Chapter 23 - Ilana
The room smelled like metal, antiseptic, and blood. The warehouse was well-stocked with everything a person could need for first aid. I watched as Avgust opened the cabinets at the far end and took out first-aid kits, medicines, and clean water.
He walked back towards us, where he had picked up and placed Fyodor on the table that he had cleared with brutal efficiency.
I could see that Fyodor was in pain despite being only on the verge of consciousness, his jaw clenched so tightly I thought his teeth might crack.
I still couldn’t believe that Avgust had agreed to help him.
“Take off his shirt,” Avgust instructed, keeping everything on the smaller table beside us.
I quickly unbuttoned Fyodor’s shirt wordlessly, noticing how pale his skin was under the harsh overhead light.
The wound was dark and ugly where the bullet had torn through him.
It was painful to even look at, but I needed to be here.
For my brother. Despite my anger towards them, I did not want any of them to get hurt.
I stood between him and Avgust, watching as Avgust took out antiseptics, cotton, and a sharp metal object from the boxes.
He clearly knew what he was doing, and watching him made me feel things I did not even know I could feel.
His presence was more than I could have asked for.
He took off his suit jacket, his biceps flexing underneath his shirt.
“Wet a clean cloth and wipe off the blood from his chest,” Avgust instructed.
I did exactly as told. I picked up a clean cloth from one of the boxes and dabbed it in some water, gently cleaning the blood that covered Fyodor’s chest. His eyes opened, still heavy with pain, but he seemed conscious now. His gaze raked over me and went to Avgust, his expression hardening.
“Ilana.” Fyodor’s voice came out in a ragged whisper, and I immediately turned to look at him.
“Thank god you are awake,” I replied, stroking his hair.
“What… is… he doing… here?” he croaked out, clearly in a lot of pain.
“He is helping you stay alive, Fyodor. What else?”
Avgust brought the sharp metal object closer to the wound on Fyodor’s chest, and I immediately understood what he was planning to do. He was going to extract the bullet from Fyodor’s body through the object. It was becoming impossible for me to watch, but I felt as if I did not have a choice.
“Hold still,” Avgust said, voice low, controlled.
Fyodor let out a sharp breath. “You… don’t get to… order me… around.”
Avgust didn’t even look at him. His focus was absolute, his hands steady as he worked. The sharp object entered slowly through the open wound while Fyodor held onto the bed sides for dear life. It broke my heart to see him in this much pain.
“If you move, you will bleed out. As much as I don’t mind your death, Ilana does. And I am only doing this for her,” Avgust replied, his eyes still focused sharply on the wound before him.
“Get back, Ilana,” Fyodor said through gritted teeth.
“I am staying. I am sure I can handle it,” I replied with a determination I did not even know I possessed.
“You don’t have to watch, Ilana,” Avgust chimed in, his gaze heavy on me.
“It’s fine. I have to.”
It took a few minutes for Avgust to find the bullet inside the wound, but just as I was beginning to lose hope, he started pulling out the metal object from inside my brother’s body, and a bullet came right out with it.
I was still confused how Avgust had managed to do that, but my heart flooded with relief at the sight of the bullet.
It came out with a dull clink against metal.
Fyodor hissed, then sagged, breath shuddering. Now that the bullet was out, the wound could easily be closed. Fyodor was being completely silent, clearly trying to handle the pain.
“The bullet is out, Fyodor,” I whispered, and he finally opened his eyes, relief flooding through his expression.
I met Avgust’s eyes, only for a second, and found him looking at me already.
Everything passed between us during those few minutes.
From fear to trust to anger to relief. The question neither of us dared to ask was what happened after this, but right now was not the time for it.
My brother lay between us with a gaping hole in his chest.
As if reading my mind, Avgust moved back towards the first-aid box and handed me the tools to stitch the wound shut. I shook my head, knowing I would not be able to do something like that to my own brother, but Avgust handed it to me anyway.
“You have to do it, Ilana,” he nodded, his confidence in me filling me with a newfound hope.
“Alright.”
I moved towards Fyodor, the needle sharp in my hand.
“Just three stitches will be more than enough,” Avgust instructed, and I nodded.
“I am sorry if this hurts, Fyodor,” I whispered, dreading the idea of having to stitch flesh closed.
“Just get it over with,” Fyodor replied.
“The good thing is, no ribs are broken, and no vital organs are harmed. You will be fine,” Avgust added, dabbing cotton with antiseptic.
I stopped delaying the whole thing and went to work with precise focus.
It was not easy, but Fyodor was unusually still, and going through with the stitches was easy.
It only took me less than five minutes to close the wound, and as soon as I was done, Avgust wiped away the blood and dabbed everything with antiseptic before bandaging the wound.
I could already tell he had done this a thousand times before, probably even on himself and on his own brothers or men.
“It’s done,” Avgust announced, moving away.
As soon as everything was done, a heavy silence fell all around us.
I helped Fyodor sit down at the table, his body beginning to adjust to the intensity of the pain.
Color was already returning to his face, indicating that he was beginning to get better.
That was all I wanted. I was not going to sit here and let him die on my watch.
“Let’s go home, Ilana,” Fyodor said as soon as he stood up, but I quickly shook my head.
“You should go home and rest. I am not going anywhere with you,” I replied firmly, not allowing my brother to boss me around yet again.
Before I even realized what was happening, Fyodor ducked down with an agility that was surprising for someone who had just been shot and managed to snatch the gun from Avgust’s holster.
His hands moved fast. Too fast. One second, Avgust was only stepping back, but the very next second, Fyodor had the gun in his hand, arm extended, muzzle aimed straight at Avgust’s chest.
Avgust didn’t even flinch, but I screamed.
“Fyodor! What the fuck do you think you are doing? That man just saved your life.”
Right behind me, Avgust lifted his other hand, already holding a second gun, which was pointed directly at Fyodor’s head.
“And I can very well take it again and make sure you are dead, Fyodor.” Avgust’s voice was cold.
The air between them crackled with tension, neither of them agreeing to back down from their positions. My head was spinning at the scene. I still could not believe Fyodor would do such a thing after Avgust helped him come back from a deadly situation. He would have died if it were not for Avgust.
“Drop it,” Fyodor said hoarsely, clearly still in pain.
“Not a chance,” Avgust replied. “You drop it.”
It was quickly becoming too much to handle. I stepped between them before either of them could pull the trigger, becoming a wall between their guns, which were still aimed at one another. I was not going to stand here and watch the two of them kill each other for no good reason.
“Both of you need to stop this bullshit right now!”
“Ilana—” Avgust began speaking.
“Get out of the way, Ilana—” Fyodor said at the same time.
“No,” I said sharply. “This has gone on long enough. If I let this go on for one more second, I am sure you will end up shooting one another, and I cannot let that happen. You two are forgetting that your hatred for each other is not our biggest problem right now.”
“I have to kill him, Ilana,” Fyodor said. “He married you and then abandoned you, and on top of that, he is a Chernykh.”
“He saved my life and only asked me to leave because he thought I had betrayed him,” I said, my voice hard. “And you have no right to decide what happens in my relationships and what doesn’t.”
“Ilana,” Avgust began speaking, but I raised my hand to silence him as well.
My heart hammered so hard it hurt. The Ilana who had just come to Miami a few months ago could have never imagined standing in a situation like this, between two men who were pointing their guns at one another.
“You two want to kill each other? Fine. But you can do it later. Right now, we have a bigger problem. The men who shot Fyodor are the very same men who kidnapped me and took me to that auction. And they are still out there. We have to deal with that and not this.”
Neither of them lowered their guns, but I knew I had gotten their attention.
Fyodor’s eyes flicked to mine. “You recognize those men?”
“Yes.”
Avgust’s jaw tightened. “How many of them were after you?”
“At least four or five of them. Some of them were the kidnappers, and some of them were men I saw at the auction. One of them was even the accountant you paid money to,” I told Avgust, and he finally lowered his gun.
“They must have found out you were living alone. And now that you are attached to both the Chernykh and the Romanov name, it only increases your price. Now you are someone of consequence,” Avgust reasoned, finally lowering his gun.
Fyodor followed suit. The stand-off finally dissolved, leaving behind raw tension and something far worse. An essence of understanding had settled between the two of them. I knew it was fickle and might not last long, but right now I needed the two of them to cooperate.
“I think they always knew Ilana was a Romanov. That is why they kidnapped her in the first place,” Fyodor added, leaning against the table as he winced in pain.
I stilled and turned to look at him. “They did tell me it was for revenge. What did you guys do to prompt such a reaction from them?”
“It was stupid,” Fyodor sighed, regret flashing on his face.
Avgust’s gaze sharpened. “Define stupid.”
Fyodor exhaled. “It was Roman. Our brother. He made a bad deal with someone who led to wrong intel, and our partners lost their minds. He went ahead and cut them out of the profit after a botched delivery, and they got angry. It happened right after we came to Miami, and we couldn’t do much about it because we didn’t have the right contacts or connections here.
They swore revenge in order to make up lost money, and I believe kidnapping you and selling you off in an auction was their way of doing that. ”
“So it was all revenge, and you had nothing to do with the auction?” Avgust asked, stepping closer.
Fyodor’s lip curled. “No, that is disgusting. We don’t touch that shit. Never have, never will.”
Something inside me loosened. Just a fraction.
“I have some intel that they are planning another one in two days,” Avgust announced.
“Intel or sure news?” Fyodor asked.
“Sure news.”
Fyodor swore under his breath.
“We need to stop it from happening and take these men down in the process,” I said immediately.
“No,” both men said at once.
“Yes,” I shot back. “And I know exactly how to do it.”
“No, Ilana,” Avgust replied. “These auctions are impossible to stop. They happen from time to time, and even if we do manage to stop this one, they will come back again with the next. Flesh trade is common in our world, and even if some families are against it, it doesn’t mean it can ever stop.”
“Avgust, have you forgotten the reason you bought me in that auction? You said I looked helpless and scared, and you wanted to make sure I was alright. Every single woman in the auction is exactly that: helpless and scared. You obviously cannot go and buy all of them, but what you can do is end the auctions and save all of them together.”
“It’s too risky, Ilana,” Fyodor chimed in.
“Not if we plan strategically,” I smiled. “I can go back. They are already on my tail, and I can let them catch me. That way, I can give you guys all the necessary information, and both the Chernykhs and Romanovs will have a motive to attack the action. Me.”
“No,” Avgust said, voice steel. “Absolutely not.”
Fyodor shook his head. “You have lost your mind.”
“You both need to understand the situation. These men are powerful but not as powerful as the Chernykhs and the Chernykh’s allies, and yet you have never been able to stop these auctions from happening, Avgust,” I reasoned, turning to look at Fyodor.
“And you, Fyodor, you came to this city to establish your place and power, and pulling down an auction is exactly the way to do it. It gives you leverage and identity.”
Both of them hesitated, still unsure about the whole thing.
“I can’t allow you to risk your life like that, Ilana,” Avgust said, looking at me.
“I will be fine, Avgust. I know you will come looking for me and save me once again.” I took his hands in mine.
“What if I cannot reach you in time?”
“I am sure you will. Please let me do this. For all of us.”
Both Avgust and Fyodor turned to look at one another, a decision forming in their eyes.
“Fine,” they said in unison.
It took only a few seconds for them to leave me all alone in the warehouse.
It was empty and cold, but I lay down on the concrete floor, arms limp, breath shallow, filled with pretense.
I waited, knowing fully well they would find me eventually.
Footsteps echoed on the concrete floor, and someone laughed.
Hands grabbed me, and I didn’t move. I had to bring them down.
No other woman would ever suffer the way I had. I was going to make sure of it.