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He wrapped his arms around me tighter. “I love you, Sephie. Nothing will ever change that.”
“It’s really you?” I asked, leaning back to look at him. “How are you not dead?”
“Before I went on stage, I put on a bulletproof vest. That’s why I left my jacket at the table. Made it easier to get it on and my shirt back on quickly. We needed everyone to believe I died and you were kidnapped. I’m sorry, solnishko. I should’ve told you. We underestimated how much you would fight back.”
I suddenly remembered being grabbed in the ballroom and everything that happened after. I reached back and slapped him as hard as I possibly could. “YOU LET THEM KIDNAP ME!”
Suddenly, Ivan was pulling me off his lap. “Easy, princess.” He set me down, which was his mistake. I delivered a punch squarely to his nose, causing him to step back, blood gushing from his nose. “AND YOU! YOU LET THEM TAKE ME TOO. YOU WERE THE CLOSEST ONE TO ME. YOU STEPPED FORWARD SO I COULD SEE YOU ONLY TO RUN IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION WHILE THEY FUCKING TOOK ME!”
I was seeing red at this point. I was so angry; I couldn’t see past that. I felt Andrei’s hands on my shoulders. “Spider monkey…” I didn’t give him time to say anything else. I grabbed his shoulders and kneed him as hard as I could in the groin. He doubled over in pain. “DON’T FUCKING TOUCH ME!”
Misha and Viktor both stood in front of me, neither of them touching me but both trying to calm me down. They both had their hands up, like they were trying to corner a caged animal.
“Gazelle, I wanted to tell you. I told them it would end horribly if they didn’t tell you the plan. I saw what happened to that guy that attacked you. I knew it was a bad idea.”
I looked at Misha, glaring at him. “What fucking plan. And if you lie to me, so help me, I’ll rearrange your face too.”
I heard Viktor’s deep voice, trying to calm me down, say, “We got word that they were going to try to assassinate Boss at the ball. They were going to kidnap you at the same time, just in case the assassination attempt didn’t work. It would be the only time you were vulnerable. The people they put in place for the plan were loyal to us. The guys that took you work for Armando, not Salvadori. They clearly had no idea what they were signing up for, though. You were not an easy target.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, my headache coming back in full force. “Why in the fuck did nobody tell me about this plan?”
Misha said, “The guy that grabbed you says he told you on the way out, but he thinks it was so loud that you didn’t hear him. You fought back so hard that he just wanted to get you to the plane by any means necessary. That’s why they zip-tied your hands. They definitely were not expecting you to jump out of the vehicle. You almost killed yourself.” I felt his hand on my shoulder. My eyes were still closed, as my head was still pounding.
I held a finger up. “Don’t. Touch. Me.”
“Okay, gazelle. Just breathe.”
“Why the fuck did nobody tell me about this plan before some random ass motherfucker grabbed me? And if you don’t tell me the truth this time, you’re all going down. I will take this fucking plane down with all of you in it. I have no problem destroying myself in the pursuit of destroying every goddamn one of you right now.”
I heard Ivan’s muffled laughter from behind me, which only served to make me angrier. I looked at Misha. “TALK. NOW.”
“We needed everyone to believe the original assassination attempt had been successful and we needed the kidnap attempt to look believable. The place was crawling with cameras on purpose. Salvadori wanted ample proof of what happened. We had to sell it. The only way to sell you being kidnapped was to actually kidnap you. We didn’t expect it to go so…poorly.”
I looked from him to Viktor. They both looked awful. I glanced at Stephen, who was standing behind them. He looked equally as bad. I turned to look at Andrei, who was still in pain, sitting in one of the seats. Ivan wouldn’t make eye contact with me. Adrik was standing behind me. He wanted to come to me, I know he did, but he was scared I was going to hurt him. The look on his face made my heart hurt, but at the same time, I was still so angry they had all agreed to lie to me that I didn’t know what to do.
I stood for a moment, pinching the bridge of my nose. I just wanted to cry. I felt so betrayed. I had trusted every one of them with my life and they had all lied to me. I was never going to be able to get the image of Ivan running away from me out of my head. I was never going to be able to unsee Adrik going down on stage.
I turned and walked toward the back of the plane. Toward Adrik. For a moment, he looked relieved, until I stepped around him. He went to grab me, but I moved away from his grasp. “Don’t touch me. Don’t fucking touch me right now.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Adrik
We fucked up. I fucked up. She almost died because of me. The guy that grabbed Sephie was supposed to get her to the back and tell her it was all fake, but she was fighting so hard that he didn’t have a chance. Nobody expected her to jump from the vehicle and almost kill herself. Now her headache was back and she was in pain, but I couldn’t do anything. She wouldn’t let anyone touch her.
I can’t say I blame her for being angry with us. I was furious with myself. I almost told her the plan before I went on stage. I tried to warn her, but it didn’t work. The part of the plan that involved her didn’t work. In fact, it failed miserably. Now she clearly needed help, but no one could get close enough to her to help her.
I’m sure her concussion is back, only worse this time. It took her so long to recognize me. I’m worried she’s really damaged her brain this time. Ivan pressed on her acupuncture points while she was out, but I don’t know how effective it was. She was talking while she was out. She was back in the basement with her uncle. We all heard the whole thing. She was fighting that memory. She was fighting the thought pattern that he’d beat into her.
I was terrified I was going to lose her. She’s angrier than any of us had ever seen her. She’s furious with the guys, but when she looks at me, all I see is the pain I caused her. And what’s worse, I have no idea how to make that pain go away.
We were still an hour out from Switzerland. We would land in Switzerland, transfer to a helicopter over the Alps to just inside Italy. We were extremely limited on where we could land in Italy without it being known we were there, but Armando had family with a ranch on the border of Switzerland where we could land a helicopter without being seen. From there, we would drive south to Naples. Sicily was a short boat ride from Naples. Armando’s family controlled Naples, so we could move about in that city freely.
The plan was to find Anthony and Lorenzo in Sicily and take them both out as cleanly and quickly as possible. Without those two to back him, we doubted Salvadori would continue with his plan in the States to start a war. But he would be dealt with in much the same manner if he did decide to go through with it.
At this point, they were all under the impression that I was dead and that they had successfully kidnapped Sephie. Armando’s men were to stage an “escape” in two days, to make it seem like she got away from them. They would spend time and manpower looking for her while we executed Anthony and Lorenzo.
Now I was more worried about Sephie than I was about Anthony and Lorenzo. I wanted to punch something I was so frustrated with how things turned out. It broke me to see her hurting, knowing I couldn’t do anything to help her. She just sat quietly in the corner, not looking at anyone. Not saying anything. She cries now and then, rocks back and forth. I can see her shaking from across the plane. I’m dying to go to her. To hold her.
