18. Chapter Eighteen #2
All the air in my stomach is knocked out of me. I gave Svetlana a chance to stop and she didn’t. Did she help Lev tonight? Has she been working with Lev all along?
“For a mafia man, you sure are offering up a lot of information,” I growl.
Maxim shrugs. “You have a gun pointed at me. I have nothing to lose in sharing this information. It sounds like Lev is dead once you find him. Which is fine by me. I get his shares in the business we were working on if he’s dead.”
“Work with me instead,” I say before I can hesitate. “Not Lev. I’ll pay you better. And I like having people on my side, instead of against me.”
He extends his hand. “Get in touch. Once you get your wife back at all. She has a fire in her. I’ll give her that. I never hurt her, if you’re worried. That was all Lev.”
“I know.” I don’t shake his hand. “We’ll talk more once this is all over. If you call Lev about this, you’re a dead man.”
He raises his hands in surrender. “I have no desire. I just like making money and fucking women.”
I scoff and leave Maxim to continue his session with the woman in his bed. Maxim was of a huge help. Svetlana has been in on this. I know how much she’s angry at me and Lana. Of course she’d help Lev get her out of the way.
She’ll know where Lev took Lana. I can feel it in my gut.
I arrive at Svetlana’s house and pound on her door, except she’s not here after I break inside.
The sound of the garage door opening up catches my attention. I hurry outside to see Svetlana driving her car out of the garage. Her eyes meet mine and she smiles before she drives away. I get into my car and follow her.
She wants this, I realize. This game. She wants me to be hurt for never taking her back. She wants Lana dead.
Svetlana leads me to a cabin in the middle of the woods, hours outside the city. Before I can get out of my car, she jumps out of hers and starts firing bullets at my window shield. I duck down to avoid getting hit. Once she runs out of bullets, she hurries inside the cabin.
I follow.
Lana
I can feel the life leaving my body. The tourniquet Lev wrapped around my leg is keeping me from bleeding out but I know it won’t last forever.
He leaves after shooting me, stating that he finds it funny knowing I’ll bleed out next to my sister.
Adriana rushes to my side the moment he’s gone. All I can do is lay on the ground, gritting my teeth from the pain. “Lana. Lana, what do I do? What do I do?”
I grip her hand. “Check the door. See if it’s open.”
She nods and runs up the stairs to the door before coming back down.
“No. It’s locked. We’re stuck in here. Oh my god, Lana.
You threw yourself in front of that man for me.
You got yourself shot… for me. In the leg.
Oh my god.” She turns to the side and vomits.
The smell isn’t bad in the icy, cold room.
In fact, that’s probably the only other thing keeping my wound from utterly bleeding out.
“Adriana,” I grit out. “Just stay with me. Please.”
“You can’t die, Lana.” Tears hit her eyes and they fall down her face, dropping onto mine. “We have so many things to talk about. You can’t die.”
“I know. I’ll try… not to. But it… hurts.” I’ve gotten used to pain for all of my life. A ballerina’s job is hard work. But this pain is different. It’s not voluntary. It’s the kind of pain that kills you.
“I didn’t get to say sorry for acting like a brat. I was just hurt. You know, I was hurt. You left us in that home when you married Nikolai.”
“And that’s… my fault?”
She winces. “I know it’s not really your fault. You were forced to marry him. But you could have ran away. I would have been proud of you if you had ran away.”
“Why?”
“Because…” She shakes her head.
“Talk to me.”
She sighs. “Because if you could run away, then that would mean I could too. I know Father will force me into a marriage one day. He’ll do it to all of us. I thought if you ran, then I would have the strength to run too. But you didn’t run. And it made me feel…”
“Hopeless?”
“Yeah. It made me feel hopeless.”
My hand is covered in my blood but Adriana doesn’t complain as I grip her hand tightly.
I need to know that my sister is here with me.
That this is real. “I chose to stay and fight,” I say.
“I didn’t run because I was… worried Nikolai would hurt you and Elena.
But then I stayed because… because he was what I needed.
I love him, Adriana. You have to accept that.
I don’t want to fight with you. I don’t want you to hate me.
If I make it out of this. Or… especially if I don’t make it out of this. ”
“You will make it out of this. I know you will.”
“That’s what I promised to Maria but…”
Adriana frowns. “Who’s Maria?”
“That doesn’t matter now. I feel cold, Adriana. I feel… I feel cold.”
“That’s a good sign, isn’t it? It’s cold in this room. It would be bad if you felt warm. Right? Right?” I can hear the desperation in her voice to convince herself that everything will be fine.
But I can’t promise that to Adriana. I can’t make another promise I can’t keep.
“Just keep talking to me,” I say. “Don’t stop. I…”
“Ok. I’ll keep talking to you. But you have to promise to stay awake. Ok?”
“I’ll try.”
The door squeaks open and Lev comes back in the room.
The moment he sees me, he lets out a wicked laugh that sends a chill straight through my body.
“Look how pathetic you are. If only Nikolai could see you now. I’m sure he’d want nothing to do with you.
I definitely know I wouldn’t want anything to do with a disabled wife.
Which is why I am going to do you the courtesy, Lana, of cutting off your leg.
” He holds up a hand-held saw. It’s rusty and jagged.
Adriana’s scream is going to haunt my nightmares. Assuming I live long enough to ever dream again.
“Don’t hurt her,” Adriana screams, lunging at Lev. He knocks her to the side and Adriana collapses to the floor.
“If you don’t stop, I will cut your legs off too. Or, you know, maybe I should just do that to begin with.” He straddles her waist and sets the saw against her thigh. “This will be fun.”
I have to stop this. I can’t lay here and die, not when my sister needs me.
Using all the strength I possess, I get to my knees and wrap my hands around Lev’s throat from behind. He chokes as I jerk him back. Adriana gasps before she grabs the saw from him and backs away.
I dig my nails into Lev’s throat but he’s still stronger than I am and knocks his head back, bashing it against my nose. I can feel my nose crack and I scream, letting him go.
“Lana!” Adriana screams as she runs at Lev with the saw. He rips it from her hands and pushes her back to the ground.
I have to kill Lev. There’s no other choice.
I have to fully welcome the darkness inside of me. The darkness I once judged Nikolai for. I have to become a killer once again.
My hands shake as I unwrap the belt around my leg. Pain explodes through the limb but I ignore it and focus on what’s important: my sister.
I wrap the belt around Lev’s throat and yank him back. He chokes and scrambles at his throat, trying to breathe but I grit my teeth and hold on. I am not letting go for anything.
Adriana realizes what’s happening and picks up the saw. After hesitating for a moment, she tosses the saw towards me. I let Lev go and while he sucks in a breath, I grab the saw and bring it around his throat before I cut.
The rusty saw immediately draws blood. His throat is bleeding fast. Lev lurches forward, grabbing at his throat but there’s nothing he can do. He tries standing up before he collapses and lays on the ground, gurgling as the life leaves him.
I crawl over to his body and spit on his face. “That’s for Maria’s murder.” I spit right in his eye, making him flinch. “And that’s for being a greedy asshole.”
Lev reaches out for me but his hand goes limp as the life finally leaves his eyes.
I slump to the ground. No more energy left.
“Lana,” Adriana gasps. She grabs the belt and tries wrapping it around my leg again but it’s too late. I’m bleeding out and I don’t have much more time.
“Check the door,” I say. “Make sure it’s unlocked. Don’t get stuck down here with me. With him.”
Adriana shakes her head. “I’m not leaving you.”
“Adriana.”
“No,” she says in a firm voice. “I am not leaving you.”
I can feel the blood leaving my body. To think I once tried to kill myself. Now I fought hard for mine and my sister’s life. I’m still going to die anyway.
My eyes flutter closed… right as I hear the sound of gunshots upstairs.
Nikolai
I run into the cabin and find Svetlana rushing towards the kitchen. Her hands scramble on a box of bullets as she tries ramming them into her gun.
“Stop,” I rasp out, lifting my gun. “You led me here. Why? Why the fuck are you working for Lev?”
“Because you refused to love me,” she snaps, finally getting the bullets in and pointing the gun back at me. “I had to take drastic measures. I thought the video would be enough to humiliate you into coming back to me but you didn’t. You just didn’t. So I told Lev where Lana was. At the theater.”
“You knew he’d come for her.”
She shrugs. “I was hoping for it. If she was out of your life, then I could have you for myself.”
“How long have you been working with Lev? How long, Svetlana?”
“Ever since you married that bitch. He wasn’t happy about it and neither was I so we started working together. We even fucked a few times. How does that make you feel?”
I scoff. “If you think I’m jealous, you’re sorely mistaken. I couldn’t give a fuck about you anymore. You led Lev straight to Lana. Why did you bring me here?”
“Because she’s dead by now. I’m sure of it. I wanted to see the look on your face when you realized. And I figured, if you still didn’t want to be with me, I’d just kill you.”
“If you can’t have me, then no one can. Is that it?”
Her red lips arch into a dangerous smile. “Yes. See, Nik? You know me so well.”
“Lana is here?”