Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
Kirill
I’m going to kill him.
The calm thought soothes the rage pouring through me as I force my arms to let go of my wife. Her eyes are rimmed with tears and her chin wobbles as she grits her teeth and follows Pyotr’s lead.
“It’s okay, devochka,” I promise her as Pyotr forces her another step backwards.
“Kirill,” she sobs as Pyotr’s free hand wraps around her throat.
“Everything’s going to be alright,” I soothe.
“No, it definitely won’t be,” Pyotr remarks, and I shift my gaze to him. Hatred. So much hatred shines in his eyes.
“Stop!” Yulian pleads, “You promised! You promised you wouldn’t hurt her!”
“That all depends on my big brother here,” Pyotr replies, moving the gun from the back of Annika’s hand to her temple.
He gives her throat another tight squeeze and I have to stop myself from rushing him as Annika lets out a strangled cry.
I want to move. If anything, so that I can press the small panic button Edik attached to my cuff link that would signal him and our men to come in, but I don’t. I stay statue still so that gun in Pyotr’s doesn’t go off and ends my reason for existing.
“You want me, you have me,” I say calmly. “This is what all of this is for, right? So you can have me?”
Pyotr snickers.
“Don’t make yourself sound like such a prize, brother,” he replies. “I don’t want you. I want your death.”
“Why?” I ask.
I have to keep him talking. Talking will distract him.
“Why?” Pyotr bit out, and shoved the tip of the pistol’s barrel harder into Annika’s temple.
“Are you fucking serious?”
“You hate me, that much is clear,” I reply, “But I want to know why you hate me, Pyotr. What have I done besides bring you back into our family? Give you money, a house, anything you want.”
“They should have been mine in the first place!” Pyotr snarls. “We were supposed to be brothers, we supposed to be equals! And instead you punished me for going with Mom.”
“I didn’t punish you,” I reply quickly, “You weren’t the same after you came back from her.”
“You never gave me a chance,” Pyotr growls out, spittle flying from his lips. “Nothing I did was good enough.”
“Everything you did was cruel even by our standards,” I answer, keeping his eyes trained on me. “It was like she drove you crazy too. I was trying to even you out so we could be equals, but Pyotr, you insisted on going the other way.”
Pyotr’s gun leaves Annika’s temple and he points it at my face. His pupils somehow dilate further into black pools of insanity.
“Don’t call Mom crazy,” he snarls. “She did her best!”
“And look what it did to you,” I calmly reply.
I see his finger wrap tighter around the trigger, and I know he’s going to pull it. I don’t look away though. I don’t close my eyes. I keep my gaze on him.
“I’m going to take everything from you,” Pyotr snarls. “Your money. Your position. Your wife.”
I make my move as the word wife draws from his lips, pushing his wrist upward with my left hand as I try to pull Annika away from him with the right.
He lets out an animalistic snarl as we begin to fight, but his grip on Annika won’t loosen, so I let her go and cock my fist back.
A shot fires up into the ceiling, loud and clear, as I punch him in the nose, snapping his neck backward.
Pyotr finally lets go of Annika and the moment he does, I’m on him. His free hand pushes into my face as I punch him over and over, not stopping even when I feel his warm blood splatter up into my face.
With a roar I pick him up by his collar and slam his head into the marble floor; and I hear a sickening crack as the kitchen’s back door bursts open. I stop hitting my brother as Edik, Yana, and several more of my men rush in with their guns drawn.
“Backs against the wall you two,” Edik commands, his gun pointed to Valya and Yulian.
“No, please!” Annika shouts.
“Let them go, Edik,” I command, pushing myself off of my brother’s limp body.
Edik’s lips draw up in a snarl, but he obeys and lowers his gun.
“You were supposed to signal,” he growls at me.
“The opportunity didn’t arise,” I say through panting breaths.
I take a couple steps away from my brother, and Annika rushes to me. I pull her tightly to my chest, and even with the blood splattered on my face, she grips my cheeks and kisses me. I return it with the same passion, not caring if I look weak in front of my men or not.
“Oh my God,” Annika breathes as drops her head to my shoulder, “I thought it was over. I thought he was going to kill you right in front of me.”
“I’m okay,” I soothe, letting her wrap around me as tight as she needs to. “I’m okay, devochka. We’re all going to be okay.”
For a second, I think it’s true. That we’re all out of danger. Then I hear a sickening wet cough as I’m suddenly shoved to the side.
“No!” Annika shouts as I flail, and I watch in slow-heart wrenching motion as the sound of another shot goes off and blood gushes from my wife’s shoulder.
My heart stops as I see Annika’s eyes roll up as she starts to fall, and as I reach for her, I pull out my gun and fire two shots into Pyotr’s head.
Annika collapses into my arms as a cacophony of sounds explode.
Yulian and Valya’s screams. My brother’s dead body flopping to the ground.
Footsteps surrounding us as my men surge in to form a protective circle around Annika and me.
“Devochka,” I rasp, cradling Annika close with one arm.
My other hand is tearing off the sleeve of her shirt so I can see where the bullet went, and I panic as I’m unable to find an exit wound. It could be lodged in her shoulder, or it could have gone in at an angle and-
“No,” I say aloud, stopping the thought as I rise to my feet with my wife in my arms.
I’m not losing her like this. Not after everything we both just survived.