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“You’re fucked in the head if you think I’m going to keep working for you,” I hiss. “Dani was the only reason I complied. Now that she’s—” I can’t bring myself to say it. My throat closes at the thought of her final moments, alone and afraid and in pain. My heart is breaking. “You might as well kill me now because I’m done helping you.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Positive.”
“So you don’t mind what happens to your brothers? Their families?”
I’m not sure how much more of this I can take. Dani, my brothers, my sisters-in-law, my nieces and nephews… Who else will Konstantin threaten so he can have his way?
“Mikhail and Dimitri touched down a few days ago, you know,” he continues. “A sight for sore eyes. It’s only a matter of time before my people track them down. Once we do… Well, you know how this goes.”
“Stop it,” I grumble. I feel my resolve breaking. How many more people do I have to lose? “Please, just stop it.”
“Then give me what I want, Luka.” Konstantin starts toward the door. “We want the Antonov Bratva’s money. All of it. No more dragging your feet, do you understand? Enough with all these small transfers. Drain your brothers’ accounts and leave dealing with the repercussions to us.”
I don’t bother asking what happens if I refuse. His threat hangs over my head like an ax, ready to fall and split me down the spine like kindling.
“Get well soon, dear nephew,” he says before disappearing out the door.
I’m alone again, but the silence doesn’t bring me any reprieve. If anything, it only exacerbates the terrible anguish stirring in my chest. There’s nobody here, nobody to talk to. Even in the confines of our underground prison, at least I had Dani by my side. I found comfort in her gentle touch, in the simple sound of her steady breaths. And now that she isn’t here, I’m adrift—helplessly lost and drowning in grief.
I wouldn’t allow myself to cry in front of Konstantin, but I’m alone, so it’s no holds barred. Tears sting my eyes as I press my lips together, swallowing the sobs threatening to burst forth from my chest.
Dani.
She’s gone.
Dead.
And it’s all my fault.
Leaving her was a mistake. I should have been with her. Maybe I could have—
“Fuck!” I scream at the room, at the world, at the universe.
I don’t know what to do with all this rage inside me. How could things have gone so terribly wrong? And now Konstantin wants me to pick up where I left off, or it’s Mikhail, Dimitri, and Pyotr he’ll go after next. I don’t know how much more of this I can take. It’s been all gas and no brakes and I’m fuckingtired.
I sink into my hospital bed, staring out the barred windows. It’s hard not to feel helpless. I think all that time spent underground might have broken something in my brain. There’s no way out. There’s nothing I can do except comply. If I fight, try to run, I’ll lose my brothers the same way I lost Dani.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I think of her. The rich darkness of her hair, the plushness of her lips, the little beauty mark just below the corner of her left eye. It’s my fault she’s dead. I got her mixed up in this mess and look what happened. Fuck, didn’t Dani have a sister?
I feel nothing but guilt as sleep drags me back under.
Silently, I pray I don’t wake up. It would frankly be a mercy.
Chapter 31
Dani
It’s strange being home. Everything is exactly how I left it, but nothing feels the same.
When I sit on the living room couch, the sudden sink of my body into the soft cushions sends me into a mini panic. For a moment, I worry I’m about to be swallowed whole and left to suffocate in my own upholstery. All those days spent on my belly pressed flat against the cold earth must have taken a serious toll on my psyche. It’s honestly no wonder Peterson wants me to go in for a psych evaluation before I officially return to work—after a ‘much deserved vacation’ as he put it in my file.
Tabitha, bless her soul, has been fussing over me since I was discharged from the hospital, and she doesn’t even know about the baby yet. I was shocked when the doctor informed me I was pregnant. Luka and I didn’t have sex after the first night; our bodies were too worn out. But as they say, it only takes one time.
But I’m surprised my body was able to continue the pregnancy after everything I’ve been through, physically as well as mentally. We barely ate, barely drank, and I dug like a madwoman for hours upon hours a day.
I peppered the poor woman with question after question about the health of my baby. She assured me that although I was underweight, she was going to give me a pamphlet about how to regain what I lost in a healthy way for both me and my infant.
