Chapter 40
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Maksim
This is a terrible idea. Every instinct in me screams to go back for her, but I know Julia would never forgive me if something happened to Amalia. Gunfire rattles all around us, and with our men locked in combat, there’s no one else to get her safely to the car.
“We really screwed up, didn’t we?” Amalia says in a small voice as I scan the perimeter, making sure we’re not about to be surrounded.
The answer is obvious. I can’t understand how they ever trusted that snake, but then again, they didn’t grow up in my world. They were sheltered from all the rot and darkness. It’s easy to be fooled by a charming face, especially when you’ve never learned to look for the fangs beneath.
“Wow, you can’t even lie to me,” she murmurs, and I finally turn to face her.
“Your sister is in there with a killer, someone who can make an innocent soul bleed. When this is over, we’re going to have a serious talk about your taste in men.”
She drops her gaze, and for a moment, guilt twists in my gut.
“I told her there was something off about him, but he was always so sweet to Lupe,” she says, and I believe her. I know just how good he is at hiding his true nature.
My phone buzzes. Of course, Roman couldn’t stay away for more than a few hours.
“I’m getting on the jet now. I’ll be there in three hours,” he says, and it hits me. This man got engaged less than eight hours ago.
“You don’t have to come. And I’m in a hurry…”
“Stop being stubborn and admit you’re not fighting alone anymore. I needed to know Victoria and Luna were safe; that’s why I didn’t come with you right away. But I’ll be there, just like you were for me.”
A lump rises in my throat because no one’s ever done this for me before. It’s always been just me and my shadows.
“I’ll send you the GPS coordinates,” I manage, my voice rough. I know he hears the emotion I can’t hide, and I can almost feel his sigh on the other end
He hangs up, and I’m grateful he didn’t call me out for going soft.
I spot Jeremy limping toward the car and signal for him to take Amalia. All I can think about is getting back to her . To the woman who literally holds my heart next to hers. The only person I’d start all over for, just to find her again.
I’m thirty yards from the building when a gunshot cracks through the chaos, and for a heartbeat, my world stops. My chest tightens, everything inside me seizing up. It can’t be her. Please, not her.
“JULIA!”
It’s not a shout, it’s a roar. If she’s hurt, I don’t know what I’ll do.
My body goes numb, denial flooding my veins, until I burst into the living room.
Lupe stands frozen, a gun in her hand, staring in horror at her older sister lying in a pool of blood. When she sees me, she drops the gun in the corner of the room.
I want to believe this is a nightmare, some twisted trick of fate. I can’t let her go. If she leaves this world, I’ll follow.
Aleksandr lunges forward, wrapping his arms around Lupe's middle. When our eyes meet, I see her shudder as she takes in the fury radiating from me.
“Run!” I snarl at them. “And you’d better hide well because, next time I find you, you’ll be the one bleeding out on the floor.”
Lupe’s legs buckle and Aleksandr hauls her off, but all I care about is Julia.
My only thought is getting her out of here.
I’m terrified to check for a pulse, terrified to find out she’s really gone, that she chose to stop fighting, but when I press my fingers to her neck, I feel it: a faint, fragile beat.
Barely. But it’s there, and if I have to make a deal with Death itself to give her a few more minutes of life, I’ll fucking beg for it.
All that matters now is her.
I don’t remember leaving the house or how I ended up running with her in my arms or lifting her into the car. My shirt is pressed tightly against her wound, soaked in blood. Luck is on our side, because there’s a small hospital less than two miles away.
Amalia sobs, clutching Julia’s hand, whispering anything and everything she can think of.
“I won the math olympiad. I always wanted a cat, but tío Felipe said we’re too scatterbrained to take care of one. Every morning, I pray for you, Julia. Deep down, we always knew you were alive somewhere. Please, don’t leave us now.”
Her voice fades into the background, and all I want to do is scream. I want to shake her, blame her, tell her this is all their fault. Her own twin pulled the trigger. Maybe Julia would find a way to forgive them, but right now, all I see is the enemy in the girl who dared to point a gun at her.
Maybe Aleksandr manipulated her, but I meant every word: no one touches Julia. No one even looks at her the wrong way. Anyone who makes her bleed doesn’t get to breathe afterward.
I grip her hand, staring at how pale she’s gotten. She’s losing too much blood.
You can’t leave me. Not you.
As we burst through the hospital doors, nurses rush to take her. Amalia starts explaining everything in rapid-fire Spanish while my eyes stay glued to Julia.
I’m pushed aside, but I immediately grab a doctor and pin him to the wall.
“Amalia, tell him if he values his hands, he’ll let me go with her into surgery.”
The doctor’s face turns white as Amalia translates, and he stammers a reply I barely catch.
“He says you’re too emotionally involved. The doctors would be under too much stress.”
That’s the only reason I let him go. I need them focused on saving her .
“Tell him if they don’t save her, I’ll blow up every brick in this hospital and make sure they’re inside when it happens.”
Amalia relays the message, and the doctor bolts.
A nurse comes over a moment later, and I hear Amalia’s voice, trembling.
“They need blood. B positive. I’m AB positive; I can’t donate.”
“Test me,” I say, shoving out my arm.
No translation needed. I have no idea what my blood type is, but if I’m not a match, I’ll tear this place apart to find someone who is.
They take a sample, and a nurse waves me over. I’m O positive, apparently, so I can give her what she needs.
For fifteen minutes, I watch a bag fill with my blood. When the nurse removes the tourniquet, I grab her hand and grit out, “It’s not enough. She’s lost more than that. Take more.”
She doesn’t fully understand, but something in my eyes must get through.
“Senor, we need a lot,” she says, her accent thick.
“Take as much as you need.” I tighten the tourniquet myself.
I would bleed til the last drop for her. If they needed the heart from my chest, I’d cut it out myself if it meant she could live.
After another bag, dizziness sweeps over me, but I don’t care. The nurse assures me it’s enough, so I stagger back to the waiting room, wishing with everything I’ve got that I was the one bleeding in that room.
The other soldiers are out hunting Aleksandr. I know they’ll catch that cockroach sooner rather than later, and the only consolation I have is the way I’m gonna make him bleed.
Right now, all I care about is Julia making it out of surgery alive and well.
Guilt crushes my chest because I wasn’t there when she needed me.
She wanted Amalia safe. I know that, but she’s my priority.
Time blurs. Amalia sits beside me, cheeks streaked with tears, nervously picking at her nails.
“He told us you were part of a trafficking ring. He showed us photos of you with malnourished kids,” she whispers, and I close my eyes.
There are thousands of photos like that.
I was there for every convoy Ivan brought in, not to hurt those kids, but to see how many needed urgent medicine.
Sometimes they arrived in shipping containers, packed in with other cargo, tied down so they couldn’t run.
We treated infected wounds more times than I can count.
Ivan and Aleksandr never noticed; we always made sure they didn’t, especially after what happened with Vera. We wiped the security footage for a few minutes, kept Ivan busy in his office while Akim or Julia snuck medicine down to the basement.
But if you only hear Aleksandr’s side, of course we look like the villains. The only real victim among us is the woman fighting for her life behind those doors. If I’d forced her to leave, if I’d made her run when she had the chance, maybe she wouldn’t be on an operating table now.
“Do you think she’ll forgive us?” Amalia asks, her voice barely above a whisper.
“Without a doubt.”
It’s the only truth I have. Julia would forgive anything. She’d do anything for the people she loves. Even let me keep breathing while she fades away.
That’s when I sense him before I see him.
“You made it,” I say to my twin, eyes still glued to the hospital floor.
“Max.” That’s all he says, but something inside me shatters.
His voice is gentle, full of understanding, like he’s telling me it’s okay to drop the tough act for once, and suddenly, a knot forms in my throat, my chest feels like bursting, and tears sting my eyes. The first one falls, and I realise I’m fucking crying only when I see it hit the hospital floor.
“I can’t lose her. Not her. Never her.”
I can’t sit still anymore. I get up, fists pounding against my chest, desperate to dull the ache in my heart, to make it stop hurting so much.
Strong arms wrap around me, pulling me into a rough embrace, and I want to fight it because I never had this. Every pain, every tear, every fucking moment I screamed, there was no one there to hold me. I hear his voice, even though my vision is blurred, his face nothing but a haze.
“You won’t lose her. If there’s anyone on this earth who would fight for you, it’s her,” Roman says, his conviction grounding me, letting me finally breathe for the first time in what feels like forever.
My fist keeps thudding against my chest, right where my heart is breaking for her.
“Stop hurting yourself,” my twin brother grits out, trying to reach me, but he can’t.
“I don’t need this. I don’t need it beating if Julia’s in that operating room losing her fight. If she doesn’t make it, Roman, I’ll tear this damned thing out myself because the only reason it beats at all is for her.”
“I know,” he says quietly, dropping his gaze.
I know he’s thinking about Luna, wondering what he’d do if she were the one behind those doors.
A doctor steps out from surgery and scans the room for Amalia. I try to read his face, searching for any sign of hope, but somehow, I know she’s alive. My heart is still beating. If she’d slipped away, the universe would have stopped mine too, just to keep us together on the other side.
“She made it, but she’s sedated,” Amalia breathes, and for the first time, I find myself praying. I don’t know who I’m praying to or if I’m saying the words right, but I know one thing: he didn’t take her from me. She’s still here.
“I’ll call to have her transferred to a private clinic, Max,” Roman says while typing on his phone.
I simply nod, too numb to form any other words. This place isn’t safe enough, and I still have a hunt to finish.
Now that I know she’s out of danger, my mind is already racing with thoughts of finding that bastard and Lupe. One of our men saw which way they went, but Aleksandr was dragging Lupe, unconscious, and our people were too outnumbered to chase them down.
How did she not see the rot in him?
But I’ll have time for them. For everything I want to do to both of them.
Because they dared to hurt her. And no amount of spilled blood will ever be enough to make up for that.