Chapter 26 #2
He manages a small smile. “Our father would be proud…brother.” Those are his last words to Nathan, and probably to me, before he slumps to the floor.
Nathan lets out a small cry, and his gun hand trembles.
His grip firms a moment later, and his expression clears, but Kolya’s final words will haunt him if we discover he was telling the truth about being our brother.
Even if he wasn’t, he understood Sergei well and knew Sergei would have killed Josef to protect his empire.
Nathan killed Kolya to protect the family, not the empire, and I hope he’ll understand the difference.
The stairwell becomes quiet. Gun smoke drifts through the emergency lighting and settles against the concrete walls.
The silence after the last shot is different from the silence before the first one.
Before, the silence was tactical. Now, it’s final.
There are bodies on the concrete, two of us still standing, and the woman I came for is alive.
I turn to Margot.
She’s sitting against the far wall where she fell when Kirill released her. Her blazer is torn at the shoulder. Her hair has come loose from Katya’s clip Nadia used this morning, and it falls across her face in strands she hasn’t pushed away. She’s holding her stomach with both hands.
I cross to her and kneel, checking her face first. I look at her eyes for signs of shock or concussion. Those are the signs Anya taught me to look for when a patient has been through physical trauma. Her pupils are equal. Her color is pale but not gray. She’s breathing steadily.
Then I check her stomach. I put my hand over hers, carefully, using the technique Anya showed me for checking tenderness without applying pressure.
It was to show me how to gauge a wound, not to feel the place where my baby grows, but the principle is the same.
Margot’s hands are warm under mine. Her abdomen is soft, not rigid; I remember Anya saying that rigidity or increasing tenderness would be warning signs of internal bleeding.
“I’m pregnant.” She whispers it.
“I know.” I hold her gaze. “I knew before Kolya announced it.”
Her face changes. The composure that has carried her through ten weeks of captivity, training, impersonation, and combat fades. Her mouth opens and closes once without producing sound, and her eyes fill with tears she’s been holding for who knows how long.
“I’m getting you both out of this alive.” I keep my hand on her stomach and my voice low enough that only she hears it. “You’re coming out of this alive. Both of you. I didn’t come through three corridors and get shot twice in the ribs just to lose you in a stairwell.”
“We nearly died.”
I press my forehead against hers. “I know, but I’m here now. I’m choosing you. All of you. I’m going to take apart every part of this organization that makes life dangerous with a family and keep the parts that can protect you and our baby without trapping you.”
She grips my wrist, holding on fiercely, trembling, but completely certain. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”
“You weren’t wrong to wait.” I look at her. “You needed proof that I was going to make his or her safety a priority. I should have given you that proof long before the pregnancy forced the question. I want to keep you safe, and I want the baby to be safe. I’ll give up everything to ensure that.”
“You did make me feel safe.” She swallows once.
“You asked permission to enter my room. You apologized for using the wrong word. You came through a building full of armed men to reach me and killed without hesitation to save me.” She presses her forehead harder against mine.
“Those are the choices I was waiting for. We can figure out what the rest of being safe looks like later.”
I hold her in a stairwell that smells like gunpowder and concrete, with bodies around us and the evidence of years of legal manipulation stacked on metal shelves all around us.
“Grant killed Mara on Kirill’s orders. I thought he went after her because she was protecting me and thwarting him.
All along, it was because she stumbled onto the same evidence Katya noticed.
” She shakes her head. “I thought it was my fault he killed Mara and was going to get away with it. All along, she was always Kirill’s target.
” She sobs quietly. “I wish I could have killed Grant myself.”
I hold her, letting her cry. “I’m glad you don’t have that on your conscience.” I don’t know how Grant died, but she seems certain he’s gone. It’s something else to sort out later. I want to get her out of here now and ensure she really is safe.
Nathan appears at my shoulder. He’s already holstered his weapon, and his face carries pain he’s working hard to hide.
He just killed a man he worked beside for eleven years, who was a friend and claimed to have been our half-brother.
He’s probably being eaten up inside at the idea that he’s anything like our father, but he’s focused on the task at hand.
He looks at Margot, then at my hand on her stomach, and his expression softens for exactly one second before control returns.
“Zavid has Mabel’s notes and the transfer receipts secured. Nadia’s archive download is complete.”
Margot takes a deep breath and reaches into her blouse.
“I found the flash drive and the original chain-of-custody form in Mara’s evidence box.
” She removes a flash drive and a folded document from her bra and holds them out to me.
“This is the forensic analysis they suppressed. The ligature findings showing force applied primarily from the right, the sealed autopsy—everything Mabel buried. The pattern may point to an accomplice or to manipulated evidence, but it doesn’t clear Grant.
” She sets both in my palm. “This is Mara’s proof. ”
I close my hand around the drive. It’s warm from her body.
“We need to move.” Nathan’s voice is gentler than I’ve heard it in weeks. He crouches beside us and gestures toward Margot’s face. “May I?” She nods, and he checks for injury. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine.” Margot’s voice is steady. “Kolya was careful with me. He needed me intact.”
“That’s the last careful thing Kolya ever did.” Nathan straightens and glances toward the upper stairwell. “Anya is in the vehicle. Nadia has the digital archive downloading. Zavid is already on the phone with a judge about emergency preservation orders.”
I help Margot stand. She leans into me, and I wrap my arm around her waist on the side that doesn’t have a bullet wound, and we walk toward the stairwell together.