One of them had to watch the other die.
Whoever did this made sure of that.
They were forced to witness the unwarranted and brutal death of their mate, the only silver lining the knowledge they would soon follow.
I hope it was quick.
I brush a few more tears from my eyes as I pray to a god I don’t believe in that these women didn’t suffer, that their death came on swift wings, and that their pack was reunited the second they took their final breath.
Who would do something like this?
These women were harmless. They were kind and thoughtful. They treated Liv and I…
Olive.
I spin away from the bed and race through the RV, jumping over the stairs as I run toward my girl. It’s pouring now, the rain coming down in sheets but our camper isn’t far enough for that to be a problem. Not even when my boots slide in the fresh mud, taking me to my knees just as our front door comes into view.
“Liv!” I shout as I whip it open and rush inside. “Olive, kitten, where?—”
Something hard cracks me in the side of the head, the sharp edge catching my temple and causing my vision to double before it blurs. I swing in the direction of the hit, searching in the dark for the unknown assailant.
“Liv,” I call out, needing to hear her voice even if it’s the last thing I ever hear but instead, the sound of heavy footsteps come from my right.
A black mass appears when I turn and I swing again, trying to fight my way out even as my vision starts to fade.
“Where is she?!” I yell as my fist connects with a nose, the unmistakable sound of it breaking my only real confirmation. “Where is my?—”
This time when I’m hit, I drop to my knees, swaying for a moment before the same object nails me in the same spot and I fall face first into the floor.
CHAPTER 12
DIMITRI
I STAY AWAY - ALICE IN CHAINS
Idon’t know why I came here.
It was stupid.
If there was a sure fire way of getting noticed, and in some kind of fucking trouble, my dumbass figured out how to go about it.
Hiding in plain sightis how my cousin referred to it and the phrase didn’t have any real meaning until now.
Leaving was going to be risky on its own.
It’s not like my absence would go unnoticed. As the heir to one of the biggest branches of the Russian mafia in New York, one operating out of a random as fuck small town that was not even remotely obvious in its connection to things, the fact that I was gone for more than a week or two would start to raise some eyebrows. Being gone for just over a month now? That means I need to start watching my back a lot closer than before.
Alexei disagrees.
He’s convinced Minneapolis is too obscure to be an immediate thought in the head of anyone from my father’s organization. It’s too far, tooclean, too innocent for them toassume that not only does any Bratva not reach this far, but it wouldn’t be connected to our family in any way.
I think X has been away from home too fucking long. He seems to have forgotten who the hell Boris Volkov is.
There is no doubt in my mind that I’m being hunted. Not one. By my father’s men, by outside trackers he might have hired, by any one of our rivals who might have gotten wind of my departure. To think I’m not being followed would mean I’m a lot stupider than I already am for leaving in the first place.
But I didn’t have a choice, not after I found out everything I did.
If I’d have stayed with all the knowledge I acquired over the last year rattling around in my head, I’d have easily started a war. One that began with a mutiny and ended with a body count that might have given anyone who’s ever been affiliated with us a run for their money.
