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I fired off a shot that went straight through his skull and swung around to take aim at Vadim.
“You killed him?” he asked in his thick Russian accent.
“No.”
“Then who do I owe my thanks?”
My brows shot up. “He can’t hear you.” I flicked my chin toward Eduardo.
Four of Donato’s team members filed in through open metal door.
Vadim held up his hands in surrender. “The only chance I had was you. I called off the interior security, certain if you got him alone, you would eliminate him. You have freed my family.”
It had never occurred to me Vadim had suffered the same fate I had. We were cut from the same cloth, with fathers who were insufferable.
“Take your boy and free him from this life.”
“I can now that you’ve rid our lives of that bastard.” He glanced at his father's body with contempt. A small head peeked in through the open door, and I cringed.
“Go to your son. Protect him.”
Vadim's head whipped around. “Outside, Maxim.” The boy ducked out of view, and I prayed he hadn't seen his grandfather’s or Eduardo’s lifeless bodies. “Whatever you need, I am in your debt. He abused my mother and my sister, but I didn't have the courage to kill him.” The conviction behind those words had me believing them.
“Then make certain no one in your regime retaliates against me. I want a peaceful life. Nothing more.”
“We'll protect one another. You have my word.”
We shook hands. “I'll take care of this.”
“Do with him what you will. He should have suffered, but I'm glad he's gone.”
“We're more alike than you know.”
“Meet my son. I want him to know the man who freed him.” Vadim slid his arm around my waist like an old comrade. I walked with him out the front of the building, though my hand never left my weapon. I never let my guard down, but I sensed he was being genuine. Donato’s team was on high alert as well, cataloguing our every move.
The boy ran to his father, wrapping his arms around his father's legs, and it tugged at every sensitive part of me, reminding me of Gabriel. Maxim blinked at me.
“This is Carlos. He is a man you can trust,” Vadim said. “Carlos, this is Maxim. My son.”
I stooped and held out my hand. “A pleasure to meet you.”
“You too, sir.”
I looked behind me and finally felt . . . free.All the actors from my old life were dead. Their reign, their evilness, had been destroyed.It was finished. The chains tethering me to this world loosened, and I could breathe easier. And I had a future. A life.Love.
Chapter Fifty-Five
Holly
Midnight.
Where is he?I’d asked myself the question a thousand times as I waited in the foyer.
The front door swung open, and I rushed over, disappointed when I saw Donato, who had been helping Carlos with his plans. My worst fears crashed down on me. I looked around him for the man I loved, devastated when he was alone.
“Did he—” I couldn't choke out the rest, my vision like I was underwater. My head shook to and fro, a refusal to believe Carlos wasn't coming home.
“Holly, he's—”
