I spin around to find Adrian stepping out from the shadows like the snake he is, gun in hand, flanked by several armed men. His face is twisted with smug satisfaction.
“Hello Maxim,” he sneers. “Sorry, I had to break your little brawl, but it’s time I put an end to all of this.”
An ugly smile curls at his lips.
“You have no idea how much joy it brings me that this day has finally come,” Adrian says, almost savoring the words. “I’ll give you credit, Maxim, you’re one hard man to break.”
He takes a slow step forward, gun steady in his hand.
“I went after your businesses. I cut you off from allies. I painted you as the unstable bastard you are, to make people doubt you, to make them turn on you… but you always came out on top. You slipped through my fingers every time.”
His smile sharpens.
“And then that wedding ruined everything. The Morozov girl gave you legitimacy I couldn’t easily destroy.”
Rage explodes through me. I raise my gun, but Adrian’s men open fire first.
Gunshots erupt everywhere. Bullets ricochet off concrete walls. I dive behind cover, returning fire while giving the signal to my men outside. They storm in, weapons blazing, but Adrian came prepared, there are more men than I expected. We’re outnumbered.
The fight turns chaotic. Shouts, screams, the sharp crack of gunfire filling the abandoned hall. I take down two of Adrian’s men, but another clips my shoulder. Pain flares hot, but I ignore it, pushing forward.
Then I see familiar faces as Artyom and Mikhail burst in with their own soldiers, guns drawn, laying down covering fire. My relief is instant, until I see my wife.
She’s right there with them, eyes wide with fear but determined, her weapon drawn. Under different circumstances I’d be proud, but fury and terror crash over me at the same time. What the fuck is she doing here? She shouldn’t be here. She should be safe at home.
The Morozov men turn the tide. Their arrival evens the odds. Bullets fly. Men fall. In the chaos, I see Adrian trying to slip away. I push through the fight, ignoring the pain in my shoulder, and fire. My shot catches him in the chest. He staggers, eyes wide with shock, before collapsing.
I walk over to him, stand over his body. And I fire again. Head. Chest. Neck. I don’t stop until he’s completely still. Dead.
I turn to find Dmitri being captured alive by my men, dragged away kicking and screaming. He’ll face a much slower end.
The gunfire dies down. The hall falls eerily quiet except for the groans of the wounded. Mostly Adrian’s men. The rest have already fled.
My first instinct is Calina.
I shove through the debris and bodies, ignoring the blood on my hands, until I reach her. I pull her into my arms, crushing her against my chest, my hands frantically checking for injuries.
“Are you hurt?” I rasp, voice rough. “Tell me you’re okay.”
She clings to me, trembling but alive. “I’m okay. I’m not hurt.”
“Fuck baby, you gave me a scare.” I hug her tighter. “Don’t ever do that again.”
I hold my wife closer, pressing a hard kiss to the top of her head. She’s alive. That’s all that matters.
Thank fuck for that.
My grip tightens slightly at the thought of what could’ve gone wrong. If anything had happened to her, I would’ve put a bullet in her brothers’ heads without hesitation. And as it stands, I’m still going to have a very serious conversation with them for bringing her into this.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Maxim
Dmitri hangs from the chains in the basement, covered in blood and bruises, barely conscious. The irony is almost laughable. Usually, he’s the one standing on this side of the room.
He’s been down here since last night, after everything came to light. I’ve spent hours breaking him, extracting every plan he made with Adrian, every secret he sold, every person he snitched to.
He’s told me everything. No one else was involved. It was just him and Adrian. They were planning to kill me, to take over my empire. Adrian would have controlled everything from the shadows, and Dmitri would have run the day-to-day operations, reporting directly to him.
