Chapter 41 - Lilia
I groaned with embarrassment and guilt when the guard I had bashed over the head burst in on us. It was so easy to get lost in Gavril’s embrace and that heady kiss after he declared we were on the same side, that I forgot what we were up against.
The look on Gavril’s face as he hastily apologized to the guard on my behalf told me it was all rushing back to him as well.
He raised his brows at me, letting me know we’d be having a very long talk, clearly not too happy with me.
I had bashed his guard and forced his hand, resulting in the death of a friend who had betrayed him, and the man who was in charge of the attempted coup against Gavril’s position in the Collective.
I couldn’t be sorry for my rash act, because my hunch had been correct.
That traitorous man had been hiding, waiting to pounce and kill Gavril as soon as he made a move against Luigi.
My heart felt a twinge of sorrow for Gavril losing a relationship that had been important to him, but it soared at the fact he’d stepped in to save me once again.
There was no denying that we were on the same side now, so I gave him his sour look right back. He was stuck with me, because it wasn’t like I had much choice in being married to him, did I?
Although if he proposed to me right now, I would wholeheartedly accept. In fact, I wished things could be that way with a sudden, deep yearning.
What was I thinking about proposals for? Right now, we needed to save my people, as well as Gavril’s, who were currently fighting against the fractured Collective. I turned away from gazing at my hero and faced the grisly, blood-stained map on the wall.
All the points of attack had pins in them, and before I could even ask, Gavril pressed his phone into my hand.
“You need to warn them,” he said. With a mild look of disgust, he crouched down and patted Luigi’s pockets until he found the dead man’s phone. “I’ll do my best to call off as many of the attacks as I can, but we’re going to have rogues who won’t listen to reason.”
The guard slapped his fist into his palm. “That’s where we come in.”
Gavril began giving him instructions in low tones, while I called Aleks.
“Who the hell is this?” my cousin answered.
It was obvious he hadn’t enjoyed the last twenty-four hours too much.
Being called to the other side of the country on a rescue mission, being ambushed and having to shoot his way both in and out, all to have me snatched out from under his nose.
A strange number ringing him up in the midst of several of his businesses suddenly being under siege wasn’t going to improve his mood.
“It’s me,” I said. “I’m okay, I’m fine.”
I waited out the string of swear words, then, while he shouted the news to whoever was in the room with him. I imagined my sister wasn’t in the best of spirits and was glad she no longer had to worry about me.
“Tell me where you are,” Aleks said. “This time we won’t mess around.”
I couldn’t tell him where I was, not yet. And I didn’t have much time, because I was sure his experts would find a way to trace me somehow if I stayed on the line too long. Masha’s new husband, Anatoli, had made his fortune with software dedicated to tracking and tracing people.
“I’m going to send you a map,” I told him. “Every point on it is either under attack right now or going to be very soon. We’re doing all we can to stop the upcoming ones, but—”
“Who is we?” he asked. There was a split second of silence. “Don’t tell me. God, Lilia, please don’t tell me.”
Of course, I wasn’t going to tell him. Not yet, anyway. “Here comes the map,” I said and ended the call. As soon as I snapped a clear picture of it, along with the notes that Luigi had tacked up beside it, I sent it and then turned off Gavril’s phone.
“He’s suspicious that I’m with you,” I said.
Despite the seriousness of the situation, he cracked a sardonic smile. “I wonder why?” he asked, then sent his guard off on whatever orders he’d been given while I spoke to my cousin.
Gavril moved to my side and put his arm grimly around my shoulders as we perused the map. “Tell me which ones are most important to your family? Where will they try to defend first?”
There wasn’t even a minuscule hitch of doubt when he asked that question. I pointed to a warehouse park. I had no earthly idea what was stored there, but it was always getting new shipments, and several of my cousins also used one of the buildings as a meeting place. Among other things.
Right now, they’d want to protect their goods and get any people who didn’t have fighting capability out, so no innocents would be harmed.
The same with an out-of-the-way office building that was solely owned by my family.
There were legitimate businesses in it, and it was in danger—whether that be by a bomb, a raid, or fire, they’d rush to that building right away.
Gavril got back on Luigi’s phone, giving me a deadly and satisfied look every time he shocked the hell out of one of Luigi’s unsuspecting men.
“That’s right, your boss is dead,” he said to each one. “And if you don’t want to follow him into hell, you’ll stand down and recognize who’s actually in charge here.”
Some of them stood down, either to disappear before they could be punished or hoping for the best that they could weasel their way into Gavril’s ranks and keep their cushy jobs.
He then made a few calls to his own men, fresh in from Russia and champing at the bit for the fight they’d been promised.
He sent them after the ones who thought they still had a chance to overturn the power structure.
They were ordered to go hard against Luigi’s men, no holds barred, but step back immediately when any of my family’s people arrived.
“I have no doubt they can clean up whatever’s left,” he said. “This way, there’s no confusion and the least amount of my people get hurt. And none of yours,” he finished.
For the first time in my life, I wanted to get out there and use my new skills with a gun.
I wanted to fight for what we were trying so hard to achieve with nothing more than a phone in that dingy office.
It was clear Gavril was champing at the bit to get out there and smash some of the heads who’d been giving him so much trouble, but he flatly refused to take me to any of the warzones.
“Then you go,” I said, trying not to look toward the other room where Gavril had dragged the two bodies so they’d be out of our way. My gaze lingered on the blood trail. “I’ll be fine.”
Even after swearing not to go rogue again, he refused to leave my side, not sure how many people knew about that location and not wanting to risk my safety.
By the wee hours of the next morning, it was mostly over. There were a few holdouts who wouldn’t give up, but Gavril quickly found the location where they’d fled.
“Come on,” he said, holding out his hand to me.
I had been curled up as best I could in the squeaky desk chair, trying to get a few minutes of sleep. It was impossible since I was also hanging onto every word of Gavril’s one-sided phone conversations.
“What’s happening?” I asked, glad we could finally leave the bloody command central.
“We’re going hunting,” he said. “It shouldn’t take long.”
Another driver had come to collect us, and he gave us a huge grin as we entered the car. Despite a black eye and fat lip, there was no doubt he was in a celebratory mood. When we finally arrived at a seedy house at the end of a side street, he had grown more serious.
“Is this going to be dangerous?” I asked.
“Not at all,” Gavril said, then turned his attention to the new driver. “I don’t even need you to come in with me.”
“Like, hell, Boss,” he grunted in Russian. He gave me a glance in the rearview mirror, and I huffed.
“I’m not going to hit you,” I told the guard, then rounded on Gavril.
He stopped me before I could say a word by pulling me close and kissing me until I forgot my argument. “I can’t lose you,” he said. “And you’re not going to lose me. Stay in the damn car.”
“Only if you take backup,” I said, nodding to the guard, who was more than ready to go.
We both agreed, and Gavril told the guard not to go in shooting. “We give them a choice first,” he said. “Capitulate or die.”
That time, I stayed in the car, albeit with my hands tightly clasped around the spare gun Gavril handed me in case there was trouble on the street. For the first time, I was completely sure of my husband. It felt so good, I was beaming by the time he came back, only followed by his guard.
So the men in the house had made their choice. Since they’d been hellbent on destroying both Gavril and my family, I didn’t spare them a moment of pity.
“What’s that smile for?” Gavril asked as he slid in beside me.
“It’s over,” I said. “Isn’t it?”
He gave me a long look. “That was the easy part,” he said as the car smoothly pulled out of the deserted neighborhood.
I slumped in the seat, suddenly exhausted. Of course. We still faced the hardest task of all.
Convincing my family that there could be peace between them and the Collective.