Chapter 33
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CAMILLA
He’s here! Here’s here! I knew Maksim would find me, but to find me so quickly? My heart soars.
Outside the heavy wooden door, the world erupts into sheer, violent chaos.
The muffled pop of suppressed gunfire suddenly explodes into full-blown automatic war. Bullets chew through the structure below, the thunderous bass of heavy shotguns shaking the floorboards beneath my feet. Plaster dust trickles down from the ceiling like fine snow.
In an instant, Viktor's calm, sickeningly arrogant composure completely shatters.
He jumps at the first volley, his face turning a mottled, furious red as he paces the room like a rabid animal, swearing wildly in Russian. "Goddamn him! Goddamn that bastard to hell!" he roars, clutching his gun as the muffled thud of falling bodies echoes from the landing right outside.
The heavy oak door bursts open, and two of Viktor's men stumble into the room, their chests heaving, blood splattered across their tactical vests.
"Boss, we have to move!" one of them pants frantically, his eyes wide with panic. "There’s no way out! The Pakhan's men have surrounded the entire perimeter! They're wiping out our line—we can't hold the floor!"
Viktor stops dead in his tracks, his teeth grinding.
"Kill her!" the second guard barks, gesturing wildly toward me with his rifle. "Kill her now and let's cut through the back service stairs with the other women!”
"No!" Viktor snarls, rounding on the man with wild, unhinged eyes. "If I kill her like this, her death is useless! A wasted bullet! I don't just want her dead—I want to use her corpse to ruin Maksim! I want him to watch her breathe her last breath!"
While they scream and argue, caught in the blinding storm of their own panic, I don't sit helpless.
The guards are completely distracted, their backs half-turned to me as they watch the door. The rope binding my wrists behind the wooden chair was tied in a rush, and with every heavy explosion rattling the house, I've been relentlessly working my hands, twisting my skin against the coarse fibers.
With a hard, desperate yank, the slack gives. The coarse rope slips over my left wrist, scraping the skin raw, but I don't feel a thing. My hands are free.
I don't wait a single second.
I spring up from the chair like a coiled spring.
Before the guard standing closest to my left can even turn his head, I throw my entire body weight into him, slamming my elbow straight into his throat.
He gags, staggering back, and in one fluid, instinctive motion, I snatch the heavy black handgun tucked into his side holster.
"What the—" Viktor screams, turning toward me.
I flip the safety off and rack the slide, opening fire before they can react.
Bang! Bang!
The sharp, deafening cracks of the gun shatter the tight confines of the room. The guard I hit drops like a stone, and the second man dives behind a heavy mahogany desk as my bullets splinter the wood.
I roll behind a thick leather armchair, my heart pounding like a war drum against my ribs, smoke filling my lungs as I aim straight for Viktor.
I am done being the prize, done being the bargaining chip.
If Maksim is tearing this house apart from the outside, I am going to burn it down from the inside.
As I open fire on the remaining guards, a sudden, blinding agony explodes in my right shoulder from behind.
The sheer force knocks the breath straight out of my lungs, crashing me hard against the hardwood floor.
Pain flares white-hot down my spine, and the handgun goes flying from my slick grip, skidding uselessly out of reach.
I gasp, rolling onto my back just in time to see the guard who had snuck up behind me lower his boot.
Before I can recover, the heavy double doors burst wide open. Three more of Viktor’s men tumble into the room, covered in drywall dust and blood, their faces twisted in absolute terror.
"He's on the landing!" one of them screams over the deafening roar of automatic fire echoing down the hall. "The Pakhan breached the second floor! His men are clearing every room—he's right outside!"
The news hits Viktor like an electric shock.
The realization that Maksim has completely breached his stronghold shatters whatever sanity he had left.
He knows he's cornered. He knows he's lost the estate, but his twisted ego refuses to let Maksim win.
He doesn't just want to survive; he wants to break Maksim completely.
He wants a public victory before everything burns.
With a guttural, unhinged roar, Viktor lunges forward. He grabs me by the hair and the torn collar of my dress, violently yanking me off the floor.
"Get up!" he snarls, dragging me backward toward the open French doors that lead out to the second-floor balcony overlooking the estate below.
I fight him with every ounce of strength left in my body. I claw at his hands, dig my heels into the rug, and slam my elbow into his ribs, but the pain in my shoulder makes my grip weaken. He ignores the blows, driven by pure, manic adrenaline.
He wants to display me to his remaining men and Maksim’s forces below—a broken, bleeding trophy to prove that the great Pakhan failed to protect his wife.
He drags me out onto the cold stone balcony, wrapping an iron arm around my throat and hauling my upper body over the gilded railing, suspending me precariously over the drop.
"Maksim!" Viktor screeches into the cavernous hall, his voice unhinged and echoing over the dying gunshots. "Look at your precious wife!"
Right on cue, the heavy double doors of the room are kicked off their hinges with a thunderous crash.
Maksim bursts into the room, weapon raised, flanked by Dmitri and a wave of heavily armed men.
The moment Maksim’s dark eyes land on me—hanging over the edge, Viktor’s arm choked tight around my throat—he stops dead in his tracks. His men instantly freeze beside him, weapons locked on Viktor, the tension in the room snapping taut like a pulled wire.
Viktor lets out a high, grating laugh that echoes wildly against the high ceiling, dragging me tighter against his chest and using my body as a human shield. The cold barrel of his pistol presses hard against my temple.
"Lower your weapons!" Viktor screams, his voice cracking with unhinged desperation. "Drop them now, Maksim, or I swear to God I’ll paint this balcony with her brains! Step back or she dies!"
The room goes dead silent, save for Viktor’s heavy, ragged breathing in my ear.
I ignore the steel pressed to my head and look straight at Maksim. His face is a mask of pure, terrifying frost, but the second his dark eyes lock onto mine, something inside me settles.
In the middle of this absolute nightmare, with my body half-suspended over a lethal drop, a strange wave of peace washes over me. I feel safe. I know, with every fiber of my being, that he will never let anything happen to me.
Across the expanse of the room, time seems to slow down completely. Viktor’s furious roaring and wild threats fade into background noise as Maksim and I simply stare at each other.
Then, so subtle that anyone else in the room would miss it, Maksim gives me an imperceptible nod.
I understand immediately. I don’t know how, but the unspoken communication between us is absolute.
Taking a deep, sharp breath, I throw my entire weight to the right, jerking my upper body away from Viktor's torso and exposing the entire left side of his ribs and abdomen. It’s an insane, terrifying risk, but I trust Maksim completely—with my life, with my soul.
The exact millisecond Viktor’s side opens up, a single, thunderous shot cracks through the air.
Bang!
The force of the impact reverberates right through me. I feel the exact moment Maksim's bullet embeds itself deep into Viktor’s stomach, shattering his grip and sending him stumbling backward with a wet, choked groan.
Viktor doubles over with a guttural gasp, his hands flying to his gushing abdomen as he loses his footing completely.
The instant Viktor’s grip breaks, Maksim is moving—a blur of terrifying speed charging across the room toward me with Dmitri right at his side.
Around them, absolute war breaks out as our men open fire, annihilating the last of Viktor's guards in a hail of merciless gunfire.
Before Viktor can even touch his weapon, Maksim closes the distance, his eyes blazing with pure, unadulterated fury. He grabs Viktor by the throat, shoving him brutally against the stone balustrade.
Viktor wheezes, blood pooling on his lips, but Maksim offers no last words, no grand speech. With cold, absolute finality, Maksim raises his firearm and puts two lethal rounds straight into Viktor’s chest, dropping the bastard's lifeless body right where he stands. The threat is ended. Completely.
Silence slowly settles over the estate, broken only by the heavy breathing of men and the drift of gunpowder smoke through the shattered French doors.
Maksim turns sharply, his dark eyes frantically landing on me. I’m leaning against the wall, my dress torn, my shoulder throbbing, covered in blood and dust.
He rushes over, but just a step away from me, he abruptly stops dead in his tracks.
His hands hover in the air between us, trembling slightly. His eyes sweep over my bruised skin, the torn silk, and the dark crimson staining my gown, like he’s terrified that touching me might break me or cause me more pain.
He stands there, raw and vulnerable, completely leaving the choice to me.
I don't hesitate for a single second.
I step forward into his space, throwing my arms around his neck and burying my face into the warm crook of his collarbone.
A sharp, ragged breath escapes Maksim’s lungs as he carefully wraps his massive arms around me, pulling me tight against his broad chest. He holds me with a delicate, fiercely protective grip, burying his face in my hair, his shoulders shaking as he inhales the scent of me.
"I have you, princess," he rasps, his voice breaking with a raw emotion I've never heard from him before. "I have you. I'm so sorry... I'm so fucking sorry."
I pull back just enough to frame his jaw in my hands, looking up into his dark, tortured eyes.
"I never doubted you," I whisper, my thumb tracing the rough stubble along his jawline. "Not for a single second. I knew you would come for me."
Maksim makes a low, wrecked sound in the back of his throat, wrapping his heavy arms even tighter around me, as if trying to pull me inside his chest, where nothing can ever touch me again. He lowers his head, resting his forehead against mine, his hot, shaky breath fanning over my lips.
"I love you, Camilla," he rasps, his voice rough with a deep, bottomless devotion. "I love you so much. Fuck, I love you more than words can ever say."
A breathless, tearful giggle escapes my throat, the sharp relief washing over me so completely that my whole body trembles against his. "I love you too, Maksim."
He squeezes his eyes shut, letting out a long, ragged exhale before leaning back just enough to press a tender, lingering kiss right to the tip of my nose.
"Let's go home, princess," he murmurs softly, sweeping me up securely into his arms and carrying me out of the darkness.