Chapter 40
Chapter Forty
Severin Volkov
Present
She disappeared between my fingertips. Actually disappeared. I blinked, testing my eyes, because what I had just seen—and what had just happened—was impossible.
She was a ghost.
The message on the wall wasn’t an illusion. The video wasn’t doctored. The woman was invisible, just like she had been then.
I rubbed the veil between my fingers. The small black grooves scratched against my fingertips.
My brain could not comprehend what I’d just seen… and felt. I had felt her skin dissolve under my fingertips. To say it was unsettling would be an understatement.
I had no idea how to process all of that, so I decided not to.
Mirko had raped her, strangled her until she nearly died. I kicked his dead body. He deserved so much worse.
She spoke of a prison. Of confinement. Did that mean she was trafficked? But by the Bratva?
My eyebrows drew together. I thought we’d outlawed trafficking thirty years ago. But what if Aleksandr hadn’t wanted to follow his father’s wishes—my grandfather’s decree?
What have you done, Father?
I swallowed and studied the room. I knew in my bone marrow that she was still here—still watching.
“Ghost?” I asked, turning, trying to find her, sense her somehow.
“Yes?” Her voice came like a whisper on the wind.
“What now? What do you want?”
“I want them all dead,” the voice seethed. “I want you all dead. I want your fear, and I will take everything from you. I speak with the voice of death. I act with death’s vengeance, for all those who have come before me and for all those who will come to follow.”
I clenched my jaw.
“I understand men like Mirko, but why all the rest of us?” I asked.
“You know why?” The voice moved, and it felt like she was circling me.
My throat worked. “I don’t.”
“Your Order killed me, and I am not going to stop until I destroy you all.”
My Order?
What were you mixed up in, Father?
I shook my head. My father was hiding something far deeper than I had ever imagined. His books were messy, but I thought he was just incompetent. But what if it was more?
What if he was hiding a secret organization that raped and killed women?
I needed to find out, and I had a feeling this ghost was not going to be very helpful.
She was vengeful and consumed by revenge. I had the feeling she wasn’t going to believe me when I said I knew nothing about what she was talking about.
For the last ten years, I’d run Russian clubs and our legitimate businesses. I had nothing to do with all the shady and rather foolish things my father was tied up with.
But she’d never believe it.
She’d said we’re trapped in here, like she’d known all along. She knew I’d set a trap. I wasn’t surprised, considering that she was invisible and could probably sneak into anywhere she wanted and overhear anything she wanted.
And if she knew it was a trap, did she set one of her own?
Acting like I had no cares in the world, I strolled to the exit and tried to push open the door, only to hear the rattle of chains. Upon closer inspection, all of the lower-lying windows were boarded up, and I’d bet anything that she had chained all the other doors too.
Well, that was not ideal.
The more I inspected, the more I found.
The place reeked of lighter fluid and gasoline.
Well, that was fucking perfect. She was going to light it on fire.
As if on cue, she solidified again, her back to me, her white-silver hair dancing in the wind streaming from the high windows.
“Do try to escape. If you die here, it would be rather anticlimactic. Not much of a chase at all.” She laughed and struck her lighter, the flame dancing on the end. “Don’t disappoint me, Severin.”
Then she dropped the flame to the floor, and a burst of fire blossomed into the air.
Within minutes, the entire building was coated in flames, and a ring of fire surrounded me.
The ghost glanced back at me one more time before she walked through the flames, through the wall, and to safety. Not once had I gotten a good look at her face.
I didn’t waste my time searching for an exit.
I knew there wasn’t one. The ghost was too good.
My only chance of surviving was to climb up to one of the windows that wasn’t blocked off.
Luckily, the room was filled with chains, although they were scalding hot now.
But I’d rather have minor burns on my hands than horrific ones all over my body.
I’d nearly made it to the ceiling when disaster struck. The beam holding the chains caved in and tumbled to the floor, bringing me with it and pinning me to the concrete.
My head hit the ground hard, and my vision doubled before fading completely. I passed out, and I was most certainly going to die.