Chapter 18
Shit.
I should have told them before they got here. That was the plan, but Elio showed up, and other things took priority.
Looking at Kratos, I see the decision in his eyes a moment before he lunges for Dom, and I know shit is about to get messy.
We don’t have time for this.
I move a second before Kratos does, but he’s not really my concern.
Leo is. I sidestep Dom, moving behind him, pulling his gun from where he has it stuffed in the back of his pants as I go.
Flipping the safety off, I press the barrel to the bottom of Leo’s chin just as he presses his into Kratos’s temple.
The room freezes, but I don’t dare take my eyes off Leo right now.
“As quick as always, семья,” he says with a smirk that I match.
“Yes, and unless you want to test how fast my trigger finger is, I suggest you drop your gun. Now!” I demand as he looks down at me.
We stare at each other for so long that I think I might just have to pull the trigger.
I’m not opposed to it exactly, but blowing brains out is so messy, and I know how Rick loves his kitchen.
With a huff, he yanks his gun away, flipping the safety and stuffing it back into his waistband. He holds his hands up in a show of surrender, but the mocking smile on his face pisses me off.
I press the barrel of my borrowed gun harder into his jaw until he winces. “Next time you threaten one of mine, there won’t be a second chance.”
Taking a step back, I turn and toss Dom’s gun back to him. He catches it easily, tucking it away in a hurry.
Looking around the room, I’m met with wide eyes and anger all around. For the moment, it seems we’ve avoided the worst of it, but I know better than to think Kratos will let this go.
Shit, everything is getting more complicated by the second.
“Elio.” Leo nods his head, and Elio’s eyes narrow for a moment before understanding washes over his features.
“Leonid? Vasiliev?” he asks, and Leo rolls his eyes. He’d said his last name was Prescott when he was pretending to be just another guy in class. I guess it makes sense that he wouldn’t use his real last name. At least his first name was close-ish.
“Well, you sure grew into a man, haven’t you? Last I saw you was when I put a bullet in my old man,” he says with a laugh, walking over to clap him on the back with a genuine smile, either from the reunion or from the memory of killing his father. I can’t be sure.
“Yes, if only you had done the same with my father.”
Elio’s eyes darken at the mention of Leo’s father, and I’d guess they don’t get along. Well, that might make things easier when I ask Elio to help us kill the bastard, since he seems hell-bent on killing me.
“Had he not been standing in for Mikhail, I would have, but your uncle is a good man, and he had more than enough to deal with back then.”
“If only you knew,” Dom mumbles, and while I’m pretty sure he was talking to himself, Elio turns to face him.
The moment Elio’s eyes land on him, Dom turns away, but he’s not fast enough. Elio watches him, his brows knitting together in thought before his eyes light up in understanding.
“Danslav?”
Dom’s head snaps up at the name, his eyes darting to me before returning to Elio, full of panic.
“No!” he shouts, shaking his head.
“Yes! I see it now. You look just like your mother…” Elio’s words trail off before he turns to look at me, then Leo, and back to Dom.
“Merida Santa!” he curses, and Dom cringes.
“Whatever you think you know, you’re wrong, Elio,” Dom says in a rush, but Elio waves him off.
“You found her! I knew there was something special about her!” he booms. I look between the three of them for some kind of answer, but nobody says a word.
“What the fuck are you guys talking about?” Kratos hisses through clenched teeth. His fragile hold on his temper slipping with every passing moment, and honestly, it’s a miracle he’s held it together this long.
Elio is in front of me the next moment, one of his large hands closing around my chin, turning my head this way and that.
I blame shock for my slow reaction, but eventually, I snap out of it, batting his hand away.
“Start talking because right now, you all sound like you’ve lost your damn minds,” I say, glaring at Elio, who still looks down at me as if in awe.
Leo looks bored, while Dom looks defeated, but Elio looks like he was just told the best news of his life. The smile on his face is so big it looks unnatural and makes me uncomfortable with his full focus on me.
“Svetlana, the lost princess,” Elio says as if that’s supposed to mean something to me.
It doesn’t.
“Have you been sampling product?” I ask, screwing up my face in confusion, and he barks a laugh, as if I’m not questioning his current mental state.
“No, little warrior. In fact, I don’t know that I’ve ever been more sure of anything in my life. This is amazing.”
He turns back to Dom, leaving me impossibly more confused.
“Mikhail will be so happy. You did it, my boy!” he tells Dom, slapping his back hard enough to make him stumble, but Dom doesn’t look like he just did something amazing. Instead, he looks like he might puke.
“Mikhail can’t know,” Leo says, and for the first time tonight, he sounds serious. His earlier chaotic energy gone as he looks around the room at each of us.
“Of course he must, he’s been—”
“He can’t know until my father is dead,” Leo growls, cutting Elio off.
“If we don’t kill him, he’ll never stop,” Dom says in agreement, but when his eyes meet mine, they look sad.
“If someone doesn’t explain what the fuck is going on right now, I’m going to pull out my knife and start getting answers myself,” Zander snaps, his patience running just as thin as mine.
Elio looks to Dom, and surprisingly, so does Leo. Leo, who had no problem throwing information around a few minutes ago, is now defaulting to Dom, as if giving him the option on how to proceed.
“Jade, I…” He chokes, trailing off like it’s too much for him. I’ve never seen anyone look as torn as he does right now. The worry, sadness, and downright pain on his face almost has me reaching out to him.
He looks lost. The same way the girls used to when we were in that living hell. My first instinct is to soothe him, but I don’t. Whatever he has to say feels big, like life-changing, and I need to hear it.
Dom takes a breath and looks down at his hands.
“When I was little, my family was my whole life. For a while, it was just me and my mom, but it didn’t take long before she found a guy who treated her right.
She was so happy, and I was so happy for her.
She deserved all the wonderful things in life.
I wanted her to smile more, and with him, she did.
He wasn’t my father, but he didn’t seem to care.
He took care of me all the same, bought me toys, clothes, whatever I needed, and did things with me.
Taught me how to shoot a gun and trained me. ”
I don’t understand what this has to do with anything, but I don’t dare interrupt him now that he’s finally talking. No matter how badly I might want to.
“I thought everything was perfect, but I was wrong. When I was seven, my parents told me I would be a big brother. At first, I was angry and jealous. I didn’t want to share them with anyone else, but they were both so happy.
A few months later, they told me I had a little sister, Svetlana.
I was a big brother, and I didn’t know it at the time, but that little girl would be my best friend, my everything. I was the first one they let meet her.”
He shakes his head at the memory, a ghost of a smile on his face, yet his eyes still look haunted.
“She cried so much in the beginning, it drove me nuts. But the longer she was around, the more I liked her. She was so small but smart and loved hanging on me. The older she got, the more she became my shadow. Dad didn’t want her to train, but she insisted on being anywhere I was.
If I wanted to train, she was there too.
Dad caved eventually. He could never tell her no.
At first, we just humored her, but it didn’t take long for her to catch on.
She was a natural.” I can hear the admiration in his words as he talks about her, which pulls a smile to my face.
The thought of him with a little sister, her whooping his ass.
How could that not be entertaining?
“Toughest little girl I’ve ever seen, my princess,” Dom says, pitching his voice low, with a heavy accent, and the words ring in my head.
“That’s what Dad used to say. I couldn’t take over for him without a blood relation, but that never bothered him, never made him think less of me or treat me differently.
She could, though, if she wanted to. For the head of the Bratva, he was soft on us kids—or as soft as the head of a mafia family could be. ”
The strain in his voice hurts my heart. It’s not something I’m used to.
We all have sob stories; that’s what got us here, after all.
But when he finally looks up at me, the tears in his eyes are enough that I actually take a step back.
I hit Kratos’s chest. His hand closes around my hip, squeezing in a silent show of comfort.
It does little to curb the unsettling feeling inside my chest.
His eyes say more than his words do, though, and I know what he will say even before he speaks.
“No!” I choke, shaking my head.
This isn’t possible!
“Jade.” Dom reaches for me but doesn’t move closer, and all I can do is keep shaking my head as if that will make this all go away.
“Killer. Hey, Jade. Look at me!” Kratos’s demanding tone pulls me from my panic as he spins me around to face him.
I do as he says but can’t calm my racing heart.
My mind is a mess of thoughts that are going around in circles, leaving me with more questions than answers.
Questions that I’m not sure I want the answers to.
“You need to breathe,” Kratos urges me, his eyes full of worry as he looks down at me. He’s right, I know that, but I can’t make my body listen as panic bleeds through me like poison.