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Maybe she wasn't such a bad choice. I suddenly feel a little appreciation for her. We make it out of the church and climb into the back of the limo to drive to the reception. I don't hear the cheers from the crowd as we drive off. Barley hear Isla let out a long breath. All I can hear is Cas’ fucking voice. I sit there and stare into the opposite seats. I need this day to be over so I can get to work. No wasted minutes anymore.
“Can we stop the car for a second?” Isla asks the driver.
“I’m meant to drop you straight at the reception.” He says after a brief pause.
“If my wife asks you to stop the car, you stop the fucking car.” I snap. She looks at me now, appreciation in her eyes.
He pulls over in a back road and Isla climbs out, dress getting stuck in the door. She steps out into the street and throws her head back to the sky. Closes her eyes and breathes in through her nose. I have the sudden urge to do the same. I climb out after her and take a seat on the short brick wall on the sidewalk. “You making a break for it?” I ask.
She turns her head towards me, brown waves falling over her shoulder. “No. Just wanted a breather before the show.”
I let out a mildly amused sound and she takes the seat next to me, pulling cigarettes and a lighter from under her dress. She hands me one and I shake my head, but before she takes it for herself I grab it. Works for Luca, it can work for me. She passes me the lighter and I light mine, light hers for her too. She drops her shoulders and lets out a cloud of smoke. I do the same but don't get the relief she seems to.
“Nice to know it will be a mutual unhappiness.” She says, staring straight ahead at the open doors of the limo. She looks as cut up as I feel.
I flick some ash onto the sidewalk. “I’ll be good to you, just don't expect me to love you. I’m not wired that way.” Not anymore. That part of me is dead. Casimira killed it.
She turns to look at me, green eyes sorrowful. “I don't think I am either.”
We stay there for a second, in each other's eyes. I think we come to a silent mutual agreement. We’ll be each other's mask. We’ll cover for each other and back each other, do what we need to do to make this alliance work. She offers me a tight-mouthed smile and I nod a few times. We can do this.
We finish smoking in silence, I offer her a hand to get back into the car and we both sit there in silence. Dwelling in the picture of our future. However long it will last. I’ll happily die tomorrow if it means I took the Russians out with me.
We arrive at the reception and everyone waits on the steps before the doors, some poured out onto the sidewalk.
“Let's get this done,” I say.
“Two hours and you can pretend you're fed up of waiting to rip my clothes off.” She says joylessly.
I glance at the crowd again, spotting my father. Hadn’t had the brain capacity to speak to the rest of my siblings about it. It’s a delicate conversation and I don't have anything in me to be delicate right now. Can't be sure I won’t lose my shit if Fran decides she doesn't want him dead. I need a clear head for that shit so I’ll revisit it when I don’t feel like I’m fucking dying. “Maybe one hour.”
She snorts a laugh and we both climb out of the car.
We reach the doors and they surround us. Patting me on the back, congratulating me. I let myself go through the motions and try to remind myself what I'm doing this for, the only purpose I will let myself have anymore. The only thing I need to push forward for, to kill Ivan Volkov and reign hellfire down on every Russian in my city. I pull my eyes to the street when I notice a blacked-out SUV with the windows rolled down. It slows down right in front of the hotel steps.
I’m too late. The shots ring off before my hand meets my gun.
The first one goes through the back of Isla's head, exiting between her eyes.
Isla’s blood splatters across the side of my face and her body falls into me, knocking me off to the side. I make a grab for her but I can't reach her before she hits the floor. Luca is quickest to respond. He lets off a succession of bullets towards the car. I turn around at the moment the next three hit my father in the chest.
His body jerks back a few feet and into my sister. Her face turns horrified and she lets out a strangled scream, her hand shooting out to grab my father’s body.
I launch myself at Francesca to knock her out of the way when I feel a blinding pain in my shoulder. The bullet tears through my flesh then a second goes through my knee and a third hits my lower stomach. I manage to drag Francesca down before my legs collapse from under me. She starts screaming, hands frantically grabbing at me. “Raff! Luca! Help him, somebody help him!”
Raff is on me in a second applying pressure on my stomach whilst my blood pools on the hotel steps. I can’t bring myself to feel sadness at the fact I’ve just witnessed my father and wife murdered. All I feel is cold fury as everything fades to black.
33
Casimira
Present-day
Brixton, London
Days pass in the same dream-like state I feel myself living in. Alek's funeral is today and it’s all happened so quickly. I've barely slept at all, not since I got here. I haven’t moved from his bed but I haven’t slept. I've spent most of my time in the dark silence with my eyes closed reliving the last year in my head, wondering if I had done something different, maybe the outcome would have been different.
If I had never left London, this never would have happened. I would have seen him spiral and I could have stopped it. I just know it.
