Chapter 22 - Avgust
The safe house felt wrong without her. It was too quiet, too still. Like it was holding its breath, waiting for someone who wasn’t coming back. I hadn’t slept there since she left.
Instead, I found myself at the Chernykh house, standing among loud voices and clinking glasses, pretending I wasn’t hollowed out.
Pushing away Ilana made me feel like everything had come to an end.
The gathering was supposed to be strategic since faces, names, and alliances were now clearer than ever, but all I could think about was the way Ilana used to hum softly when she painted.
I had thrown all of those paintings away and had forced her to leave.
Iosif stood at the head of the room, his presence commanding as always.
Lukyan leaned against the far wall, arms crossed and eyes sharp.
Timofey hovered near the drinks, pretending he wasn’t a part of this at all.
Several people had tried to talk to me throughout the evening, but I just hadn't been in the mood.
“You look like shit, dear brother,” Timofey’s voice came from behind me, and I realized he had decided to make his way to me.
“Thank you, I guess?” I replied drily, not having the energy for banter.
“It is bound to happen when you part ways with the woman you have clearly been in love with. Was such a dramatic reaction even necessary?”
“She lied to me.” My jaw hardened at the thought of it. Even though most of my anger had already faded and had been replaced by rationality, I could not forget about it. Not so soon.
Before Timofey could say anything else, Iosif motioned at the two of us and signaled towards the house.
He was calling us to the meeting room. Lukyan also began walking towards the house, and the three of us quickly followed Iosif inside.
It had been some time since the four of us had been inside this room together.
“Avgust,” Iosif addressed me at once, assuming his position at the head of the room. “We have not had the chance to talk about anything since the revelation of the Romanovs’ identities.”
“I have been keeping to myself,” I replied honestly, not knowing what else to say. It was true I had been avoiding everyone.
“Where is she right now?” Iosif asked. I was not mistaken about who he meant by 'she'. It could only be one person.
“I don’t know,” I sighed. “I asked her to leave, so she must have gone back to her brothers. Do we not have a location on them yet?”
“They are lying low,” Lukyan replied. “They might have even gone back to Russia for all we know. But despite knowing them, we have no reason to attack them yet. Yes, they are Romanovs, but what have they done to invoke an attack from us or any of the other bratvas in the city?”
“Lukyan is right,” Iosif replied. “All we can do is monitor their movements and make sure they lay low or leave the city. We do not want another bratva family here unless they can justify their presence properly. As for the matter with Ilana, what have you decided, Avgust?”
“She is a Romanov,” Lukyan said bluntly. “And she lied to Avgust and all of us about her identity. We should not be ignoring that.”
“I know what she is,” I snapped. “And I also know who she isn’t. I don’t need reminders.”
Lukyan’s jaw tightened. “I warned you. I told you to be thorough in your checking of her because I was afraid she was hiding something. And well, we have proof in front of us now. We don’t know what else she might have lied about or how much private information she has already relayed to her brothers. ”
“She was not a spy, Lukyan,” Timofey chimed in before I could say another word.
“And how do you know that?” Lukyan asked, leaning against the table.
“I met her before all of you did. I was injured near Avgust’s safe house, and he rescued me.
Ilana tended to my injuries. She was nothing but a kind, lost girl who had no clue what the Bratva even was.
And you might say she was pretending at that time as well, but I know when someone is lying and when someone isn’t. And Ilana was being honest.”
“And when I saw her in the auction, all of it was real. She was genuinely shocked by all of it,” I replied, my mind returning to the first time I had laid my eyes on her and everything had stopped moving in that moment.
“None of it erases her last name,” Lukyan said, calmer now. “She will always be a Romanov who cannot become a part of our world.”
Iosif finally spoke. “Enough.”
We all turned to look at him.
“Lukyan, you are forgetting that I married Clara, who also belonged to a rival Bratva faction until we became allies. In the Bratva world, marriages are not based on friendships or names; they lead to alliances and friendships. And we cannot forget the fact that Avgust has already married her.
“She is his wife. There is no denying that she is a Romanov. We are not on very friendly terms with the family right now. Still, we cannot let that define her relationship with Avgust until she explicitly goes against us.”
“But she has already returned to her brothers, which means that she was compliant since day one. Isn’t that going against us?” Lukyan added.
“Or it might only mean that she has nowhere else to go,” Timofey replied. “She has lived in Russia all her life and knows no one here except for her own family and us. Avgust turned her away. Where else is she supposed to go? Sleep on the streets?”
My heart ached.
She had blatantly told me she had nowhere to go and could not return to her brothers, and I had not cared about any of it.
I had asked her to leave no matter what.
I had told her I would not give her my name, protection, or mercy.
I had been angry then, but the thought of what I did to her came back to haunt me. I had been very unfair.
“I actually know for a fact that she did not return to her brothers.” All of us turned around, realizing that Elisse had entered the meeting room. She walked straight towards Iosif, standing beside him as she looked at us.
“What do you mean?” I could not stop myself from asking, concern taking root in my heart.
“She called me after you kicked her out of the safe house and told me everything and asked for help. I had half a mind to bring her here, but I knew it might be complicated given her name and how everyone else might react to it. So I set her up in a small apartment on Chernykh property. She has been living there for two weeks now.”
“All alone?” I asked, my mind spinning at the thought of it.
“Yes.”
“Elisse, you should have arranged a security detail for her. Do you not know how girls from auctions are always under the eye of kidnappers, even months after they have been bought or sold? She could be in danger for all we know,” I said, itching to know her exact location so I could go to her right now.
“How is she living there? Did she get a job? I am sure she had nothing to her name after everything that happened,” Timofey added, making me feel like an even bigger dick.
I had actually turned her out on the street with nothing but the clothes on her back and her paintings.
“I did send her groceries and clothes and whatever else I could think of. I called her yesterday and asked if she needed anything else, but she said no, saying her self-respect would not allow her to accept any more favors. She was planning to sell her paintings to make some money.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about any of it?” I asked, my heart aching with guilt.
She had not gone back to her brothers. She had not been lying. Yes, she had kept the truth from me, but that was it. That was her one wrongdoing, and I had turned her away for it.
“I have been calling you, but you have been refusing to pick up. And every time I have come to the safe house, you have not been home. It was impossible to get a hold of you, so I had to do it today.”
“Well, the fact that she did not return to her brothers is enough to tell us that she was not a spy for them. She might have actually not known about their bratva involvement from the very beginning,” Iosif reasoned.
“She asked me to talk to you, Avgust. She told me you shut her out, even letting her explain,” Elisse added.
“She had all the time in the world to tell me the truth, yet she chose to lie about her identity,” I replied, reminding myself why I had asked her to leave in the first place.
“I am sure she had her reasons, Iosif!” Elisse exclaimed.
“She was trying to protect you and her family, and she just did not know how. The day you found out, she had called you outside to finally tell you the truth, but everything turned messy before that, and then you asked her to leave. How was she supposed to explain anything when you were being this unreasonable?”
Elisse was right. I needed to call her.
“I think I should talk to her,” I whispered and stepped out of the meeting room, taking my phone out of my pocket.
Just as I was about to dial her number, my phone began vibrating in my hand, her name flashing on my screen. My breath stopped for a few seconds. I answered at once.
“Ilana?”
“Avgust, I need you.” There was panic in her voice. Something was wrong.
“Where are you? What’s wrong?”
Her voice came through broken and panicked. “Please come for me at once. It’s the kidnappers; they have found me again. They are following me. I need you. I have shared my location with you. Please come find me at once.”
Warning bells sounded in my ears, making me wonder if this might be yet another trap.
But I couldn’t let that possibility keep me from helping Ilana.
If she needed me, I was going to go. Perhaps this would make it easier for me to know if she had been lying or telling the truth all along.
***
I reached her location in under ten minutes, finding her ducked in the corner of a dark alley. Ilana crouched behind a dumpster, her arms around a bleeding man. She was trying to put pressure on his wound to stop the bleeding. As I got closer, I recognized the man at once.
Fyodor Romanov.
I took out my gun and fired without hesitation at the men who were just about to enter the alley. Two of them went down while the third ran away.
Ilana looked up at me like she couldn’t believe I was real. Looking at her, dressed in a simple white dress with her hair pulled back, she did not look real to me either. She was beautiful. Achingly so.
“You came,” she breathed.
“Come on, get in the car,” I ordered, motioning to my car, which was parked just at the other side of the alley.
“Fyodor—” I stopped her before she could voice her concern.
“I will carry him. You get inside.”
She did as I said, and I dragged Fyodor towards the back seat of my car, carefully placing him there.
He was bleeding out fast, and there was no point in taking this to a hospital.
They would never treat a bullet wound without police involvement, and that was the last thing I wanted right now.
The kidnappers were still on our trail as well.
I needed a hideout.
“Where are we going?” Ilana asked as I backed the car out.
“I know a place.”
It took us five minutes to get to the Chernykh warehouse in the area, and I quickly opened the doors to take my car inside.
It was too easily recognizable, and the kidnappers would know we were here if they spotted the car.
Once inside, Ilana helped me lay Fyodor down on the floor as we assessed the wound.
“This is not fatal,” I said.
“Are you certain?” she asked, her eyes widening. I could see she was concerned about her brother.
“Yes. The bullet has barely touched any vital organs. The ribs might be broken, but he will be fine,” I gave my verdict, wondering if I wanted to save this man or not. If the wound was not treated right away, it could very well turn fatal, so everything was up to me now.
“So we should take the bullet out, right?” Ilana asked.
“Why should I help you save your brother, Ilana?” I asked, standing up. “And why did you call me? You could have called one of your brothers.”
“I knew you had a hideout nearby, so it just seemed practical.”
I froze. “That is another lie. I have never told you about a hideout, and you had no idea where we were going when you got in the car.”
She swallowed. “Avgust, I didn’t think. I just knew I needed help, and the first person I went to was you. I knew I had to come to you if I wanted a solution to this problem, and I made the right decision.”
Something cracked open in my chest. She still trusted me. After everything I had done, she still trusted me enough to get her out of a situation that demanded life or death. I had been the first person in her mind, and she had called me. My need to protect her only increased.
“Will you please help me save him, Avgust?” she asked, tears running down her face. “I know you hate all Romanovs, and you owe us nothing but please. That is all I am asking you to do, and then I will disappear from your life forever. I love Fyodor too much to let him die like this before my eyes.”
I stared at her bleeding brother and the horror in her deep green eyes and realized that nothing mattered to me except Ilana.
I was not doing this for Fyodor or the Romanovs, but only for the woman I loved.
I had hurt her a lot already, and maybe that was enough.
I looked between her and her brother, and for the first time, I decided not to choose war.
Instead, I chose her.