Chapter 35
Duke
Imove through the passages at speed, eager to get to my brothers and just as eager to get back to Grace. Sporadic gunfire breaks out somewhere in the house, confirming that the Russians are still here. I move faster.
Vasili and his men will be looking for exits, and if they haven’t been able to leave by the main entrance, the terrace would be their next best option. There are four rooms with access. The billiards room, library, drawing room and the hall.
The library and drawing room are so far undisturbed, which leaves only the hall to check before I need to go deeper into the house. As I step through the hidden door, the silence tells me all I need to know. It’s deserted except for a few dead Russians and a lot of broken pottery and glass.
I freeze when I hear Rory, his voice traveling as only his can. “Calder, two o’clock!”
The crack of gunfire echoes through the foyer. One shot.
“I’m good!” Calder shouts a heart-stopping second later.
I keep both my guns trained on the open double doors as I hurry across the hall.
When I halt on the threshold, my view is limited and I’m only able to see the side of the staircase and the tip of a rifle pointed over the balustrade.
At the other end of the barrel is a set of deep brown eyes. Killian winks at me.
In a series of hand gestures, he tells me there are four Bratva on my side of the house, and two on the opposite side.
From the angle of Killian’s rifle, it’s safe to assume Katarina is being held by the group of four, and that will almost certainly include Vasili.
They’ll be in my dad’s study and could climb out through the windows, but taking a reluctant Katarina with them would take time and make them vulnerable to attack.
I stick my head out to do a quick sweep. To my left, I find bodies littering the foyer. Killian must have thinned out Vasili’s reinforcements before they could reach their Pakhan. To my right is Rory. He tips his head past the staircase. I can’t see Calder, but I guess he’s in a similar position.
The distant sound of rotary blades grows more distinct, and if I can hear the Griffins’ approach, so can Vasili. He’ll need to act soon, but whatever he’s about to attempt is met by a stream of Russian curses from Katarina. A sharp slap silences her tirade. And then all hell breaks loose.
Killian rises to his feet, fury in his eyes as Bratva appear from both sides of the foyer.
He takes out the soldier emerging from the study then switches aim and kills the one on the opposite side.
He swings his rifle back to the study too soon because the last remaining soldier on the far side breaks cover too.
Killian takes a hit to the chest with enough force to send him flying backwards.
As his body crumples, Calder eliminates the soldier who shot him, while Rory and I send bullets flying in the direction of the study to keep the rest of Vasili’s party contained.
There’s a brief respite and to my relief, I hear Killian moan. He remains partly protected by the balustrade and more importantly, the bulletproof vest I presume Calder gave him. He looks dazed but uninjured.
“Please, don’t shoot!” a man shouts as he steps tentatively from the study with a bible raised in his hand. His accent is American, not Russian. “I… I didn’t want anything to do with this.”
Killian growls at the man who was going to force Katarina to marry me. He’s far from innocent in his eyes, but he holds his fire for now.
Katarina appears next. Her red dress is torn and her arms are bound behind her back. From the bruises and grazes blooming on her arms and face, she put up quite a fight, but her makeup is smudged and her eyes full of defeat when she looks to Killian.
“You have to let me go. Reinforcements are on their way. They’ll be here soon,” she pleads. “I’m not worth dying for.”
“We never could agree on anything, Kitty,” Killian says, taking aim at the man who slips behind his two human shields. “I’m going to enjoy killing you, Vasili. And every man you allowed to touch her.”
Danyl steps quickly to Vasili’s side. “That list is going to be so much longer by the time we’ve finished with her,” the guard says. It’s like he’s inviting Killian to open fire.
Killian sniffs. “And why would I be listening to threats from a dead man?”
“On that we can agree,” Vasili says, but he’s lost the arrogance from earlier. The helicopter is right over us.
Vasili grabs Katarina by the hair and puts a gun to her head.
He backs them quickly towards the door and in his eagerness, almost exposes Danyl, but the bastard uses the pastor to hide behind.
Despite all the guns trained on them, no one has a clear shot, and Vasili and Katarina slip out first. When Danyl reaches the threshold, he shoves the legs of a dead soldier out of the way so he can close the door over, trapping the pastor on the wrong side.
The guy scrambles to the nearest corner to hide behind his bible.
Killian’s roar fills the foyer and we all move as one.
It’s the Irishman who reaches the door first and he’s too enraged to notice the pastor drawing a weapon.
I eliminate him with one shot, but not in time to stop the guy firing off a round.
Killian gets hit in the leg and as he drops, his rifle clatters across the marble floor.
“Fucking bastard!” Killian roars, unholstering a handgun and emptying the whole magazine into the dead pastor’s body.
Rory drops down beside Killian to check the wound in his thigh gushing blood. He unbuckles his belt and Killian snatches it from him. “I can look after myself. Go! Don’t let Vasili take Kat!”
I grab Killian’s rifle, and when Calder opens the door, I poke the barrel through the gap. No one shoots so I chance a look.
All three of the Bratva’s armored vehicles are parked in the driveway, but two are empty.
From the sound of rapid gunfire coming from where the helicopter landed, it’s clear we haven’t eliminated the rest of his men yet, but at least Vasili’s little entourage is contained to one vehicle.
Or it would be if Vasili could get an uncooperative and bound Katarina into one of the back seats.
While he’s wrestling with her, the driver behind the wheel aims his gun in our direction. He mutters a warning to Vasili, who turns to face me with a gun pressed to Katarina’s side.
“Is Killian OK?” Katarina asks as I step out cautiously.
“I might need you to kiss my leg better, Kitty!” he yells from inside the house.
Calder and Rory take up positions at my side, but not before closing the door behind them. Vasili won’t let us stall him for long, and we stand a better chance of negotiating Katarina’s release if we’re not being heckled by Killian.
My brothers and I descend the short set of steps together, weapons raised. “Let her go, Vasili,” I say. “And we’ll let you go.”
“Taking her would be very unwise, Marmaduke,” he replies.
“You’ve just made yourself an enemy of the Bratva, and what you do next will determine how high up you are in my list of priorities.
My niece is my property. Take her and I’ll have to take something of yours.
” He snarls. “Your whore is a little old, but there’s still some mileage in her. ”
My trigger finger twitches.
“It should be clear by now,” Rory continues for my sake, “that we have no interest in your family. I can’t, however, speak with any authority for the McConkeys.”
Vasili’s smile simply widens, like a snake dislocating its jaw.
“I have no quarrel with the Irish mafia at present. John McConkey and I had our little disagreement, but the matter’s been settled.
We orbit different spheres, which suits us both, and I don’t imagine he’ll be too impressed that his firstborn has turned his back on his family for the sake of a woman. ”
“Killian hasn’t turned his back on anyone,” Rory says.
“No?” He makes a show of looking around us. “Then where is his family now? He might want to steal my niece, but she was never going to be accepted by the McConkeys. He’d make them both outcasts and my niece is too precious to be lost to obscurity. And as for Killian?”
When Vasili’s hand goes to his ear and he nods, it’s in response to someone talking through his earpiece. My heart thuds in my chest. Danyl’s missing.
“Take him out,” Vasili orders.
A shot echoes through the foyer just feet away and Katarina’s legs almost buckle. “No!” she screams.
Vasili grabs her hair to keep her on her feet. “He’s dead, moya lyubov. As will be any other man who touches you without my permission.”
Katarina stares at the entrance, but there are no shouts from the Irishman. He’s been silenced. A heartbeat later, the light goes out behind Katarina’s eyes. After facing years of untold abuse, this is what it took to break her. Losing the man who wouldn’t let her go.
I take a step closer. “She stays with us.”
It’s not the gun Vasili points at me that stops me in my tracks, but Katarina. “No, Duke,” she says with zero emotion. “I’ve nothing to stay for.”
I’m about to object when we hear two more shots in quick succession coming from the foyer. I hope it’s the Griffins taking out Danyl. Vasili presumes the same as he pushes Katarina back towards their vehicle. She numbly follows his orders.
My heart wrenches. “I’m sorry, Katarina.”
She slides into her seat and looks back to me. “Just make sure you get your happy ending.”
The fates must hear the blessing and decide to fuck me over one last time. A scream cuts through the night.
“No!” Grace cries out. She’s close. Fuck. She’s in the foyer. “No, no, n–”
As I whip towards the house, another shot rings out, ricocheting through my body as surely as if I’d taken the bullet myself. Grace stops screaming.