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Nothing short of divine intervention can help this jackass now, but maybe his brain is too clouded to realize it.
He focuses his eyes on me for a brief second, a thick garbled noise rumbling in his throat. Water droplets cling to his skin and eyelashes. He struggles to speak, grabbing my arm for balance.
“They’re gonna get her. You c-can’t stop them.”
His grip on me loosens and he falls over, his bullet-riddled body slumping over.
“Those bastards,” Luka mutters.
A shiver slices at my spine.
My hardened gaze tangles with Larysa’s panicked one. Makeup streaks her flushed cheeks, tears flooding her eyes as she weeps quietly.
I stand up and reach for Larysa’s arm, yanking her up off the floor. Ire floods every cell in my body, a thick red haze clouding my vision. Digging my fingers into her shoulders, I force her against the wall with a low roar.
A shocked gasp escapes her lips. “Danil, please, you don’t know—"
“I’ve always known. And I should have killed you and your idiot brothers when I had the chance.”
“No,” she sputters, tears streaming down her face. “They didn’t do this.”
“Your fucking brothers murdered my mother and they just tried to take me out again.”
“I swear it wasn’t them. They’d never put me and Daniela in jeopardy like that.” Her voice rises, fear lacing her words.
My hands move from her shoulders to the neckline of her dress. I fist the fabric, drawing her close. “They hired those guys to shoot at me as a distraction so they could get to you.”
“They’d never leave Daniela.” Her eyes flash. “Ever!”
“I have all the evidence I need to know the truth.”
Larysa shakes her head, sobs quaking her body. “It wasn’t them. That man doesn’t work for my brothers.”
“How the fuck do you know that?”
Her shoulders shake as she struggles to calm her breathing. “Because he threatened me the other night after my concert. Said he’d find me again if I got away. I don’t know who tried to kill you the night of Tori’s wedding.” Larysa pauses, pointing at the man sprawled on the floor. “But that guy wasn’t after you. He’s afterme.”
Chapter22
Danil
Heavy winds whip against the windows, howling gusts that sweep in from the ocean making the building shudder. The overcast sky is as ominous and foreboding as the threats that have been launched against us.
Daniela nestles against my chest, her arms slack now that her body has finally succumbed to sleep after the horrors that plagued us at the funeral home. Her breathing is soft and even, whispers of warmth against my bare skin. I hold her tight, making sure that even as she sleeps, she feels the security and comfort of someone who will always protect her, someone she barely knows, but at the same time, knows so well.
Before my brothers and I could process that there might be another group of deadly henchmen out there with an entirely different objective, cops swarmed the funeral home under the direction of that fuckhead Lieutenant Nogueres, who’s always angling for a reason to bring down my family, and barraged us with questions.
After we made arrangements to switch the burial to another day, everyone went their separate ways. Luka sent a few guys with us, creating a motorcade to make sure we got back to my place safely.
I rake a hand through my hair, still damp from the rain. Anger chews on my insides. We weren’t fucking prepared for that attempted hit, and because of it, we could have lost so much more.
My eyes slide over to Larysa where she’s curled up in the recliner across the darkened room. She should have told me about the guy at the concert hall. Blood simmers in my veins. There has to be a link between the attacks on our families. Everything happened too close together, and all evidence points to the fact that we’re being pitted against each other.
Only Alek Severinov can confirm that suspicion. And the one thing I hate more than not having the answers at my fingertips is relying on an arrogant prick for them.
I squeeze my eyes shut, my temples throbbing as images from the ambush wallpaper my mind. And the sounds — the screams, the cries, the shattering of glass.
Just one more disaster I couldn’t prevent.
