2. Chapter Two #2
“Save?!” She huffed and stood up to her full height. “This fucker just stabbed Dayton. I’m trying to drag him back to Aleksandr.”
Dayton? Who the hell is Dayton?
“What?” Panic laced Nikolai’s voice. “Where?”
“In that room behind me.”
“Lukyan, grab his legs.” Nikolai and Lukyan worked together to carry him into the room Drea indicated.
Aleksandr was on the floor, cradling a kid in his arms. Blood seeped from a hole in the middle of his throat, and he was deathly pale. If he was alive, he wouldn’t be for much longer.
“Fuck,” Lukyan exhaled.
Aleksandr looked up briefly before focusing back on Dayton. “Call the doc.”
I stuck by Nikolai’s side as he moved closer. “Zander.” That one word held a multitude of meanings. He knew just by looking that calling for help would be useless. The kid wasn’t going to make it.
“Call!” Aleksandr roared.
My breath hitched. I’d never seen him so angry. So frantic. So desperate.
Dayton gripped the front of Aleksandr's shirt, clinging to him. He gasped and cried, his body trembling and eyes so wide and full of terror that it broke my heart. I’d never met the kid before, but he was just that: a kid. I felt bad for him.
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Aleksandr soothed, but I could tell he was saying that more to himself than to Dayton.
Then, just like that, the kid just stopped breathing. His body went limp in Aleksandr’s arms and Aleksandr did nothing but stare down at him, shocked, like he couldn’t believe what just happened.
The man responsible for stabbing him—the one Nikolai and Lukyan had carried into the room—coughed all of a sudden. Aleksandr’s gaze snapped to him wicked fast, like a snake coiled to strike. A dark anger rolled over his face.
He put Dayton down with a gentleness I didn’t realise he was capable of and marched towards the guy, baring his teeth as he released a deep, savage growl.
Nikolai grabbed my arm quickly and yanked me out of his way.
Everybody got the fuck out of his way, leaving a clear path between Aleksandr and the man.
He straddled his chest and just started hammering into him, over and over and over again.
He slammed his head down into the ground, dug his fingers into his eyes.
He absolutely fucking pummelled him—right hook, left hook, right hook, left hook—as he screamed out an animalistic roar that shook the whole fucking house.
Never in the twenty or so odd years that I’d known Aleksandr, had I ever seen him like that. He was…terrifying.
“Jesus Christ,” Lukyan breathed out, watching on. “Stop him, Nik, before he hurts himself.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. Of course I didn’t want Aleksandr to hurt himself. But that wasn’t him. That was something else. Someone else. What if he turned on Nikolai?
Nikolai hesitated but took a cautious step forward. Panic gripped me and I couldn’t stop myself from reaching out to him to stop him, but he was already approaching his brother. He touched him lightly on the shoulder. “Zander—”
He spun and punched him right in the face. Nikolai flew back and Aleksandr went right back to pounding at the dead body beneath him.
A shriek burst out of my mouth and I ran over to Nikolai, frantically running my hands over him. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” he grunted, rubbing his jaw. He went to get up and try again, but I pushed him back down.
“No,” I hissed. “Don’t go near him. Not until he’s calmed down.”
“He’s not going to calm down, Tati. It took five men to subdue him the last time he was like this. If we don’t—what the fuck?”
I glanced over my shoulder to see Drea in Aleksandr’s lap, his head buried deep into her chest, his arms wrapped around her tightly as she whispered something to him and him alone.
The whole thing shocked me. Aleksandr was not an affectionate person. Not the Aleksandr I knew. Who was this woman?
I helped Nikolai to his feet and he looked at them with the same shock I’m sure was on my face. He cleared his throat awkwardly to get their attention and Aleksandr lifted his head. Some of that darkness was gone. He seemed to be back in control.
Good. If he hit Nikolai again, I was going to fucking hit him .
“Is there anyone left alive?” Aleksandr grunted, his voice thick.
“If they are, they won’t be for long,” Nikolai said, glancing around at the numerous bodies littering the ground.
“Find out what you can from them quickly before they die.”
Nikolai nodded. “On it.” He paused, hesitating. “I’m sorry, Zander.”
Aleksandr’s jaw clenched. He said nothing, only jerking his head once in acknowledgement.
I followed Nikolai out of the room and back into the kitchen. “I need to start checking the bodies, see who’s alive and who’s dead.”
“I can help you.” There was no way I was going to leave. Yeah, I wasn’t in the Bratva technically, but I could still help out with things like this. Plus, I didn’t feel comfortable leaving just yet.
We worked together to move the dead bodies into a pile. It was a tiresome and tedious task, especially when we started dragging bodies down from upstairs. Anyone who was still alive was carried down to the warehouse and put in the pit—the place the Bratva kept all their prisoners.
We didn’t talk while we worked. He didn’t ask me why I was staying.
I was thankful for it, because even I didn’t have an answer to that question.
Not one I was willing to acknowledge just yet, anyway.
Roughly ten minutes or so after we started checking the bodies, Lukyan came barrelling into the room, his face a mask of fear and distress.
Nikolai uncaringly dropped the body in his hands and rushed over to his brother. “What? What is it?”
“It’s Father,” he whispered, so softly I could barely hear him. “He’s been kidnapped.”