. You cannot kick me out with nowhere to go. Please, Avgust.”
Her begging made my heart ache, but I would not change my decision. She had to go. I walked out of the bedroom and quickly made my way towards her art room, and she followed right behind me. Pushing the door open, I toppled all of her paintings to the floor, the room turning into a mess at once.
“Take these with you. I don’t want to see them again. I don’t want to see anything that belongs to you. Take everything and leave, and never ever show yourself to me again.”
“Avgust, no, please, listen to me once,” she tried to reach for me, but I refused to even look at her.
I stepped back.
“You don’t get anything from me, Ilana Romanov,” I said. “You don’t get my name or my protection or my understanding or my mercy. You have died for me from this very moment onwards. Please leave.”
Her voice was barely a whisper. “You don’t mean that.”
I opened the door and motioned for her to leave.
“Take your things and get off my property. At once.”
She stood there, shaking, clutching a canvas like it was her lifeline.
“I love you,” she said.
The words gutted me, but I didn’t let it show.
“Leave, Ilana.”
She did.
The door closed behind her, and the house was left eerily silent in her wake. Ilana was gone from my life. For good.