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Alek’s eyebrows knit together. “Only Val knows the answer to that.”
“I didn’t even think. When I ran in and saw him pull that trigger, I emptied my mag on him. She was in trouble. I needed to save her.” Luka’s shoulders sag and he leans over the metal bed rail.
“I want him alive so that I can split him in half with a machete,” I growl.
A small amount of pressure clenches my fingers. I jerk my head toward Val’s face. Her eyes flutter open. She blinks a few times, her gaze sweeping over the three of us hovering over her.
Then she slowly moves her head toward me. With a faint smile, she whispers, “You’re here.”
My heart nearly ruptures, my throat so tight I can barely squeeze out a breath. “Always.”
A flicker of confusion shadows her face. “What happ—?”
Then her blank gaze fills with horror.
She remembers.
“Oh my God. Boris,” she whispers, her hand trembling in my grasp.
“Val, do you remember what happened back at the bridal room?” Luka’s voice is low. He leans forward and strokes the side of her arm. “What Boris said to you?”
Tears slip from her eyes. Her teeth chattering, she nods. “He was working with Branko. He planned to destroy us all, and he came to… to…” A sob explodes from her chest. “To kill me because Dad and Alek killed Stasia and Angelina. ‘An eye for an eye’ is what he said.” Her voice chokes with tears. “He did everything—deceived us all, arranged the murders of Mom, Dad, and Dima—to avenge their deaths.”
I swipe the tears from her cheeks. Now I really want to fucking decimate someone.
Val recoils. “Where is he? Is he still—?”
“Dead.” Luka averts his eyes. “I made sure of that.”
“Yeah, about that…” Alek taps his fingers against the wall next to him. “The bullets tore into his shirt. Over his heart was a tattoo.” He drops his gaze to Val. “A four-pronged pitchfork pointed down at a set of numbers.”
Her mouth drops open. “The last code.”
Alek nods. “The information he’d been waiting to expose, locked away, accessible only with this code.”
“Do we know where it’s even stored?”
“No,” Luka says. “And now that he’s gone, we never will. But the thing is, nobody will because he made sure to eliminate anyone who knew about the evidence.”
“This all feels so surreal,” Val murmurs, wincing as she shifts on the mattress. “How could he have done that to us all?”
“He wasn’t thinking clearly. He’d suffered a tragic loss.” Alek’s lips stretch into a tight line. “I don’t know that I’d have handled it better.”
“I trusted him. He was like an extension of Dad.” Val looks at Luka. “Thank you for saving me. But I don’t know how I’m going to get over this. I feel like a piece of my heart was just bitten off and set on fire.”
“You’ll move on,” Patrick says. “Because that’s what you have to do. Quinn and I have done it twice. It sucks and hurts like hell, but it’s life. It goes on.”
A swift knock jars me.
The door opens and a doctor walks in holding an iPad. He flashes a smile at Val and makes his way over to her. “Looks like you had quite the eventful wedding.”
She grimaces. “We never quite made it that far.”
“Well, fortunately, you can schedule a redo.” He looks down at his screen. “The gunshot wound was shallow. We were able to repair it easily enough since there wasn’t much damage. We thought you might have a concussion because of the swelling on your head, but after running some tests, there’s no indication of any brain trauma.”
“Thank God,” I mutter.
The doctor looks at me and then back at Val. “You’re a very lucky girl. And you can relax. The baby is just fine.” He backs away with a smile and turns toward the door.
