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The looks of hate he flicks my way makes my chest burn with shame. The truth is so much worse. And there is no hiding it any longer. But there is another truth he also needs to know. “I love her. Not like a sister. I fucking love her with every fiber of my being.” His nostrils flare as he slowly shakes his head. “And even though I’ve hurt her, I’ll make it right, I’ll do anything to make it—” My voice falls off as we pull up to the safe house. Or what’s left of it.
“Fucking hell,” Yulian growls. Before the car has even stopped, he jumps out, sprinting towards the charred remains of the structure.
I throw the car in park and dive out as well, only to be stopped by Daniil blocking my path. “They’re not here.” I hear the panic in his voice before I fully understand the words.
“What do you mean? Where are they?”
“The house, it’s empty. Someone blasted their way in.” My heart pounds so loudly I can hear it in my ears, each beat feeling like a hammer against my ribs. I need to see the destruction for myself.
I enter through the huge gaping hole in the back of the house. Explosives were used. If Kira or Aly were in the kitchen at the time of the bomb, fuck me, they’d be…
A beastly sound rips from my chest just as Yulian ascends the stairs from the basement. His face is grim, ashen, he looks like I feel. Ruined. He just shakes his head, indicating they didn’t make it to the basement’s safe room.
“No.” I refuse to believe it. “We need to search this whole house. Every square inch.”
Andrei and Daniil join us in the blown-out kitchen. Andrei is talking on his phone in rapid-fire Russian, Daniil is staring at his phone.
“They were taken,” Daniil assures us. “There’s footage.” He holds up his phone, but I can’t bear to look at it. I don’t know if I should feel relieved that they are still alive or terrified.
Honestly, I feel both.
Yulian punches a wall, and plaster rains down on him. “We were fucking played. Maxim Belov knew we were coming for Horvat. He waited until we were distracted, and like fucking idiots, we played right into his hands.”
Daniil shakes his head. “We had no way of knowing. We did what we had to.”
Yulian’s head snaps up, and they share an intense look. “Back home? Our girls—”
“They’re safe, I promise,” my brother assures him. They are talking about their wives and Andrei’s daughter, safely holed up at the Kozlov estate. “An army of our best men are protecting the home. Drones. Explosives around the perimeter. It’s impenetrable.”
Andrei hangs up the phone and holds up his hand to get our attention. “That was Dima. He thinks he can get us a location on where Belov’s men took them, but with no registered tail number and no official paperwork submitted to the aviation authorities, it’s going to take some time.”
“Thank fuck,” I exhale, even though I don’t feel very thankful, because a man like Maxim Belov has the ways and means to cover his tracks so efficiently that even the best of hackers might not be able to find him. But I don’t allow my mind to slip down that rabbit hole, because if I do, there’s no coming back.
I holster my gun, and spit on the floor beside me. “We need a plane, stat. As soon as Dima has the answers, we need to be on our way.”
Daniil mutters something about reinforcements, but there’s no time to gather more men, barely time to gather more weapons. No matter what, we’ll never overpower Belov’s militia. All we can offer him is us—our loyalty, a cut of our business, the brotherhood in the palm of his hands. Because whatever Maxim Belov man wants, he gets, and for some reason, he wants Alyona. And that’s the one person I’ll never let him have.
At whatever cost.
At whatever sacrifice.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-TWO
ALYONA
There’snothing like waking up and not knowing where the fuck you are.
The last time, I woke up on a yacht. This time, I’m in a room that looks like it belongs in Buckingham Palace with its crystal chandeliers and gold trim. Kira still sleeps soundly in the bed beside mine. I’m nearly jealous that she’s still shielded from reality by the comfort of sleep.
Fragments of memories come back to me—the explosion, forced into a vehicle by strong, unyielding hands. A hood pulled over my head before my whole world went dark.
Cold dread percolates in my stomach. The bad guys got me after all.
But who are they?
And why aren’t I being held in a dungeon or something?
Soft, thick carpet cushions each of my steps as I make my way to the door. Locked. Expected that one. The windows are also locked. Peering through the glass, I find an endless sea of emerald-green treetops stretching into the horizon, and just beyond that, a massive body of water.
