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As he advanced, I screamed. Then I called out Alexei’s name.
* * *
Alexei
The warehouse was one we rarely used, the aging building requiring renovation, including asbestos removal. While the property was valuable, my father had insisted it be shuttered until a later time. I’d never understood why.
Until now.
The second I bolted from the car, a shrill scream broke through the night air.
Then I heard my name shrieked, the horrible tone of Stephanie’s voice a further indication of the level of danger she was in. Two dozen of my soldiers were behind me, several breaking off in formation in order to surround the building. I raced toward the main entrance, shooting off the padlock then kicking in the door.
Beams of light from the soldiers’ flashlights flashed around the dilapidated building. I pulled out the one I’d brought, able to remember the layout of the area. Then I listened for any additional sounds.
A second scream was almost immediately muffled.
“Go. Go!” Kirill commanded, immediately racing into the bowels of the building.
After thinking about the various rooms, I headed to the upper floors, taking the stairs two at a time, still listening for any sound. Any wrong move and Sergei would kill her. He had every reason to. My rage was more explosive than ever, my fury with my father for keeping such a wretched secret from the rest of his family bordering on betrayal.
However, it was apparent that the grief he’d suffered two decades before was never far from his mind.
A clanging sound echoed in my ears from above.
Kirill moved closer, prepared to head up the stairs first but I yanked him back.
“This is my fight.”
“You’re crazy,” he huffed.
“Yeah, you’re damn right I am.” I took the steps carefully, moving in the direction of where I thought the sound had come from. The partially cracked door was all I needed.
I’d never understood the concept of blinding love, the undeniable need that could shake your world, bringing you to your knees when something tragic happened. On this cloudless night, I was forced to accept that if I lost the woman I loved, the rest of my soul would be yanked into the blackness of hell forever.
She was the one, the only woman who could ever bring me light.
There was no hesitation, no sense of caution. Time had run out. I ran toward the door, kicking it open, the momentum throwing me into the room.
“Otoydi ot neye, brat,” I snarled, tossing the flashlight aside and holding the weapon in both hands as I advanced.
When the man known as the Ghost continued to hold the knife against Stephanie’s throat, I took another step closer, repeating the words in English.
“I said get away from her,brother.”
To realize my brother was alive had been startling enough. To fully comprehend he’d been turned into a cold-blooded killer capable of murdering women and children had caused any sense of affection to cease.
The blade glistened in the overhead light, allowing me to see the sharp tip was pressed against her jugular. As he turned his head, a swell of emotions rushed through me, all of them invoking the kind of revenge that the Ghost had sought for years. Decades.
“I am no longer your brother,” he hissed.
“Misha.” I stated his real name as if it mattered. He’d supposedly died when I was little more than a baby. Although my father had never explained the occurrences around my brother’s death, I’d assumed he’d been hunted down by the same people who’d tortured my father. Instead, the hunted had become the hunter.
The moment I’d confronted my father less than an hour before, he’d broken down for the first time in his life at seeing the photograph. Not of the man’s face, as it had been altered by years of violence and age, but by the tattoo remaining on Misha’s back.
The very one my father had insisted he wear as a sign of loyalty.
He’d made no excuses, other than he’d gotten word of Misha’s possible existence, attempting to track him down. In doing so, he’d exposed our family’s location to a man who’d turned into a true monster. That had led to the chain of events in New York, the murder of two of my father’s most trusted men who’d been doing nothing but attempting to protect the man they worked for.
