Chapter 17
seventeen
The rain is pouring down from the open sky, lightning flashing across its star-dotted surface by the time I catch up to the pair. It is lucky for me that my Aston Martin has GPS, otherwise I would never have thought to look in such a desolate place.
The barn is old and decrepit and eerily familiar. Wood beams lie carelessly in the overgrown grass that has turned brown without constant care. It can barely be called a structure. More like a skeleton of the past.
How has Kenzi known about this place?
“If I’m a psycho,” Ava’s voice drifts through the open doorway, her pain seeping through the howl of the wind to pierce straight through my heart. “You made me so by murdering my husband. The one man who cared for me.”
I do care for her.
Even if I haven’t always shown it.
My chest tightens thinking of the last night we had together.
The gala. It is where everything changed for us.
I knew it will hurt her seeing Serena on my arm.
What killed me was seeing the resignation on her face throughout the night.
There wasn’t one ounce of anger when she saw Serena on my arm.
No tears. Just the look of someone who had given up the fight.
That was a look I know too well from men who fought in the ring in Russia. The look that came right before the death blow.
Her sudden refusal to fight made sense once Vas learned she had signed the divorce papers. Papers she was never meant to see. Taking Serena to the ball was meant to put distance between Ava and myself. To show her I can’t give her what she wanted.
My love.
The move also allowed me to set up the needed hit with Kenzi. Serena’s family has ties with Kirill’s men. Once she was sure I was dead, she scuttled back to her master with that important information.
“Fuck.” Kenzi curses painfully. That has me paying attention. Ava has managed to get Kenzi on her back, a knife to her throat as she screams down at her.
Fucking hell.
The pair isn’t paying attention to me as I stride through the barn. My footsteps are quiet, muffled by the hay-strewn floor.
“You. Took. Everything.”
Everything.
That one word nearly breaks me. She thinks I am her everything and I have treated her as if she means nothing to me. Even if the opposite is true, she has never known that. I have never let her.
“Then do it,” Kenzi hisses, baring her teeth as she taunts her sister by moving her neck further into the blade.
“Enough!” My command echoes through the barn. Ava hesitates and I take that chance to grab her under the arms and pull her off her sister. The knife in her hand clatters uselessly to the ground and I am immediately swept up into her familiar scent.
Jasmine.
“Enough, Krasnyy,” I whisper, my lips brushing the shell of her ear. God, she feels exquisite in my arms. Her body isn’t as soft, but I can still feel her curves in all the right places.
She cries out in denial, her sobs shaking her body as she fights my hold. “Stop,” she pleads desperately. “Stop. Please.”
But I won’t.
“Red.”
Ava is too far gone. This is why I wanted to wait. The shock of seeing me alive is too much for her on top of the adrenaline that has been coursing through her system. It won’t be long before her body gives out when the high runs its course.
She is hyperventilating, her eyes wide with fear and distrust as she claws and kicks wildly in my hold. I try to soothe her. To reassure her, but nothing can calm the frantic race of her heart.
“You should have waited,” I hiss at Kenzi. “This was what I was hoping to avoid.”
Kenzi shrugs, holding one hand to her still-bleeding nose. “At least I faced up to her.”
“And almost got yourself killed by her too,” I snarl. “Good job. If I hadn’t shown up in time you would have ended up with a knife through your chest.”
“I had everything under control.” She bites her lip nervously when Ava suddenly goes limp. Her body has finally given out on her, but she’ll be fine. Well, except for the killer headache she’ll have when she wakes back up.
“Fuck no you didn’t.”
“Yes, I did.”
“Get the hell out of here, Kenzi,” I growl. “We’ll talk about this later when she wakes up and is feeling less homicidal.”
“Good luck with that ever happening,” she mutters as she limps toward the exit. Kenzi pauses, looking back at her sister passed out in my arms. “This place has memories,” she whispers to me. “Painful ones. You might try and dig a little into the past while you can. Might find something useful.”
Then she is gone.
For fuck’s sake.
Another cryptic warning is all I need.
Gently, I lay Ava out on a small bed of semi-clean hay. Not that it matters much since she is covered in it herself, but I can’t bring myself to just lay her out anywhere.
Then I do exactly as Kenzi tells me and I start to dig.