Chapter 38 Alik
ALIK
Sera folds to the ground as my shot severs the rope binding her to the ceiling.
Gio’s shot is carefully timed for a half-second later.
His aim is perfect—irritatingly on-brand for him—and he sinks his bullet in Martina di Salvo’s shoulder.
She whirls under the impact, twisting on her heels and pitching forward too fast to catch herself.
Her nose breaks when she hits the ground and any other time, I’d grin like an evil motherfucker when she shrieks in agony.
This time, however, I don’t give a fuck as long as she’s incapacitated and in a world of hurt. I step over her writhing form and drop to my knees next to Sera.
“Sera. Milaya. Serafina!” Knife in hand, I cut her wrists free and carefully shift her until she’s lying flat on the ground.
One side of her face is black and blue, the eye on that side swollen almost completely shut.
There are matching bruises on her torso, only bigger.
I gently shift her, trying to get a better look, when I see streaks of dried blood on her back.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck. Sera. Baby.” I touch her face.
Her eyelids barely flutter. Frantic, I feel her back, try to find the source of the bleeding.
Each time I touch her, Sera moans faintly.
She’s alive, breathing. I repeat those two facts in my head, over and over, but I can’t stop looking for the source of all that blood.
I feel something against my face. Stop dead when I realize Sera’s touching me. I lean over her, pressing her fingers to my cheek, desperate for the sensation, desperate to drive away the numbness gripping me.
“It’s not mine,” she whispers.
“It’s not?”
She shakes her head, drawing me closer. “It’s Renzo’s. From when Shkodra shot him. It’s not my blood.”
In that moment, I say a million prayers to the God I stopped believing in so long ago. “But the car wreck. You were in the car. I saw it get hit. I saw it crash. How did you get out?”
Sera’s expression is dazed. She fights to sit up. I catch her by the shoulders as she sways. With a shaky arm, she points over my shoulder at the woman cursing up a storm as Gio keeps a gun trained at her head. “She pulled me out of the car. After she caused the accident. Shkodra—is he dead?”
“Yes,” I answer.
“You’re sure? Martina, she said she killed him, but I can’t trust anything she says.”
“The Albanian is dead, moya voitelnitsa. After I came to, Gio and I checked the car. We had to make sure you weren’t still inside. That’s when we found his body. He’s gone, Sera. We don’t have to worry about him anymore.”
“Thank God,” she says. “Renzo too. Shkodra killed him.” Sera is studying my face, frowning. “Wait, how did you know about the accident?”
I tip my head in Gio’s direction. “We saw it. I was tracking your phone. Gio was tracking Renzo’s. We saw his body get tossed from the car, right before the accident. I thought—I thought—”
I thought you were dead.
I can’t even say it. Can barely cope with thinking it. Sera’s expression softens and she slips her hand to the nape of my neck. It’s a simple gesture and one that makes my whole world go topsy-turvy. She’s alive. She’s touching me. She’s mine, and I’m never letting her go, not ever again.
I have to clear the emotion from my throat before I can say, “We caught up to the Mercedes just before Renzo was tossed out. Gio and I stopped; I had to see whose body it was. Once I knew it wasn’t you, we were about to follow the car again, but that’s when Martina’s Cadillac came out of nowhere, crashing into you. ”
My voice gives out and, helpful fucker that he is, Gio adds from over my shoulder, “This idiot was running at you like he could stop the wreck from happening. He got knocked out instead.”
“Is that where this came from?” Sera dances her fingers around the gash on my forehead, and I let her, no matter how much it burns. From this moment on, she can touch me however she wants, wherever she wants, no matter what.
“Da. Knocked me out cold.”
“He’s a heavy fucker, your man,” Gio says. “Not to mention a pain in the ass. Wouldn’t shut up the whole way here, kept yelling at me to go faster.”
“You were driving too slow,” I force through clenched teeth. “We weren’t going to make it in time. We almost didn’t make it in time.”
“And we wouldn’t have made it at all if you’d been the one driving. We would’ve skidded clear off the road and died in a snowbank.”
I glare up at him over my shoulder. “Only because you have that stupid fucking Bugatti. Who takes a car like that out in the snow?”
“Someone who is trying to get somewhere fast, asshole.” Gio matches my glare with one of his own. “You’re one to talk. Who the fuck takes out a motorcycle in a snowstorm?”
“You fuc—”
“Boys, boys.” Sera out-glares us both. We both fall obediently silent. Her eyes flick up to Gio. “Thank you for getting him here. And thank you for that.” Sera points at her mother, all of us ignoring what must be very colorful curses in Italian.
To me, Sera says, “And thank you for coming to get me. For getting here in time. For getting here at all.” She tugs my face to hers, pressing her bloodied and swollen lips against mine. The kiss is little more than a brush and I swear it’s the single best kiss of my life.
“You don’t have to thank me, moya voitelnitsa. I’ll always come for you. Always.” Mindful of her injuries, I carefully scoop her into my lap. When the di Salvo woman starts to make gagging sounds, Gio helpfully drags her outside with a promise that they’ll both be there when we’re ready.
When we’re alone, I let myself fall into Sera’s eyes, knowing nothing and no one in the world will ever feel like home the way she does.
“Why did you leave like that in the middle of the night? Without a word? I’m so fucking pissed at you.
” Anger and latent fear threaten to overwhelm me.
“I would’ve come with you. Would’ve fought with you, if you’d told me what you were doing. ”
Sera stares at her hands, her expression closed.
“Renzo was never going to give up. He was going to keep coming for me, Alik. We both know that. His debt to Shkodra was too high. He couldn’t outrun it.
He’d already attacked some of your men and shot Dimitri.
He promised to kill you too. I couldn’t let you get hurt because of me.
After everything you’ve done for me—freeing me from my uncle’s basement, getting me out of the club instead of getting your revenge…
” She sighs, glances up. “I couldn’t let you get hurt because of me, couldn’t risk you not finding Rina because of me. I…I…”
She trails off, real trepidation in her eyes.
Her hands are cool on mine, but her grip is steady, strong.
She squeezes my fingers, giving herself strength as she says, “I love you too much. I love you, Alik, and I had to protect you the only way I knew how. I had to take care of Renzo and do what I could to find out what happened to your sister, without putting you in danger. That’s why I left without telling you. ”
All my thoughts come to a stutter at Sera’s confession. All but one. “You love me, so you left me?”
Sera surprises us both with a burst of laughter.
She looks at me wide-eyed before hiding behind her hands.
“It sounds so stupid when you put it that way. But, yeah…” She peeks at me through cracked fingers and I have a flashback to our night in the pool.
She’s embarrassed, shy even, but she’ll still say what needs to be said.
The truth. “You’ve helped me so much, Alik.
I wanted to help you too. I wanted to try to make up for what my parents and uncle did to your sister, what they took from you and your family.
And I couldn’t handle the idea that Renzo might hurt you—kill you—while trying to get to me.
The di Salvos have done enough damage to your family.
It needed to stop. I needed to make it stop. For myself, and for you.”
I carefully peel her hands away from her face, swallowing a growl when I see how swollen her eye has gotten.
“Rodnaya.” My own. Beloved. A word pulled from so deep inside me it can only be the truth.
“I understand the need to protect the ones we love. More than most. So, for that, I thank you. From the bottom of my heart. But—” I hold her gaze as I draw each one of her palms to my mouth, brushing a featherlight kiss across the scraped skin.
“But what about what your family did to you? What they were going to do to you? You dove headfirst into so much danger, moya voitelnitsa. Did you have any kind of escape plan at all? What were you going to do once Renzo handed you over to Shkodra?”
“I was going to do whatever I had to,” she answers, voice rough but determined.
“I would’ve done everything I could to stay alive.
I can survive a lot, Alik. I know that now.
I would’ve done whatever was necessary.” She takes my hands, pulls them to her chest. “I would’ve found a way to kill him, to escape.
I would’ve found a way to get back to you. ”
“And what about me?” I let the emotions of the last few hours run riot.
The betrayal and anger I felt when I realized she’d left.
The fear when I pieced together what she was doing.
The absolute devastation when I thought she was dead.
The love I can’t suppress anymore, and the unbearable realization that I could’ve lost her before telling her how I feel.
“What about me?” I say again, barely recognizing my own voice.
“How was I going to survive if anything happened to you? How was I supposed to survive knowing that that fucking, demented creature had his hands on you. What was I supposed to do, huh?” I break free of her grasp and capture her face, draw her in until we’re breathing the same air.
“How was I supposed to live knowing you were surviving like that?”
Sera blinks at me, speechless.
“I wouldn’t be able to, moya voitelnitsa.” Neither one of us can ignore how my voice cracks. “I would lose my fucking mind.”
“Oh, Alik.” Sera kisses me, despite the cuts on her lips. Her mouth is hot against mine, soft, so full of life and I let her tame me, let her soothe the insanity that’s been dying to break free since I woke up in her bed alone.
We’re both breathless when she pulls back.
Breathless, but a little more clearheaded.
“You would’ve fought, survived,” she says, so certain.
“You would’ve come for me because you love me.
And you fight for the ones you love, Alik.
You’re the Arkhangel. The fiercest protector I’ve ever known.
You love me, and you’ll always protect me, because that’s the man you are. ”
She says it so easily, so simply, and the truth is like a two-ton truck to the head. The impact clearing out all my questions, my fears and doubts. “Fuck, sweetheart. I do love you. I do. And I will always come for you, no matter what. I’ll always fight for you. With you. For as long as I’m alive.”
Our next kiss isn’t so careful. We’re both battered and banged up, but we’re so wrapped up in each other we don’t notice any pain.
Sera grips my hair and I grip her hips and we kiss and nip and taste each other until she’s trembling in my arms and I’m uncomfortably hard and we’re in real danger of celebrating life with a good old-fashioned fuck right here on the filthy floor.
There’s a solid chance we would’ve if Marchetti didn’t choose that moment to walk back in. “Shit, I enjoy a passionate reunion as much as any Italian, but you two need to get out here if you want to be the ones to put a bullet in this woman. Cazzo! My patience is running really fucking thin.”
Sera’s blush is utterly charming as I help her to her feet. “Come, rodnaya. We’ll pick this back up when we get home. Let’s get you dressed and get this business finished.”
Sera’s quiet as I cover her with my coat.
She still doesn’t have shoes, so I carry her outside and, smart girl, she doesn’t protest. Marchetti is stationed several yards away, standing guard over Sera’s mother.
He’s turned on the Bugatti’s headlights so it’s easy to see the woman sitting on her ass, torso tied to a tree, cursing up at Gio and looking significantly worse for wear.
We’re still several steps away when Sera stops me.
“She killed your sister. She told me.” My strong girl can’t hide her heartbreak—the heartbreak she feels for me and Rina—and it makes my chest hurt even more.
“I know where she’s buried. She’s here, Alik.
At the cabin. We can find Rina. You can take her home. ”
It takes everything I have to not sink to the ground. “Rina is here?” Any sense of relief at finding her is smothered by the bleakness of the place. It’s so isolated, so dreary and depressing. How could any soul find peace here, let alone my sister?
I’m rooted in place and Sera squirms out of my arms until she’s standing in front of me. She touches my face, brings me back to the moment. “We’ll get her, Alik. We’ll move her somewhere beautiful, peaceful. Full of lilacs. Far away from here. After we deal with my mother. Let’s end this now.”
I nod and swing her off her feet until we are in front of Gio and the di Salvo woman. When she sees us, Sera’s mother directs her curses our way. Curses that turn to prayers when I pull my gun.
“Save it for your god, you bitch. You won’t get any mercy from me.”
“Serafina!” she screeches. “Stop him! How dare you treat your own mother this way.”
Sera stares at the woman writhing on the ground and holds her hand out to Gio.
He wordlessly hands over his gun. Sera doesn’t hesitate or flinch.
She just fires two shots, one through each of her mother’s knees.
Sera’s voice is stone-cold over the woman’s screams. “You don’t deserve to die quickly, but I’m done wasting my time on you.
You’ve ruined enough of my life. I’m not letting you do it anymore. ”
Gun still raised, Sera looks at me. Nods. “For Rina.”
I point my gun at her mother’s head. “For you.”
Together, we fire.
Di Salvo’s screams end abruptly, her lifeless body falling forward against the ropes. Gio makes the sign of the cross as he retrieves the gun from Sera. An instant later, we’re in each other’s arms. “I can’t believe they’re all dead,” she says against my chest.
“It’s over,” I tell her. “You’re safe now.”
Her eyes shine with unshed tears. “Almost over. We need Rina.”
I kiss her brow, her cheeks, her lips, beyond grateful that I get to kiss her at all. “Yes, we need Rina. And then, moya voitelnitsa, we go home. It’s time to stop surviving. It’s time to start living a new life, together.”