Chapter 31
LEAH
"Viktor!"
The cry leaves my mouth before I can stop it. The man I thought I would never see again is being led onto the floor. He's here, he's real, and he’s not a figment of my imagination. If he were, all the guns in the place wouldn't be trained on him and the hulking figure of Iliya behind him.
Only moments ago, Marius came to us with his entire body radiating psychotic glee, which I knew had to do with the gunfire we’d heard. He dragged us roughly from the upstairs office down to the warehouse floor where two big men held Eliza.
At the sight of the two men we thought were dead, I hear Suzie gasp behind me, a sound that means she's holding back a sob. Then Eliza cries out.
"Viktor! Iliya!" My daughter’s voice is filled with desperation and fear, and tears stream down her face. At the sound, Viktor's implacable expression turns monstrous.
The expression is gone as swiftly as it appeared, replaced by calm composure. "Be brave, Eliza."
Iliya says nothing, but the look in his dark eyes is dangerous, especially as his gaze lands on Eliza first and then the bruise on Suzie's cheek.
Marius marks the big man’s attention, and he's grinning again. "I did that myself." He's either stupidly assured or truly psychotic. Probably both. But if looks could kill, Marius would be an oozing puddle on the floor. Iliya's scowl promises instant death by his hands alone.
Even Marius falls silent as Andrei wanders up to Viktor. He knows he’s won; I can see it in every line of his large frame, and the way he squares up to his brother to the curl of his lip.
I feel whatever little hope that had sprung up when I saw that Viktor wasn’t dead drain at the realization of his plight.
“Brother," Andrei sneers.
I always thought there was something wrong with Andrei; I never trusted him.
But now I can see what's behind the mask, and it’s truly ugly.
Something dark, slimy, and malevolent. Marius has the same look of rot to him, growing from the inside out.
Something revolting. But I had trusted Marius; the string of men I have misjudged just keeps growing.
I didn't misjudge Viktor, though. And now that I know there’s no escaping his world, I would rather be there with him than without him.
My whole heart is crying out for the man I thought I’d lost forever, who I still stand to lose forever.
The man standing there all in black, ready for a midnight offensive to save us.
He stares at his brother impassively, though I imagine if he could, he would kill the man with his bare hands for his betrayal.
"I've warned you for years that betrayal often comes from within, from those who know you best. But you didn't listen, did you?
" Self-satisfaction hovers around Andrei's mouth.
"Why Otets thought you would make the better pakhan I never understood. But it doesn’t matter anymore, does it?
I will control the Eastern Seaboard, here and in Moscow. All will bend the knee to me."
"Father made me pakhan because he knew you had ambition, but not the brains to back it up." Viktor’s sentence is simple, but it says so much, and it affects Andrei far more than his words affected Viktor. The man’s satisfaction curls into a sneer.
"Your brains, your careful plans have only hobbled the growth of what our Bratva could be, should be. I seek to make us one that everyone fears. No one will stand in our way."
Viktor shakes his head. "You wish to become a dictator instead of pakhan, Andryusha. You will bring the Antonov Bratva tumbling down on top of you. This is your last chance to make amends, to realize your mistakes."
I don't know what "Andryusha" means, possibly a nickname, but the use of it turns Andrei's displeasure into red-hot anger. The man's eyes burn.
"I will ensure there is no one alive who doesn’t know the Antonov Bratva. None will forget it. None will forget me. But they will forget you, you fucking fool. You have failed, and I will succeed. Tell that to Otets when you see him in hell."
A scream splits the air as Andrei levels the muzzle of his gun at his brother. I don't realize I’m the one who screamed until heads swivel my way, and my throat is raw. "No, don't. Please don't! Please don't kill him!"
Viktor's blue eyes find mine, hold mine, and won’t let me go. "It will be okay, Leah."
The words are said with such calm solemnity that I could almost believe the man I love doesn't have a gun pointed at his head, that he isn't moments away from death.
"Leah, look at me. Pay attention to me. Everything will be okay."
There is an odd intensity to his voice. I want to believe him so badly, but I know he's simply trying to calm me. To distract me from the inevitable.
"Yes, indeed," Andrei says. "You won't have to live without him for long. I'll take care of you as soon as I take care of my brother."
I inhale to scream again, but Suzie beats me to the punch as Andrei cocks his gun and takes more careful aim. Eliza sobs, and Benji is upstairs barking, snarling, and pounding against the door, trying to break free and get to us.
An explosion rocks the warehouse, followed by a burst of sound as Andrei goes down with a bellow of pain.
"Get them to safety!" Viktor yells, already in motion as each man holding him goes down, bloody spots on their foreheads.
Iliya doesn't need the order, however. He's already scooped up Eliza in a movement that seems far too fast for such a big man.
Then he has Suzie and me, and he's diving with us behind a metal door.
We huddle together, Eliza finally in my arms, her small body shaking as I hold her as tightly as I can.
The world has gone mad. A storm of gunfire echoes until it sounds like the entire warehouse is caving in on us. Men shout in anger and in pain, and bullets hit the metal door with clangs that reverberate inside my head. My mind goes entirely blank as we wait for it to end.
After a final spray of rapid automatic weapon fire, everything falls silent. My ears ring, and so does the inside of my head. Eliza is crying and clinging to me, and even Suzie, caged within one of Iliya's arms, has tears running down her face. None of us dares to move or even breathe.
"Iliya!"
Viktor's voice booms through the air like a crack of lightning. I'm up in an instant in response. Is he okay? Is he safe? Iliya's bulk stops me cold as he, too, gets to his feet.
"Stay here. Wait until I tell you it's safe." His tone brooks no argument, and he slips out.
We wait for what seems like an eternity before the door, littered with dents from the bullet strikes, opens. But it's not Iliya.
It's Viktor.
I don't waste a heartbeat. I fly into his arms and let him envelop me. He smells like sweat and gunpowder, and he's still breathing heavily from the exertion, but he's whole, he's alive, and he's holding me.
"Are we safe?" I mumble into his chest.
"You're safe. I promised you, didn't I?"
Then he had known. He’d planned the calvary coming to his rescue; they just needed a distraction, and he and Iliya had been it.
I have to swallow back tears because I want to be brave in front of Eliza, to assure her everything truly is okay after our terrifying ordeal. If it were just me, I would have dissolved into a sobbing mess. Instead, I step out of his arms, wiping away any trace of moisture with the back of my hand.
Viktor picks Eliza up and holds her close. She buries her face in his shoulder, and he holds it there, telling her softly, "Don't look up, Eliza, until I say you can. I have you. You're safe."
I see why he gave the command when we step out of our sanctuary—Andrei's men litter the floor, lying in pools of blood.
Big, frightening men stand around the warehouse, their guns trained on those few who are left of Andrei's defectors. Andrei himself is on the ground, not moving, blood leaking from the wound in his leg that took him down.
“What's going on?” I ask.
There's a look of grim satisfaction in Viktor's eyes as he moves closer to some of the fallen figures, the way his body is tilted hiding Eliza’s view from the worst of it, should she look up. Which she won’t, not with the way she clings to Viktor.
“The other Bratva in the area got wind of my brother's plans to take over their territories. He broke one too many rules of the vory v zakone. It rendered his leadership claim illegitimate and labeled him an enemy to those of us who hold the brotherhood sacred.”
Viktor takes another breath to continue, but movement from the corner of my eye catches my attention. I'm not fast enough to understand what it is, but there are shouts, and Viktor rushes at me but slides to a stop, frozen. His face twists into a mask of hatred and, I realize, panic.
Andrei, whom I thought to be unconscious, is on his feet with his gun pointed straight at me.
Everything stops, even time and my heart.
"Everyone back the fuck off, or I swear I'll put a bullet in her head right now."
"Andrei, put the gun down.” Viktor’s voice is calm, but I can hear an undercurrent of the panic shining in his eyes.
"Why should I?" Andrei hisses. "My life is forfeit. Whether I die now or I die later, I’ve still lost. At least this way, I can still take everything from you, brother. Just like you took everything from me."
For the first time since I met him, Viktor looks unsure.
Tears fill my vision until all I can see is the blue of Viktor's eyes, the rest broken into blurry shards like frosted glass.
They say your life flashes before your eyes, but it's not my life.
It's Eliza's—every milestone, every small moment I'm going to miss.
It's Viktor moving on, finding someone who can finally give him the heir he needs.
I just hope she also gives him the love he deserves, even though he doesn't think he deserves it.
I hope someone can see past the monster to the man beneath, even if he can't.
"Leah!"
Viktor's shout, the desperation in his voice, echoes against the crack of a single gunshot. I flinch, waiting for the explosion of pain.
But when the echoes of the gunshot die down, I hear the thump of a body. In my shock, it takes a moment for me to realize it wasn't my body—I'm not lying on the ground.
Andrei is.
Iliya stands at the top of the catwalk, near the office. His gun is still aimed at the spot where Andrei stood.
I can't move; I'm frozen, my feet stuck to the ground, my body unresponsive. Even my mind has ground to a halt as I try to comprehend that I’m still alive.
And then Viktor's arm is around me, holding me so tightly I can barely breathe, his fingers tangling painfully in my hair. I can feel how hard and how fast his heart is beating against my cheek.
"It's okay. You're safe. You're okay."
Eliza holds us both in her small arms, and then Suzie’s arms are wrapped around us. I start to weep, enormous wracking sobs as I hold the most important people in my life to me, as I try to come to terms with the fact that it's all over, that I'm safe, we're all safe.
Iliya comes down and stands just outside of the circle. He's dragging a barely conscious Marius with him; he went to town on the bastard, the man is beaten, bloody, and broken. I can also see several bite marks on Marius’s arm, and Benji, whose leash Iliya holds, looks self-satisfied.
"It's over. It's all over," Viktor murmurs into my hair.
And I finally let myself believe it.