Chapter 24
SCORPION
I’m blocks away from Silk when the ground shakes and a huge explosion rocks through the city. Up ahead, smoke instantly rises, the cloud thick and dark and angry.
The bomb went off.
I stare at the evidence, and it’s like the world stops around me. I can’t hear anything. Can’t feel anything. It’s like it exploded inside me instead of the Bratva club where it was sent.
“Cazzo,” Federico mutters. “Something big just happened.”
He has no idea it was us. Has no idea who is inside that fucking building.
What I may have just lost.
It knocks the air out of my lungs.
I can’t breathe.
Katya.
I’m not a praying man, but in that moment, I find myself praying to a higher power. Begging for her to be safe. Hoping like hell that Dmitri heeded my warning and got her as far away as possible.
I call Sidorov. Still nothing. I’m going out of my mind, and traffic is stalled again. There’s no way in hell I’ll get anywhere near Silk unless I’m on foot.
“I’m getting out,” I tell Federico, reaching for the door handle.
He shoots me a look in the rearview. “Boss?”
“My wife is somewhere—” I point in the direction of the growing smoke, choking out my words through the bile rising up my throat “—there. I need to find her.”
Then I get out of the car, hit the sidewalk, and for the second time today, I take off at a run.
I don’t give a fuck that I’m packing a pistol, that I’m wearing five-thousand-dollar Italian loafers, or that everyone around me is panicking and getting in the way.
I dodge in and out of bystanders, race across a street while cars honk at me, and continue on.
Everything is a blur. It feels like an eternity passes as I run across the few blocks left to Silk.
By the time the smoldering ruins of the building are in the distance, emergency responders are already cordoning off streets and redirecting traffic.
I’m told by more than one person that I can’t go any farther, and I shrug them off, my only thoughts for Katya.
“I’m sorry, sir, you can’t be here,” another responder tells me. “You’re going to have to get on the other side of the perimeter.”
“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?” yells someone else. “It’s not safe.”
I keep running amid the choking smoke and the wails of sirens and flashing lights.
And finally, on the street corner, I see a fucking miracle.
Katya’s sitting on a stretcher by an ambulance, being evaluated by paramedics. She’s alive.
“Sir! Sir! You can’t be here.”
I turn to the stronzo who’s rushing toward me, trying to keep me away from my woman. “Who the fuck do you think you are? That’s my wife over there.”
He’s taken aback by my fury, and I seize the advantage, pushing past him and reaching Katya’s side.
“Enzo!” she cries out when she sees me.
Her eyes are red-rimmed and filled with tears, and there’s soot streaking her cheeks, but I’ve never seen a more beautiful sight in my whole fucking life. I take her hand and lean in, kissing her.
“Cara mia!” I kiss her again, tasting the salt of her tears. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, b-but Dmitri—” she gets out, before bursting into tears.
I hate seeing her like this. But I’m so relieved she’s alive. I hold her face in my hands and kiss her again. “Everything’s going to be all right, baby. Tell me what happened.”
“Misha c-came,” she begins, “a-and Dmitri w-went back inside. Then the b-building exploded.”
Jesus. Both her brothers were in the building when the bomb went off.
I pull her against my chest.
“Sir, your wife has been injured, and we need to continue our work,” says a paramedic, her voice gentle but firm.
“Injured?” I remember Katya’s on a gurney and pull away, searching her face. “What the fuck happened, baby?”
“I twisted my ankle,” she explains. “It’s one I’ve s-sprained before.”
I glance down and find her poor ankle is swollen to twice its size, the skin mottled.
“Cazzo. We need to get you checked out.”
“That’s what we’re trying to do, sir,” the paramedic points out.
I’d have her fired for annoying me—I can pull strings like that in this city—but I know she’s just doing her job and trying to take care of my wife. So I relent, stepping aside as they continue their assessment and apply a splint to her ankle.
“We’re going to get you to the hospital, Mrs. Andriani,” the paramedic says. “You need a thorough examination after being so close to the explosion.”
“But my brothers,” she protests. “Has anyone seen them?”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t know,” the paramedic says.
I glance in the direction of the smoking heap that was Silk. It doesn’t look good for either of them, but I don’t want her to focus on that now.
“I’ll find out for you,” I promise her, taking her hand in mine and bringing it to my lips. “I promise. For now, we need to take care of you first.”
She nods, then sighs. “This is all my fault. I fell on the steps, and it took us too long to get out. If I hadn’t…”
“It’s not your fault,” I tell her sharply.
The truth is, it’s my fault.
My family’s fault. I almost lost Katya because we wanted to bomb the Bratva as a show of strength.
But I can’t admit that in front of all these fucking witnesses.
So I kiss her hand again. “I’m going to be right by your side, cara mia, and I’ll do everything I can for your brothers.”
“Svetlana,” she murmurs. “We have to find her too. Misha…” Her eyes dart around, and I know she’s seeing what I see, understanding she can’t talk freely.
I’m also pretty damn sure I know what she’s going to tell me. Her brother was holding her stepmother against her will. And right now, she’s out there somewhere.
“We’ll find her too,” I promise.
I just hope like fuck that it’s a promise I can keep.
Katya
My ankle is throbbing, and my lungs burn from inhaling so much smoke after the explosion. And while I’m thankful to be alive and to know Dmitri and Svetlana are okay, there’s a weight deep inside me that I suspect won’t be lifted any time soon.
“You’re sure?” I ask Dmitri from where I’m reclining in the living room at Enzo’s orders, both my legs propped up.
My brother is bruised but otherwise shows no sign of having narrowly survived the explosion that took Misha’s life.
Dmitri nods, somber. “I’m sure, Katya. There’s no way he made it. He went back in less than a minute before the whole place went up.”
In the aftermath of the detonation, everything was complete mayhem for a while.
I ended up at the hospital with Enzo by my side, where I received a thorough screening from the staff.
By the time I was deemed free to go with my new accessory—an air cast on my ankle—Dmitri had already contacted Enzo with the good news that he’d escaped the blast.
Authorities attempted to interview me about what I knew, but Enzo referred them to our lawyers. For the first time, I found myself grateful for all the power and money at the Andriani family’s disposal.
And that gratitude is continuing now as my phone lights up with a FaceTime call from Svetlana.
It turns out, Misha had her being guarded at her own house.
Within hours, Dmitri had the guards removed, and now, a car is bringing her to me in the city.
She’s going to stay in the guest room for a while, at least until the dust settles.
I answer. “Hey, Mama.”
Her face is worried and too close to the screen like always, but she looks like she’s in perfect health. “How are you, lisichka? Dmitri told me you hurt yourself.”
“I’m fine,” I reassure her. “It’s just a sprain. My bad ankle. I’ve got an air cast, and it’ll be healed up in no time. But tell me, how are you?”
“Better now that I’m no longer a prisoner in my own home.” Her smile is sad. “But I do wish it didn’t have to end this way, with Misha…”
She doesn’t finish her words, but she doesn’t need to.
A fresh rush of tears burns the backs of my eyes, and I desperately hold them at bay. “I know. Me too.”
Dmitri pats my shoulder. “I’m sorry. I should have stood up to him sooner. If I had, none of this would have happened. It was wrong, what he’s done to both of you.”
“This was meant to be,” Svetlana says. “Misha has always been troubled, from the time I first met him when he was a boy. I pray he will find peace now.”
In the end, it was Misha’s greed that led to his death.
Dmitri ditched the drugs and cash halfway down, racing to the bottom of the stairs with me on his back.
We emerged unscathed along with the skeletal staff that had been inside.
And then Misha arrived. He and Dmitri argued, and they both had gone back inside.
Thank God Dmitri escaped out the back into the shelter of the alley before the bomb detonated.
As I’ve come to learn, the drugs and cash were from the deal that went south the night of my wedding.
The one Misha claimed was a double-cross by the Andriani crew.
Dmitri filled in the gaps for Enzo and me, putting the final pieces of the puzzle into place.
Everything had been an elaborate setup. Misha had been desperate to take over Andriani territory, and he’d finally settled on me as a way to start chipping away at their empire. I was a convenient pawn.
Until I’d refused to be one.
Enzo and I haven’t had that conversation yet—the one where I tell him Misha asked me to poison him. I’m still shaken from everything that’s gone down and dreading how to broach the subject.
Dmitri and I talk to Svetlana for a few minutes more before she tells us she’s getting carsick and she’ll catch up with us soon. We tell her we love her and then end the call.
“You’re sure you’re happy here?” my brother asks me quietly.
Enzo is in the room he utilizes as his office with the door closed, trying to give us some family privacy.
I don’t hesitate. “I am. All this craziness made me realize how much I love him and can’t live without him.
I know it’s messed up. I was forced into this marriage, and it was the last thing I wanted, but now…
” I let my words trail off, thinking of Enzo running to me through the crowd earlier, desperation etched on his handsome face.
“Now, I know there’s nowhere else I belong more than at his side. ”
“He seems to worship the ground you walk on,” Dmitri says reluctantly. “Which he fucking should, of course. If he doesn’t, he’ll answer to me.”
“Thank you.” I reach for him, giving him an awkward hug.
I hope this is the beginning of a new relationship between us. That some good can come from the evil Misha wrought.
He hugs me back and then straightens to his full height. “I should go. But before I do, I just wanted to say I’m sorry for, well, everything.”
“He was Pakhan. You didn’t have any choice but to do what he asked of you.” I may not agree with it, but I understand.
“Take care, Katya,” Dmitri says before he leaves, quietly slipping into the elevator.
I hear it carrying him away at the same time Enzo’s office door opens and he emerges.
His eyes find mine, searing, searching. “Is your brother gone?”
I know he’s talking about Dmitri, but the shock of Misha’s death is still fresh. I nod, too choked up to speak.
“Cara mia,” Enzo croons, coming to me and sinking into the couch at my side. He takes me in his arms and holds me, careful not to jostle my ankle. “Let it out, baby. I’m here. I’ve got you now.”
He’s being so sweet and gentle, so unlike himself, and the guilt inside me over what I have to confess is eating me alive. I blubber into his neck, breathing in his distinctive cologne, so familiar and beloved, clinging to him like I’m afraid I’ll drown if he lets me go.
“Don’t disappear on me again like you did today,” he murmurs, his hands coasting up and down my spine in a reassuring caress. “When I couldn’t reach you, it fucking killed me.”
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I didn’t want to involve you in this. I wasn’t sure what to do.”
“So you thought you’d run from me?” He pulls back to study me, his expression stern but tender. “That’s never the way, cara. You’re my wife. I told you before, you’re mine to protect. But you have to let me do it.”
I sniffle against a fresh rush of tears. It’s like all the emotions are hitting me at one time, and I’m having a difficult time coping.
“There’s something I have to tell you.”
He cups my cheek with one hand. “What is it, amore mio?”
I take a deep breath. “When I met with Misha, it was because he sent me that picture of Svetlana you saw. The one you asked me about. He wanted me to know he was having her watched and followed, that he could do anything he wanted to her at any moment. It’s also how he got me to agree to marry you.
He knew I’d do anything to protect her.”
“I suspected.” His face hardens. “If he hadn’t died in that fucking club today, I’d kill him with my own bare hands now for what he did to you.”
I wince. “I’m not glad Misha’s dead. I’m sad—he was my brother. But I am relieved that he can no longer hurt the people I love.”
Enzo stills. “The people you love?”
I nod, forcing out the rest. “He wanted me to poison you for him. He told me he’d kill Svetlana if I didn’t do it.
That’s why I slipped away from Antonio today.
Why I ran. I was trying to get to Dmitri, to make him help me get Svetlana away from Misha.
Because I would never do what Misha was asking of me, Enzo. I could never hurt you.”
He’s silent for a few beats, but he doesn’t release me. He traces my cheekbone in a slow, gentle stroke with his thumb. He makes me feel like I’m delicate and precious, like I’m made of spun glass and any false move he makes will shatter me into a thousand pieces.
“Why not, cara?” he rasps at last, his voice rough with emotion.
“Because I love you.” I pause and take a deep breath.
“I know I haven’t given you any reason to believe me, but I do.
When I was trapped in that building with Dmitri and we were running out of time, all I could think about was getting back to you.
I’ve never felt like this with anyone else, and I…
I know our marriage wasn’t either of our choice, but if I had to do it again tomorrow, I would. I’d choose you every time.”
“I love you too, amore mio.”
I wasn’t prepared for his admission. I braced myself for anger, for distrust. But somehow not that.
My hand flies over his. “You do?”
“Hell yes.” He presses his forehead to mine. “Couldn’t you tell? I’m yours, baby. For better or worse. Through all the shit we’ve been through. I feel the same way. I’d choose you every fucking time.”
“You’re not mad at me for what I did?”
“For going dark on me instead of trusting me? I’m not happy about that.” He kisses me slowly, softly. “But I’ll get even with you later, when your ankle’s healed up.”
I hear the sensual promise in his voice, and it makes me smile even through the pain. “What if I like the punishment you give me?”
He growls and kisses me again. “Then I’ll just have to give you another one, cara mia.”
I like the sound of that.