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Raising a brow in question, I look at her. “There was a guard snacking in the kitchen. I slit his throat, and Stryker is hiding him in the broom closet,” she whispers with a shrug. “Everything else was clear, just a broom closet and a laundry room that smells like bleach and death. Then there was the kitchen where snacky-the-bear died.” King takes a step back and allows Natalia to stand on the other side of the door frame, peeking through the cracked door, watching the two men argue inside.
Peering in, we see Papa sitting in a large charcoal gray high-back chair, smoking a cigar. Ivan is standing in front of him, wearing black slacks with suspenders over a white and black plaid shirt.How someone so terribly dressed can be so deadly is beyond me.Ivan is yelling at Papa about how incompetent he’s become at running the organization.
“You need to disinherit that traitorous cunt you call a son!” Ivan sneers.
“Moy mal’chikwill come back to me! He had a lapse in judgment, but he’ll see my side of things once we bring the Printsessa to heel!” Papa roars. I am about to just shoot Ivan in the back from where I stand, but then he abruptly moves behind the desk Papa sits at. He’s looking out the window and back to the room.
Ivan turns, rubbing his chin between two fingers. “I do think Alexie will come to heel when it comes to that bitch. That’s why you should have given her to me all those years ago,” Ivan says slimly.
Now, this fucker is talking crazy. I’ve heard enough.Kicking open the door the rest of the way, I stroll in like this is a dinner party. “Papa, Umbra, how the fuck are you tonight? Terrible, I hope, but more importantly, are you ready to die?” I ask while laughing.
Natalia is right next to me, eyes filled with hate, glaring at the man who raised her as his own. “What a pleasant surprise, Alexie,” Papa smiles at me and Natalia. At the sound of my name, King and Stryker enter the room but freeze instantly. They are both looking at Papa and Ivan like deers caught in headlights.What the fuck?
“The fuck game are you two playing?” King demands. Not wanting to take my eyes off the two men in front of me, I keep my deadly stare aimed at them, but I need to know what the hell King is going on about.
“What do you mean Viking-man?” I ask. King just stands there in silence while Stryker still has a look of utter confusion on his face. Ivan cackles like a madman. He rounds the corner of the desk and steps up to King, patting his chest. Natalia steps up next to King, trying to wedge her way between King and Ivan.
“Get the fuck away from them! They have nothing to do with this, Ivan!” she growls, looking like every ounce of the warrior she is trained to be. King swings his eyes between the two of them in shock before he whispers, “Ivan?” I move my eyes to focus solely on my papa, who has been silent this whole time. He has an evil smirk on his face, and his eyes are filled with glee.
Ivan takes a step back and reaches behind him. Natalia steps between King and him fully now. If he pulls a weapon, she’s going to attack to protect her lover. I go to move, to end this, but before I can even take the three steps it would take to make it to myZaychikand Ivan, a loud bang reverberates through the room.
We all jerk back at the sound and quickly look around, checking on the members of our team. Everyone is still standing and okay as far as we can tell at a glance. Jerking my head toward Ivan, I see him holding a gun behind him, and it’s smoking. I whip my glance to where he has it pointed and see my papa slumped back in his chair with a hole directly between his eyes.
“One Volkov down, one to go,” Ivan chuckles.
King
Whatintheever-lovinghell is happening right now? How is he here? Why are Alexie and Luci calling himIvan? Why did he just kill Andrei Volkov? I am so fucking confused. Alexie launches himself across the foot of space, separating him from us, and attacks. I look at Stryker, and he looks just as puzzled as I do. He’s frozen in place, hands at his side, just staring.
“Are you two just going to stand there? Or are you going to fucking help him?” Luci screams at us. Jumping into action, I grab hold of Alexie, pushing my hands up under his armpits and back behind his head, locking them together. He’s fighting me with everything he has, but I have his hands above his head, and he can’t reach any of the weapons I’m sure he has stashed on his body.
Luci flies at the man they’re callingIvanand starts exchanging blows with him. He elbows her in the chest, and then before she can block, he punches her hard across her right cheek. Her head snaps to the left with the impact, and she holds her face, looking at him while spitting blood onto the floor at his feet. Distracted by Luci taking a hit from a grown-ass man twice her size, my hold on Alexie loosens, and I receive an elbow to the gut. I gasp, bending over to catch my breath, when Alexie shoves me into the wall, holding a knife to my throat. “I’ll be damned if I ever watchIvanlay a hand on my girl ever again,” he grits as he pushes the knife harder against my skin.
A sharp whine draws all our attention, and we all turn to see thatIvanhas Luci in a chokehold. Her back is to his front. He drops one hand to wrap around her waist while the other holds a dagger to the side of her throat. He’s laughing, and Nat is wiggling against him, trying to get leverage to break free. She darts her eyes between the three of us. She mouthsI love youto Alexie as she breaks her stare with him to stare at Stryker and me. Her eyes narrow, a look of hurt and betrayal flashing across her face before she schools her features.
“You two morons haven’t figured it out yet, have you? Where is that smart fucking loser you keep on the team?”Ivantaunts us. Nat growls at the jab he took at Conrad and throws her head back into his nose. We hear an audible crack and watch as blood drips down his face. Once again, he cackles as he pushes his now broken nose into Nat’s hair. “Oh,Krasotka, do you have a crush on the computer dork? I’ll fuck him out of your system soon enough after I kill Alexie and take the throne to the Volkov Empire,” he taunts her.
He looks to Stryker and then back to me, saying, “Your whole team was clueless. I played all of you so easily. Ingram helped me disappear in the end when I needed to go home. But none of you were the wiser. Fucking morons, the lot of you.”Oh, he sure did fucking toy with us.None of us would ever guess this would be how things played out tonight. I’m lost in my thoughts, backtracking through my mind, trying to see where I might have missed something or how the hell we all got fucked so easily. It comes back to one answer; Ingram.
“King, look at me,” Luci demands. My eyes lock with her emerald green orbs. “Do you knowIvanor Umbra as he’s known?” I nod, speechless because how do I tell the woman I love that my once best friend is holding a dagger to her throat?
“Yes, we know him. Although, when we knew him, he was going by Kruz. Kruz was on our team, and you took his spot,” Stryker tells her, finally finding his voice. I see the wheels turning in her pretty little head. She nods her head at me once, like she accepts what she was just told.
“Someone better tell me what is going on. I was ready to kill thisPodonok,and you stopped me. Now he has my woman hostage. And yes, I mean my woman, you two let her be beat, she’s not yours anymore,” Alexie hisses.
“Ivan, or Umbra as you’ve known him, was on our team. Him and King joined at the same time. They were inseparable, and then he died. We were told he got caught up in a gang issue from his past. We thought he was our friend and dead until this moment,” Stryker elaborates. He looks and sounds downright irate. Meanwhile, I’m still standing here in silence, floundering in my own feelings.
He was like a brother to me. I gave Luci so much hell because I couldn’t get past him being gone. I CRIED for him in the comfort of my home. Now, come to find out, this fucker is actually the infamousIvanwho tortured my woman and had Katia caged, beaten, and RAPED. He blew up Lane’s bar, almost killing BJ, and he killed Marvin.
Pure rage fills my body, and I feel like I’m vibrating. I’m so enraged, I roar as I run at him and Luci full force. I don’t care if he shoots me. I’m going to make him pay for what he did to me. What he did to Luci. He will not leave this room alive if I have anything to say about it. He cackles like a fucking loon and shoves Nat at me before he slips to the side. Nat crashes to the ground, catching herself on her hands and knees.
I hear Stryker and Alexie in a battle of fists withKruz…Ivan…whatever the fuck his name is. The sounds growing farther away. They must have taken the fight out of this room. Looking at Luci, I feel my eyes sting. Not wanting her to see me cry over the turn of events, I turn my face away from her, but she cups my cheeks, bringing my eyes back to her. “Look at me! He’s pure fucking evil; he fucked all of us. Don’t dwell on it right now. Let’s just kill his fucking ass. Then we can go home and deal with this together,” she reassures me.
“But…I…you,” I stammer. Luci slams a hand over my mouth, then pulls it away and seals her lips over mine. She gives me a quick but tender kiss.
“It doesn’t matter, King. It’s over. I forgave you, you are MINE. I love you! Let’s just kill the bastard.”
She said it again. She loves me.I wasn’t sure I was capable of love or that I would ever feel it with another human being. But looking into this woman’s eyes right now as she holds me, telling me she forgives me and loves me, I think I underestimated myself.I’m in love with Nat, my Luci.I need to tell her, but not like this. Right now, we have a shadow to shoot.
