Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Roman
"Oh? You dare speak to me like that?"
Dmitri laughed recklessly, his index finger already curling on the trigger.
The barrel pressed hard against Leah's swollen belly. The cold metal dug deep into her filthy clothes, leaving a pronounced indentation.
Leah's body shook violently. She didn't even dare breathe deeply.
"Let her go." I unholstered my gun and kicked it far across the floor.
"Let Leah go. Let the baby go. Whatever you want, I'll give you. My territory, my routes, my codes. Even my life. I'll do anything. I'll pay any price."
I paused, the last words nearly a plea.
"Just take the gun off her stomach."
Dmitri listened and let out a contemptuous laugh.
"Any price? Fine. I'll grant you that."
He slowly moved the barrel away from Leah's belly. His left hand slipped into his tailored gray suit jacket and pulled out a black tactical knife.
The blade flashed cold under the warehouse's industrial lights. Serrated edge. Blood groove.
A military knife made for killing.
Dmitri examined it, then flicked his wrist.
The tactical knife clattered to the concrete at my feet like worthless trash.
It skidded half a meter across the rough floor and stopped at the tip of my shoe.
I looked down. I understood.
"How touching." Dmitri's voice dripped with arrogance. "Roman Volkov. Groveling here for a woman."
He shoved the gun back against Leah's belly, harder this time. She gasped.
She was terrified, tears streaming down her face.
But still, she shook her head desperately.
"No, don't, Roman... please..."
"Pick up the knife." Dmitri's order was absolute.
"Then stick it into yourself. Keep going. Until I'm satisfied."
His finger tightened on the trigger again.
"Listen carefully, Roman. Hesitate for one second—slow down even slightly—and I promise this bullet will punch through Leah's womb. It'll blow your unborn kid's head apart."
I didn't hesitate. I bent down, grabbed the knife with a reverse grip, and picked it up.
Then I gathered all my strength and drove it hard into my left thigh.
The blade sliced through without resistance.
Searing pain exploded through me. My vision went black for a second.
I clenched my jaw, but a strangled groan still tore from my throat.
Cold sweat poured down my forehead and hit the dusty concrete.
My right knee slammed into the ground. I knelt before Dmitri in utter humiliation.
"No!"
Leah screamed. Her pale face twisted with terror and anguish. She thrashed against the chains, her wrists bleeding.
"Roman! Stop! Please stop!" Her sobs tore through the air.
Blood loss and agony made my head buzz, but I glared at Dmitri, fighting to stay conscious.
"Satisfied?"
Dmitri erupted into laughter at the blood pouring from my thigh.
"Magnificent! Absolutely magnificent!" He roared with laughter. "You'd actually trade your pathetic life for hers!"
Then his laughter stopped. What replaced it was years of suppressed rage.
"You play the devoted lover now." Dmitri's teeth ground together. "You'll die for Leah. But what about before?"
He began his accusation.
"Why were you so cruel to Irina? Answer me!" Dmitri roared. "Irina loved you, you heartless animal! She betrayed me for you!"
Blood kept flowing from my thigh. The loss made me dizzy.
"You think Irina was my perfect spy planted at your side?" Dmitri stepped closer, gun still pressed to Leah's stomach. "Everything she fed me was useless garbage! She never caused real damage to your family! She protected you the whole time! She gave you everything!"
Dmitri's eyes were bloodshot. He'd lost control completely.
"I planned to kill you in front of Mira today." His chest heaved. "But now I'm asking you! Roman! How could you murder your own child's mother?"
Of course I understood. This trap had one purpose: revenge for Irina.
Their parents died young. In this savage underworld, the siblings were all each other had.
But that bond was exactly what made Irina's life so twisted and desperate.
Enough. Hiding the truth served no purpose anymore.
"I didn't kill her."
"Bullshit!" The veins in Dmitri's forehead bulged. His refined composure shattered. "Besides you, who else in New York would dare touch your wife? Who else could've killed her?"
I took a deep breath, fighting through the tearing pain in my thigh, and spoke the truth buried for years.
"There was someone else. Besides me, there was her."
Dmitri's reaction matched my expectations.
He jerked the gun away from Leah's stomach and fired three shots into the warehouse ceiling.
The deafening blasts echoed. Gunpowder filled the air.
"One more lie!" Dmitri jammed the hot barrel back against Leah. "Irina would never abandon Mira! She'd never leave me! If you insult her memory again, I'll kill you both right now!"
I ignored his threat and continued.
"Irina shot herself. Because of you."
That delicate face flashed in my mind. And that morning I'd never forget.
I never blamed her, even when all evidence pointed to Irina.
I pretended everything was normal, kissed her calmly, played the role of husband.
Maybe she already knew. I'll never know what she was thinking.
But when I came home, Irina had finished reading Cinderella to Mira. Then she'd chosen to end her life.
She left me only a short letter. And Mira nearly passed out from crying.
"You know no one accepts love between siblings, even half-siblings. She was caught between us. It destroyed her. Trapped between crushing guilt toward me and hopeless love for you. That love and guilt killed her."
Dmitri's body swayed violently. Tears suddenly streamed down his face.
"No, impossible. She loved me too... This can't be real..."
He shook his head, mumbling hoarsely.
Leah, bound to the chair, stared at me in shock, too stunned to even cry.
I didn't stop. This man needed to know Irina's despair and pain.
"She loved you! You knew how she felt, but you married her off to me anyway to escape it. Then your jealousy drove you to come after me again and again. The root of everything was you, Dmitri."
I exposed him coldly, then slowly reached toward my right leg.
"I only claimed responsibility for Irina's death and staged it as an accident to protect what dignity she had left."
"Impossible!"
Dmitri collapsed completely. He raised his gun and lunged at me.
"You're lying! You killed her!"
The second he left Leah—
I yanked the backup pistol from my right pant leg and fired.
The bullet hit Dmitri's right wrist dead-on.
"Ahhh!" he shrieked.
The bullet's impact shattered his radius and ulna. Blood and tissue sprayed. His right hand went limp.
The black pistol with its suppressor clattered to the concrete.
I didn't pause.
I dragged my bleeding left leg forward two steps. I reached Leah and pulled her—chair and all—into my arms.
I crushed her against me, buried my face in her neck, and breathed in her scent desperately.
The only thing that could pull me back from hell's edge.
Leah pressed her face into my chest and sobbed.
I stroked her tangled hair with sweat-soaked hands. "I can't believe it... I didn't think I'd ever hold you like this again."
I kissed the top of her head over and over, feeling her trembling body.
"You're terrified, aren't you? Don't be scared... don't be scared, baby. I've got you."
Leah suddenly lifted her head from my chest. Her tear-washed eyes fell on my blood-soaked left leg.
Her lips trembled badly.
"Roman, your leg..." Her voice broke. "Does it hurt? God, you've lost so much blood... You need treatment now; we have to stop the bleeding..."
Seeing the worry on her pale face, I managed a reassuring smile despite the agony and nodded gently.
I pressed the micro-communicator in my right ear.
"Nick. Come in."
My order was cold.
The moment I spoke, my men flooded the warehouse.
Nick burst in first with an assault rifle. Behind him, two full squads of family enforcers in black tactical vests.
Blinding tactical lights carved through the darkness. Dozens of red laser dots covered Dmitri's chest and forehead.
"Get down! Hands behind your head!" Nick roared.
Several enforcers pounced like panthers. They smashed rifle butts into Dmitri's back without mercy.
Dmitri grunted.
They zip-tied his legs with military-grade restraints. They wrenched his shattered, bleeding right hand behind his back and ground him face-down into the wet concrete.
The situation was locked down in under thirty seconds.
Only when I confirmed it was safe did I release the communicator and look down at Leah.
"It's over." I kissed her dusty forehead softly.
"No one will ever hurt you again."