Chapter 81
Yuliana
Ren, thankfully, hadn’t been badly injured.
Aside from the cut on her forehead, the doctors had been most concerned about a setback. After imaging and a cognitive test, they had ruled it out, but insisted she stay the night for observation.
Eddie had woken up after surgery in a panic until he saw Ren sitting in a chair at his bedside and me perched on the bed beside him. I’d lifted his knuckles to my mouth and kissed each finger. He’d finally relaxed with a faint smile on his lips as if he could rest once he knew we were safe.
Ren had insisted on being in the room next door to Eddie, while Mo and Blake guarded her. That had saved me a fight. According to Blake, the rest of the guys were hunting Sharpe.
When both Ren and Eddie had fallen asleep, it was my cue to leave.
Now, here I was sitting in a dark SUV watching the mansion where my father was hiding.
I looked at Vlad and then lifted the binoculars to the target.
The rental property was situated two hours outside of Portland, nestled in a valley on a few hundred acres. We’d been able to see the glow of the house from a half a mile away. It was lit up like a Christmas tree and included guards armed to the teeth.
“You sure he’s in there?”
Vlad nodded.
“Our tech guys had no problem tracing the dead shooters’ calls to this location. The signal is coming from inside, and our spotter saw him talking on a phone outside at three. No one has come or left since.”
“Good. Do we have enough men for this?”
“You act like this is my first time,” Vlad said.
I rubbed my hands on my black jeans, and my leather jacket creaked.
“I can’t let him escape. He went after my family…again. He needs to die today.”
Vlad reached out and touched my arm.
“He won’t escape.”
Tapping the com on his ear, he gave the order to attack.
Vlad had positioned four sharpshooters around the property to stop anyone from leaving.
The rest were on the ground, moving stealthily in the dark.
I watched as my men snuck out of the woods and drove up the drive with no lights on, attacking with an effectiveness that only came from killing too many men.
I couldn’t hear the gunfire, but that didn’t stop the violence from being just as vicious. Blood splattered against the walls as men were cut down as fast as they dared to come out of the house.
More fell off the roof, looking like rag dolls as they tumbled to the ground, while others tried to surrender. There would be no quarter.
Then, like a swarm of ants, my men entered the house, and my nervousness rose. My knee bounced as I waited for the words I’d longed to hear.
It seemed like hours, but Vlad finally turned to me.
“Mylo has him,” Vlad said.
I took a deep breath, but it wasn’t over.
“Let’s go,” I ordered.
I watched for enemies all the way up to the front door, weaving through a maze of dead bodies. Vlad stayed behind me, acting as my shield as we entered the elegant house that hadn’t deserved the violence.
“Take the hallway on your right,” Vlad said.
A couple of turns later, we walked into a library.
It was not as large as the one we had in Russia, but I appreciated the irony.
All of this began in a library, and it would end in one surrounded by books that held stories of monsters and villains, while the greatest one in mine was tied to a chair.
It creaked when he shifted while ropes bit into his wrists and ankles. Vadin looked smaller than he ever had, stripped of power, blood soaking through his shirt, one eye already swollen shut. The hate was still there. It always was.
It had taken me years to forget the tender smiles and words. I’d believed he meant it when he said he loved me. Lies. Nothing more than a grand show.
“Father…I’ve waited a long time for this moment.”
His good eye lifted to me, and he laughed. A broken sound.
“So,” he rasped. “The ghost finally caught up to me. My daughter, who grew up thinking she was more than just a scared little girl acting out. You’re just the same as you always were.”
I took a slow step forward, boots echoing against tile. The smell of blood and old books filled the air. It felt almost sacred. A place of truth and lies.
“I thought you couldn’t get any lower, but then you sent a man to murder my daughter,” I said calmly. “You hired another to try to kill me. And you pretend you’re all about family.”
He tilted his head and looked at me.
“I did no such thing to Lilya.”
“Stop lying,” I snarled and smacked him across the face. “At least meet your end with dignity.”
Vadin coughed, blood flecking his lips.
“I sent the gunmen, but only because I assumed you were there. I didn’t send anyone to kill Lilya. Then again, she was never supposed to live,” he said. “None of you were.”
Something cold settled in my chest. I nodded once and glanced at Vlad.
Vlad stepped forward and drove his fist into Vadin’s ribs. The sound was ugly, the crack echoing. Vadin screamed, body jerking against the restraints, breath leaving him in a strangled wheeze.
I crouched in front of him, forcing his gaze back to mine.
“Do you know what the worst part is?”
“That she didn’t die?” He smirked, as he tried to get under my skin. I ground my teeth.
“No.” I shook my head. “It’s that she wanted to have a relationship with her grandfather.
She trusted you when you came here claiming to want forgiveness.
My daughter is far kinder than I am, and she doesn’t know you like I do.
” I leaned in close to his face. “She will be magnificent. More powerful than either you or I could have ever dreamed, and you’ll never get to see it.
Never get to experience what you’ve always craved…
strength and a lineage that is talked about long after you’re gone.
” I smirked at him. “I’m going to wipe your name from the Mikhailov family tree forever.
Every book that mentions you will be burned.
Every website, deleted. You’ll never be buried beside my mother.
Soon you will be nothing but a bad memory, and then you won’t exist at all. ”
He roared and yanked on his ropes. I smiled wide.
“You see father, it isn’t that you tried to kill my family.”
He spat blood. “You can save your lecture about loyalty.”
“No,” I said. “I’m going to tell you why you lost it.”
I stood and walked behind him, dragging my fingers along the back of the chair.
“You mistook blood for ownership. You thought because we shared a name, you could pull strings and watch me dance.”
I leaned down close to his ear.
“You forgot that I was raised by people who taught me what monsters really look like.”
I nodded to Vlad again.
This time, he pulled a knife.
It wasn’t fast. This was what cruel for cruelty’s sake looked like. Enough pain to break the bravado. Enough time for realization. Enough of both to make him beg for forgiveness that would never come.
Vadin screamed, again and again, as Vlad twisted the blade, puncturing holes and carving his skin. I listened to the wails as one listens to the opera. A tear in my eye at how the beautiful sound filled the room. I held up my hand when his voice cracked, and words dissolved into sobs and gasps.
I watched and didn’t look away.
When Vlad finally stepped back, blood dripping from his hands, Vadin slumped forward, shaking.
“Where are Christov and Patricia?” He shook his head. “Tell me, or I will have Vlad gut you like a pig and make balloon animals out of your intestines while you watch.”
“I don’t know,” he mumbled.
Vlad placed the barrel of his gun against Vadin’s kneecap.
“Tell me where they are. I won’t ask again.”
“I don’t know.” he whimpered. “I’ve only seen Christov once, and he never said where he was staying. And I never met Patricia. I swear.”
“Where is his phone?”
“Here.”
Mylo handed it to me, and I held it up in front of my father’s face. Would the facial recognition work with the blood and swollen eye? I wasn’t sure at first, but then the screen lit up.
I gave it back to Mylo.
“Have tech search it and trace any calls to the local area. Christov hasn’t scampered into a hole yet. We’ll find him.”
“On it.” Taking the phone, Mylo marched out.
Giving my father time to breathe, I walked around the room. Let him think that there was a glimmer of hope. Hope was the greatest traitor to a man who had already lost everything.
Stopping in front of him, I grabbed his bloodied face and forced him to look me in the eyes.
“I want you to know that once you’re gone…
I’ll never think of you again. I won Father.
Even if it took me longer than I planned.
You tossed a girl to the wolves to be eaten alive, but instead, I crawled out of the pit of darkness stronger than you could ever imagine in your nightmares.
I am a woman, scarred but not broken, and your greatest mistake was underestimating me. ”
I released him and straightened. I wrapped my fingers around the gun strapped to my leg and pulled it free of the holster. It felt heavy. Right.
Vadin saw it and began to sob in earnest.
“Yuli—”
“I’m stronger and more ruthless than any son.” I raised the weapon.
“For Lilya Ren Genovese, long may she reign.”
The shot echoed through the library, the sound final. His body went slack instantly, and the chair rocked once before stilling.
Silence filled the space. I didn’t look away, waiting until the light faded from his eyes before I lowered the gun. My hands were steady even as my chest burned. There was no great sense of relief or celebration of victory. It was a death that signaled the beginning of the end.
And for the first time since I’d run all those years ago, I allowed myself one quiet, shattered breath—because my family would wake tomorrow.
And he never would.
Nash
“Ah!” Sharpe wailed as Myles, or in this case, Echo, worked. I’d given him free rein, and so far, it had been a master class in torture. He truly worried me a little with just how good he was at this.