Chapter 52 #2
I pull back as guilt sours my stomach. I’m the reason she’s here. This is my fault.
Letting the rope fall to the ground, I move away, but I don’t get far; she reaches out, grabbing hold of my wrist and keeping me there.
“Thank you, Jade, for being the best friend I could have ever asked for,” she murmurs, turning her head to the side enough that I can see the tears that stain her cheeks. A smile curls her lips as she meets my gaze over her shoulder.
“Make him pay for all of it, Jade. Make it hurt,” she says before she releases me and faces forward again, as if it never happened.
I almost stumble over my feet as I turn to move back into the shadows, away from Hazel. I hadn’t expected that from her. She’s usually so docile, polite, and, well, adorable. But her words ring out in my ears as I move around the room, and I know she meant them. More than that, I know she’s right.
Ivan needs to pay.
He’s torn apart the lives of so many people I love. Nobody gets away with that.
“From that night on, your father became determined to make you the best. Not only would he have you in the ranks, but he would make you his successor. YOU! A child! I was supposed to take his place. It was mine, and I would not have a child, a girl, take that from me.”
Ivan’s reached my earlier hiding spot now, and I watch as he moves behind the beam with his gun raised. He doesn’t even look before he fires a shot with zero hesitation into the now-empty space.
Well, getting his hands dirty definitely isn’t a problem he has.
Good to know.
He gives a growl of frustration as he backs up, his eyes darting around the room, looking for me. “So you see, this is really all your own fault. If you had just left well enough alone, we wouldn’t be here. Your mother and father would be happy with you and Danslav.”
I watch him as he surveys the room, my panic growing as his eyes slowly sweep back toward where Hazel is currently working to free her legs.
Fuck.
I don’t have time to think as I push over the table I’m crouched behind. The sound of it slamming into the ground echoes around the room and does exactly what I need.
Ivan’s head whips my way as I dash toward yet another obstacle in hopes of keeping his focus on me. A shot rings out, and I feel the sting as it just barely grazes my left arm. Shit, bullets are no joke. I’ll have to keep moving to avoid that trigger-happy finger of his.
“I didn’t care that she took him from me. He was never worthy to begin with. I knew she would never tell anyone who he was. He could never take over for your father, but you—”
What?
“Enough, Father!” Leo’s voice rings out around the room.
Ivan turns toward him, a vicious smile on his face. “Ah, my boy! Better late than never, I suppose.”
His tone says the opposite, though. It’s no wonder Leo hates him.
I glance up to find Leo standing just inside the room, Dom at his side.
Both of them appear out of breath but unharmed.
They look around, but I don’t dare step out to show them I’m here.
I’m sure they know that if they’ve come down here.
I watch as Leo’s brows pull down in a deep frown, and I know he’s spotted Hazel.
He must know it’s her even as she runs for cover now that she’s free and Ivan’s attention is on them.
He doesn’t look happy about it. Good. Maybe if he’s angry enough, we can end this faster. Put a fucking bullet in Ivan’s head and be done with him, with this nightmare.
“What are you doing, Father?” Leo asks, walking toward him.
He’s pushing a lot of his usual easygoing personality to the surface, but after knowing him for a while, I see right through it.
His posture is just a little too stiff, and try as he might, he can’t seem to wipe all of his anger from his words.
“Cleaning up the mess you couldn’t seem to handle, son.
” Ivan’s words are sharp and snap like a whip at Leo, but he doesn’t stop his advance.
Everything inside me wants to shout at him to get down, run away, anything to keep Ivan away from him, but I can’t.
As far as we know, Ivan isn’t aware that we know each other, that we’ve spent the last few weeks planning to murder him.
If I say anything now, he definitely will.
But if I don’t, he might know and kill him, anyway.
I sit going back and forth for too long, trying to decide on the best course of action, but either way, this might be the end.
“I gave you one job, boy, and you can’t even seem to handle that. One little girl was delivered to me, and in return, I would have given you everything.”
Leo chuckles as Ivan berates him, and I want to smack him. The idiot isn’t even trying to stay alive at this point.
“Let’s not pretend this ever had anything to do with me, Father.” Leo spits the last word, and even from across the room, I can see the hatred burn in his eyes as he looks at Ivan.
“It wouldn’t have mattered what I did. You never intended to give me that spot. This,” he spreads his arms wide in a show of the room, “was all for you. Everything you do is for you, and you don’t care who you hurt to get more, who you kill.”
Leo drops his arms, letting them hang while he shakes his head.
“I thought I could make you proud, make you love me, but I see now that was never an option, was it? The same way mother never would have been enough, you always want what isn’t meant for you, huh?” he asks, but we all already know the answer to that.
Ivan confirms his words a second later, stepping forward and pressing the barrel of his gun into Leo’s head. Dom stands off to the side, looking between Leo and the spot where we saw Hazel disappear a moment ago. With Ivan’s attention on Leo, I decide it’s now or never.
I push myself up off the ground. Dom’s eyes find me in an instant, relief shining in them as he looks at me. I wish we had time to enjoy this reunion, but we don’t. We have people who need us. With a jerk of my head, I signal him to check on Hazel. I need to know she’s safe while I finish this.
Dom takes off around the room, and while Ivan watches him, he doesn’t make a move to pull his gun away from Leo’s head or even try to stop Dom. I don’t like that he’s got him like that, but at least this way, I might have a shot.
Before I can overthink it, I’m running toward them. My only goal is to get that gun away from Leo. We can handle the rest after.
Ivan doesn’t so much as flinch as I run toward them, and for a moment, I think I’ve got him. At the last second, he turns, pulling Leo with him as his leg kicks out, hitting me square in the chest and knocking me back, hard.
I slam into something, tumbling and rolling onto the floor as I struggle to get oxygen back into my lungs.
“I see what this is now,” Ivan says with a dark laugh that makes my hair stand on end. “I promised you an empire, and instead of doing what you're told, honoring your family, you went out and found her. Only to plan against me.”
Ivan shakes his head before his gaze falls to me, where I still lie sprawled out on the floor.
“It’s a fantastic idea. I guess I owe you for that, huh, Svetlana?
You've always had a way of getting what you want. Too bad for you. I won’t be going down without a fight.
I’ve worked for this my whole life, and I won’t lose now to a couple of children,” he snarls as I stumble, trying to get to my feet, looking down at me as if I’m nothing more than an inconvenience.
“No, I'll have everything I wanted. The title, my woman, and nobody to stop me. Too bad the three of you won’t live to see it.”
“She isn’t yours! You had a wife, and you killed her!
You destroy everything you touch!” Leo shouts, pulling Ivan’s rage-filled eyes back to him.
In one quick move, he pulls the barrel of his gun away before he quickly slams the butt of it into his head.
Leo sways but doesn’t fall as blood drips from his temple.
“I loved her! She was mine, and he stole her from me!” Ivan spits the words in his face, his eyes wide. He looks deranged and dangerous, like the monster I know he is.
This can’t keep going. At this rate, someone’s going to get hurt.
As if he can hear my thoughts, he pulls his hand back once again before slamming the gun into Leo’s head. This time, Leo’s knees give out, and he crumbles forward. Ivan doesn’t hesitate to kick out, his foot slamming into Leo’s ribs hard enough to put him flat on his back.
He once again presses the gun to Leo’s temple hard enough that he winces before he lifts his foot, resting it on his throat. A sadistic smile curves his lips, and my mind whirls, trying to save him, save all of them.
I know I don’t owe Leo anything, but he didn’t owe me anything either, yet here he is, facing his father to save my ass.
“You don’t even know what love is,” I gasp, pushing myself up onto my knees, wheezing through the pain. I’m not sure what I hit when he kicked me back, but whatever it was did a number on my ribs. My chest burns with every breath, but I grit my teeth and push.
This is nothing.
Nothing compared to everything he’s put not only me but countless others through. This has to end right now.
“You raped her!” Dom screams from his place in front of Hazel, and I want to yell for him to shut up and stop drawing attention to them, but I can’t. Looking at him, I see the anger in his eyes. It mixes with his sadness, and I can’t bring myself to say anything.
“She never said who. I always assumed she didn’t know, but I heard her talking about it with my father,” Dom roars as angry tears run down his face.
I’ve tried so hard to hold on to my anger with him, been so afraid to forgive him.
I’m not sure whether I was afraid of having a family or of being let down again, but now I see it doesn't matter. We’re so alike, and I know if the roles were reversed, I would do whatever I could for him the same way he has for me.
He might have messed up, but he did what he could with what he had, the same way the rest of us do.