Chapter 24 - Avgust #2
“Stand down,” Fyodor said. “I have no desire to kill any of you. I am not here to fight you guys, I am only here to take my sister back home.”
“Your sister does not want to go with you!” Ilana shouted, but none of it mattered to Fyodor. His mind was set.
The warehouse held its breath as Ilana fought him, but Fyodor was much stronger.
I wanted to kill Fyodor right there and then, but I could not do that to Ilana.
Not after everything else I had already done.
They turned around and left, and Ilana turned to look at me one last time, her eyes holding a promise that was only meant for me.
I would not let her go.
Not so easily.
This wasn’t over.
***
“I swear to God,” I said hoarsely, slamming the door behind me. “I will burn the Romanovs to the ground.”
Iosif was already there, seated at the head of the long table like he had been waiting for the house itself to report back to him. His expression didn’t change when he looked up.
“Sit down, Avgust.”
“I don’t want to sit.”
“Sit,” Lukyan echoed from the wall, arms crossed, blood dried on his knuckles.
I paced instead. Back and forth. Like movement might shake her loose from wherever Fyodor had taken her.
“She was right there,” I said, voice rising. “I had her. And then that asshole decided to take her with him, even when she told him she did not want to go. I wish I could have killed him right there and then.”
“Why didn’t you?” Timofey asked, walking forward.
“Ilana wouldn’t have wanted that.”
Zhenya sat curled on the couch, knees to her chest, eyes red-rimmed. “They won’t hurt her,” she said quietly. “They won’t.”
“You don’t know that,” I snapped.
Misha leaned forward from where she sat on the armrest. “We do, actually.”
That got my attention.
“Be realistic, Avgust,” she sighed. “She is their sister, and no matter what happened in the past few months, they still want her with them because they obviously love her and care for her. Yes, she did not want to go with Fyodor, and he forced her, but that only means the brothers will cherish her even more. They have always taken care of her in the past as well.”
“She doesn’t want to be a part of them,” I said. “That’s the point.”
“Avgust, she is no longer the scared girl you rescued from an auction. She has turned into her own person in these past few months, and she helped you dismantle an entire auction by acting like a plant,” Elisse interrupted.
“That requires courage. If she can do that, she can do anything, even if that includes fighting her brothers. If she wants to come back to you, she will.”
“I turned her away, Elisse. What if she thinks I don’t want her back?” I asked.
“She knows you want her back, Avgust,” Iosif sighed. “Even a blind person would know. This love-sick look on you can be spotted from a mile away.”
Everyone chuckled, the tension dissolving for a few minutes.
“We need an address on the Romanovs. I will go get her myself,” I said after a few minutes.
“No,” Iosif shook his head. “I am not letting you go all alone to storm the Romanov house and rescue Ilana, especially when she doesn’t even need rescuing.”
“She will come back to you herself, Avgust,” Zhenya said, her voice soft. “Just you wait.”
“Avgust.”
I hadn’t heard the door open; the sound of my name from Ilana’s mouth making me freeze.
It was her voice. Unmistakably so. I turned around slowly, staring at her standing in the doorway.
She was bruised and looked exhausted, but her eyes were alive and sparkling.
For a heartbeat, I couldn’t even breathe.
Then I crossed the room and pulled her into me so hard she gasped.
There were hoots and laughter all around us, but I didn’t care for any of it. In that moment, all that mattered was Ilana and the fact that she was here.
“You’re here,” I said into her hair, hands shaking. “If you had taken any longer to come, I would have come to get you myself.”
“I knew I had to come back to you, so I left,” she said, clutching my shirt like she was anchoring herself to me. It was exactly what I had wanted.
I pulled back just enough to look at her. “What do you mean you left?”
“They argued,” she said. “For hours. Fyodor wanted to keep me there. Kliment apologized for everything, especially for hiding things from me, and asked me to go back to Russia if that was what I wanted. They were ready to do anything to make me feel better and keep me with them.”
“So what did you say to them?”
“I told them no.”
My chest felt too tight. “You just… walked out?”
“I reminded them,” she said quietly, “that I survived an auction without their help and came out stronger. And that if they ever tried to cage me again, I would burn them down from the inside. I told them I loved them, but I was no longer a Romanov, and I might be their sister, but the only thing that mattered to me anymore was being a wife. Your wife.”
I laughed, a broken sound. “You are insane.”
She smiled. “I think you already know that.”
“Are they going back to Russia?” I asked.
“No,” she shook her head. “They are still obsessed with being the strongest Bratva power in this city, but I don’t care for any of that.
None of that matters to me. I need to be here with you, and that is the only thing that matters.
If you will have me, of course. I know you are angry with me, and rightfully so. I should have never lied to you.”
“Shh,” I said, keeping a finger on her lips. “You don’t have to explain yourself. I understand.”
“I do,” she nodded. “I honestly did not know what to do or how to protect both you and my family. But in the end, I chose you and decided to tell you the truth, and everything went to hell. I wish I had told you earlier.”
“So you are choosing me? Forever?”
“I love you, Avgust. I don’t know when or how it happened, but I am choosing you. If you will choose me, too, that is.”
“I love you too, Ilana.”
I held her face in my hands and kissed her as the entire room filled with laughter and cat calls, as if my family had been waiting for this to happen.
I pulled back slightly, looking into her eyes, and rested my forehead against hers.
The truth settled into me like happiness finding its rightful place.
My hollowed heart felt whole again. And I knew that now, no matter what stood against us, we would always face it together.