Chapter 28
LEV
The woods close in. Every branch looks like a blade, every shadow a threat. Fog hangs thick, and my men move through it in near silence, radios muted to clicks. Moonlight slices between the trees in thin slivers. Somewhere ahead, Mari’s footprints go shallow. She’s slowing. Or she’s hurt.
We’ve been tracking for almost an hour. Her trail isn’t easy, but it’s there if you know how to look. Bent grass. Blood on a stone. Torn moss where she caught herself. Marcus’s prints overlap hers here and there, larger and deeper. He’s pushing hard to catch her. He’s not far.
“Ridge team,” I whisper into the radio. “Status?”
“I’ve got a visual on fresh prints,” Pavel says. “Heading southeast toward the clearing. He’s closing in.”
My jaw tightens.
“Hold your line. No engagement until my signal.”
I shut off the radio and motion for Yuri to follow.
We move quickly and quietly, our steps falling into rhythm.
Every sound in the woods could be her. Or him.
My heart hammers so hard Yuri can probably hear it.
I’ve raided enemy compounds with steadier hands than this.
I’ve never had to fight so hard for someone I care about.
A faint echo cuts through the stillness. It’s Marcus’s voice, low and furious. I can’t make out his words, but he’s close enough that I can hear the anger. I signal my men. Two flank left, two right. I keep Yuri with me.
We crest a rise and crouch behind a line of pines.
Below us, the trees open into a clearing slick with fog.
Moonlight catches on something metallic near the center.
It’s Marcus’s gun. Marcus stands over Mari, who’s collapsed on the ground.
The barrel of his gun is pressed to her head.
I can’t tell if she’s conscious. Her jacket is torn.
She looks exhausted, like she’s been running for hours. But she’s alive.
My lungs finally expand. Relief hits like a punch. I just have to get to her before he hurts her even more. Seeing her like that, so helpless, so completely out of steam, turns any relief I feel into rage. What the hell has he put her through today?
Yuri spots the angle before I do.
“We can’t get a clean shot from here,” he murmurs. “Let’s get closer, see if we can take him out.”
I nod once. We move low, careful not to disturb the brush. Every step feels like crossing a minefield. I keep my eyes on Marcus. His movements are erratic. He’s talking too much, pacing. He’s unraveling.
When we’re thirty meters out, I stop. I need him to see me first. I stand slowly, stepping into the faint light.
His head jerks toward me, and he grabs Mari from the ground, pulling her up so she’s a shield between us.
He trains the gun on her head, and it takes everything in me not to shoot him right there.
“Marcus,” I call out evenly. “It’s over.”
He laughs, a sharp, bitter sound. “It isn’t over until I say it’s over,” he says, his voice a little hysterical.
He drags her back another step, gun still trained on her head.
“Stay where you are, Lev, or I swear to God I’ll blow her brains out.”
I keep my voice calm, though it takes every fiber of my self-control.
“You’re surrounded. I’ve got men in the trees, more on the ridge. You pull that trigger, and you don’t make it another three seconds.”
“Bullshit,” he sneers. “You won’t risk me killing her.”
I take one step closer. “You’ve never understood me, and that’s where you’ve fucked up your whole plan.”
He smirks. “I understand plenty. You think you can scare me? I’ve got the Kozlovs and the Petrovs on my side. You’ll be dead by morning. They’ll burn your whole operation to the ground.”
I hear Yuri shift behind me, waiting for the word I haven’t given. My eyes stay locked on Marcus. He wants me off balance. He wants me angry. What he doesn’t understand is that I know how to keep my emotions in check when my back is against the wall.
He keeps talking.
“You built this empire thinking you were untouchable, but everyone falls eventually. You should’ve stayed in your lane, Lev. You should’ve kept your bitch in hers.”
Mari flinches. I don’t.
“Watch your fucking mouth.”
He grins wider. “Why? What are you going to do? Shoot through her?”
He’s stalling. Maybe hoping his Kozlov contact will come. Maybe he’s just lost it. Either way, I’m done letting him speak.
“Marcus,” I say quietly, “you have one chance. Drop the gun.”
He presses it harder into her skull. “No.”
Mari glances at me then, just once. It’s quick, but I see the tiniest shift in her posture. She’s still fighting. Still thinking. I recognize the look. It’s the same one she had in my office the first time she stood up to me. It’s defiance. It’s faith.
Marcus keeps ranting.
“You think you’ve got me? You don’t get to win this time. Not you, not your precious accountant, not—”
Mari collapses without hesitation. She throws herself forward, hitting the ground before he can react. The barrel clears her head, and before he can track her, I fire. The shot cracks through the clearing. Marcus spins sideways as the bullet punches into his shoulder. The gun flies from his hand.
“Move!” I shout.
Yuri bursts from the tree line. He closes the gap in seconds, kicking the weapon away before Marcus can grab it. Marcus stumbles back, clutching his arm, blood pouring down his sleeve.
I move in fast. I want him to look at me when I end him.
“You shouldn’t have touched her,” I say.
He spits blood and laughs weakly. “You won’t kill me.”
“Not yet,” I say with all the menace I’ve been holding back.
His smile twitches, confused. Then I drop the weapon and grab him by the throat.
He chokes, clawing at my hand, but I’ve got him pinned against a tree before he can fight back.
His face purples as I press harder. He kicks, catches my ribs, but I don’t let go.
I want him to feel the same helplessness he made her feel.
“You think I’m going to make it quick?” I snarl. “You threatened the woman carrying my child. You made her run through a forest bleeding and terrified. You don’t get mercy.”
He wheezes, “You don’t really care about her.”
I slam him into the tree again, so hard the bark splinters. “She’s everything you’ll never understand.”
“Lev!” Mari’s voice cuts through the fog. She’s still on the ground, holding her arm where it scraped the rocks, eyes wide with fear. Not of Marcus, I realize, but of me. “Don’t do this. Please.”
I hear her, but her words are too far to reach me. My hand is shaking with rage. I let go of Marcus’s throat long enough to punch him. Once. Twice. Then again. Bone cracks under my knuckles. His face is a ruin, blood streaming from his nose and mouth.
Yuri pulls up beside me. “Lev. Enough.”
I don’t stop. I grab Marcus’s collar and drag him up again.
“You think you can scare her? You think you can take what’s mine?”
Another punch. He tries to cover his face, but I rip his hands down and drive my fist into his gut. He folds over, gasping. I let him fall to his knees.
“Lev, she’s watching,” Yuri says quietly. “You don’t want her to see this.”
I turn my head just enough to meet Mari’s eyes. She’s pale, trembling. Her lip is bleeding where he hit her.
When she speaks, her voice breaks. “Please. Don’t become him.”
Her words land somewhere deep. I draw a slow breath, then look down at Marcus again. He’s coughing blood onto the dirt.
“Yuri,” I say, my voice low and steady now. “Get her out of here now. She needs medical attention.”
She shakes her head. “No, please don’t do this,” she pleads, her voice raw.
“Now,” I order.
Yuri nods and moves to her side. He helps her up gently. She sways but stays upright. Her eyes are locked on me.
“Lev,” she groans, “please.”
But she’s already being pulled away. I watch them disappear into the trees before I look back at Marcus. He’s still breathing. Not for long.
I crouch in front of him, grabbing his chin and forcing him to look at me.
“Whatever the hell you had planned, you’ve failed,” I say quietly. “After all that damn work, all those distractions and allies, you’re going to die here without accomplishing any of it.”
He tries to speak, but it comes out as a gurgle. I pull the knife from my belt. The silver glints faintly in the moonlight. His eyes widen.
“You don’t deserve a quick death,” I tell him. “You deserve to feel every second you stole from her.”
He starts begging me with broken words, half-choked with blood.
I don’t hear them. I see Mari’s face in my mind, her eyes wet and afraid, her voice pleading with me to stop.
But I can’t stop. Not this time. If I let him live, he’ll crawl back out of whatever hole he came from and try again. Men like him don’t change. They rot.
I press the knife against his throat, not deep enough to kill. Just enough for him to understand what’s coming. His breath comes out in short, panicked bursts. I lean closer until my voice is the only thing he hears.
“She’s alive because she’s stronger than you ever were. And you’re going to die knowing that.”
He mutters something, a curse or a prayer, but I don’t give him time to finish. The knife slides in clean and deliberate, and his breath catches in a wet gasp.
He doesn’t die right away. I make sure of that. He gurgles and thrashes, and I hold him down until the fight drains out of him. The blood seeps into the dirt between us, dark and warm. I wait until he stops moving before I finally step back.
The forest goes quiet again. Just the hum of wind through the branches, the drip of water somewhere near the creek. My hands are slick. My chest feels hollow.
I wipe the knife on his jacket and stand there for a long time, looking down at what’s left of him. There’s no satisfaction. No relief. Just the dull pulse of rage cooling into exhaustion.
Somewhere in the distance, I hear Mari cry out. Maybe Yuri’s treating her wound. Maybe she’s calling for me. I can’t move yet. My legs won’t listen. I close my eyes and let the sound of her voice cut through the noise in my head.
When I finally open my eyes, I catch Marcus’s stare. All the life has drained out of him. He’s dead.
I slide the knife back into its sheath and turn toward the trees. My men will clean this up. The police will find a body torn apart by wolves, if they find anything at all. But none of that matters.
I follow the faint sound of her voice through the woods until I see the glow of headlights in the distance. Yuri’s loading her into the SUV, wrapping her in a blanket. She looks so small. So fragile. For a second, I can’t breathe.
Yuri spots me first. “It’s done?”
I nod once.
He studies my face.
“You need to clean up,” he says sternly, looking from me to Mari. “Don’t let her see you like this.”
I simply nod in response. As desperately as I want to hold her, to wrap her in my arms and tell her everything will be okay, I know he’s right. I head back to my car.