Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Rodion
“Why isn’t he leaving?” Z growls beside me, his hands fisting on his thighs. “He’s going back inside.”
“Patience,” I reply, gently closing my hand over his and squeezing.
He’s been coiled tight since discovering the fact that we had a child.
A fucking kid.
Us.
We weren’t made for fatherhood, and Alyona knew it, too. But why the hell she thought Jeremiah would be a better alternative is infuriating.
“He’s coming back out and he’s not alone,” Z hisses, blowing air through his clenched teeth.
We watch intently as Adam pulls Alyona across the driveway, opens the passenger side door of his red sports car, and guides her inside.
She looks uneasy, flicking her eyes around the surroundings, no doubt looking for any sign of us.
Adam’s car is an indicator that, like his brother, he has a small cock. Fitting the woman in the trunk proved to be difficult, and we ended up having to break her legs to make her fit.
“I’ll follow,” I tell him, my voice steady even though I hadn’t planned for Adam to take Alyona with him when he left.
I wait for Adam to pull out of the driveway, and keeping a reasonable distance between us, I drive after them.
“This was the plan,” I remind Z, my voice steady despite the tension in the air.
We called in a tip about what looked like a car accident on the bend in the road a few miles up, hoping that Adam would catch sight of it on his way home from Alyona’s place and decide to stop.
“Her being with him wasn’t part of it,” Z retorts, frustration evident in his tone.
“It all ends the same.”
“You hope.”
“Since when do we rely on hope?” I scoff, shaking my head.
As I look out at the scene, right where we sent Jeremiah’s car tumbling over the cliff’s edge, a line of police cars flash their lights along the roadside.
Adam pulls up behind one of the squad cars, while I position my car on the opposite side of the road, maintaining a safe distance to avoid drawing attention.
This isn’t what I envisioned for our arrival in the States, but Alyona is like a damn rabbit hole, the deeper into her world you go, the further into her you fall.
Adam is the first to step out of his car, his movements brisk and focused, while Alyona follows a few seconds later. The two of them rush toward a police officer standing near the accident scene, exchanging worried glances.
The large man who drove up to the house is already here and is coming to relay information to Adam.
“She’s a good actress,” Z remarks.
“Yes, she really is.” I watch Alyona’s mouth drop open in disbelief, her hands flying to cover her face in shock at the unfolding scene. Adam stands nearby, one hand pressed against his temple, trying to weave his way past a police officer who is firmly shaking his head in disapproval.
In the chaos, Alyona begins to stumble, her legs unsteady.
She reaches out to grab Adam’s car to keep herself balanced until she gets to the back of the vehicle.
With a sudden, forceful slam of her hip against it, the trunk springs open.
I glance over at Z, who is watching me intently with an impressed look in his eyes.
“Clever girl,” he says, a hint of respect in his tone.
Her scream echoes all around, drawing everyone’s attention to the mangled body in the trunk.
Great actress indeed. There’s a commotion, and our view gets blocked, but then we see Adam being handcuffed and slammed against a police cruiser.
A grin spreads across my face.
That was a little too easy.
“Let’s get out of here before we’re seen,” Z urges, glancing around and jerking his chin for me to move.
“What about Alyona?” I ask, the weight of the question pushing down on us.
“What about her?”
“Let me rephrase. What the fuck do we do now? About Alyona and our kid?”
Our kid.
I can’t believe I just said that shit out loud.
“She’s not our kid. Not really,” Z says, his voice hardening.
“Alyona kept her from us, and if we hadn’t come here, we would have never known she existed.
Maybe that’s for the best.” His words hang in the air, a bittersweet acknowledgement of the life we never got to have because Alyona decided for us.
I can see the turmoil in his eyes. He’s hurting and panicking, and I know he doesn’t truly mean what he’s saying. Still, I nod in understanding because he is where my priority lies. It’s me and him.
“Let’s go grab a quick shower and some food,” I tell him gently. “We need to go and officially introduce ourselves to the staff at the club, and then we should figure out who the assassin woman came here with since she told Alyona that she didn't come here alone.”
Z clenches his jaw and replies, “I’m going to kill them all and send their fucking heads to Yuri.” He slams his fist against the dashboard, his knuckles splitting open and causing a button to pop off the air vent, clattering to the floor.
“This is a rental,” I remind him with a half-smile, trying to lighten the mood. We both chuckle, the absurdity of our situation breaking through the tension. This has been an insane few days.
“Let’s get burgers,” Z demands, his voice firm and decisive. When Z makes a request, it’s usually non-negotiable.
“Burgers it is.”