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“Don’t worry, Mom. I’m going to take you home now.” I grit my teeth. This was supposed to be a happy night for my family, and especially for Tori and Konstantin, the newlyweds.
But this news torched the high we’d been riding for the better part of the day.
We can’t even have one fucking day where we don’t need to look over our shoulders, wondering who’s lurking and plotting our collapse.
“It was such a beautiful wedding,” she murmurs, looping her arm through mine. She moves slowly and cautiously in high heels she can’t balance in after all the booze she downed at the reception. “They seem so happy. And the baby. I can’t believe I’m going to be a grandma. Your dad would have loved a grandchild.”
There’s a hint of sadness in her voice, but my insides just twist and tangle like vines of sharp thorns when I think about the hell my dad caused us before he died. Yeah, I miss him, but all the dark secrets he kept have almost killed us plenty of times.
Mom never really recovered after Dad and my oldest brother, Dima, were gunned down. She’s spent way too much time wandering through life in a cloud of Xanax. Today was the first time I’ve seen her really excited and engaged in a long damn time.
The last thing I want to do is give her the news that we’re under attack again.
I glance over my shoulder. Our security guards flank Natasha, Luka’s pregnant wife, Kenzie, Nik’s fiancée, and Alexis, Taras’s fiancée. My brothers walk right behind them. A string of blacked-out SUVs line the curb next to the side exit of The Shore Club in Bal Harbour.
I breathe in the salty sweet night air. The sound of the waves crashing against the sandy beach behind the venue usually calms me. But tonight, I feel like the jagged rocks being pummeled by white-capped waves.
Drivers open the back doors of the trucks and we all break off to head into our own rides. Doors slam closed, cars file out of the parking lot, one by one.
An icy sensation snakes around my throat and squeezes. I take my mother’s hand and push her behind me so I can check the backseat before guiding her inside.
The balmy sea breeze shudders the palm fronds hanging over us.
But everything else is still, like the calm before the storm.
I cast a quick look around. We’re the last ones to leave.
“Danil? Is everything okay?” Mom asks.
I start to turn, to assure her that yes, everything is just fine, just as my left shoulder jerks backward with a harsh force that drives me straight into the pavement.
I crumple to the ground, face-first, the concrete scraping the side of my face. A searing pain explodes in my chest seconds later, blasting down my side as if it was being attacked by a flame thrower. I clutch a hand to my chest, my fingers wet and sticky from the blood seeping into my tuxedo jacket.
My temples pound, vision blurring.
“You know what you have to do, Danil.”
Alek’s words loop through my mind like a broken record.
I clench my teeth, breaths morphing into sharp, labored pants.
Shots fire, the sounds muffled by the blood rushing between my ears.
“Mom.” I struggle to lift my head so I can see her.
But she doesn’t respond.
I use every bit of energy I have left to slowly roll myself to my side.
Fuck.
A pool of blood spreads under her black evening gown where she lies still on the sidewalk.
She doesn’t open her eyes when I shout her name.
I drag myself over the concrete toward her, my breaths stilted. Numbness settles into my fingers, paralyzing my ability to use my arms. Darkness around me gives way to a bright, white light.
One final thought flashes across my guilt-riddled mind before I collapse.
