Chapter 33 Sasha
Sasha
Adrian is waiting for me to break.
I can see it in the way he watches my face, hungry for the tears and pleading he’s been imagining for two years. He wants me on my knees, begging him to spare my family, offering myself up as the prize he believes he’s owed.
He’s going to be disappointed.
I let his ultimatum linger in the room for a long moment. The guards stand at attention. Tony sits motionless beside me. Adrian’s smile begins to falter as the seconds tick by without the response he expected.
When I finally speak, my voice comes out steady. “You really believe this will work, don’t you?”
Adrian blinks. “Excuse me?”
“This whole production.” I gesture around the room at the positioned guards and the theatrical lighting. “You’ve been planning this moment for two years, rehearsing what you’d say and imagining how I’d react. And in all that time, you never once considered that I might not play along.”
“Sasha—”
“You want to know when you lost any power over me, Adrian?” I stand from my chair, and two guards take a step forward before Adrian waves them back. “It was the moment I realized your so-called feelings were nothing but a desire to possess me. You never wanted a relationship. You wanted a trophy.”
Adrian’s smile has completely disappeared now. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I know exactly what I’m talking about. Every conversation we had was really about how I could benefit you.
Every attempt you made to get closer to me was about acquisition, not affection.
You never saw me as a person, Adrian. I was just another beautiful thing you wanted to add to your collection.
And when I wouldn’t let myself be collected, you couldn’t handle it. ”
“That’s not true.”
“It’s completely true, and we both know it.” I keep my voice calm even as my heart pounds against my ribs. “You’re not angry because I reported your money laundering. You’re angry because I was never yours to begin with. That I saw through your charm and used it against you.”
Adrian’s face has gone red. “You ruined everything!.”
“You did that yourself. I just made sure other people knew about it.” I shake my head slowly.
“And now you’ve spent two years and god knows how much money building this elaborate revenge scheme, and for what?
Do you really think forcing me to come back to you will make you happy?
Do you think I’ll ever look at you with anything other than disgust? ”
“You’ll learn.” Adrian’s voice has dropped to something dangerous. “Given enough time, you’ll learn to appreciate what I’m offering.”
“What you’re offering is a cage with gilded bars. And I’d rather watch you try to destroy my family than spend a single second pretending your feelings were ever real or reciprocated.”
Adrian’s composure shatters in that moment, and his face twists into something ugly.
“You ungrateful bitch.” He launches from his chair and takes a step toward me. “I gave you everything. I would have given you the world.”
“You manipulated me.” I let my voice rise, making sure it carries toward the windows. “And we’re done here.”
Adrian stares at me for a long moment. Then he turns to his guards and snaps, “Take them both. Put them in the basement until she’s ready to be more cooperative.”
The guards move forward as one unit, converging on Tony and me from all directions. This is the moment we’ve been waiting for.
Tony is already in motion. He launches himself at the guard closest to him, driving an elbow into the man’s throat before he can raise his weapon. The guard goes down choking, and Tony strips the gun from his hands in one smooth motion.
I lunge toward the fireplace and grab the iron poker from its stand. The guard reaching for my arm doesn’t see it coming until I’ve already buried three inches of it in his shoulder. He screams and staggers backward, clutching the wound.
Another guard slams into me from behind, and the poker clatters across the floor. His arm wraps around my throat and cuts off my air. I claw at his forearm, but his grip only tightens.
Across the room, two more guards have Tony pinned against the wall. One of them drives a fist into his wounded shoulder, and Tony’s face goes white.
We miscalculated. We’re going to die in this room.
Gunfire erupts from somewhere outside. Boris’s team has started their breach.
The guard choking me loosens his grip to look toward the shattering windows, and I drive my elbow backward into his ribs. He grunts and releases me. I scramble for the poker and swing it at his temple. He drops.
The room descends into violence. Tony wrenches free from his captors and puts two bullets in them before they can recover.
I duck behind Adrian’s massive desk as bullets tear into the wood above my head.
Another guard rounds the corner, and I swing the poker at his knee, dropping him before he can get a shot off.
Glass shatters as Boris’s men come through the windows. More gunfire, more screaming, more bodies hitting the floor. I stay low and look around the room for Adrian, but he’s disappeared in the confusion.
“Sasha!” Tony’s voice cuts through the noise. “You okay?”
“I’m fine! Where’s Adrian?”
“I don’t know. I lost him.”
Boris appears in the doorway with three of his men, and their weapons sweep the room for remaining threats. The last of Adrian’s guards are either dead or surrendering with their hands raised as Boris’s team secures them.
“The study is clear,” Boris announces. “Where’s Belmont?”
I push myself up from behind the desk and look around the destroyed room. Bullet holes pepper the walls. Bodies litter the floor. The portrait of Adrian above the fireplace has been torn apart by gunfire.
But Adrian himself is nowhere to be seen.
“There.” Tony points to a section of bookshelf that’s swung open like a door. “Hidden passage. He must have slipped out during the firefight.”
Boris curses and signals two of his men. “Denis, Anton, with me. The rest of you secure the building.”
They disappear through the hidden passage while Tony, and I follow close behind. The narrow corridor beyond leads to a set of stairs that descend into darkness. We move as quickly as caution allows with our weapons ready for an ambush that never comes.
The passage empties into a garage beneath the manor. Three vehicle bays, all of them empty.
“He had cars waiting.” Tony slams his fist against the wall. “Son of a bitch had an escape route already planned.”
Boris is already on his radio, barking orders. “All units, target has fled the estate. Repeat, Belmont is in the wind. Lock down all roads within a five-mile radius.”
I stand in the empty garage as something cold settles in my stomach. We had him. We were so close to ending this tonight, and he slipped through our fingers.
“How many escape routes does this place have?” I ask no one in particular.
“More than we knew about, apparently.” Boris lowers his radio with a grim look. “Our men are searching the grounds, but if he had vehicles staged down here, he’s probably already past our perimeter.”
Tony runs a hand through his hair. “What about the guards we captured? They might know where he’d go.”
“Worth a try.” Boris heads back toward the stairs. “But men like Belmont don’t share escape plans with hired muscle. He’ll have a dozen bolt-holes set up that nobody knows about.”
We return to the main floor to find Boris’s team has fully secured the estate. The surviving guards have been zip-tied and lined up in the foyer, and two of Boris’s men are going through Adrian’s study, collecting documents and electronics.
I watch them work and try to process what just happened. We came here expecting a confrontation. We got one. But Adrian’s escape means this isn’t over.
“He’ll regroup,” I quietly state. “Come at us again when we’re not expecting it.”
Tony stands beside me with his jaw set. “Then we find him first.”
“How? He could be anywhere by now.”
“He’s wounded.” Tony nods toward a smear of blood on the hidden passage entrance. “One of us must have clipped him during the fight. He’ll need medical attention, which limits his options.”
“Unless he has a private doctor on standby. Which, knowing Adrian, he probably does.”
Boris rejoins us after finishing his sweep. “No sign of Belmont on the property. My men checked every building, every vehicle, every inch of the grounds. He’s gone.”
“What about the roads?”
“Nothing yet. If he had a helicopter waiting somewhere nearby, he could be in another country by nightfall.”
The thought makes my stomach turn. All this planning, all this risk, and Adrian is still out there. Still a threat to my family. Still obsessed with destroying everything I love.
“The captured guards,” I begin, “have you questioned them yet?”
“Sergei is starting now. But like I said, I doubt they know much.”
I head toward the foyer anyway, needing to do something besides stand around feeling helpless. The guards look up as I approach. Most of them avoid my eyes, but one meets my gaze, which is blazing with defiance.
I crouch down in front of him. “Where would Adrian go?”
“Fuck you.”
“Wrong answer.” I let him see the poker still in my hand. “Where would Adrian go?”
His eyes go wide as saucers, and his voice squeaks when he replies, “I don’t know. I swear I don’t. Belmont doesn’t share his plans with people like us.”
“Then who does he share them with?”
“Nobody. That’s the whole point. He’s paranoid as hell.” The guard swallows hard. “He’s got places all over Europe. Safe houses, offshore accounts, contacts in a dozen countries. You’ll never find him unless he wants to be found.”
I stand and turn away. Tony is waiting a few feet behind me, and the look on his face tells me he heard everything.
“We’ll find him,” he promises.
“You heard what that guard said. Adrian has resources everywhere.”
“So does your family.” Tony puts his hands on my shoulders. “Dmitri has contacts across the whole Goddamn world, Boris has a network of informants., and I still have people from my CIA days who owe me favors.”
“And if that’s not enough?”
“Then we keep looking until it is. Adrian made this personal, Sasha. He came after you, after your family. We’re not going to stop until he’s dealt with permanently.”
Boris approaches with his phone in hand. “I just spoke to Dmitri. He’s mobilizing everyone. Every contact, every favor, every resource the family has. Adrian won’t be able to move without us knowing about it.”
I take a deep breath and nod. Tonight was supposed to end the threat. Instead, we’ve only pushed it underground. Adrian is wounded, humiliated, and more dangerous than ever.
But at least now he knows we’re not the easy targets he thought we were.