Chapter 4 #3
She had claimed she’d witnessed it with her own eyes.
Romeo Flynn had executed an entire generation of the Flynn family.
At the time, I had dismissed it as one of her usual exaggerations.
Now, the headlines were echoing the very same accusation.
A wave of cold swept through me.
My pulse lurched.
For a heartbeat, I could do nothing but stare at the screen, my fingers tightening around the phone until my knuckles ached.
An entire generation of the Flynn family.
Dead.
His father. His uncles. His aunts. His relatives.
A massacre so brutal it had become national news within hours.
The man lying only a few feet away from me wasn’t just a recently released prisoner anymore.
He was the FBI’s primary suspect in one of the bloodiest family slayings Florida had ever seen.
The public had been warned not to approach him.
To report him immediately.
To stay as far away from him as possible.
My throat tightened.
A cold shiver crept down my spine as my mind struggled to reconcile the image before me with the one in the headlines.
Could a man truly slaughter his own blood?
His own family?
Every instinct screamed at me to call the authorities.
One call.
That was all it would take.
The FBI had specifically instructed the public to report any sightings of Romeo Flynn immediately.
But the thought died almost as quickly as it formed.
If the allegations were true—if this man had truly exterminated an entire generation of his own family—what chance would mine have?
Men like Romeo Flynn didn’t simply disappear into prison cells. They had loyalists. Soldiers. Entire organizations willing to kill on command.
If he survived this and discovered I’d handed him over...
I wouldn’t be the only one to pay for it.
My father. My mother.
Yarina.
Every member of the Sokolov family would become a target.
A chill crawled down my spine.
No.
This was no longer a decision I could afford to make.
With trembling fingers, I opened his contacts and hovered over the first name.
Keegan — Lieutenant.
The call button seemed to taunt me.
He had been the one Romeo tried to reach moments ago.
The one he’d trusted.
The one he’d wanted here before he lost consciousness.
All I could do now was hope Keegan arrived before it was too late.
My gaze drifted toward the deserted road leading away from the docks.
Who would dare attack Romeo Medved Flynn on the very day he walked free?
The question refused to leave me.
According to the news, he had slaughtered an entire generation of his own family.
Who could possibly be fearless—or foolish—enough to come after a man like that?
A sharp pain suddenly twisted through my lower abdomen.
I instinctively pressed a hand against it.
The pain wasn’t new.
It had become an unwelcome companion over the past ten years, flaring without warning whenever the old wound decided to remind me it had never truly healed.
Instinctively, my hand drifted to my lower abdomen.
Beneath my clothes lay the thick, uneven scar left by the night I dragged Romeo Flynn from the lake.
The wound had taken dozens of stitches to close.
The scar had remained.
A permanent reminder of a sacrifice only one of us remembered.
I slowly released a shaky breath.
And yet...
Here I was again.
Saving Romeo Flynn from death for the second time.
A bitter smile threatened to form.
If he survived this, he still wouldn’t know it had been me.
He still wouldn’t remember my face.
My gaze drifted back to him.
He hadn’t moved.
His body lay unnaturally still against the cold warehouse floor, his chest rising and falling in slow, shallow breaths.
The bleeding had finally slowed.
For now, that fragile rhythm was the only thing reassuring me he was still alive.
Unable to stay still, I stood and began pacing outside the warehouse.
Every passing second felt unbearably long.
Every distant sound made me glance toward the road.
Where were his men?
How much longer could he hold on?
The vibration of my phone startled me.
I pulled it from my pocket.
Egor.
My heart sank.
I glanced at the time.
Six-thirty.
Only then did I realize thirty minutes had slipped by unnoticed.
The picnic.
The thought struck me like a jolt.
In everything that had happened...
I’d completely forgotten about it.
I stared at the screen as it continued to ring.
What was I supposed to tell him?
“Sorry, I couldn’t make it. I was busy keeping the man my grandmother ordered me to marry from bleeding to death in an abandoned warehouse.”
The thought would have been almost laughable...
...if my life hadn’t suddenly become exactly that unbelievable.
The shrill ringing of my phone continued to cut through the silence.
I stared at the screen for a moment before finally answering.
“Egor...”
I pressed the phone against my ear and turned slightly away from Romeo, lowering my voice.
“I’m so sorry. I won’t be able to make it.”
A brief silence answered me.
I swallowed. “Something happened.”
“What happened?”
His voice was calm, but I knew him well enough to hear the concern beneath it.
“It’s... complicated.”
I looked toward Romeo’s unconscious form.
“I’ll explain another time.”
Another pause.
Longer this time.
When Egor finally spoke again, disappointment weighed down every word.
“You know...” He gave a quiet, humorless laugh. “Without you here, this picnic doesn’t even feel worth having. You were the reason everyone agreed to come.”
Guilt twisted painfully inside me.
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “I really was on my way.”
A weary sigh came through the speaker.
“I had a surprise planned for you. You’d have loved it.” His voice was calm, but the disappointment beneath it was impossible to miss. “I spent days putting it together.”
My chest tightened.
“Egor... I truly am sorry. I promise I’ll make it up to you.”
For a moment, there was only silence.
Then he spoke.
“No, Juliet. You won’t.”
His voice wasn’t angry anymore.
It was tired.
“When was the last time you actually chose us? Every time we make plans, something happens. Your mother’s health. A family emergency. Your stomach. There’s always a reason. Always something more important.”
Each word landed with quiet precision.
I parted my lips to defend myself.
Nothing came out.
“You know...” he continued after a long pause. “I think I finally understand why you’ve never been able to keep friends... let alone a relationship.”
The words struck with brutal accuracy.
“People don’t walk away because they dislike you, Juliet. They walk away because, sooner or later, they realize they’ll always come second to everything else in your life.”
I closed my eyes, letting the ache his words had carved into my heart settle over me.
“I really hoped you’d come today.”
The line went dead.
I lowered the phone from my ear and stared at the darkened screen.
For the longest time, I couldn’t bring myself to move.
His words lingered, replaying in my mind with merciless clarity.
Egor was my closest friend.
The one person outside my family I believed understood me.
Never—not even once—had I imagined he would leave me with words that hurt more than I cared to admit.
Maybe he was right.
Maybe this was exactly why friendships never lasted.
Not because people abandoned me...
But because eventually, I gave them every reason to walk away.
With a heavy sigh, I slipped my phone back into my pocket.
I forced Egor’s words to the back of my mind.
There would be time to fall apart later.
Right now, someone else’s life depended on me.
I knelt beside Romeo once more and gently pressed two fingers against the side of his neck.
My heart lurched.
His breathing had become dangerously shallow.
His pulse...
It was barely there.
A cold wave of fear crashed over me.
Not the fear of the man the headlines had warned the world about.
The fear of losing him.
No.
I snatched up his phone.
“Fine,” I whispered to myself. “I’m calling Keegan.”
My thumb hovered over his name.
Just as I was about to press it—
The darkness outside exploded with light.
Powerful headlights swept across the warehouse yard, spilling through the broken windows and bathing the concrete floor in blinding white.
One black SUV turned into the docks.
Then another.
Then a third.
The vehicles moved in perfect formation before stopping simultaneously in front of the warehouse.
Every door opened at once.
Men in dark suits stepped out with disciplined precision.
Several immediately spread outward, securing the perimeter while others hurried directly toward Romeo.
Leading them was a tall man with broad shoulders, sharp features, and the quiet confidence of someone accustomed to command.
Keegan.
It had to be.
His eyes found Romeo instantly.
“Boss.”
There was genuine concern beneath the single word.
Without wasting another second, the men surrounding him dropped into practiced motion.
One assessed Romeo’s wounds.
Another prepared a stretcher.
Two more scanned the surrounding rooftops with weapons already drawn.
Everything happened with military precision.
One of the men gently but firmly guided me backward.
“Please step aside, miss.”
I didn’t resist.
Within moments, Romeo was lifted carefully onto the stretcher before being transferred into the waiting SUV.
The vehicle accelerated away almost immediately.
Only the lead SUV remained.
The tall man approached me slowly.
He wasn’t threatening. But he was evaluating me.
Every bloodstain. Every scratch. Every expression.
I realized exactly what he was doing.
Determining whether I was friend...
Or enemy.
I spoke before he could ask.
“My name is Juliet Sokolov.”
His expression remained unreadable.
“I’m the eldest daughter of the Sokolov family. I was driving when a trailer nearly hit my car. I swerved off the road.”
I gestured toward the damaged sedan parked nearby.
“Your boss appeared out of nowhere, opened my car door, and ordered me to drive him here. He was bleeding badly, and it was obvious he wouldn’t stay conscious for much longer if I did nothing. I managed to stabilize the bleeding as best I could while waiting for you to arrive.”
I met his gaze.
“That’s all.”
I deliberately spoke my surname first.
In our world, names mattered.