Chapter 43
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Gideon
“We’re all clear!” I heard Danny shout.
“Gideon.”
I turned in time to see Dean and Rita coming toward me, Matteo was shaking, his eyes darting everywhere.
“Thank God you’re okay.” I glanced at Rita. “Was Owen with him?”
“Gid…”
“Rita, what is it?”
“I tried to hold on to him,” Matteo whispered, staring at the ground. “I did, I bit someone, they hit me and then…” He started to sob.
“They took Owen,” she said as she tucked Matteo close.
“They?” I scanned the room until I saw who would know. Toni had Ivan at gunpoint, and Mikhail was in another chair with Danny’s full attention. I lifted my foot and kicked Ivan right in the chest. He fell backward with a grunt.
I straddled his chest, fisted his shirt, and punched him in the jaw. “Where is my son?”
He sneered at me. “I don’t know and don’t care.”
Another punch. “Don’t fuck with me, you traitorous bastard. Where is my son?”
This time he grinned. “Probably wherever your daughter and your fucktoy are.”
My… I looked up at Toni. “Where’re Penn and Olivia?”
“Penn was with me,” Dean answered. “He told me to search for Matteo and Owen and was going to go find Olivia. Last I saw him, he went through the doors to the corridor.”
I released Ivan and stood but didn’t leave. I pressed my foot against his throat. “You will die just like Lev did…just like Mikhail will. And once every last person has paid for what they’ve done here today, I’ll find your pakhan and send him to Hell with you.”
Ivan glared but didn’t say a word.
I turned to Toni. “Any survivors who aren’t with us, get them to the crates. I want to know everything I don’t already know, and I want to know where my family is.”
A bloodcurdling scream echoed through the room, and we all turned.
The sight made my heart fall from my chest, and all the air left my lungs.
In the middle of the dance floor, wrapped in Alex’s arms, was Mila’s lifeless body.
There were bullet holes through her stomach and chest. Her lips were ashen and her eyes set. She was gone.
Alex had his forehead pressed to hers. His screams were earth-shattering, as if the power of them could breathe life into her. A man stood beside him with a black bag, worry etched on his face.
“He needs a hospital,” he demanded. “I did what I could here, but he’s lost a lot of blood. I believe there’s a bullet lodged in his shoulder. He wouldn’t listen when I told him he needed to stay put. He kept calling for…” The man’s voice cracked and he whispered, “Mila.”
I couldn’t move; it was as if I were stuck to the floor. There were bodies everywhere. My people, strangers. My eyes snagged at a couple at the edge of the dance floor, and I nearly choked.
I turned to Mikhail. “This is what you wanted?” Anger and grief choked me. “Your family.” I motioned to the couple. “Your parents, your sister…dead.”
Mikhail and Ivan were all that remained. Three feet from where Mila lay dead in Alex’s arms were Aleksei and Polina Popov, frozen in an embrace, blood pooling beneath them.
“He knew the agreement,” was all Mikhail uttered, but I noticed he couldn’t look at his family.
“The agreement. That his daughter marry a Russian, or someone in the Bratva?”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “For my father to break free of the Bratva, the agreement was Mila marry the pakhan’s son, and Lev, Ivan, and me stay connected. We begged Mila. Told her if she said I do, we wouldn’t be able to stop the pakhan.”
I gritted my teeth. “Is that who took my family?”
His brow dipped briefly, as if confused. “No.”
“Who did? Answer me, or I will make your last moments filled with more pain than you could ever imagine.”
He huffed. “I’ve done what was ordered of me.”
“Mikhail, shut up,” Ivan growled from his place on the floor. Toni kicked him in the stomach, silencing him.
Mikhail almost appeared bored as he spoke. “Benito made a deal with the pakhan. He’d help fund the weapons, giving him free rein of anyone in here, and all he wanted in return was for you to live, and your children and your partner to be brought to him.”
“Where’s Benito?”
Mikhail shrugged. “Don’t know, I don’t work from him.”
Gripping his neck I squeezed. “And who the fuck would know?”
Ivan chuckled darkly. “Ask the piano teacher.”
It was as if a bucket of ice water had been thrown over me. I released Mikhail and spun around, frantically searching for Jennifer.
“Where’s Jennifer?” I asked anyone who was in hearing distance.
“I don’t know. I can go look,” Rita said.
Just then the doors pushed open, and the room flooded with police, firefighters, and EMTs. I didn’t have time to answer questions and worst of all get arrested. I leaned close to Toni. “Get Mikhail and Ivan out of here, and do the best you can with anyone else. I want them at the crates.”
“Yes, sir.”
“No!” Alex shouted and I saw an EMT trying to check on him while another was checking out Mila.
I rushed to him. “Stop,” I ordered the paramedic and kneeled in front of Alex. “You were shot, Alex. They need to check you out.”
“They can’t take her!”
“Alex, you’re bleeding out.”
He hung his head and his whole body shook. “I don’t want to live without her.” His voice was a mournful wail.
There was no way I was going to get him to see reason, of course not. The woman he loved, his wife for a moment, was dead. I looked up at the EMT. “Sedate him.”
“Sir, we can’t just do that.”
“Sedate him, now. It’s the only way you’re going to get him to the hospital.”
He sighed but did what I’d ordered. Soon they had Alex on a gurney being wheeled out.
“Gideon!” My mother and father engulfed me in their arms. Each sported a bandage on their face.
“Mom, Dad, are you okay?”
“We were in the garden when we heard the shots. I tried to get here, but one of your men tackled us to the ground. We hit our heads.” My dad patted his forehead. Whoever had saved their lives was getting a fat-as-fuck raise.
“Mr. Hendrix?”
I turned and saw a detective. “Yes?”
“I have a lot of questions for you.”
I didn’t have time for this; I had to find my family. But from the look on the detective’s face, I wasn’t going anywhere.