All I could do was wait to watch my family be slaughtered.
And then everything sped up, a blur of noise and confusion. I ended up getting knocked over, almost stepped on, more terrified by what was happening outside when the first gunshot rang out than for my own safety.
There was no way I was breaking free from those tight zip ties, but I tried anyway. I thought I saw Masha take a punch as she tried to get inside the house. I closed my eyes and feltsomeone tugging at my wrists, the slice of a knife sliding through the hard plastic. I was free.
And Gavril was there. He had found me. The rush of gratitude and relief was so strong I almost collapsed, but there was no time for a single emotion as he tried to get me out of the fray. Why was he there? Whose side was he on?
I acted without thinking when I saw my cousin Rurik raising his gun, lining up a perfect kill shot on Gavril’s back. Among all my ruthless family members, Rurik was most like me. A lover of books and quiet occupations. He just started keeping bees on his new property and acted like a worried father over the hives. But make no mistake that he was as deadly as the rest of them when he needed to be.
My shout wouldn’t have stopped him from pulling the trigger, not when he believed I was in danger. Which, I surely still was. Gavril was going to take me and hide me away again, wasn’t he? I didn’t know why I shoved Gavril out of the way so that the bullet only grazed him. I didn’t know why I had a rush of relief when the other man knocked the gun out of Rurik’s hand before he could try again.
Except, I did know.
It was the same thing that made it feel like a knife was plunging into my heart when Gavril raised his own gun at my cousin. And then instead of killing Rurik, he killed the man who threatened him. I was buoyed up on hope, which was instantly dashed when Rurik ended up on the floor and I was carried out over Gavril’s shoulder.
What the hell was going on? Who was he working with? Killing his own man to save Rurik, but still spiriting me away from my rescue squad. I tried to get some answers out of him,but he turned to stone, so quiet as we drove that fear began to gnaw at me.
What happened at the farmhouse was a big deal. He must have lost a dozen or more men. Maybe this was the final straw.
We ended up at a private airfield where his jet was waiting. He remained utterly silent, and so did I as he marched me across the tarmac and up the steps. At least I was on my own two feet and not face down across his back.
It was like being in a freezer with a man of ice as we took off. Even the well-seasoned attendant who must have flown with him a hundred times closed herself in with the pilot as soon as her take-off duties were finished.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Gavril bellowed. It was the first time he’d really raised his voice at me.
And it set me off. No more shrinking away into myself. I was emboldened now, by this infuriating man himself. “What was I thinking? Hmm, the flight wouldn’t be long enough to explain,” I snapped.
He glared at me, shock momentarily erasing the look of anger in his eyes. Yes, I was fighting back. And not nearly finished.
“Start with why you thought it was a good idea to run off with one of my guards. You could have been killed, Lilia.”
The true concern that made his voice crack had no effect on me. I was still too spitting mad. “So you think I should just stand by and let you take down my family? You’re crazy if—”
“I’m not attacking your family,” he interrupted, slowly and distinctly, as if I were a child.
I snorted. “It’d be smart if you didn’t, since I already warned them. If you go ahead, you’re cooked.”
“Good,” he said, leaning back, and for all the world looking like he meant it.
“Good?” I asked, thrown.
“I was trying to rush back to LA to stop it, not facilitate it,” he said. “The Collective in LA is badly fractured, and I’ve been trying to clean house for months with minimal blowback, but you were the final straw. Now I’ve got more men in from Russia and can get it done. They’re there now, infiltrating Luigi’s people and waiting for orders. If I can’t stop it and your family retaliates, a lot of good people will die.”
I blinked, lost for words. Did I believe him because my heart was yearning for a reason to believe him? He stared at me calmly, waiting for my reaction, still clearly frustrated, but keeping it in check while I processed.
“You could have killed Rurik,” I said, mostly thinking out loud.
“Sure could have.”
“But you didn’t.”
“Sure didn’t.” He leaned closer, across the aisle to where I sat on the leather couch in his luxurious plane. “And what about you?”
“What about me?”
He rubbed the area where he’d been grazed, dried blood sticky on his torn shirt sleeve. “I don’t think your cousin was aiming for my arm.”
He knew I saved his life. And if he kept looking at me that way, he’d know why. I wouldn’t be able to hide it much longer. Could it be possible to team up with Gavril to finally end this violent turf war?
