Chapter 26
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SIX
KIRILL
Of all the ways I imagined this night going, finding the woman I’m obsessed with standing over a fresh corpse wasn’t on my list.
Thirty minutes ago I got a call from Miron that Evelina had broken into the apartment of a guy named Leonid Adamovich, a former Kupola Network operative and Bratva member I know as Spider.
I laughed when he told me, convinced it was a mistake. Except the joke’s on me. Because here she is, dressed head-to-toe in black. Her hood is down, the blonde hair pulled back in a tight braid. Blood drips down the blade she’s holding.
Spider is slumped in the chair he’s tied to, throat opened in a clean slash, crimson soaking into his tracksuit and pooling on the floor beneath him.
Evelina stands beside him, looking no worse for wear.
Her cold composure trips a silent alarm in the back of my head. This was an execution carried out by someone who knows exactly what they’re doing. Someone who has training.
I keep my gun aimed at her chest and step into the apartment, metal and wood crunching under my boot. She doesn’t move or say anything. Just stands there watching me, her face a careful blank mask.
“Care to explain what’s going on here?”
“Not really.”
“I’ll try that again. Tell me what the fuck is going on here?”
Her throat works as she swallows. “This isn’t about you, Kirill. I know how it looks, but I promise you it’s not.”
“No?” I move closer to her, tilting my head. “You tied up and killed a former Bratva member in my territory, and you don’t think it concerns me? That it’s any of my business?”
“He was a monster who hurt people. He deserved to die.” Her voice is calm, but her knuckles whiten around the knife handle. “Let me leave and you’ll never see me again. I promise, I’ll walk out of your life and never look back.”
Her words ignite something dark and possessive in me, the suggestion that she could just disappear from my life, like I’d ever let that happen.
“It’s cute you think there’s a chance in hell I’d let you go.” I keep my weight balanced, ready to pounce if she moves. “Who are you? Because you’re clearly more than a broke student working at Velour to pay her tuition.”
Her chin lifts, defiant, but I catch the tremor in her jaw. The first real crack in her composure. “How did you track me down here?”
“I’ll be the one asking questions and you’ll be the one answering, not the other way around.”
Her gaze darts toward the window where the fire escape’s visible through grimy glass.
“Don’t even think about it.” I keep the gun leveled at her, though we both know I’m not going to use it. “Even if you got past me, I have men stationed outside. You wouldn’t make it half a block.”
Either she doesn’t believe me or she’s desperate enough to risk it, because she lunges toward the window.
I spring after her, fisting the fabric of her shirt and yanking her back before she can reach the latch.
She spins, the blade swinging up in a frantic arc, but I seize her forearm, squeezing her fingers hard enough the knife hits the floor.
She drives her elbow toward my ribs and I block it, shoving her into the wall until she’s trapped between the cold plaster and my body weight.
She’s breathing hard, muscles coiled tight. Christ, she’s fucking magnificent. Way more dangerous than I ever imagined.
I pin her wrists in one hand, wrenching them over her head as I pivot her around. I shove her against the wall, my chest flush against hers. Her eyes are blazing, but there’s a deep anguish underneath. The look of a girl who knows she has nowhere left to hide.
“Whatever game you’re playing, whatever you think you can accomplish, forget it.
You’ve already lost.” I lean in close, my mouth almost touching hers.
“Although I do appreciate a woman who can put up a fight. Clearly, you can.” I press my hips into hers, letting her feel the thick weight of my desire.
A dark reaction to the blood and the betrayal. “So tell me, solnyshko. Who are you?”
“No one important.”
I laugh bitterly. “Oh, come on. We both know that’s not true.”
Her breathing turns ragged, pulse racing as she rolls her hips against me.
Arousal shoots through me, and in that split second of distraction, she strikes.
Her forehead cracks against my nose and pain explodes through my skull.
My grip slackens, the pistol slipping from my numb fingers as I stagger back, a hand clamped over my bloodied nose.
She dives for the gun on the floor. I lunge, tackling her to the ground, and we roll across the bloodstained floorboards in a tangle of limbs. She fights with a desperation that makes my heart roar. I pin her beneath me with the gun trapped between us.
We’re both panting, faces inches apart. Her fingers are curled around the weapon, but so are mine.
“You can play mind games all you want, but you’ll tell me the truth eventually. The question is what I have to do to get it out of you.”
She glares, furious and so fucking beautiful. She played me. Made me feel things I’ve never felt for anyone else, and none of it was real for her. The thought burns worse than any flesh wound.
I wrench the gun free and press the barrel to her temple. She goes still beneath me.
“Go ahead,” she says quietly. “It would be easier than explaining.”
The defeat in her voice makes my chest ache. Then I do something I don’t fully understand.
I seize her hand, curling her fingers around the cold steel until she’s the one holding it. Then, I guide the muzzle upward until the barrel is buried in the soft skin of my own throat.
“You don’t want to answer me? Then you better kill me. Because that’s the only way you’re walking out of here.”
Silent tears cut tracks through the blood spatter on her cheeks while she holds herself rigid.
“Do it,” I press. “There’s only one way this ends. With me dead, or you talking.”
A war rages behind her eyes. She knows that if she doesn’t pull that trigger, there’s no escaping what’s coming next.
Steel trembles against my Adam’s apple. I close my own eyes and wait for the click that’ll end it all. It never comes. Instead, she makes a sound that’s half sob, half curse.
“Fuck you,” she grits out. The pistol clatters down beside us as she turns her face away from me, her shoulders heaving with the weight of her surrender.
That’s all it takes to snap my self-control.
Fisting my hand into her braid, I haul her mouth to mine, our mouths colliding so hard my lip splits against my teeth.
Blood leaks into the kiss, hot and coppery, but she swallows it down, sucking my tongue into her mouth with a pull so carnal I see stars.
The kiss turns frantic and breathless, but I drag it out, memorizing her taste.
My hand leaves her hair to grip her throat, feeling her pulse hammer against my palm while my other hand shoves between her thighs.
She's wet for me, soaked through her leggings, and when I press hard against her clit she bites down on my lower lip.
Her hips buck against my hand, chasing the pressure, and I grind the heel of my palm against her while she whimpers into my mouth.
I want to commit every detail to memory, because I know it's the last time I'll let myself have this.
The sound of heavy footsteps brings reality crashing back. I force myself to pull away, my hand slipping from between her legs, both of us panting hard.
Miron appears in the doorway, his eyes widening as he takes in the scene in front of him.
I haul us both to our feet as my soldier approaches.
“I’ll call the clean-up crew,” he says, recovering quickly. “Back exit is clear and there’s a car waiting for you in the alley.”
I scoop the gun off the floor and shove it back into my waistband.
Evelina gives me a pleading look, as if it might buy my mercy. It doesn’t. I fish two zip ties out of my pocket. She tenses but she doesn’t try to fight me.
Pulling both arms behind her back, I secure her wrists. Other than an annoyed huff, she stays silent, and I wonder how far I’ll have to go to make her talk.
Probably further than I want to. The realization settles like lead in my gut, but I’ll do what needs to be done.
I plant my hand in the center of her back to keep her steady as I crouch down, fastening her ankles together with a heavy-duty plastic flex-cuff from my belt.
“Are you serious? You’re tying me up like I’m an animal?”
“Oh, kotyonok , I’m about to do much worse, so save your complaining until we get to the fun part.”
She bucks against the restraints. One final act of defiance. But there’s nowhere for her to go. Miron reaches into his jacket and produces a small syringe, passing it over. These situations require preparation, and we always come prepared.
“Wait, what are you doing?” Evelina twists to see what I’m holding.
The needle slides into her neck and I depress the plunger. She gasps, eyes wide with shock and fury before her body sags and her lashes flutter closed.
“Make sure nothing that happened tonight gets back to my father,” I instruct Miron, swinging her unconscious body over my shoulder.
“When you’re done here, take a crew to her apartment.
Tear it apart until you figure out who she really is, because she sure as shit isn’t who she claims to be. Call me when you find something.”
“Understood.”
I take one last look at Spider’s corpse before walking out, leaving the old bastard to whatever hell waits for him.