27. Maks
27
MAKS
“ I f you want to live, then strip, you little bitch.”
Blood roars in my ears as I catch Emiliano’s oily voice, though it’s muffled by the thick door. I know it’s him. I would recognize that voice anywhere, and I tighten my chokehold around his guard’s neck, urging the man to die faster. The last two I killed, I dragged inside the sideroom with me to avoid calling unwanted attention to myself. Now they’re sprawled across the floor at my feet. My frustration rises with each man who delays me, and fear drives me toward desperation, because there’s a very real possibility that I might not reach Lindsey before it’s too late.
“Can’t we just talk about this?” she asks on the other side of the door.
Hearing her voice helps me cling to sanity a little longer, and I’m impressed by how calm she sounds, though she looked terrified as Emiliano dragged her from the ballroom.
“I’m sure we can work something out,” she reasons. “Honestly, it’s not like he cares all that much about me. I’m just his prisoner.”
That’s not even a little bit true, but if it’ll save her life, for once, I don’t mind the lie.
“Do you think I’m blind? I’ve seen the way he looks at you. So don’t fucking play with me.”
“I promise, hurting me isn’t going to do what you think it will. Why do you think he sent me into your office that day? Because I’m disposable.”
The guard who’s taking way to fucking long to die slaps frantically at my arms, his fingers clawing my suit jacket as he tries to break my hold, but from the purple shade of his complexion, it’s just a last-ditch effort to save his pathetic life.
“Your friends didn’t seem to think so when they saw the size of that rock. But I guess we’ll find out who’s right after I ruin you and send you back to Maks—just like I did his pretty little niece. Though I doubt you’re a virgin like she was, are you?”
Lindsey hurls a string of insults his way, but Emiliano doesn’t even seem to notice as his voice takes on a hint of amusement.
“But who knows? I might still enjoy it. I’ll certainly enjoy taking what’s his, and after I’ve used you, maybe Maks won’t want you anymore. He hates me enough that I doubt he’d take my sloppy seconds. One can hope. Now, take off that fucking dress!”
I see red at the thought of Emiliano laying a hand on Lindsey. Pulse roaring in my ears, I wrench my arm sideways, and the man’s vertebrae snaps from the jarring force. He goes limp, and I drop him on the floor, not bothering to check if he’s dead before I spin toward the door. I kick it in, splintering the wood around the handle on my first try as rage drives me forward. I know better than to burst into a room without someone to have my back, armed with only my fists, and sure that my enemy is inside, but nothing is going to stop me from getting to Lindsey before Emiliano can.
She stands at the back of the room, as far from me as possible—and thankfully, some distance from Emiliano as well. But he has a gun pointed at her, and she looks pale beneath her mask as she slowly lowers her dress over one shoulder. She freezes when she sees me, her eyes round and scared, and a gasp rushes past her lips. Adrenaline surges through my veins as I jump into action.
From the corner of my eye, I catch sight of the guards standing in front of the doors on either side of the room, but I categorize them as secondary threats as I close the distance between me and the Italian don in a matter of seconds. He barely has time to turn and find out what made Lindsey pause before I’m on him. His eyes widen as I jerk his hands up, aiming the gun at the ceiling, and knock it from his grasp. It flies across the room, clattering against the wall before hitting the floor.
I don’t bother looking for it. Instead, I grip him by his shirt collar with one hand and slam my knuckles into his jaw. “I’ll fucking kill you, Costanzo,” I snarl, laying into him with my fist.
His arms come up to shield his face, but nothing is going to stop me from beating the bastard to death with my bare hands. I don’t care what it takes. All the hatred, the unending rage that has consumed me for so long comes pouring out as my vision tunnels on the monster who dared hurt my sister’s little girl—the man who has probably forced himself on countless women like he tried to do with Lindsey.
“Maks!” she screams, her voice coming to me as if from far away, but I can’t stop now. I won’t stop until he no longer has a face to breathe out of, and a dark sense of satisfaction rises inside me when blood paints my knuckles red.
Three strong sets of hands grab me from behind, hauling me away from Emiliano as I howl in frustration. I don’t know where the third guard came from, but he adds just enough extra manpower that, no matter how furious I am, I can’t shake them. Anytime I break one man’s grip, another pulls me back, restraining me long enough that all three can grab hold to move me once more.
Don Costanzo chuckles as he wipes the blood from his lip, checking to see that it is, in fact, bleeding before he turns to face me. The satisfaction in his eyes makes me want to shove his teeth down his throat. I lunge for him with a snarl, but his men hold me back, their feet shuffling across the floor as I drag them forward a foot before they can stop me.
“Just as hot-tempered and reckless as always, I see,” Emiliano taunts. “Too bad you didn’t kill me when you had the chance. I promise, that’s the closest you’ll ever get.”
“We’ll see about that,” I growl, leaning forward to get in his face. Another inch or so, and I could headbutt him.
“You just don’t get it, do you, Maks? This city and everyone in it belong to me. The sooner you learn that, the fewer people you’ll get hurt.”
Behind Emiliano, Lindsey slowly starts to creep toward the door, and my pulse skyrockets. I can’t let him see what she’s doing, so I scramble for a way to keep him occupied until she can escape.
“You violated my niece to prove that Chicago belongs to you?” I demand.
“I didn’t think I needed to prove a point when I took her, Maksim. I thought you understood that I can have whatever and whoever I want. The issue here is that you ever thought otherwise, so let’s just set the record straight. She was practically begging for it, prancing around in that little yellow bikini that day—putting on a show for me.”
My ears start ringing again as my vision tunnels. “She was a child you fucking piece of shit. She’s still a child. Of course that wasn’t for you. She was just innocent enough to think she was safe around you. And I’m the sucker who let her believe it.”
Emiliano smirks. “You always did have a soft heart. That’s what makes you weak. Women like strength, Maks. They need a firm hand to know their place. Here, I’ll show you,” he says, turning to catch Lindsey halfway to the door.
Growling, I struggle again to break free, but the men’s hold is too strong, and my stomach plummets as the don grabs Lindsey by her hair as she tries to make a run for it. She cries out, her hands going to his fist to try and ease the pain as he pulls her back, and she stumbles into his chest.
Fuck.
If Lucian were going to help us, he would have been here by now, so I’m fairly confident he’s bailed—probably ready to cut his losses rather than getting mixed up in our sticky situation. That means Lindsey and I are on our own. But I can’t shake the men holding me back.
“Why don’t you just stand there and watch while I have my way with your pretty little sidepiece, hmm? I’ll show you how wet she can get for me.”
Explosive fury rips through my chest, and I struggle again, straining to break free.
Lindsey puts up an impressive amount of fight, letting go of his hand as she reaches back to claw at Emiliano’s face. He gives a pained yell as she draws blood with her fingernails, and for a second, when his grip loosens, I think she might get away. But he grabs her by the throat with one hand, trapping her arms across her chest with the other as he pulls her firmly against him.
“You want it rough?” he taunts, his lips close to her ear, and Lindsey flinches.
“Let her go,” I growl, wrenching my arm hard enough that I send one of Emiliano’s men to the floor.
Then I double over as another punches me in the solar plexus hard enough to knock the air from my lungs. Before I can pull myself together, all three men have regained a firm hold.
“What do you say, sweetheart? Shall we see what’s under this dress?” Emiliano teases, releasing Lindsey’s throat to reach for the thigh-high slit of her dress that’s suddenly far too high for my comfort.
“I would rather die,” she spits, trying to squirm free.
His hand pauses on her hip bone, his fingers flexing with the effort to maintain control of her, and I can see the gears turning as he realizes she might not be as easy to overpower as he first thought. A smug satisfaction rises in my belly at the determination of my girl—that’s what Lindsey is, my girl. She’s the only woman for me, and I don’t care if I have to move heaven and earth, I won’t let Emiliano take her from me.
“That can be arranged,” he hisses, his eyes shifting to the gun that’s on the ground halfway across the room.
He shoves Lindsey hard enough that she hits the floor on her hands and knees, crying out in pain. She doesn’t pause to nurse her injuries, though. Scrambling up onto her feet despite her cumbersome heels and dress, she rushes toward the door as fast as she can. But Emiliano is going to make it to the gun faster. He’s going to shoot her, and the realization blasts through me like a bomb. All I see is red as I find a single-minded focus to stop him, and with a strength I didn’t know I had, I rip free of the men holding me back.
Chaos erupts behind me, but the only thing that matters is what’s ahead. Emiliano is too far away to stop, and he already has the gun. My heart skips several beats as he brings it up, aiming for Lindsey’s head. He might miss, but I can’t take that chance, and I don’t have time to get to him. Surging into action, I cross the room, moving faster than I knew I could.
The sense of relief that fills me as I wrap my arms around Lindsey is so exquisite, it makes me dizzy. For one perfect moment, I can feel the warmth of her body against my chest, the pounding of her heart in perfect sync with mine as I cover her, using myself as her shield. Then blinding pain rips through my chest. Lindsey screams, and my arms spasm, tightening protectively around her. Time slows as my head rings, sound suddenly muffled from the percussion of a gun fired in far too small of a room. Then my arms sag, my shoulders growing heavy as mind-numbing pain seeps through my body.
Lindsey turns in my arms, and a look of horror eclipses her beautiful face.
“Maks,” she breathes, her voice trembling with fear, and though the pain is bad enough that I think I might pass out, I know I have to stay awake long enough to keep her safe.
“You’re alright, little rabbit. I’ve got you,” I breathe. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Tears pool in Lindsey’s eyes, one stray drop slipping from beneath her mask, and my chest throbs with agony.
“My men are waiting out back. They’ll protect you. Get to the door. I’ll cover you.” Each breath feels labored, each word like a white-hot bullet to my lungs, and I groan with the effort to release her. “Run.”
Before she can so much as turn toward the door, it slams open behind her, and Lucian’s men flood inside.
“Finally,” Emiliano snaps as Lucian himself strides in. “Will you get this animal under control?”
The Italian captain looks as cool and collected as ever, his gaze assessing the room with keen interest. Then he gestures for his men to get to work. For a hair-raising second, I think they’re going to side with Don Costanzo—that this was all some kind of trap that Lucian set up for me—and I tense, ready to defend Lindsey from a new enemy. Then, in the blink of an eye, all three of Emiliano’s men are choking on their own blood, grizzly smiles gaping across their open necks as Lucian’s men step back like nothing happened.
With monumental effort, I turn to look at Emiliano as I keep Lindsey shielded with my body. The don stands in stunned silence, his eyes wide and his jaw slack as he stares at his dead guards. He must have lowered his gun when Lucian entered the room, thinking he had backup, because it’s dangling uselessly at his side. By the time he realizes it and starts to raise it once again, Lucian is halfway across the room, and with a flourish, he cuts through the air with his butterfly knife, slicing Emiliano’s throat open. He does it with such easy nonchalance, I’m not fully convinced it happened until I see the blood.
The don staggers back, his hands going up as if to seal off the wound, but at the rate he’s bleeding it’s going to take a matter of seconds before he’s dead. I watch on in silence as his knees buckle, and he keeps his eyes on Lucian, his head tilting back as he chokes out a strangled, “Why?”
“Because your time is over, old man,” Lucian says, his tone as cold as his words.
Emiliano topples backward, and at last, as he releases a last gurgling breath, I have the pleasure of watching the light drain from his eyes. But rather than feeling the satisfaction of revenge, I’m filled with intense relief, because it means Lindsey is safe, that he won’t have another chance to hurt someone.
Lindsey sniffles behind me, and now that the danger is over, I can feel how violently she’s shaking against my side. “Are you okay?” she asks as I turn toward her, my movement sluggish with pain and bone-deep exhaustion. I must be losing a lot of blood.
“You’re safe now. That’s all that matters,” I breathe, cupping her cheek with my palm so I can brush away the tears streaming freely toward her chin.
Now that the adrenaline is fading, black shadows start to creep in on the corners of my vision, and as crushing weight presses against my ribs, a painful cough racks my chest. “Fuck,” I groan as the wet taste of copper coats my tongue and lips.
Lindsey’s sobs, her eyes scanning me for my injury, and they widen when she grabs my shoulder to get a look at my back. “Oh my god, Maks,” she gasps, her hand pressing firmly against the wound.
I groan as stars burst across my vision, and suddenly the floor rises up to meet my knees.
“Maks. No-no-no-no-no, Maks!” Lindsey screams.
I want to tell her that it’s okay, that maybe it’s better this way. But before I can, the world goes dark.