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HEIDI
Aleksandr’s smile sends icy horror through my chest. Maks came. He actually came, unarmed and alone, as requested. And it rips me apart to know he’s sacrificing himself for me.
In an instant, two realizations hit me hard enough to nearly knock me off my feet. One, I can’t stand the thought of watching the man I love die—and I do love Maks, with my whole heart, regardless of how he feels about commitment or love or even me.
The second realization is that Aleksandr might actually be right. Maks does care for me. At least he cares enough that he’s willing to die for me. And the moving realization steals my breath away, leaving me filled with overwhelming joy for one fractal moment.
Then reality comes crashing back down around me as I face the fact that he probably is going to die for me. Right here. Right now. In front of our daughter whom I never told him is his.
I’ve made such a mess of everything.
As if he heard my thoughts and finds them particularly humorous, Aleksandr sneers, his eyes as dark as the devil’s as he looks me up and down with scorn.
“I have to give it to you, Maks. She is beautiful. But you Federov brothers are just too easy to manipulate because you’re all the same.” Aleksandr pauses, letting his gloating jab really sink in before he continues. “I’ve never met a family with such a hard reputation, and yet you’re all a bunch of soft-hearted romantics willing to give up your lives for the women you love.”
Maks stands stock still, his silver eyes brimming with hatred as he follows Aleksandr’s slow stroll around the room. “At least we’re not heartless monsters willing to poison a frail old woman living her life in peace on her country estate.”
Confused, I frown as my gaze shifts to Aleksandr, but Maks’s comment seems to have the desired effect as my captor takes an unexpected pause.
“Dimitri did get my chef to break, then, did he? I must admit, I’m a bit surprised.” Aleksandr resumes his walk, seeming to make peace with the new knowledge.
“Actually, no. Believe it or not, I worked that one out for myself, thanks. You’ve gone after both of my brothers’ wives, killed my fiancée. It’s not a far leap to assume you’re responsible for poisoning my mother.”
Aleksandr scoffs. “Pity it didn’t work.”
My jaw drops at the new revelation, and I cling more tightly to Sarah as the reasons behind Maks’s wrath toward Aleksandr grow more apparent by the second. No wonder he was so worked up about the living agreement he wanted me to enter into. I’m actually shocked he was willing to compromise at all.
“Pity I didn’t see you for the snake in the grass Dimitri always knew you were. I could have removed your head before you turned into such a bothersome nuisance,” Maks spits.
From the shift in Aleksandr’s expression, I can tell he doesn’t like being belittled at all. And from what I understand of him, I imagine that’s because he wants to be feared and respected, not thought of as a minor inconvenience that Maks didn’t even bat an eye at.
“You and your brothers are not worthy of the brotherhood you claim,” Aleksandr snarls, losing his cool for the first time. “You’re not strong enough to hold the territory your father won for you. You’re all weak, and that’s why you’re all going to die. I look forward to killing each and every one of you. Starting with you.”
By the end of his tirade, Aleksandr has regained some of his cool. But I can still see the mad dog lying beneath the surface, ready to attack at the smallest provocation. Maks might be a dangerous person, but Aleksandr Volkov seems positively unhinged.
“I hate to disagree with you,” Maks says calmly, seeming to know just what buttons to push to keep Aleksandr talking rather than killing us, “but I’m going to anyway. A weak man is a man who stands alone. There’s strength in loyalty, strength in family, and strength in numbers. All of which we do have.”
Aleksandr’s eyebrows buckle, forming a dark scowl as he stops to search for the insult in Maks’s words.
I’m nearly as stunned by the statement myself as I study Maks’s face with new regard. Not only is he clearly in his element and a master at negotiation and stall tactics, but I hear a ringing truth in his argument that flies in the face of all his no-emotional-ties business. After all, you can’t have loyalty, and you certainly can’t have family, without love.
The room is silent for a moment, even Aleksandr’s men pausing in their diligent efforts to keep their guns trained on Maks.
That’s when the distant sound of gunfire begins.
Faster than my eyes can track, Maks is in motion. He closes the distance between him and the nearest of Aleksandr’s guards before the man has time to aim. He grabs the man’s gun wrist and with a violent jerk, Maks both disarms him and wraps his arm around the man’s throat.
The guard chokes, his hands flying to Maks’s arm to relieve the crushing pressure. But Maks hardly seems to notice as he points the guard’s gun at one armed assailant after the next and kills them before they can stop him.
Amazed by Maksim’s dexterity and unwavering bravery, I watch in stunned silence for a moment before realizing I’m standing out in the open, leaving me and Sarah completely exposed. Tucking my little girl’s face into my shoulder, I cover her head as best I can, then duck behind a table, enveloping Sarah with my body as best I can.
It’s not the ideal kind of cover. I can still see everything happening in the room, but at least I’ve minimized our exposed surface area as I try to hide my daughter from the bullets pinging around the room.
And as I crouch over Sarah, I watch Maks take down one man after the next, using the guard he disarmed as a shield. His aim is astonishing, and though my heart falters at the sight of bullets whizzing past him and riddling the man before him, he doesn’t fall.
He slaughters men with a cool, emotionless confidence that I might have found terrifying if not for the fact that he’s doing it to save my life. And now, as I watch him singlehandedly clear the room of my captors, all I can feel is intense, overwhelming gratitude and growing relief.
Finally, only Aleksandr remains standing, and he unloads five bullets with a furious shout, his face twisted into a mask of fury as he tries and fails to hit Maks around his human shield.
