36. Elyssa
ELYSSA
I used a headache as a pretext to leave dinner early. Konstantin’s table was empty; neither he, his brothers, nor his friends were anywhere to be seen, but Batista’s table was still full.
That meant I still had time to warn them if Konstantin hadn’t.
I rushed out of the castle to make my way to the Church, despite how scared I was of the dark. Turning on my phone flashlight, I took it easy, walking slowly until, finally, the old building came into view. I rushed to it, pushing the big oak doors open and stumbling inside.
It was dark, none of the candles they used to bring light in there were lit. Everything looked exactly like it usually did, too. The couches, discarded bottles of vodka in the corner, even the cleaning supplies Konstantin had brought in here the day he forced me to clean up the ground floor.
A movement on my left snapped my attention to it. I could have sworn I saw something move from the corner of my eye, but there was nothing.
Only the statues the guys always covered in a white sheet. They were so heavy that moving only one of them would be a real feat, let alone all five.
Wait. Five?
Tilting my head to the side, I frowned in confusion. I could have sworn that the last time I came in here, there were only four of them.
I didn’t get to dwell on that because the sound of the doors being pushed open echoed around me. I recognized Batista’s voice and my blood ran cold.
If he saw me here, it would be over for me. He would tell my grandfather and then… then, there would be hell to pay.
I ducked behind an alcove in a dark corner of the room with a direct view of the altar. Putting my hand over my mouth, I did my best to stay as silent as possible, closing my eyes and wishing I could disappear.
My hands were trembling, I had a lot to lose right then. I prayed to God that they would quickly realize nobody was here and get back to their miserable lives. When they came into view, I stopped breathing. There were six of them, all armed to some capacity. Batista and Lorenzo had baseball bats, Luca had a fucking crowbar, and their friends had variations of the two.
“Where the fuck are they?” Batista spat, walking to the center of the room and analyzing each corner.
Luca came into view then, ordering two of his goons around. “Go check upstairs. They’re probably passed out by now.”
“Passed out? You said it would only make them drowsy.” Lorenzo frowned, confused. When Luca turned his head to him, he took a menacing step forward and narrowed his eyes at my cousin.
“Yeah, and now I’m saying it will make them pass out, is there a problem with that?”
Ever the coward, Lorenzo flinched before shaking his head no. “Good. Better remember who will be your capo one day.”
Luca turned around and joined Batista at the beginning of the stairs while their two friends came down. “There’s nothing upstairs either.”
“Did one of you talk?” Luca barked, looking at everyone suspiciously. Lorenzo’s expression went blank like he suddenly remembered telling me about their plans. I watched him put the pieces together, but to my surprise, he did a great job of not letting it show.
“Looking for us?”
The voice came from the altar, right before the white sheet on the statues fell to the ground, letting Konstantin, Mikhail, Dominik, Roman, and Royal appear. Each of them had been standing behind a statue, using their cover as a hiding place. I couldn’t help but grin at that, it was like a modern version of the Trojan Horse.
“Told you they would never see us coming.” Mikhail grinned at his brothers who in turn rolled their eyes at him.
He was the first to move, taking advantage of the others’ surprise to attack. Where the Italians had baseball bats and crowbars, the Russians had thick metal chains they wielded like pros. The fight was entertaining to watch, if not a little bloody. I quickly noticed someone was missing though, and that was Lorenzo. He’d fled, the coward.
Konstantin went straight for Luca, easily disarming him so they could fight hand in hand. Luca was visibly less confident in hand-on-hand combat, but he still delivered the first punch. Konstantin let him, slowly running his thumb over his lip where he had started bleeding.
Then a cunning smile stretched his lips before he dived in and started fighting for real. I couldn’t help the feeling of awe that washed over me every time I saw the uninhibited version of him come out to play. There were only two instances where that happened: when he was fighting or killing, and when we were having sex. I think those might have been the two activities that released the most endorphins into his body.
I didn’t know where to look as I took in the violent spectacle in front of me. Everyone was fighting, the sounds of grunts and the smell of blood and sweat thick in the air. Before long, every one of the Italians had been subdued, and I had a theory about that.
Our men took combat classes pretty early on, where they learned all about technique and arm use, but that’s not how the Korolovs taught fighting. No, they fought like savages: no technique, no rules, just pure talent. They almost made it seem like an art.
I was counting the subdued Italians in the room, on the ground, headfirst, with their wrists tied behind their back, and I noticed something wrong. Six of them had come in, but there were only four right now. I already knew Lorenzo had left at the first sight of danger, but I also couldn’t see?—
“You fucking whore!”
Black boots appeared right in front of where I had been hiding, making my blood run cold. A heavy hand came and grasped a handful of my hair, pulling me up to my feet by force. I yelped in pain, but Batista didn’t seem to care. My cousin had always been cruel towards me but that was the first time he had gotten physical.
“Look what I found,” he announced to the room, using his grip on my hair to show me to them. I tried keeping my head up and showing dignity, but the truth was, my heart was beating fast and I was scared.
Konstantin was the first to move. The expression on his face was unreadable, like he’d been hurt but was angry about it instead of feeling pain. When he saw him take a step towards us, Batista pulled me closer to him and produced a small knife from his back pocket, putting the blade right on my throat. I gulped, my eyes boring into Konstantin’s who stopped moving suddenly.
His brothers too were watching the scene, wanting to help but unable to risk it.
Deep down, I knew Batista would be capable of slitting my throat. His father started training him to kill when he was twelve. He didn’t mind shedding blood, even liked it. And I knew once they told my grandfather that I was nothing but a whore who slept with the enemy, nobody would cry for my death.
“One fucking move and I swear to God I’m sticking the blade in her throat, see how she can snitch after this.”
“What do you want?” If looks could kill, Konstantin would have killed my cousin a long time ago, but that was, unfortunately, not the case.
“First, I want you to untie my friends.”
With a clenched jaw and a shared look with his brothers, Konstantin obeyed. He untied Luca first who jumped to his feet and snarled at him, dusting himself off. The Russians obeyed too and soon, all of my cousin’s henchmen were free and tying up the Russians instead.
I closed my eyes as one lone tear rolled down my cheek. This was all my fault; I’d reversed the situation without ever meaning to. The Russians had had the upper hand and now they found themselves humiliated and incapacitated. Luca took an evil pleasure in turning Konstantin around to tie his hands together.
“Good,” Batista drawled, a smirk playing at the corner of his mouth. “It wasn’t that hard, was it?”
No one answered him.
“You stay here and look over them,” he told three of his friends whose names I didn’t know and couldn’t care less about. His gaze then went back between Konstantin and me. “You two are coming with me.”
We walked silently through the woods; the knife pressing against my throat quickly had me hyperventilating.
My hands shook and I struggled to breathe.
Batista was behind me and Luca was behind Konstantin. I had no idea where they were taking us until the sight of Old Joe’s Mill greeted me. My blood froze; knowing this had been Mia’s last known location made it even harder for me to breathe. I stopped walking, my legs somehow refusing to work anymore.
Behind me, Batista snarled and pushed me hard until my knees hit the ground.
“Don’t you fucking hurt her!” Konstantin’s voice boomed next to us, which earned him a blow to the back from Luca’s crowbar.
His grunt was the only proof that he was hurt because Konstantin was too proud and dignified to let it show in from of fuckers like Batista and Luca. Deciding I would take a little of his strength, I pushed myself back to my feet and started walking again, my cousin’s knife digging into my back this time around.
Once we made it inside, we were greeted by another familiar face: Lorenzo.
“You fucking coward!” Batista spat. “I’ll make you pay for that disappearing act you pulled.”
My cousin said nothing, simply hung his head, and looked at the floor, nothing to say in his defense.
“Make yourself useful and watch over these two while we fetch the rest of them.”
“You’re bringing them all here?” Lorenzo frowned.
Luca smiled. “Yeah. And then we’re setting this whole thing on fire with them in it.”
I froze, my eyes finding Konstantin’s, who again didn’t look scared at all, just fucking angry.
“Grab the gun from underneath the floor over there, Lorenzo. If any of them tries something funny, you shoot, understand?”
Lorenzo gulped, his eyes finding mine, guilt and fear shining in them. Luca didn’t like that and he reiterated, more angrily this time, “I said, do you understand?”
“Yes,” Lorenzo looked at him. “Yes, I understand.”
He got up and went over to where Batista motioned, grabbing a gun and taking a second to stare at it. Then he took off the safety and aimed at Luca. I gasped, eyes wide as I took in the scene in front of me. Lorenzo looked angry, like he’d finally had enough of being bossed around and looked down upon.
“What the fuck are you doing, Gavani—” a gunshot echoed around us and Luca crumbled to the ground, a shocked expression on his face as he tried applying pressure to his chest, but it was no use. I screamed in fright, using Batista’s momentary distraction to throw myself on the ground next to Konstantin, who immediately used his body to shield me.
Luca’s hard heaving was all we could hear for a few seconds, before he stopped breathing altogether, his body going lax on the ground while his eyes remained wide open, staring at the ceiling.
Batista looked at his friend’s dead body, not an ounce of pain etching his face, but fear instead. He slowly put his hand up in surrender, but Lorenzo didn’t seem to care; he pressed the trigger again, hitting Batista in the head.
He was a damn good shot. Arms wrapped around me, Konstantin pushed my body behind his on the ground. He’d managed to untie himself, something I suspected he could have done a long time ago but chose not to because I had a knife to my throat.
“Fuck, I hated those bastards,” Lorenzo breathed, taking a second to look at the bleeding bodies on the floor before turning his attention back to us. His gun was still drawn, and he motioned for us to get up.
“Lo’? What are you doing?”
“I don’t want to hurt you, Elyssa, but I need to see that journal you mentioned earlier.”
“What?” I asked, confused as to why he would even bring that up now.
He didn’t even seem that affected by the fact that he’d just killed two guys, or the trouble he would get into because of it.
I was confused but Konstantin understood the situation before I did.
“He’s a member of The Order, Elyssa.”