His chest rises in fits and starts, his breath rattling in his throat. “Vasya,” he finally murmurs on a breath. “Came… from nowhere. Stabbed me. I…”
I grip his shoulder, catch his fading gaze. “It’s okay. Rest now, brother.”
I’ve seen enough death to know my enforcer’s life is slipping fast. As I watch, his eyes flutter closed again, a death rattle in his chest as he breathes his last.
“Good journey,” I wish him, forcing down my emotions, then climb to my feet.
That answers where the guards are. Why hadn’t I told them to watch for Vasya? He had snuck in, taken them all out because they knew and trusted him. Even after seeing the evidence of his betrayal, I still believed my old friend, my brother, could never do anything like this. I’d resisted, buried my head in the sand, and now I was paying the price.
Vasya knows everything about me, from where and when I work to the inner workings of the Bratva and even all the details about the security system, which he must have disabled.
And there he is, Vasya, standing in the yard overlooking the sea cliff. From his vantage point, he can see every angle, so taking him by surprise is impossible. My only chance is to come up on him quickly and fire my gun, hopefully before he fires his. I want to wound him, not kill him. I want answers first.
“Vasya!”
My roar echoes across the space between us as I close the distance, my gun at the ready.
He grins, bright and maddened, under rain-soaked hair plastered to his forehead and cheeks. My finger tightens on the trigger, aiming for his knee, when he yanks someone in front of him.
My steps stop. My breath stops. My world stops.
Eva.
Vasya holds her by the hair, his belt wrapped around her wrists.
“Eva!” I bellow, my vision going red and tunneling until she is all I see. They’re too close to the cliff, close enough that he could send her tumbling over the edge with one push.
“Vasya, let her go! She has nothing to do with this.” I have to shout to be heard over the roar of the fire and the rain.
“She has everything to do with this!” He shouts back, and I hear the fury in his voice, seeing it in his eyes as I edge closer. “You’ve taken everything from me, Evgeny, you and your father and your entire fucking family. Did you know that? Did you know your father ordered my father’s death? And my mother’s? And mine? Did you?”
“I didn’t know until today, Vasya, I swear it,” I call back, some small part of me still desperate to hold on to the brother I once had.
Thought I had.
“I swear I didn’t know,” I repeat. “I can’t change the past, Vasya, but help me change the future. You and me?—”
“Shut the fuck up,” Vasya snaps, the smile gone in an instant, breathtaking in how fast it flips from amused to rage-filled. “I’m done with your lies. I’m done with being your bitch. This Bratva should have been mine, and I’m going to take it. I’m going to take everything you love and make you watch as I destroy it, just like your father did to me.”
A flicker at the edge of my vision resolves into Dmitri, stalking silently from the other side of the house, shrouded in dark smoke rolling off the flames.
“Vasya.” I step toward him, keeping his attention on me. “We can talk this out. Tell me what you want.”
“I want you out of my way. I want you to stop ordering me around like I’m your bitch errand boy.” Vasya’s gestures are jerky and wild. He waves his gun to punctuate his words, and Eva flinches at each movement. “I want what’s mine, Evgeny.”
“It was never yours. Your father would have betrayed my father, the Bratva…”
“All is fair in love and war,” he taunts. “You know what Maslov told me before he died? Thevoragreed your father was ruining the Bratva, and he didn’t deserve to bepakhan. That whore he married made him soft.”
“Leave my mother out of this,” I snarl, then desperately rein in the explosion of my anger. As I move closer to him and Eva, Vasya edges closer and closer to the cliff’s edge. “Whatever Maslov told you isn’t true. Your father betrayed us. But you don’t have to. You and I, we are like brothers.”
“We were never brothers.” Vasya’s voice rises with every word until it’s a shout.
Vasya is too far gone, there’s no way I can reach him. But I have to reach Eva. Vasya held my entire future in his hands right now.
“Eva, look at me. Keep your eyes on me. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
I’m close enough now to see how wide and terrified her eyes are. They lock on mine, trusting I’ll keep my promise and protect her.
