“You want todieover this bitch?”
“Why don’t you save the talking for your brother?”
“He’s not coming,” Nikolai sneers. “He’s downtown. Trying to finish a deal with the Italians?—”
“You sure about that?” A low voice cuts through the air behind Artem, stealing my attention.
Ben steps out from behind his right-hand man. I can’t help but gape at him and how terrifyingly calm he is. He’s already decided how this is going to end.
“You okay, princess?” he asks casually, though I can hear the tension in his voice.
“I… I think so.” I’m still frozen to my spot.
“Come here.”
A muscle in my leg twitches, then another. I move like that, one step at a time, like a deer trying not to draw a predator’s eye.
Ben doesn’t look at me, but I feel his awareness lock on with every inch I cover. Artem shifts just enough to give me space, and when I reach them, Ben puts out his hand, steady, but firm. He curls his fingers around my arm, grounding me like an anchor, before shifting his focus back to his brother.
“You really shouldn’t have come here, Nik,” he says. “You’ve crossed a line you don’t get to uncross.”
Nikolai laughs bitterly, still clutching his injured hand. “You think you’re the one who decides that? You kill me, and Father will make sure you regret it for the rest of your miserable fucking life.”
“Whatfather?” Ben asks evenly. “You don’t mean the one I already killed, right?”
Something flashes across Nikolai’s face—confusion, then disbelief. “You’re lying.”
“Buried him myself.”
Nikolai’s face drains of color, his facial expression trapped halfway between acceptance and fury. “Didn’t think you had it in you.”
“I’m full of surprises, Nik.”
“Well, that leaves us in a pickle now, doesn’t it?”
“Not sure how,” Ben says evenly. “I never lost what was mine.”
Nikolai perks a brow. “I think you did when I exiled and took mylegacy.”
“The one I built.”
“No, the one you babysat for me. You have a sick sense of humor if you believe our men will follow you once they discover you killed our father.”
“He was dead the moment he chose you.”
That’s when it happens.
One second, Nikolai’s smug and angry.
Then, Ben pulls out his own gun.
The single shot is deafening in the quiet bakery, echoing off the walls and into my bones. Nikolai drops with a sound escaping him that’s more breath than voice, then nothing.
Ben doesn’t look at him before holstering his weapon and slicing his gaze to Artem. “Handle it.”
His attention shifts back to me, and he takes my hand to guide me out of the bakery. My shoes scrape the floor, and my body is numb as the world narrows to the sound of Artem moving around behind us.
Outside, the frigid night air hits like a slap. I don’t know if it’s shock or relief that’s making me shake, but Ben’s grip never wavers.
