Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 68931 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68931 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
The words barely reach me over the roar of my heartbeat. The flames by the entrance are growing closer, dancing in my vision. Out on the driveway, my nephew is the very picture of confusion, his gaze bouncing between the two men he knows. “Uncle Lyosha? Papa?”
Like the brave idiot she is, Chloe edges forward. “Slavochka… Please come to me. Mama Chloe needs you here.”
My nephew hesitates, as if he knows what will happen once he’s no longer between the two lethally armed men, but then he makes his choice. As Chloe takes another cautious half-step forward, he dashes toward her, his short legs pumping hard, and she grabs him by the arm and shoves him behind her.
Rat-tat-tat!
I stumble and brace myself against a car as horror jellifies my legs and paints my vision gray. It takes me a second to realize that I imagined the explosion of gunfire, that everything on the driveway is still status quo.
I suck in a smoke-filled breath as my tortured lungs give out—only I’m close enough to the entrance that the air is breathable again. Pushing away from the car, I suppress a cough as I hear Alexei’s rough bark of laughter.
“Mama Chloe, is it?” he drawls in English. The sound of his voice, dark and taunting, makes my knees go weak again. “Sweetheart… if you move another muscle, I’ll blow your brains out and then your dear husband’s. Congratulations on your nuptials by the way. I’m guessing the wedding was very recent?”
I’m still trying to get my legs to move when my brother replies in a lethally soft tone, “None of your fucking business. Now leave before I paint the ground with your brains. Since we seem to be family and all, I’ll let you walk away before the guards get here.”
“What guards?” Even through the smoke, I catch a flash of Alexei’s white teeth as he bares them in a sharp, cruel smile. “It’s just me and my men here now. And you’re fucking high if you think I’m leaving without what I came for. Hand over my sister’s son and Alina—and maybe, just maybe, I’ll let you and your pretty bride live. Seeing as we’re about to be even closer family and all.”
My heart jolts sideways, and I almost miss my brother’s next words, spoken in an even softer, smoother voice. “You have exactly thirty seconds to shut up and back away before I open fire.”
Alexei’s gaze flicks to Chloe again. “With her and the child here? I don’t think so. Besides, my snipers have you both in their sights.”
“Bullshit,” my brother says coldly. “They don’t have a clear shot.”
Alexei’s grin is pure savagery. “No? Want to bet? Either way, all I need to do is wait, and my men will take down the shooter on your roof—at which point you’ll be completely surrounded, and I’ll take what I came for.”
Strength flows back into my legs. The shooter on the roof—that must be Pavel. He’s still alive. I propel myself forward as Nikolai’s voice becomes pure ice. “Not if you’re dead by then. You have twenty seconds left. Nineteen. Eighteen…”
Alexei’s eyes turn into slits, and I can read my brother’s death in their black depths—and in Nikolai’s tense stance, I can see Alexei’s demise. Violence fills the air, its thick, noxious fumes as toxic as the smoke swirling around me.
It’s now or never.
We’re officially out of time.
I cover the last meter to burst into view. “Stop!” My eyes water from the smoke as I step through the jagged hole left by the explosion, my gun held loosely at my side and my gaze trained on the man I’ve been trying to escape for nearly half my life. “Stop, Alexei, please. Slava isn’t going anywhere, you know that. My brother won’t give up his son. And he’s not—” My voice breaks as the full knowledge of what I’m doing slams into me. “He’s not the one you want anyway.”
At my side, Chloe sucks in an audible breath, but I ignore her, my eyes locked on Alexei’s. His gaze scorches me in return, the dark hunger in it visible even from this distance. My heart hammers faster. Clad in black tactical gear, with the weapon in his hands, my nemesis looks as deadly as I know him to be, yet even now, some tiny part of me burns for him—and an even smaller part, one that I don’t want to acknowledge, weeps in gratitude that he’s alive.
“Alina, get back.” My brother’s voice is knife sharp, but I ignore him too. This is now between me and Alexei.
A numb sort of calm envelops me as I raise my gun, aiming it at him. My voice is level as I say, “You have a choice. I know you’re an excellent shot, but so is my brother—and so am I. And so is Lyudmila in there.” I nod toward the dark garage. I’m bluffing, but I can’t let Alexei know that. With superhuman effort, I continue in the same even tone. “Maybe you can take down one or two of us before our bullets find you—and maybe your snipers can help—but nobody is going to walk away unscathed. You might have the advantage of the forces surrounding us, but here, we outnumber you. Besides…” I manage to inject sarcasm into my voice. “What good am I to you dead, right?”