Trey looks more relieved by my decision than disappointed. After lifting his chin in understanding, he shifts on his feet to face the men snickering under their breaths. “Gather up any evidence you can before reconvening at Clarks.” When the men’s bickering shifts to a sigh, Trey says matter-of-factly, “The day is still young. We will not fall until Nikolai is returned. If you do, you will fall on his knife just as quickly.”
38
Maddox
It took the men not even five minutes to pluck every bit of evidence, equipment, and DNA-laced objects they could find in the old airport hangar. Once it was loaded into the final two SUVs, we commenced our ten-mile trip back to the Popov compound. Justine has been quiet the entire time. She’s not exactly sulking. However, she is extremely closed-off.
The last time I saw her this reserved was when Demi and I visited her in the hospital after she was mauled. She tried to refuse us entry, but I stormed in with the hotheadedness of a bull, certain nothing I could see would have been worse than what I had faced only days earlier.
It kills me to admit that the damage the Rottweiler did to her body still haunts my dreams to this day. Justine has often said the surgeons stitched her back together like a patchwork quilt, and I’d be a liar if I didn’t agree with her. She had hundreds of stitches, head to toe, but mercifully, her face was untouched. If you discounted the pain in her eyes when she’s rugged up for winter, you’d have no clue of the horrors she had been through.
It was the same for Demi. She was so beautiful and so fucking strong, but no matter how brightly she smiled, the pain in her eyes never quit. It was there for the world to see. I just acted ignorant to it.
What I said to Agent Machini earlier was true. I wouldn’t change Demi’s past because the scars of her childhood made her the woman she was, but sometimes, I wish I could erase the hurtful parts. Then she’d still be the woman I love, but every time she looked at me, I wouldn’t have to strive for ways to numb her pain. I could have been with her solely because I loved her, not because I wanted her to have a better life.
Memories of the last smile she flashed me stop clouding my thoughts when my head collides with the back passenger window of the SUV Trey is commanding. He had to veer to miss a dog sitting in the middle of the field.
“Damn dog. Get out of the fucking way,” Trey shouts a mere second before Justine’s neck cranks to the back window of the SUV.
She stares at the dog Trey narrowly missed for two heart-thrashing seconds before she screams, “Stop!”
Trey locks up the brakes, skidding us to a stop, and almost causing the cars following us to ram up our ass. I stop glaring at him in the rearview mirror when Justine throws open her door and clambers out. After spinning in a circle, she drags her wide eyes over the barren land surrounding us. Although I’m lost on what’s caused the rapid shift in her demeanor, there’s a fire in her eyes that can’t be denied. She’s clawing her way out of the deep dark pit Nikolai’s disappearance forced her into. She is re-emerging from her cocoon for the second time, except this time, her metamorphosis is solely for Nikolai instead of my freedom.
After taking in a bullet casing shimmering in the low-hanging sun, she drifts her eyes between Trey and me. “There’s a gorge somewhere near here. Nikolai is in that gorge.”
Ignoring the disdained looks she’s being hit with, she returns to the SUV to gather the map Trey dumped onto the passenger seat earlier today. After rolling the topographic map across the hood of the SUV, she points to an obvious elevation in the seemingly flat landscape. “Here. Our truck went over the edge around here.”
Trey squeezes Justine’s shoulder in thanks before ordering his men to return to the SUVs. Half follow his command. The other half are too frozen with shock to move. They’re not immobile in awe of Justine’s sudden recollection of events, they are stunned by the gall of a gangbanger with a tattooed cheek and a bad attitude. “Are you all fucking clueless? Can’t you see she’s taking us on a wild goose chase, hoping we won’t realize she’s orchestrated all of this?”
“That’s enough, Ethan.”
Justine swipes her hand through the air, cutting Trey off. “Let him speak.” She bridges the gap between her and Ethan without the slightest shake to her strides. “Because they may be the last words he ever speaks.”
When Ethan attempts to get up in her face, I step up to him, chest to chest. I’m not shocked when I feel Trey’s shoulder butt against mine. He may hate sharing the same air as me, but he can set aside his disdain when it comes to protecting Justine.
His overbearing desire to protect her assures me he isn’t working with India. I doubt he even knows her imprint is all over the evidence Nikolai’s crew scrummaged from the hangar. I have every intention to tell him about her involvementoncemy baby sister’s life and that of her child is out of danger.
But not now when Justine is being eyed like their thirst for a bloodbath won’t be quenched until all the blood is drained from her veins. I can’t change my past, but I can ensure my family doesn’t suffer more than they already have.
With one goon subdued by a double dose of threat, Justine sets to work on getting the rest on board with her plans. “I get it, all right? You want your king back.” When a collective hum sounds over the flat terrain, she adds, “So the fuck do I. That’s what I’ve been trying to do since you found me. I don’t want to take Nikolai’s place. I want him to come home.” She strays her eyes over the many pairs staring at her in shocked awe. “If you don’t want the same thing, then leave, go, but be assured, if you do leave, you’llneverbe welcomed back. The instant I become Nikolai’s, I become a bratva. That means I’m as much your family as I am Nikolai’s. When one of us goes down, we all go down. That’s the bratva way.” She steps closer to the men now looking at her as if she is a true queen. “So you need to make a choice. Either fight alongside me to bring Nikolai home or walk away like a coward. Those are your only two options.”
When the men break into a Russian chant, Justine re-enters the SUV. She appears composed, but I know there’s more to the gloss in her eyes than bewilderment about how fast she got Nikolai’s men on her side. She’s in pain. I just have no clue if the pain is in her chest or her stomach. It could be a combination of both.
“One more stop.” My murmur is in response to the sigh Agent Machini releases when Trey steers the lead SUV in the direction Justine highlighted on the map instead of the closest hospital, but Justine believes it’s for her.
“He’s there, Maddox. I can feel it.” She squeezes my hand before returning her focus to scanning the scenery. I do the same.
Not even two minutes later, I point to an abyss in the land that looks similar to a gorge. “There!”
Trey slams on his brakes as he did earlier before he locks his eyes with Justine’s in the rearview mirror. “Does anything around here seem familiar?”
When she exits the vehicle to contemplate his question, I mimic her movements. She appears confused, but I’m highly skeptical it’s from a knock to the head. Her eyes are flickering like Demi’s did when she struggled to remember Kaylee.
Before Justine can make a dent in her confusion, a teenage male shouts, “Over here!” He’s standing on the very edge of the gorge, unfearful he might fall.
“He’s here,” Justine whispers after peering down the rocky cliff edge.
When she commences scaling down the rocky surface, the gent Trey introduced as Nikolai’s Russian counterpart requests she be careful while Trey tells his men to gather any equipment needed to hoist Nikolai to safety if he’s found.
