Chapter 7
Louhi
The plane tilts and my chest feels like it’s collapsing in on itself as my vision blurs. I scramble to the window, watching as Sean is tossed unceremoniously into the back of a Humvee. Can he hear my silent screams?
My heart plummets further as he fades from view like vapor as the wispy clouds obscure the horrifying picture below.
We only break for each other. I’m coming for you.
Ice and fire fight for dominance in my veins as terror and wrath battle it out. The serpent inside me writhes, baring her fangs, dripping with deadly venom.
He shouldn’t have sacrificed himself for me. He’s probably right that we wouldn’t have both made it to the plane, but it should’ve been me. I could’ve escaped a second time. What was he thinking trading his life for mine?
“Land the plane. Now.”
Viktor’s handsome face shifts from dubiousness to shock. “No. There’s no less than a hundred armed men on that tarmac. We’re lucky we made it out alive. Are you mental?”
He steps into my space, his designer dress shoes bumping the tips of Honey Eyes’s boots.
Viktor’s striking Eastern European features are prominent, from his slightly sunken cheeks and enviable razor-sharp bone structure to his pale skin as he stares down at me.
“You should thank me for dragging you away from what was certain death.”
Viktor is the living embodiment of unsuspecting danger: a snake in the grass, the ultimate enemy. While he doesn’t have an ounce of the patience I possess, I speak his language of savagery fluently. It’s only a matter of time before his true nature materializes.
My nostrils flare, and I swear I begin to exhale smoke, but my Glock is empty, and my peripheral vision captures the way Viktor’s soldiers edge closer to us.
A bloody revolver hangs loosely from the hand of the man nearest me, and I roll my eyes internally.
A pathetic choice of weaponry. If he worked for me, I would’ve shot him with it by now.
Viktor and I are close enough that my nipples brush his chest. I crane my neck to look him directly in the eye. “Land. The. Plane.”
“No.”
The room is silent enough that I could be convinced that everyone has stopped breathing. His eyes flare, but there’s the barest hint of respect swirling there even as his lips contort into a snarl. “You are a guest on this flight. Act like one.”
To accompany his threatening tone, the cold steel edge of a blade is pressed against my neck, but I don’t bother reaching for the revolver that’s now within arm’s reach.
I grin, my hostile smile drenched in bloodthirst. “Try to kill me, Vik. I dare you. I’ll have you on your arse before you so much as nick me.
I’ve done it before. Don’t you remember? ”
He knows I speak the truth, and that’s likely the only reason he drops his hand after another six seconds, the knife hanging at his side.
The vein in his neck emerges, seeming to pulse with his anger as his jaw tenses.
“Stop scaring everyone on my payroll,” he grits out. “That’s my responsibility. Behave.”
“I’ve never done that before.”
Viktor throws his head back and laughs, the tension in the cabin dissipating enough that the shoulders of the surrounding Bratva soldiers drop. I take advantage by snatching a nearby SIG Sauer P365 because there wasn’t a chance in hell I was going for that revolver.
A dozen weapons are aimed at my skull as I press the barrel against Viktor’s chest, right over his heart. “My brother asked me to behave, too. If I couldn’t manage to do that for him, I won’t be doing that for you. Now, turn the plane around.”
He leans forward so the barrel wrinkles his suit. “No.”
I quirk an eyebrow. “Not even for Kazi?”
His bright blue eyes flash with something akin to dubious hope. “Not for anyone. That would be reckless.”
Exasperation, rage, and sheer desperation all fight for dominance as I growl in response.
I know Viktor well enough to know that he means what he says.
Kazi was my secret weapon. The veil of red mist clouding my judgment parts just enough for a sliver of reason to cut through.
Once I get to wherever this plane is taking us, I can turn around and collect Sean—with or without Viktor.
It’d be easier to launch a rescue mission with Viktor’s help and resources, but I could and would do it without him.
“Go take a shower. You look like shit. We can discuss things once you’ve…cooled off.”
Oh, thank fuck.
Scalding-hot water sluices over my bare skin, and I relish the sting as the torrent dips into each wound on my body. While I loathe to admit that Viktor may have been right when he insisted I bathe before we talked.
It’s an effort to fight the feeling of wrongness that I’m here and Sean…
isn’t. My hands glide over my shoulder-length hair, and I reach blindly for the bottle of shampoo.
As I massage the suds into the strands, gritting my teeth against the bite of the soap as it seeps into my various gashes, I’m cloaked in a lonely void.
There is no world for me without Sean in it.
The cords of our frayed connection are shrieking at me, notifying me of his torment and distance from me. Freedom wasn’t supposed to be like this.
His masculine hands should be the ones coasting over my stomach, leaving a trail of suds in their wake. Sliding liquid bubbles over the ornate black snake tattoo that slithers up my left side, around my breast. Grazing the scar that I got when I was a careless ball of rage.
There are pieces of myself I’ve never had the opportunity to share with him, bits of him I’m still desperate to explore. I want the chance to know him fully.
I grew a hard outer shell and erected a fortress around my heart nearly two decades ago.
My armor strengthened, the walls growing taller and thicker with each passing day.
I hadn’t been acquainted with any form of tenderness within myself until Sean blew into my life like a roaring tempest. Right now, his absence feels as though he’s reaching into my ribcage and squeezing the life out of the organ that resides there.
Just as I’m wrapping the plush towel around my torso, my hair dripping fat water droplets onto my back and chest, there’s a knock at the door.
Grabbing the stolen SIG Sauer I insisted on bringing with me, I crack the door open to find one of Viktor’s soldiers with a pile of clothing in hand. I arch an eyebrow.
“These are Viktor’s,” he utters in Russian.
Taking the stack from him, I shut and lock the door once more. Glancing between my pile of stolen items I’d stripped out of and the clothing in my arms, I make the better choice and abandon the atrocious orange top and too-large shorts. I abhor that color anyway.
When I emerge from the washroom, I step into the large, opulent bedroom to find Viktor reclined at a table set for two against the windows. The delicate teacup on the table in front of him is steaming, filling the cabin with the bitter, nutty aroma of coffee.
“Better?” he inquires, not looking up from his phone.
I’d be better if this plane would turn around so I could go rescue Sean. But I was daft enough to only learn to pilot a helicopter, not an aircraft, and if I hijack this plane and we crash into the Pacific, I’m damning Sean to a fate worse than death.
“I suppose,” I mutter.
“Eat with me.” It’s not a request, even if his cordial tone suggests otherwise.
He sounds like his grandfather. It teleports me back to when I was a child, when I’d have the fortune of accompanying my father to work.
Even before I understood that my father worked for the Bratva, I knew that a trip to the Novikov estate meant that I could play with Viktor.
Not that I was angling to get into trouble with the stone-cold Pakhan back then.
I’m glad Vik never lost his light. If anything, he’s brightened up a bit after having me kill the vile man standing between him and ultimate power.
It turned out that murdering his grandfather was beneficial for me, too, since that payment in the form of a favor was what I cashed in last night.
Where other boys I knew treated me differently because I was younger, or a girl, or some other notion that was utterly demented, Vik always treated me as a friend, an equal.
I’ve never mentioned it because I wouldn’t want to be a contributing factor to Viktor’s ego, but as an adult, I’ve wondered if he saw a kindred spirit flickering within me.
He’s always been astute and reads people even better than anyone I know—me included.
Taking the seat opposite him, I place the gun on the table just as two plates arrive, teeming with fresh vegetables and seasoned meat.
The sight makes my stomach growl audibly.
Viktor finally lifts his head and quirks a dark blond eyebrow, but blessedly remains silent.
I’ve quickly burned through the energy that burger provided.
A few bites into our meal, Viktor breaks the silence, not in the way I expected. “You could’ve warned me that I would be entering in a conflict with the United States military.”
“Would you have come to collect me if I’d told you that?” I ask after swallowing a bite of broccolini.
His silence is answer enough—that’s a fuck no—not requiring a follow-up. “How’d you get caught?”
I’m sure it wasn’t challenging for him to put the pieces together, given the actual bloody army that arrived at the airstrip. “I did a favor for Mercer.”
His eyes widen a fraction, his jaw flexing. “Why the fuck would you have done that, Louhi?”
My lip curls in warning at his scathing disbelief.
When I don’t answer, he sighs, shaking his head as he wisely chooses not to press me.
Viktor never connected with Mercer the way he did with me.
That’s mostly because my brother stopped hanging out with me and Viktor when I was seven.
I don’t know if that’s because fourteen was the age that it stopped being fashionable to hang out with his little sister.
Then again, that was around the time he discovered that Is? was Igor Novikov’s enforcer. I figure it was the former.
It’s not until we both finish eating that he broaches the subject I’d thought he would’ve begun with. “You saw Kazi with your own eyes? You’re sure it was him?”
“Yes. He was alive when we parted ways, but I don’t know if he got out.”
I watch as the relief on Viktor’s face is overshadowed by frustration. He masks it quickly. “Out of where, exactly?”
“Exile Island. A prison about five hundred kilometers from mainland Hawai’i. A black site, I presume.”
“A black site,” he repeats. The way his breaths are slightly heavier is the only indication that this is affecting him.
He shifts his gaze to stare unseeingly out of the small window.
I’m sure he’s thinking about Kazi and what he must’ve endured, but I notice how much he looks like his grandfather now.
Viktor’s blade-sharp jawline and high, severe cheekbones match the late Pakhan, but it’s the firm set to his eyebrows that seems so familiar.
Igor used to make that same expression when he was displeased.
I never met Viktor’s parents, but I’ve often wondered who Vik inherited his more charming personality from. I’m certain it wasn’t his grandfather. If I had to guess, Igor Novikov is the reason Viktor’s parents disappeared in the dead of night when he was two.
The news that Kazi didn’t die four years ago must be jarring. I wasn’t there when Viktor’s second in command vanished and was presumed dead, but I was around for part of the aftermath. I watched Viktor’s cerulean eyes dim and darken as he mourned one of his closest friends.
Viktor wasn’t the only one affected by the void left by Kazi.
Sasha, the man who filled the vacant position, seemed to have hardened, losing some of the light of his normally affable countenance.
For years, the three of them had been inseparable.
I can only imagine the emotions battling within Viktor right now, even if none of them are evident in his expression.
When he takes a deep breath and nods, the boa constrictor around my heart marginally loosens its vice. “Alright, but we’re doing this my way, and we don’t leave without Kazi.”
“Or Digs,” I add, not bothering to push back about doing things his way since it’s sure to be as violent as anything I’d plan.
He dips his chin again as he slips a hand into his suit jacket and removes his phone. His fingers move over the screen that’s angled away from me. “Sasha will meet us at Conall’s flat in Boston with the weapons we’ll need. Once we’re there, it’ll be safe for us to make arrangements.”
I grin, my first real smile in hours. Sean simply needs to hold on until I can come up with a rescue mission.