Blood pounds in my ears. But I keep my breathing even and step farther into the room, hands loose at my sides, even though every muscle wants to curl into a fist. “Name your price.”
My mother laughs, cold and sharp, from her perch in the leather wingback by the window. “Still thinking you have leverage? How quaint. We're simply tying up loose ends at this point.”
The guard beside her moves closer. Another hovers near the bookshelf to my right. Donovan Blake steps around me and moves to my father’s side while a third guard positions himself across the room.
I step toward the mahogany desk. “Give. Me. My. Husband.”
My mother takes another delicate sip of brandy. “So dramatic. It's embarrassing. You always were my greatest disappointment.”
“And you’re a fucking cunt.”
A short bark of laughter escapes my father. “There it is. The Walsh temper. Too bad you didn't inherit the intelligence to go with it.”
I slam my palms down onto his desk and lean in, staring him down. “When this is over, I'm burning this whole fucking house down.”
“Empty threats from an empty boy.” She examines her manicure. “Your husband was begging, you know. Not for his life but for yours. Like a beaten puppy still loyal to its master.”
I cross the room, ready to wrap my hands around her throat. But a guard steps between us, barrel aimed at my chest, his finger on the trigger. I freeze mid-step, swallowing past the growing lump in my throat.
One twitch and Ryan dies alone.
A sharp, hissing snap cuts through the room.
The guard's head jerks back as blood sprays across my mother's seafoam green suit. He drops, gun clattering across the hardwood, a dark hole in his forehead.
I don't move. Don't breathe. Just watch the pool of dark red spreading beneath him.
The second guard near the bookshelf draws his weapon. Another hissing snap. He drops too.
Alexei steps into the doorway, gun trained on Donovan Blake's head. And Blake already has his weapon aimed atAlexei. The remaining guard across the room keeps his barrel pointed at me.
Fuck.
Blake's finger moves to the trigger. “Drop it.”
“Nyet. You first. Or we both die.” Alexei takes another step into the room, barrel steady. “Your choice.”
My father clasps his hands on the desk like we're in a board meeting. “Seems we have a stalemate.”
I turn and glare at him. “Call it whatever you want. I came here to end you. And I won’t leave until that’s done.”
“I should have smothered you in your crib!” My mother launches out of her chair and hurls her brandy at me. The heavy crystal tumbler hits my shoulder, then the ground before shattering. “Donovan, kill them! Now!”
Blake juts his chin at the remaining guard, who then shifts his weapon from me to Alexei. “Time’s up.”
One corner of Alexei’s mouth curls up. “Koshmar!”
He drops and rolls as yet another hissing snap sounds. The third guard crumbles. Alexei gets to his feet, gun retrained on Blake.
Viktor walks into the room, gun also pointed at that head of security fuck. “Well, this is disappointing. I was promised a challenge. These guards folded faster than Connor's will around Henneman’s ass.”
“Where's—”
Ryan bursts into the room, chest heaving.
My heart trips over itself when our eyes meet, the next beat landing hard in my chest.
He’s alive. Whole. Except for his bloodied wrists.
