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Of course he had. The man knew me all too well. “Where is he now?”
“Downstairs. He’s waiting for you to deliver Katya to him.”
Her breath hitched, and her hands balled into fists as she grabbed hold of the couch.
“Bring him in. Just him.”
“Want me to check him for weapons?”
Sokolov would never give up his gun. The man also knew twenty different ways to kill someone with his bare hands.
“If you do that, he’ll start shooting and ask questions later, so no.”
Damon nodded, quickly glanced at Katya, then left.
A beat later, Sokolov sauntered inside. “You know why I’m here.” His eyes zoomed in on Katya. There was no glee or malice, just ice-cold determination.
I wanted to gouge his eyes out. I still might, depending on how this conversation went.
“You can’t have her.”
Sokolov aimed his gun at Katya. My skin pulled tight.
I pointed my gun at his head, for the first time in my life. His nostrils flared.
“You kill her and you’re done,” I vowed. “I will wipe out what’s left of your family. No one carrying your blood will be left alive.”
“You don’t kill women.”
I would for her. My black soul was condemned anyway.
“Look me in the eye and tell me I’m bluffing. Your nieces will each get a bullet to the head, and that’s if they’re lucky. I vow it on my blood that I will kill all and every breathing soul in your family. Hell, I’ll even go after your prom date. Besides, you can’t kill Katya. Not according toVorylaw.”
Sokolov’s gaze was as cold as the icy Siberian soil he had shipped me off to. “Is that so?”
“She’s a Romanov now.” Judging by Sokolov’s look, I didn’t have to spell it out for him.
Still, he said, “You didn’t.”
“You know I have.”
Sokolov was silent for a beat. His voice was hoarse when he finally spoke. “All these years, I only asked one thing of you.”
To avenge his dead family in exchange for raising me to be a trained killer and helping me take down my mother’s killer. Something I would forever be grateful for.
“The number one thing you taught me was to protect the brotherhood, to protect my family.” I jerked my chin at Katya. “She’s part of my family.”
“What aboutmyfamily?” Sokolov roared. “You know what hersukafather did. First he killed my mother, shot her in the grocery store. Then he went after my little brother. He slit his throat after a soccer match down the street from our home. Then he butchered the twins in their fucking crib. They were just babes.”
Katya gasped but I kept my focus on Sokolov. Right now, he was a bear with his paw in a trap. He’d either accept help to get out of it or chew off his own paw, meaning me. I didn’t consider many men my rival but if Sokolov and I went to war, it was uncertain which one of us would survive, and what would be left of our Bratvas.
“Aslanov will get what’s coming to him,” I said. “I will keep my promise to you if it’s the last thing I do. But not by killing her.” As far as he was concerned, Katya was untouchable.
“I always told you that a woman will make you vulnerable.” Sokolov kept his gun fixed on Katya. “Tell me you don’t love her. Tell me you didn’t allow her to make you weak like that.”
In his warped mind, he was protecting me against the fallout if anything should happen to the woman I loved. He would shoot her, consequences be damned. He truly believed I was his best creation, and that he would save me from myself by eliminating her.
“Have you ever known me to be a man with a heart? Let alone one who loves a woman like that?” Then, just to bring it home, I added, “If I’d wanted a life with a woman, I would have chosen Oksana years ago.”
