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1
ALINA
Horrified, I watch on as the man I just confessed to loving, the father of my unborn child, stands in the doorway to what looks like some kind of prison chamber. Mishka hides in the shadows, lurking as he watches the scene unfold.
Then, slowly, he draws his gun.
But it’s not in defense of my father, the man he swore loyalty to. It’s not to protect my brother, who stands next to my father, both preoccupied with the five prisoners hanging from chains attached to the ceiling. Instead, he aims the gun right at my father’s head.
It terrifies me to see men being held prisoner beneath our home. I don’t know who they are or why my father has them chained with their arms above their heads. But I suspect, based on what Mishka has told me over the past month, that these are the men he’s been searching for. The men who ambushed us on the way home from Alek Petryov’s engagement party. The men who almost killed me, Mishka, and my entire family.
So, why would Mishka want to defend them?
I don’t understand, and it horrifies me to see the cold hatred in Mishka’s eyes as he raises his gun with single-minded intent. I snuck downstairs, fearful that I would find my father punishing Mishka over getting caught in a room alone with me. I was ready to step in and protect the man I love if need be.
But what I see completely blindsides me. Because Mishka’s steady calm belies his impending violence. I can see it in his laser focus—he’s been planning this moment for a long time. This is the look of an assassin, someone who’s found the opportunity they’ve been waiting for.
That’s when it hits me. It’s not out of fear for the prisoners’ safety that he’s ready to pull that trigger. It’s not in rage, even, like he’s been provoked to violence.
And it’s certainly not in self-defense.
It’s too cool, too calculated.
For the first time, a terrifying thought enters my mind. What if Mishka’s not who he says he is? What if the reason he survived the night we were ambushed was because he was a part of the plan to kill my family all along?
Even with the proof right here before me, I can’t seem to wrap my mind around that possibility. Why did he save me if that’s the case?
And more importantly, why does he clearly want to kill my father—my family?
All those nights of spending time together, laughing, dancing, talking. I thought I was getting to know him. But I don’t know this man at all.
I trusted Mishka.
I believed in the goodness I saw in him.
And yet here he is, ready to betray me. Ready to betray us all.
It cuts deeper knowing that I let him into my heart. Into my bed.
I fell in love with him. I’m carrying his child. All this time he’s been sleeping with me, has he been planning to kill my father?
My stomach threatens to reject my dinner at the thought. My breath catches in my throat as the pain of his betrayal lances through my chest.
Seeming to sense my presence, Mishka turns, his head snapping in my direction as he meets my eyes. Blue steel finds me, his frigid, hate-filled gaze turning me to ice.
Cold panic grips my chest. I’ve never seen such tortured violence in his eyes. I don’t even recognize the man before me. This Mishka is not the man who caresses my cheek and holds me close.
This is an avenging angel, ready to wipe my family’s name from the face of the earth.
My lips part, but I can’t find my voice to cry out, to warn my father that he’s in danger. Heart thudding in my chest, I watch helplessly as the man who raised me stands oblivious, on the verge of being gunned down.
Not far from him, my brother speaks to the prisoners, but I don’t hear a word. I can’t imagine Mishka will let Viktor live, either. Tears sting my eyes as I brace for the horrible devastation of losing them.
Then, to my astonishment, Mishka lowers the gun.
Still, his gaze is filled with a violent rage, a wrathful agony that tears at my heart and at the same time, makes me quake.
His body shifts as he seems to forget his target, and he comes for me instead.
