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“Damn it.” I grip my phone tightly. “She left her phone here. It must still be in the basement.”
“That’s okay. There are only two places she would go. Which do you want to try first?” Finn pulls out of the garage, and I sigh.
“Let’s just head straight for the house,” I say, after silently debating for a moment.
Finn begins the drive to my father’s house and I look out the window, my anxiety is through the roof. I’m constantly sighing as I check the time, and I can’t get my leg to stop bouncing no matter how hard I try.
“Declan.” Finn lets out a heavy sigh. “You’re like my brother, and you know I don’t sugarcoat anything. So, believe me when I say if you don’t stop bouncing around and sighing, I’m going to make you walk the rest of the way.”
I nod understanding and look back out the window. We are less than five minutes away, and an uneasy feeling forms in the pit of my stomach. What if I don’t get there in time? What if I fucked up to the point that I can’t fix it? What if she doesn’t believe me that I was really trying to help and make my father weaker before we attacked? I have so many thoughts going through my head, but most importantly, I need to know she’s okay.
Pulling up to my father’s mansion, I groan internally. “Fuck.” Natalia’s car is parked right out front. We park behind hers and get out. Limping to the back of the car, I grab a pistol out of the trunk.
We grab some spare ammo and walk to the front door. Right away there are two men laying on the steps, dead. Making our way through the house, we run into a couple more dead bodies and I wonder just how much I underestimated Natalia’s abilities to protect herself.
“She did this?” Finn says, looking around shocked. “Holy shit.”
After checking the first two floors, Finn and I head to the basement. Stairs are a bitch with this cane, but I’m getting a little faster at them. My leg is throbbing, and I am sweating already from the pain, but I can’t let Finn do this. It has to be me.
Unlike my house, my father’s basement only has two rooms. Finn takes one and I take the other. I swing the door to the first room open and it’s empty. Finn opens his and I freeze. My father and Natalia are standing a couple of feet apart, guns drawn on each other.
Finn doesn’t hesitate to aim his weapon at my father. “The odds are not in your favor, Rian.”
“They don’t need to be. Natalia has already agreed to surrender.” My father’s devilish grin is sickening, and I look over at Natalia.
“What do you mean, surrender?” I ask, trying to keep my voice steady.
“It means I am voluntarily giving up, Declan,” Natalia says, not taking her eyes off my father. I take a moment to really look at her face. My brows furrow as I take in her tear-stained face and red eyes.
“Yes, the Belov Empire is no more.” Rian’s face is smug.
I know what this is, my brain is trying to mask the pain radiating through my body from my leg and I’m hallucinating. There’s no way Natalia would agree to this.
“Natalia, you can’t be serious,” I take a step toward her, and she turns her weapon on me.
“Take another step Declan. Go ahead. Please,” she practically begs. “Give me another reason to shoot you.” Her voice breaks, and so does my heart, causing the ache in my chest to grow deeper than it already was.
“As the last standing Belov, the decision is hers, son,” my father chuckles.
“Yes, Declan. The last Belov. Your father killed my parents. He killed my brother. Hell, he almost killed me, but you know that.” Natalia laughs dryly. “I have nothing left. So, I’m willingly giving you all the weapons trading and getting an annulment on our marriage…” She clears her throat. “In exchange for my life.”
My heart feels like it’s in a vice grip. Natalia’s family is dead. My father killed them. What if I had told her sooner? Would I have been able to stop this? Or would I be mourning the love of my life? Hell, it appears I’m already mourning her.
“Mo ghrá,please reconsider,” I plead. “I can fix this.”
“You can?” She takes a step toward me, putting her gun down. Her face falls from the hard and emotionless mask to one of relief. “I’m so glad that you can bring people back from the dead,” she mocks. The mask is back up the second her words leave her mouth.
“Your time is ticking, Natalia,” my father says from behind her. “It’s now or never.”
“Finn knows all the information for my shipments.” She tells him, keeping her eyes locked on mine as she speaks. I search her eyes for any sign of the Natalia I know, but all I get in return is an icy glare.
My eyes silently plead with her to reconsider. I don’t care if I look desperate as much as I’m pleading with her, but I need her to understand the mistake she is making.
“If I need anything, I’ll be in touch,” Rian moves to Finn, who has lowered his weapon, disbelief written all over his face. “Let’s go, boy, tell me all about the business I just inherited.”
When they leave the room, I grab Natalia by the shoulders. “What the hell is wrong with you, Natalia?” I rush out.
“What’s wrong with me?” She screams out. “What’s wrong with you? You have known for how long and didn’t tell me? I am yourwife, Declan. You should have told me from the beginning.” Her voice shakes. “I should’ve known when you and Finn shared that look when Viktor named the one behind all of this. But, instead I trusted you. I trusted you and Finn both, just to get everything taken away from me.” Her chest is heaving as the anger pours out of her. I couldn’t say anything even if I wanted to. “My father was right. Love makes you weak. But, it will never happen again.”
She presses her chest to mine, and shoves her finger into my chest. “So, from here on out, you don’t get to ask what’s wrong with me, how I am, or what I’m thinking. You lost that privilege when you decided to go behind my back. I thought you, of all people, would want revenge for Dmitri’s death no matter what, but you had me fooled. It was all probably one big scheme you guys had going.” She steps back out of my grip. “The most powerful Empire on the East Coast,” she mocks.
“There will be a signed annulment paper on your bed. All you have to do is sign it and your lawyer can file it,” she says coldly.
With that, she walks through the door and out of my life.
