Chapter 32
NIKOLAI
Up until recently, I didn’t value my life all that much, which gave me the strength of fearlessness. Now there was something worth living for, even though there was something worth dying for, too.
Where was the line between sacrifice and the craving to live your best life, now that I knew that was possible? Now that I knew my life could have meaning beyond bringing my mother and sister back home to rest in peace.
I looked at Adrianne, her small form almost molded to me, and just like that, my will to survive the coming war amplified tenfold.
For the first time in years, I felt something that might have been peace.
Pity it lasted less than three minutes.
Kirill burst through the side entrance, his face pale with panic. “Boss! The west wall’s been breached!”
If blood could freeze, this was the moment mine would have. “What?”
“Vladimir’s forces. They’re inside the perimeter. At least fifty men, maybe more.”
“That’s impossible.” I released Adrianne’s hand, my mind running a thousand miles an hour. How? “That can’t be. The alarms would have gone wild.”
“None of them did. Nothing. Not a single warning.”
“There’s only one way that could have happened. Someone let him in. Let’s go.”
Looks like father dearest is tired of waiting after all.
We ran through the corridors, Adrianne keeping pace beside me. When we reached the main living room near the entrance, the Battaglias were already there, weapons drawn, Matt barking orders into an old radio.
Adrik and Alexei emerged from the opposite hallway, and something inside me snapped.
I didn’t think. I didn’t pause. I just crossed the space in three strides and drove my fist into Alexei’s face.
He stumbled back, blood exploding from his nose, but he recovered quickly. His return punch caught me in the jaw, stars exploding behind my eyes.
“Nikolai!” Adrianne’s scream rang through the space.
I tackled Alexei to the floor, my fists connecting with his face again and again. He managed to flip us, his hands wrapping around my throat and squeezing.
I drove my elbow into his ribs, hearing bone crack. He released me with a grunt, and I rolled away, both of us scrambling to our feet.
We circled each other like the wolves we were, blood dripping from my split lip, his nose clearly broken.
“Boss.” Kirill started forward, but I held up a hand.
“Stay back.”
Alexei lunged. I took a step to the side, catching him with an elbow to the temple that sent him crashing into a side table. He came up with a shard of broken glass, slashing my arm. Pain seared through me as it cut deep, but I grabbed his wrist, twisting it until he dropped the makeshift weapon.
My other fist connected with his ribs again, taking advantage of that first crack I’d heard. He was bound to be hurt there. Once. Twice. Three times.
He headbutted me, and blood exploded in my mouth. We both staggered back, breathing hard.
“Enough!” Matteo roared. He and Liam grabbed me, hauling me back while Max and James restrained Alexei. “We need to be on the same side.”
I fought against their grip, but they held me firm.
“You did this!” I spit blood on the floor, my eyes locked on Alexei. “You disabled the alarms so he could march right in, didn’t you? Why?”
Alexei laughed, wiping blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. The sound was bitter, full of hatred that he nurtured towards me, but had always been too much of a pussy to act on.
“Why? How do you not know, cousin?” He shook Max and James off of him, straightening his clothes as Adrianne’s brothers slowly released me, ready to hold me back again if needed, “I was sick of always being second. Second to your mother’s love.
Second to you. Second in your father’s eyes.
Now you fall, and I inherit everything. I finally come first.”
“Second?” I scoffed, venom dripping from every syllable. “You weren’t second. You were never even third or fourth.”
I gestured to Adrik and Kirill, to my other men standing ready. “These men come before you in my eyes. You were nothing. A parasite I kept around out of obligation. Out of pity.”
Alexei’s face twisted in rage. Then, suddenly, he burst out laughing. Manic and un-fucking-hinged.
“The fucking irony!” His eyes went from my face to Adrik on the other side. “Are you going to tell him, or should I?”
“Tell me what?”
Adrik’s face had gone white, his eyes fixed on something behind me.
“I see I came just in time for the grand reveal. Such a pleasure to witness this moment.” That voice boomed from the top of the grand staircase, shoving me back in history to the times his voice haunted me in this very house.
Vladimir.
My father stood there, backlit by the chandelier, looking every inch the monster I’d spent my life trying to escape. He was dressed in an expensive suit, not a hair out of place, like he’d come for a social event instead of a fucking massacre.
He smiled at me, those eyes that were every bit like my own holding dire glee that could only mean my dear father was one step ahead of us. He took a pronounced step aside, and my heart stopped beating.
Sasha.
She appeared behind him, wearing a red dress that made bile rise to my throat. A gag covered her mouth. A collar wrapped around her neck with a chain attached that Vladimir held loosely. The same one Addy had been forced to wear when I delivered her to him like she meant nothing.
Sasha’s face was a map of bruises. Blood crusted at her temple. More blood on her arms where cigarette burns marked her skin.
“No,” Adrik breathed behind me, the sound broken and anguished.
“Adrik?” Vladimir smiled, the expression devoid of any warmth, while victory burned in his eyes. “Do you want to do the honors? Tell your dear friend who’s been feeding me information for the past few days?”
My head snapped toward Adrik, understanding crashing over me like a bucket of icy water. “It was you?”
“He has Sasha,” Adrik’s voice cracked. “I had to protect her.”
“By betraying me.” The words came out flat, emotionless, because if I let myself feel, I’d shatter, and I’d take him right along with me.
“I had no choice!”
“There’s always a choice.” I took a step toward him, and Matteo’s grip tightened on my shoulder. “You chose not to trust me. You chose to walk everyone in this house into a death trap.”
“This happened because of you!” Adrik’s composure broke completely. “Because you decided to play hero! Because you took that girl and brought Vladimir’s wrath down on all of us! If you’d just done what he asked, none of this would be happening!”
I knew this wasn’t my friend talking. The man I’d loved like a brother. This was his fear taking the gear, the pain steering him away from who he was and what he believed in. He had never agreed to this plan in the first place.
“If I’d done what he asked, Addy would be dead, and we’d still be his fucking puppets!”
“And now Sasha’s paying the price!” Adrik lunged at me, but Liam held him back. “All this just to honor the dead.”
“I won’t honor you once I kill you; you can rest assured.”
“I did it to save my sister.”
“And how’s that working out?” I gestured to Sasha. “She’s still bleeding. Still collared like an animal. Still suffering. What did your betrayal buy her? A few extra days of torture?”
Adrik roared, charging at me.
We collided in the center of the room, both of us swinging wildly. I caught him in the ribs. He got me in the eye. We crashed into furniture, destroying everything in our path. What a fucking accurate metaphor to depict our friendship. Destroyed and broken in pain.
“You’re just like him!” Adrik screamed, his fist connecting with my jaw. “Just like your father! You don’t care who you destroy, as long as you get what you want!”
I drove my fist into his stomach, and he doubled over. “I’m nothing like him.”
Vladimir’s laughter echoed through the room, amused that his plan to destroy anything I ever loved was working better than even he could anticipate.
“This is so much better than I imagined. My son and his faithful dog, tearing each other apart. Please, don’t stop on my account.”
“Nikolai, stop.” Liam’s voice boomed, trying to pull me back. “We have bigger problems!”
Before the rage in my fists died down, the sound of shattering glass came from multiple directions at once. Windows exploding inward. Doors being kicked down like paper panels.
And suddenly, they were everywhere.
Vladimir’s men poured into the house like a flood. Through windows, through doors, through every corridor that led to this fucking room. So many I lost count.
Gunfire erupted instantly; there was no saying who pulled the trigger first.
I released Adrik and pulled my weapon out, dropping two of Vladimir’s men before they made it three steps into the room. Beside me, the Battaglias opened fire, creating a defensive line.
Chaos consumed everything, and the only thing I could think about was getting to Adrianne.
Bodies fell like flies. Blood sprayed across the white walls as one of my men had reached the machine gun we stationed outside, burning holes into those fuckers and turning them into living strainers. Well, dead ones now.
I fought like a man possessed, dropping anyone who came near me. Reloading. Firing. Repeating. Never stopping.
“Adrianne!” I called out, scanning the room, even as I fought. “Adrianne, where are you?”
No answer.
“ADRIANNE!”
I fought my way toward where I’d last seen her, dropping three more men in my path. Bodies littered the floor. Some Vladimir’s. Some mine.
“Boss, left!” Kirill shouted.
I turned and fired, taking out a man who’d been seconds from shooting me in the back.
“Where’s Adrianne?” I demanded.
“I don’t know.”
Panic, unlike anything I’d ever felt, infested my chest and squeezed my heart.