Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
Ilya
I recognized the man who shot upwards as we came in through the door hard. It took me exactly two seconds to place him. He had been at my engagement party; I had seen him come from the room where the altercation had taken place.
The third second ticked by, and the gun in my hand lifted and put a neat circular hole in the center of his forehead. He was dead before he hit the floor. His eyes staring sightless to the ceiling.
More gunfire erupted around me, but I didn’t flinch. I just stared at him and thought how lucky he was to be dead so quickly.
And honestly, he was lucky I hadn’t dragged it out. Not after what I had just heard. I wanted my family back safe and sound, and that was the only reason the men in this room weren’t being dragged into one of my many warehouses to be tortured.
Fucking Marguerite.
I’d always known she was trouble, but when my tech guys had hacked her phone, allowing me to listen in on what was going on in this derelict house, even I had been shocked.
Venom. She was full of venom, and like a fool hell-bent on revenge, I hadn’t seen what was right in front of my face.
I’d known she was bad news; I had always known.
She had been too forward in her affections, and now I knew why.
She wanted my baby in her belly. She wanted to be the mother of the Popovitch heir, but to do that, she needed to get rid of Alec.
And she had been planning on pinning the blame on Daisy.
A shudder of rage swept through me violently as I stepped over the body of her fallen lover. Other men were rising from their seats. Slowly. Much too slowly for my own men who filed behind.
They were amateurs, and they didn’t stand a chance. I didn’t bother to look left and right as I strode through the room. I knew where I had to go.
The moment we had gotten this lead, I had the blueprints for this whole block in front of me, and I had memorized them all.
I pushed open the door with my foot; the hinges squeaked loudly, but that didn’t really matter. It wasn’t like I was trying to be quiet. The element of surprise was gone the moment I had discharged my weapon.
Still, Marguerite had the good graces to look shocked as she swung the gun in her hand away from the corner and towards me.
"Ilya."
I took her in with a sweep of my eyes; she looked the same as she always did. Perfectly put together, but there was a tightness, a kind of madness in her face that made me wary.
Marguerite looked like a cornered animal, which was strange because she had just been pointing that gun into the corner of the shabby room.
She had been pointing a gun at my son, or more specifically, at the woman I had loved and hated in equal measures who had placed herself bodily in front of him.
A split second—that’s all I gave myself to check on them, and even then it hit me like a sledgehammer.
They looked like disaster victims, all hollow eyes and cheeks. Filth coated their clothes and skin.
Fuck, how long had it been since they had been allowed to wash, or to eat? Even in that split second where I looked at them, I could see how much weight had dropped off of them. Especially Daisy.
Had she been giving her food to Alec? It felt like something she would do.
For six years, I had called her selfish when in reality she was the least selfish woman in the entire world.
I sprinted toward Marguerite and knocked the gun out of her hand. She cried out in pain and stumbled back a few steps. Then she quickly looked at me.
"Ilya, you came." Marguerite stepped forward, her face and voice the perfect mixture of relief and happiness, and my eyes swung back to her.
The second she realized I hadn’t lowered my weapon, her steps faltered.
"I knew you would come," she tried again. "I got here as soon as I heard. I had to protect Alec."
My eyes flashed angrily. "Do not call him that. Only his mother and I get to call him that, or the people who love him, and you are none of those things."
My voice was calm, icy. It didn’t reflect the mountain of warring feelings that were coursing through my body.
Marguerite's face fell. "Okay, I’m sorry," she mumbled. "I understand." She lifted her hopeful face to me. "But I got here in time. Hopefully, one day I will be his family. Your family."
Steadily I looked at her. Jesus, she really was a good actress. Academy Award good, but my eyes were open now, and I saw her for exactly what she was.
A manipulating snake.
One who thought she was smart enough to use me.
"You had your gun pointed at my child and—" around her shoulder I glanced at Daisy. Who hadn’t moved. She guarded the corner where my son crouched with her arms outstretched. More than willing to sacrifice her life for our son.
My heart swelled for a second before I turned off my emotions again. Right now, I couldn’t allow myself to relax. I had business to take care of.
For a second, Marguerite's lips opened and closed.
I could almost see the wheels turning in her head.
"You didn’t hear her plans, Ilya," she whimpered. "She was going to kill Alexander. I was just making sure she didn’t hurt him. Alexander knows I would never hurt him. That I am here to protect him. Isn’t that right, Alexander? "
Behind Daisy, my son gave a whimper, almost like he was too exhausted to even cry out.
"She kidnapped him," she carried on, obviously taking my silence as a sign that I believed her. "She paid those men out there." Unease flickered into her eyes as she glanced around my shoulder to the door.
There were no more loud pop-pops of gunshots now. Everything was silent. I couldn’t even hear the murmur of voices. It was almost like everyone was holding their breath and waiting to see what my decision would be.
"What happened to them?"
I didn’t miss a beat. "They’re dead," I replied, totally deadpan.
She blinked, just once before she shut the panic away and let out a theatrical sigh of relief.
"That’s good," she mumbled. "It’s good that you have dealt with them. Anyone who tries to hurt your family deserves no mercy."
"You’re right about that." Eyes narrowed, I lifted the gun more firmly. Pointing it directly between her perfectly arched eyebrows. "Anyone who hurts or tries to hurt my family must die."
I took a step forward, the gun never wavering.
Realization hit Marguerite slowly. She took a step back, like that would save her.
"What are you doing, Ilya?" Lifting her hands, she tried to push the gun away. Everything she was doing was futile. She couldn’t win against a bullet.
"Weren't you listening? She was going to kill him. Why are you pointing the gun at me?"
A wicked smile curved up the corner of my mouth. "Oh, but I was listening, Marguerite. In fact, I heard everything."
I let my words sink in for a second and then approached her again.
"Ilya, I—" she faltered, and the sound of her swallowing was loud in the sudden quiet.
"Be quiet."
Her lips snapped shut.
"I heard with my own ears your plan to kill my son and frame his mother.
" I dropped my voice and pressed the muzzle of the gun snugly against her unnaturally smooth forehead.
"I heard that you planned to try and control my empire before you killed me and brought in your lover.
" Chuckling darkly, I lowered my voice to a jagged whisper that promised a painful death. "Your dead lover now."
The anger in her eyes was instant. "I did not—"
Again I snapped. "Be quiet. You played the long game and lost, Marguerite, and make no mistake about it. This game is over."
I knew the second she realized her end was coming because the anger in her eyes turned to cold fury. "My father—"
I laughed right in her face. "Your father is dead. His organization is disbanded."
And just like that, I took away her entire world. First by killing her lover and then by annihilating her father and the protection he had always given her.
"Most of his men now work for me," I continued, slightly moving the grey metal muzzle of the gun over her skin. "You and your father are not very well liked. Do you know that?"
In fact, they were hated, a fact that came to light pretty quickly. Her men, the men who were supposed to be loyal to her family, had given away her secrets, including a long-time lover, and helped us track this place down.
An empty building under her dead lover's name.
"You are nothing—" she began to say and froze again as the gun stopped. Pressing into her forehead with enough pressure to leave a mark.
"Close your eyes."
Her eyes widened, but I hadn’t been talking to her. Daisy knew straight away who and what I meant. Spinning her body around, she curled it over the crouching form of my son.
"Close your eyes, Alec." She wrapped him in her arms. Hand pressing his face into her stomach as she bodily shifted him away from what she knew was about to happen.
Good. Alec had gone through enough. He didn’t need to see this.
"Ilya, I—" In a last-ditch effort to fool me, Marguerite reached out, but her fingers never made contact.
I shot her once, at point-blank range, and she fell backwards with a thud. Blood and brain matter already spilling from the back of her ruined skull.
Giving myself one second to enjoy the glassy look in her eyes, I finally straightened.
It was finally over. Sure, there would always be dangers. In the world I lived in, there always were. But this one was dealt with.
It would be a long time until someone was brave enough to try and hurt the people I loved again. I had sent a pretty firm message.
You messed with what was mine, and I would wipe your entire bloodline out of existence.
The people I loved—even though I had just straightened to step over her dead body, I fell to my knees again. "Alec."
My voice cracked with all the emotions I hadn’t been allowed to show over the last few days.
"Papa?"
God, his voice was tiny.
"I’m here. I’m here." He rushed into my arms, a frail little thing that I didn’t deserve. "I’m here," I said again, and this time my whole body shuddered into a sob as I pulled my son into my arms and hugged him as tightly as his broken little body would let me.
I didn’t want to hurt him, but I didn’t want to ever let him go either.
"It’s going to be okay. I’m going to take you home."
"Are the bad people gone?" he shuddered into my chest.
"Yes, sweet boy, they are all gone." Dead, I added silently. Dead and cold; they would never hurt him again. "I’m going to need you to keep your eyes closed until we get to the car, okay?" I asked.
It was time to take him home. Where we could begin to heal, but I didn’t want him to see the carnage around us. He had already been through so much.
"Okay, Papa."
Bony arms tight around my neck, I stood up. "Just keep them closed. We will be home soon, and—"
"Can Mama come back with us? Can she stay with us forever?"
"Of course. She’s not—" Half-turning, I expected to see her crouched in the corner and felt like an asshole because I hadn’t checked she was okay, but the corner was empty.
The room was empty.
In the few seconds that I hadn’t had my eyes on her, Daisy had disappeared.
Again.