Page 196 of Barinov

Tears slip down my cheeks, but I don’t look away. “Make him pay, baby.”

That feral grin of his stretches across his face. He slowly turns back to Luca and shrugs. “You heard her.”

With a sudden, violent snap, Lex rips him off the wall by his throat. He drives him downward into the coffee table with bone-shattering strength. The wood explodes under his weight, sending a thick mahogany spear straight through Luca’s abdomen. The bloody wood pinning him to the wreckage.

Luca gasps, choking as Lex follows him down and straddles him. Their combined weight shatters what’s left of the table. Lex’s fist rain down in a blur. I hear the brutal, wet snaps and cracks as he destroys what’s left of Luca’s face.

Lex reaches toward his thigh, pulling a curved blade from his pocket. Steel flashes in his hand before he plunges it deep into the soft hollow of Luca’s throat. Luca’s mouth opens—a silent plea for air—as blood bubbles past his lips.

Lex leans in close. “She’s mine,” he seethes.

Luca’s body jerks as the light finally drains from his emerald eyes.

“Always fucking will be,” Lex grits.

Laing taps his comms, his grip loosening on my waist. “All clear, Knox.”

Lex rises, Luca’s blood staining his hands and spotting his cheeks. He closes the distance between us in two uneven strides before his hands are on me. He yanks me out of Laing’s grasp, pulling me into his chest as his arms cinch around my waist.

“Lex,” I breathe, tears running down my cheeks.

“I’ve got you, malyshka,” he murmurs into my temple. “I’ve fucking got you.”

Chapter 49

LEX

Ditmas Park

Holding onto our girl.

75 days since Bella’s kidnapping.

My heart is beating so damn fast it’s making my vision go fuzzy. But I don’t give a single shit about that because she’s here.

In my fucking arms.

I haul her off the ground and she clings to me instantly. Her legs lock around my waist hard enough to bruise, nails digging into my shoulders.

“You came for me,” she sobs against my neck. “You’re really here.”

The sound of her voice destroys me. I bury my face in her hair, breathing her in so hard it almost hurts. That cherry-vanilla scent that’s been haunting my dreams for seventy-five goddamn days… it’s finally back.

“I’m here, baby,” I rasp, tightening my hold until there isn’t a molecule between us. “I’ve got you.”

Her hands shake against my jaw as she pulls back just enough to look at me. Tears streak her face, but it’s the other marks that make my blood turn to liquid fire. Bruises that shouldn’t fucking be there are blooming purple against the pale skin of her throat.

For one horrible second, my vision tunnels. All I can see is what that fuck did to her in this dark and silent house. Rage surges through me so violently my hand instinctively drops toward the holster at my hip. I’m ready to set her down and put a few rounds into Luca’s limp ass just for the hell of it.

Bella notices. Her steel eyes find mine, and even after everything, she still senses the microscopic shift in me and doesn’t flinch. She reaches up and strokes her thumb across my cheek. And fuck me… it’s everything.

It’s everything just to know that she’s still her.

She’s still mine.

Still ours.

“Hey,” she whispers softly. “Lex, I’m okay.”