Page 71 of Forced & Owned By the Bratva Boss

In my final moments, I’m thinking less about the gun pressed against my head and more about the people I’m leaving behind.

A painful lump rises in my throat.

If only I could tell Matthew how sorry I am. If only I could tell my mother and brother how much I miss them…and then Igor. If I had another chance I would tell him how much I love him and how sorry I am for everything.

He’ll spend the rest of his life believing I betrayed him. He’ll never know how desperately I wanted to tell him the truth or how I convinced myself that if I could find something he could use against Serrano, then he wouldn’t hate me as much when I told him everything.

A tear slips down my face.

He’ll never know I loved him.

“I’m sorry.” I’m not sure if I’m apologizing to Matthew, Igor, or myself. But I know the sadness I feel is stronger than any fear I’ve ever felt.

“Goodbye, darling.”

I close my eyes, ready to accept my fate.

An explosion rips through the apartment so strongly that the floor shakes beneath my feet. Glass smashes into tiny pieces while someone yells something in Spanish.

Then there’s continuous gunfire in the room.

I flinch so hard I almost fall over.

More deafening gunshots ring out and smoke fills the air. I can’t even tell who Serrano’s men are, even though I can hear them yelling in Spanish.

“Muévanse!”

“Atrás!”

“Take them down!”

It’s near impossible to see through the fog of smoke in the air. The smell of gunpowder and the adrenaline coursing through my veins make my head spin. One of Serrano’s men drops beside me with blood pouring out from the hole in his head. Another crashes into the wall before sliding lifelessly to the floor with his eyes wide open.

And then I spot them.

Sergei and Dimitri.

My heart skips a beat so sharply that it hurts. Sergei and Dimitri are here. Which means Igor…

I turn, frantically searching through the smoke for only one person. I don’t think he’d come. He must hate me after everything. Still, I search for him in the fog of smoke and dead bodies.

Another burst of gunfire lights up the apartment, and for the briefest second, I see him.

Igor.

He steps through the broken doorway with murder written across every inch of his face, his gun raised as if it’s an extension of his arm. His expression is colder than I’ve ever seen it.

Colder than it was when he told me to get out of his house only hours ago. His eyes lock onto one of Serrano’s men and he shoots him before the other man even notices he’s there.

For one impossible moment, everything feels unreal. Maybe I’m dreaming. Maybe this is just what my brain imagines before it shuts down forever.

Maybe I’m seeing him before I die because he’s the one person I want to see one more time.

The world begins to spin around me as my vision starts to blur and darken. The cursing in Spanish, the sound of gunshots, and everything else becomes muffled. Distant.

The last thing I see before darkness closes over my vision is Igor turning toward me, his expression changing the instant our eyes meet.

Whatever he yells never reaches me, because everything goes black before I hear a single word.