Chapter 44 Ella
ELLA
“Goddammit, Ella!” Lucy shrieks the moment we step foot in Asher’s penthouse. “What are you doing in New York?”
She practically tackles me in a hug, sobbing.
“What are you doing here, Lucy? Would someone please tell me what the hell is happening?” I gasp while crying into Lucy’s shoulder.
We move into Asher’s living room as a group. I sit between Asher and Lucy, and Sterling sits on the ottoman, facing us. It’s hard not to note Declan’s absence, as well as Asher’s parents, who are with him at the hospital.
“We knew about Volkov’s plan,” Sterling says, running his hand over his jaw, a trait very similar to his older brother’s. “At least most of it, but he still surprised us in the end. And that surprise, god, that surprise could have cost us you.”
Asher pulls me into his side and runs a comforting hand down my back.
“I intercepted Volkov’s plans three weeks ago,” Sterling explains, “and at first, we thought we’d try to intervene, but he had been so good at evading us, that we decided to let him enact his plan so that we could draw him out.
Because we had that intel, I knew the general idea of what would happen today, and we had everything in place to keep Asher safe and to stop Yegor.
” Sterling sighs. “But he had two tricks up his sleeve that we didn’t know about.
The snipers and you. You weren’t supposed to be here.
You were supposed to stay at the safe house until this was all over and the fallout was taken care of. ”
“We were tricked,” I say, leaning my head on Asher’s shoulder.
The shock and adrenaline are starting to wear off, and my body is a weak mess.
“Jenkins got a voicemail from Asher telling him that he wanted me back in New York for the memorial. There was even a private jet that picked us up and flew us back.”
“I never called Jenkins or left him a voicemail,” Asher growls.
“I know that now. But I heard the voicemail, it was your voice. I don’t know how, but it was.”
“It must have been AI,” Sterling hisses. “There are enough recordings of Asher’s voice that Volkov could have had a voicemail created with it. Fuck, I should have been prepared for something like that.”
“There’s no way you could have predicted that, Sterling,” I say. “The thought of the voicemail being fake didn’t occur to any of us who heard it. Not until we got here and realized things were off.”
“Regardless, that was a huge oversight on my part,” he insists.
“But as far as today goes, we were prepared for Yegor—until you showed up. We knew he had decided to use the public nature of the memorial to corner Asher by surrounding him with fake security, and we knew he also planned to take Asher and force him to sign the contract right after the statue unveiling and the speeches.”
“But they didn’t end up being Volkov’s men,” I point out. “I thought they were until they grabbed him at the end.”
“They were mine,” Lucy says, taking a hold of my hand. “I have to tell you something.” She hesitates for a moment, shifting uncomfortably. “My family . . . I don’t speak about them often because they’re . . .”
“In the mafia? I know,” I say, gently.
Lucy swallows. “Yes. I know you all probably guessed something to that nature, but I never wanted to come out and admit it. I love my family, but it’s not easy to be a part of them sometimes.
But in this case, it was beneficial. The Morozovs heard whispers of Yegor’s plans since we’re distantly related.
I knew anything that impacted Asher, impacted you, so I couldn’t sit idly by.
“I forced my father to investigate and help Sterling gather intel. And when we heard about the plan to send in decoy men, I had my father reach out to Yegor and offer his services. Yegor’s men are mostly in Russia, and what’s left of Sergei’s are busy putting out a thousand fires of Asher’s making, so he needed men.
My father offered his in a deal, and Yegor happily accepted.
Our men pretended to do Yegor’s bidding, but they were really following our orders.
And our orders were that Asher and the other Langfords were to be protected at all costs.
The men would act as if they worked for Yegor until he was ensnared, and then at a signal, they’d turn on him. ”
“Who were the men that collapsed? And how and why did they all collapse?” I ask.
“Those were Yegor’s true men,” Sterling answers.
“With Lucy’s help, I was able to identify all of them.
I have some side projects I work on with Langford Holdings, and one technology we’ve created is a small taser the size of a microchip.
It works a little differently, but as you saw today, it’s highly effective.
Lucy’s men made sure to plant them on Volkov’s men.
Once the shit started to hit the fan, I activated the chips, and essentially tased them on the spot.
The chip is powerful enough to knock someone unconscious for about thirty minutes.
“But what we were worried about was the snipers,” Sterling continues.
“We had no intel on that beforehand. If Volkov’s man hadn’t gloated and disclosed the snipers’ presence to you and Asher, we would have gone in blind.
Luckily, I had Asher, myself, Declan, and my dad fit with earpieces and microphones today, so we heard everything the security guard and Volkov said to Asher.
As soon as I found out, I sent word to our security, and they got to work tracking them down.
That’s why our normal men were nowhere to be seen.
I sent them all off to hunt down the snipers.
It took a full hour to find and dispatch all of them, so our hands were tied until that point.
As soon as I got word that they were taken care of, I let Asher know, and he gave the signal.
We’re all just upset that you were a part of it.
All of this was supposed to be aimed at Asher, not you. ”
“I still hate the idea of any of it being aimed at Asher,” I grind out, furious with the lot of them. No matter how prepared they were, the plan was still too damn risky.
“Then you understand a fraction of how I feel when you’re in danger,” Asher whispers in my ear.
“I don’t feel a fraction, I feel the same amount of fear you do,” I hiss, wanting to strangle him and kiss him all at the same time. But there’s no time for either of those things right now.
“Has anyone heard anything about Declan?” I ask. “I’m so worried about him.”
“He’ll be okay,” Sterling says. “I just got a text from my mom. Nothing vital was hit. He just came out of surgery, and everything went well.”
“Thank god. Why did he do that?” I groan, livid with Declan for putting himself in danger.
“Because Volkov knew he was done for at that point and was about to shoot you just out of spite,” Sterling answers. “None of us could stand by and watch that happen. You’re family, Ella.”
My eyes widen, and I swallow hard. I haven’t interacted with Sterling nearly as much as I have with Declan, and to hear him call me family has my already frail emotions ready to overflow.
“And Flores? I never saw her after I was hauled into the ballroom.”
“She’s okay,” Sterling reassures. “She’s a little worse for the wear, they roughed her up a bit, but the men holding her were tased with the rest, so she got away.”
I let out a long sigh of relief, but my anxiety is still ricocheting inside me.
Asher must sense that I’m about near my end because he takes me by the hand and hauls me off the couch. “Can everyone give us a minute?” he says, before leading me to his bedroom.
The moment the door shuts, he pulls me to him and buries his face in my hair. He lets out a devastating, shuddering breath that I mirror.
“Ella,” he whispers, his voice trembling. He runs his hands down my back and pulls me in tighter, as if he’s afraid I’ll disappear.
“It’s okay. I’m okay,” I reassure him. “It’s over, Asher. Yegor’s gone. We’re safe.”
“I thought I might lose you. Just let me hold you for a minute, please?”
We sway softly, as if we’re dancing without music.
It’s been weeks since I touched him. And every day was agony.
Weeks since we broke up and my heart shattered and my world crumbled beneath my feet.
All the pain of those weeks bleeds between us, and all either of us can do is cling to the other for any form of comfort.
“I’m so sorry, baby,” Asher says, over and over again.
Soon, I’m sobbing into his shoulder. He bends down, picks me up, and carries me to his bed.
He sets me down gently, then peels off his suit jacket.
The holsters with guns strapped to either side of him remind me of the realities of Asher’s life, and it hits me again just how dangerous today was.
How Asher knew he was walking into a trap set by Yegor, and yet he did it anyway.
How he was prepared for that trap until I showed up unexpectedly and changed everything.
“It’s okay, baby,” he says as he carefully takes out each gun, then unloading them, before setting them in his nightstand drawer.
“You’re safe, and I’ll never let anything like this happen again.
” Once he’s free of his holsters, he lies down next to me and draws me to him.
My sobbing intensifies as the fear of today and the sorrow of the last month hit me with a force I can’t withstand.
Asher kisses my hair, my temples, and runs soothing hands down my back. “I’m here, love,” he whispers. “I’ll always be here.”
A soft thud stirs me from sleep. I blink, but the room is mostly dark. I must have drifted off after I cried until my tears dried up. I roll over and push myself to sit up.
Asher is sitting next to me in bed.
“Once again, it’s good to see your eyes open, Ms. Hale.”
I let out a ghost of a chuckle.