Chapter 40
ISEULT
“Kora!” I cry. “What the hell are you doing?”
It had to be an accident. Maybe Sergey hit her, and her arm jerked and she shot me.
But as I stare down at Sergey’s barely moving body, still groaning from the beating I gave him, I know I’m feeding myself lies.
She laughs, a heinous laugh. I don’t even recognize her.
“Iseult?” Eriu whispers, dashing behind my back. “What’s happening?” Fear trickles between her words as she trembles against me.
“I don’t know,” I breathe. “But stay behind me. You understand?”
“Okay. But you’re bleeding,” she adds.
“I don’t care right now.”
Aiming the weapon at me, Kora kneels beside Sergey, checking his wounds. “Hang in there, Papa. I’ll get you out.”
“Papa?” I whisper, my heart racing.
My stomach churns. But that makes no sense, because Paolo is her father. My father has known that family since she was born.
An eerie feeling creeps into my gut.
“Kora, what the hell is going on? What are you doing? You fucking shot me!”
Her attention zaps to me, eyes narrowed, her upper lip curling.
“You don’t know how long I’ve waited for this.
” She straightens herself, the gun aimed at me.
“He told me that we’d be together. That I could go to Russia with him.
And all I had to do was find enough intel about what you guys were planning against him. ”
Eriu gasps.
“Shh, it’s okay,” I tell her, my own head spinning, my brain unable to catch up with the treachery of her words.
Her eyes are distant and demonic as she continues.
“But it’s been years since I infiltrated the academy! And I’m so sick of it!” she snarls, the muzzle once again aiming in my direction.
Drops of my blood drip on the floor beside my foot. I ignore it, not having a choice. I have to figure out how to get us out of here.
She paces back and forth as she laughs coldly. “See, he wanted revenge for what you did to him, and he was tired of waiting, so the last part of his plan for me was to help him get exactly that. And when I saw Eriu leaving, I called him, and he sent his men to get her.”
“You fucking bitch!” My heart rams in my ribs.
She betrayed us right before my eyes. I trusted her. I loved her, and she was nothing but a mole. How could I have been so blind?
She giggles, biting into her bottom lip, flinging her blonde hair back behind her shoulder. “I outsmarted you. Can you believe it? I outsmarted Iseult Quinn.” She scoffs. “That must kill you.”
Enraged, my pulse thrashing, a hand on the gun at my waistband, I rush toward her. But as I do, she raises the weapon to the ceiling and fires.
A warning shot.
“Get any closer and I’ll kill your sister.” She grins. “I know how little you value your life, but her…” She jerks the weapon behind me at Eriu. “I know you care about her.”
“How could you do this!” I shake my head. “We were friends. I welcomed you into my life, my family’s life, and you betray us?”
Recalling all the talks we had, all the times we had fun and laughed, I feel even more betrayed. She was pretending the entire time?
“My allegiance is to my father. He’s my blood. Paolo was never my dad. He adopted me from an orphanage in Russia after my mother died. Can’t remember her.” She shrugs indifferently.
Adopted? They never said a fucking word to anyone. I remember seeing photos of Paolo’s wife at the hospital with Kora in her arms. They lied?
“But they brought me here and pretended I was theirs. Until I discovered the truth about where I came from by doing one of those blood ancestry things. All of a sudden, I had Russian blood, and I knew neither of my so-called parents were Russian. So I went digging.”
She paces again, lost in her own thoughts, a crude smile fastened to her mouth.
“I found family members online, called them, spoke to them, until I found Sergey. He didn’t want me at first, denied it, but then he admitted the truth.
” She glances down at him adoringly. “I was his daughter. Of course he regretted not claiming me, right, Papa?” She grins at him in a sadistic way.
“But I’ve forgiven him. We’re going to be a real family.
And you…” She glares, pointing accusatorily at me with the gun. “You will not take that away from me.”
“You don’t want to do this, Kora. You don’t want to kill me.”
“I’ll kill anyone who hurts my father. Do you understand?!” she shouts.
Out of nowhere, something explodes, and a heavy fog erupts, blinding us all.
“Eriu!” I cough, rubbing my eyes. “Eriu!”
I feel for her, finding air, as male shouting goes off. Stomping…heavy stomping.
“I’m here!” Eriu calls, grabbing my hand. “I’m right here.”
I breathe a sigh of relief.
“Vazmi yeyo,” someone says in a heavy Russian accent, and then more voices.
The smoke starts to dissipate, and I make out multiple men in all black, weapons in their waistbands.
“Who’s here?” I call.
“Ah, Iseult…” Konstantin’s voice rings out as calm as ever as he appears right before me, eyes practically black. “I’m glad to see you have fared well.”
“Let me go!” Kora screams as two men hold her arms from each side, while Sergey is still on the ground, trying to get up.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I cough, while Eriu does the same, sticking to my side like glue.
“I tracked him down. He thought he was clever, eluding us, but he was never very smart.”
“They’re mine,” I snap with a heavy inhale. “Both of them. I will never forgive you if you take that from me.”
He stares at me, his concentrated gaze considering my words. “He’s my father. It should be on me to end his life. But I will give you Katarina.”
“That’s her name?” My eyes widen.
“That’s the name her mother gave her, yes.” His lips jerk. “I had wondered where our sister disappeared to after your mother died.”
“How the hell did no one know you have a sister? And how did she end up with Paolo?”
He sighs. “Well, you see, my father had an affair with a whore back in Russia. One of many, of course, but only one of them got pregnant. She had a child.”
He gestures behind him with a jerk of his head.
“The woman died when Katarina was a baby, and my father did not want her, so she went into foster care until she was adopted. But once Katarina found out who her real father was, she never let him forget that he abandoned her.” He laughs, as though lost to his memories.
“She was a feisty young woman, and my father took a liking to her savagery, especially when she killed two of his men to get to him, then on another occasion burned down his car. All to get his attention. And that she did.”
He turns to look at her, shaking his head, while she narrows her eyes and fights to escape the clutches binding her.
“He could have killed her,” he goes on. “But my father felt a kinship to that fire inside her. She was every bit like him. So he made her a promise after he found out who adopted her. He told her if she spied for him for a while until he was satisfied, he’d let her live with him.”
“And you just let this all happen without telling my father?” I raise my voice, completely consumed with rage. “He’s going to have your head for this.”
His mouth curls like a serpent. “I would not threaten me if I were you. I hold no allegiance to your family. If you were duped by some girl, that is on you.”
He’s right. He didn’t owe us a goddamn thing. And it’s never been Konstantin’s M.O. to be an honorable man.
“Did she see him often before the war between our sides began?” I ask, staring at her while her face pulls with a cunning grin.
“He didn’t share all the precise details, but I do, in fact, know she’d sneak out of high school to see him. That’s when they were first reunited, when she was around fifteen.”
“How the fuck did I not know?!” My voice carries. “I told her everything. I trusted her with everything.”
“It’s really not your fault. She was a very good liar.” He grins at her. “Like father, like daughter.”
“Don’t look at me like that, Konstantin,” Kora grits. “You have never helped me. You had everything. His attention. His love. While I had to live with people who weren’t even blood.”
“Like that was so fucking difficult!” I snigger. “Paolo was a great father, and Cynthia was a wonderful mother, you fucking ungrateful bitch! Do you know what I would’ve done to have my mother back, biological or not?”
I take a step forward, but Konstantin sticks out his arm, blocking me. I shove it away, and he doesn’t stop me.
“Your father took her away.” I pause, staring at the woman I no longer recognize.
“He never cared about you.” I laugh wryly, disgust chained to my voice while rage marks her features.
“He never wanted you. He was using you to get to us. And you just fell for it. Like the starved, pathetic girl you are.” I shake my head.
“Now you’re going to die, Kora. And as you do, you’re going to know I’m the one who killed you. ”
Eriu gasps, and I forgot she was standing off the side with one of Konstantin’s men.
“Could you tell them to take her out for this?” I ask him.
“Of course.”
“No, I don’t want to go!” Eriu cries.
“Please just wait outside, okay? I don’t want you to see this. I’ll be done soon, and we can go home, okay?”
Tears leak out of the corners of her eyes, but she nods and is ushered out.
Once she’s gone, my attention returns to my former best friend.
“Such a coward.” She spits in my face, and I wipe it with the back of my arm while the men tighten their grasps on her. “Going to kill me without a fair fight?”
I remove the nine-mil at my waistband.
“You don’t deserve anything but that. Believe it or not, I cared about you,” I confess while my heart breaks. I didn’t mean anything to her, while she meant everything to me. “You were pretending the whole time, weren’t you? Sneaking off to tell him everything about the academy, about my family.”
“That’s right.” She wags a brow, a contemptuous grin on her mouth. “He knew everything. It was his idea for me to join Caellach. So I begged Paolo. Begged him until he allowed it.”
I drill her with a cutting look. “I hope it was worth it, Kora. I hope wherever you go, you’re finally happy.” As I raise the gun in the air and aim right between the eyes, I stare at her one final time. “Goodbye, Kora.”
“Wait!” she shouts, her expression softer.
A glimpse of the friend I once thought I knew appears. But her mask flips, and the devil is exposed yet again.
“I’ll see you in hell, Iz.” She chuckles.
Pop.
Her laughter dies with my bullet. Her head slumps forward, and I watch as the men carry her out of sight.
“Feel any better?” Konstantin appears beside me, towering over me.
He’s at least a good six-seven. A damn giant.
“No,” I admit, placing my gun back. “Not at all.”
“Yeah…” He throws an arm around my shoulders. “That’s one thing about revenge. It doesn’t really make you feel any better. Maybe even worse.”
“Get your fucking hands off my wife!”
Gio!
My heart warms at the sound of his voice and, turning around, I find him there, staring affectionately at me. But also with a whole lot of anger.
His eyes take me in with Konstantin, and he looks about ready to break his arm off…or worse. I push off Konstantin just as Gio prowls toward me and grabs my jaw as soon as he’s near.
He searches my eyes, his brows snapping, and then he kisses me, nipping and groaning as he pulls back breathlessly. “Never do that shit to me again, you hear me?”
I nod, filled with my own untamable emotions.
Konstantin chuckles. “Welcome.”
“Boss…” one of Konstantin’s men calls, running up behind Gio. “He almost killed us to get up here.”
Konstantin breaks with heavy laughter. “That’s alright. We were just about done here. Just one final thing left.”
He removes a knife from a case in a holster around his waist. Staring at me, he extends his palm and nods. Eyes widened, I pick up the knife.
“Thank you,” I breathe, accepting his gift, which is what this is.
“Make him hurt, baby.” Gio clasps my nape and pins his forehead to mine. “I love you.”
I nod, feeling the weight of his love, but unable to say those words. Not here, not now, not in this maddening chaos. Squeezing his hand, I make my way to the man who ruined my life.
Sergey’s face is barely recognizable from the beating. I didn’t realize how badly I had hurt him until this moment. And my throbbing knuckles are definitely paying the price.
I settle on top of him, straddling his body. “You are going to lose your other eye before you lose your life.”
A sardonic chuckle fights its way out, blood dripping down the corner of his mouth as he slowly props himself on his shoulders.
“Malinkiya suka, like your mama.” He grins, crimson lining between his teeth.
And with a quick twist of my hand, I stab him straight through the eye and watch gleefully as he screams, over and over, until my ears bleed.
I yank out the blade, and this time, I stab him right in the center of his throat. His mouth parts on a silent scream. With a groan, I drag out the knife and stab him again and again, until my hands are coated in his blood, until some of it splatters onto my face.
“He’s gone, baby.” Arms fold around me from behind, my fiancé’s voice lulling me out of the rage-filled fog.
The fight in me slowly scatters, and when he gently takes the knife from me and lifts me into his arms, I cry, letting it all go. The pain, the horror I endured, the years of suppressed anger and sadness… I let it all go right here in his arms.
Because I’m finally home, and he gave me that.