Chapter 31 Sergei
SERGEI
The new year approached, and it was hard for me not to view the turnover of one calendar year into another without optimism.
“You don’t have to come,” Roman said as we discussed the plans for the last night of the year.
Normally, we’d all convene at the property close to Times Square to celebrate.
This time, things were different. Claire was pregnant.
Mikhail was married. And I had Natalie and Maisie at home.
It was easy to see how we were still the same old Orlov Family, an organization full of strong men, but we were also becoming more familial, if that made sense.
“I’ll let Natalie decide,” I told my brother.
We were undecided about attending the party so far. Maisie was super excited to be included in the big ball drop—not having to watch it on TV. She and Anya were already planning their outfits.
Natalie seemed eager for the chance to experience something new.
She wasn’t much of a partier, more of a shy homebody, which I happened to adore about her.
But I had a hunch she was lured into doing something different.
She’d told me about how Fitz always had his traditions, little things they did at home like the unique dinner and games they played.
Perhaps her eagerness to get dressed up and go out with me was her conscious effort to break away from the old.
I’d told her it was up to her. I’d be happy to stay in with her and Maisie while my family headed out. Yet, I didn’t want her to think I was butting in on any old traditions she saw with the holiday.
“We should go,” she said before licking her lips. “It’s probably safer, everyone together rather than split up, right?”
I nodded, but my gaze lowered to her backside as she began to pull her dress on.
“Sergei?”
I kicked the door to her room shut and stalked toward her.
“Sergei!” She giggled, shaking her head at my reflection in the mirror.
I was already getting my dick out, advancing on her and pushing her panties and the dress off to her knees. “How about a quickie? Last one of the year.”
She sighed, arching her back and thrusting her ass toward me. “Does that mean you won’t want quickies in the next year?”
I’m going to want it all.
Every day of every year.
The words stayed in my throat, though, and I delivered on my promise for speed, fucking her hard and fast from behind as we both watched ourselves in the mirror.
We were only twenty minutes late to get to the party, and that coincidence of timing was the start of the end.
After we pulled up to the private entrance, I helped Natalie out.
We stood, but I kept her close to whisper into her ear.
“We’re going to start with the first quickie of the year as soon as that ball drops.”
She smiled slyly, turning to watch George help Maisie out of the car.
“Because the sight of you in this little thing…” I fingered the edge of her short sleeve to this slinky, body-clinging silver dress. “Fuck me, Natalie. Fuck. Me.”
“Gladly,” she whispered back, tiptoeing the closest to a public show of affection we’d dared to have yet.
Once Maisie exited the car, though, smiling like she was a princess and eying the Times Square buildings looming around us, I had to turn my attention to her.
“Only until midnight,” I reminded her playfully. “Then it’s bed time.”
“Like Cinderella at the ball!” she agreed cheerfully.
We didn’t make it until midnight, though.
We didn’t make it inside the building.
A smoke bomb went off, then another and another, all of them rolling under the cars and sending us into a confusing haze.
“Mommy!” she screamed, scared of the cloudiness.
“Maisie! Maisie, where are you?” Natalie yelled right back, her voice full of fear. She clutched my hand, her fingers in a vise grip as I hauled her toward me as we fought to find each other.
Guards and soldiers shouted orders to get down. Natalie and I called out for Maisie. Roman, Andre, and Mikhail were already upstairs with Claire and Anya.
“Secure her. Secure her now!” I ordered as I held Natalie close.
Gunfire went off, mixing with the commotion. Natalie and Maisie screamed. But limited to see anything as we felt our way back to the car, we were separated. One guard sprayed at the cloud with a spray of water from the building, dispersing some of the cloudiness.
I didn’t need to see everything to know that the fear slicing my heart was valid.
“Sergei!”
I whipped my head in the direction of one of the newly recruited soldiers.
“George is with her. They took her to the east!”
“Fuck!” I hurried backward until I rammed into someone else.
“Sergei?”
It was Roman. They must have been alerted.
Blinking rapidly and straining to see, I pushed Natalie at him and grabbed my gun. “Go. Get her in and keep her safe. I’m going after them.”
I didn’t wait. I couldn’t. I swore on my life that I’d keep that precious little girl safe, not only for her mother but for myself. I loved both mother and daughter, counting down the time until I’d snap and ask if we could be a full family together.
Nothing was stopping me from chasing in the direction of where Maisie had been taken. Two soldiers sprinted off with me, their feet pounding the pavement with mine as we began the hunt.
Searching the alley, we were too late to save her.
We dashed down the narrow path, seeing the Popovs in the distance as they tried to pry George away from her.
He’d been taken with her, at gunpoint, but before they could shove them into the SUV and drive away, he fought like hell to get them to release her.
I didn’t think. I didn’t have to. Relying on the instinct to protect her and my right-hand man, I raised my gun and fired. The two soldiers with me did the same. We picked off a few of the Popovs, but they were too fast. There were too many of them.
I witnessed them hit George hard enough that he flung back to the car’s side. Maisie screamed, seeing me in the distance and reaching her hand out to me for help.
I gritted my teeth, firing at the tires to stop them from speeding away. At the men trying to push them into the car. But we were too late. They were too fast.
The drivers stepped on it, escaping with tires squealing before they’d even shut the back door. It whipped back and flung harshly until it closed as the SUV cut a sharp turn out of there.
“Fuck!” I ran up to the men we’d shot. All of them were Popov scum. And all of them were dead. Or they would be.
The soldier on my right ordered a car to come to us to pursue the SUV. The man to my left questioned them where they were taking her. But it didn’t matter. They were dead, dying, or too stupid.
I shot them all, showing no mercy.
George would have his phone on.
I could track him with it.
I would not lose Maisie.
But as the car arrived and we piled into it, I despaired at how futile this chase was.
Traffic was jammed up from the streets being closed for the ball dropping.
George’s phone had been tossed out the window, ending that easy means of following him.
And no matter how fast we drove and stuck with the SUV that held them, we were duped with a decoy vehicle swinging into view and tricking us into following the wrong one for too long.
They’d abducted her. On a busy night when I had been so stupidly fucking distracted with looking forward to the future, they’d taken the little girl I saw as my own.
I only answered the phone for my uncle who demanded updates on where we were and if we’d found her.
“We’re hunting them down, Boss,” the driver replied on speaker.
I was too locked in livid rage to speak. To even think straight. Like a pounding, pulsing mantra in my brain, the need to find Maisie and save her drove me to stay alert and primed to slaughter all who stood in my way.
“We’ve got Natalie here, Sergei. We’ve got her,” he said.
I knew he did. But I hated that she’d suffer through this nightmare at all.
“You unleash motherfucking hell,” he ordered, the anger clear in his tight tone. “You unleash motherfucking hell and kill them all to get her back.”
I nodded even though he couldn’t see me.
Narrowing my eyes and letting the bloodthirsty rage turn me into a monster, not a man, I knew I would.
I didn’t need his blessing. I wasn’t waiting for his permission.
He wouldn’t question me despite not making any official, final claims on Natalie or her child. He wasn’t calling to debate anything.
They all knew I loved her.
I suspected Natalie did too but was too scared to admit it or accept it.
But she would. And I’d prove to her yet again that I would burn this fucking world down for her and her daughter just to keep them safe.
“I will,” I vowed to my uncle, unable to breathe through the red-hot fury that lit me up.
No matter what, no one would get away with taking what was mine.
Maisie was the girl I’d call my daughter.
Natalie was the woman I’d marry.
We would have a new year of goodness to usher in.
Just as soon as I scoured this city and brought her back to her worried mother.