My men won’t move until she’s in the car. His men won’t leave until he’s done. And right now, they all raise their guns…and point them at her.
“I hear that you’ve had a sudden change of heart. Maybe I have too,” Gavriil says. “What are you willing to offer me to keep your brother alive?”
And that’s when I realize—Alina holds all the power. And I know, even before she speaks, that she’s not going to run with me.
“What do you want?” she asks, handing a megalomaniac a blank check.
He smiles at her like she’s already paid the full amount. “I was told that you and Dominik had a deal for a week that got postponed. A month should give him enough time to… recuperate.”
“Alina, no!” I snap, grabbing her arm, but she won’t look at me.
“One month—and you won’t hurt or kill Archer, Dominik, or any of his men,” she clarifies.
Even though I know she’s doing this not just for her brother, but for me as well, I fucking hate it.
“Alina, please!” I beg. Lifting her hand in mine, I kiss the top of it. “Archer doesn’t deserve your mercy, and neither do I.”
She finally looks at me. Her eyes are damp, breaking something in my chest. “I can’t lose you, Dom. And you can’t save Archer.” She steps closer to me. Heat radiates off her skin. “If I don’t do this, he’s going to make you, Archer, and your men pay. You know that.”
We stand in the kind of silence that feels like a lifetime.
I know exactly the shape of her mouth when she makes a choice she doesn’t want. And the exact sound of her breath when she doesn’t regret it.
I move first. I release her hand to cradle her face in my palms and kiss her.
Gavriil doesn’t just want to punish me—he wants to ruin me by taking Alina. At least I know he’ll keep her alive, if for no other reason than because the thought of her with him will torment me every second of the day and night.
A knife through my fucking heart would hurt less.
30
Alina
I’ma horrible person for caving, for accepting Gavriil’s offer.
But Dominik has already taken a bullet for me. I won’t let him take another. And I have to give Archer one more chance because he’s the only family I have left in this world.
I’m so damn tired of having ticking clocks hanging over my head, of fighting a losing battle. I don’t want to do it anymore.
Gavriil isn’t going to give up. He’s made that clear since he learned I was Archer’s sister and Dominik refused to hand me over. I think that only made him want me more.
Well, I plan to make him regret getting what he wished for.
He’s watching me now, so smug in his immaculate suit, like he’s won something.
But he didn’t win.
I’m making my own damn choice.
“Miss Kent,” he says, like my name is sour on his tongue. I hate him more for how his voice makes me stand straighter. “Do we have a deal or not?”
“Don’t do this, Gavriil!” Dominik pleads. It’s a waste of breath.
“You let the traitor go. You refused my explicit orders. You thought you could take her and run from me. That’s a lot of regrettable choices for one day, little brother.” Something bright and cruel sparks in his stare. “Now I’m taking what’s always belonged to me.”
“Nothingin this fucking building belongs to you!” Dominik roars. The word nothing lands so heavily the whole city trembles. “Especially not her.”
Gavriil lifts a single dark eyebrow. “She just agreed to belong to me for a month.”
