So much blood coated my hands and stained my suit from the violence of the night that it would be a useless attempt to distinguish what came from which hit.
It didn’t matter.
All I focused on was eliminating every obstacle as we rushed into the building. I killed everyone I saw with the most direct shot possible to ensure they’d stay down and out of my way. Nowwasn’t the time or place to worry about someone popping back up and endangering those I cared about.
Andre and Roman didn’t hesitate. They joined me in the merciless hunt for the woman I wanted to keep as mine. For the young girl I wanted to see smiling and laughing without a care in the world.
We found them locked in the innermost room on the third floor. No windows were available for them to escape. No lights were on for them to not be shrouded in the shadows and afraid.
“Release them,” I ordered after kicking the door open and scoping the room with my gun out.
Natalie wrapped her arms around Maisie, huddling together on the bare floor.
Two men had hidden in here with them, and they attacked as soon as we broke in.
Roman darted forward to block them.
Andre dropped back to shoot at more men in the hallway who were trying to sneak up and ambush us.
And I was there as the enforcer I was trained to be.
Without pause, I aimed my gun and killed the man who swung his gun around to target Natalie. He dropped dead.
The other rushed at me, shouting, and I pulled the trigger three more times, making a trifecta of death on his forehead.
Blood sprayed back from the direct hits, but it couldn’t be helped now. At the quietness that sank in after the rapport of gunfire, I caught my breath and searched over Maisie and Natalie. The little girl was on her mother’s lap, blocking a full view of thecurvy woman, but as I scanned them both, I began to relax that no cuts or wounds showed on them. No crimson stainedthem.
My heart had yet to slow. I was too tense, bracing for another hit. Until I got them out of here, I would remain on edge and ready to kill.
Natalie lifted her head, squinting to see through the haze of the dust that had been stirred up with the commotion. When those Popovs dropped dead, their bodies flung up a cloud of particles.
Roman found the lights and hit them. All of us blinked at the brightness, but I waited for Natalie to seek me out. To see me.
She did, but it wasn’t with gratitude or relief shining in her eyes.
Glaring at me with such a wretched intensity of loathing, she pierced me with her deep emerald orbs of anger.
I swallowed hard, wishing against everything I was that she wouldn’t. That she’d defy the expectations my cousin and brother had put in my mind.
That she’d be happy to see me.
To rush into my arms and embrace me.
“Sergei.” Andre muttered my name and shook his head, as if recognizing how I struggled with this coldness from the woman I wanted to love and keep as mine.
At the quiet utterance of my name from him, Maisie sat up. She craned her neck and twisted her body. While she didn’t break away from her mother, she slanted to see backward and spot me.
“Mister Sergei!” She cried it out with surprise. Joy. Relief. Unbridled happiness. Fat tears streamed down her cheeks as she wrestled to escape her mother’s hug.
She got to her feet clumsily and then ran toward me, dodging Natalie’s outstretched hands to hold her back. Without a thought, I dropped to one knee to get on her level. Roman and Andre flanked me, still securing the situation should anyone live in the hallways and want to take her—or me—out.
Maisie didn’t stop until she jumped into my arms.
She hadn’t hugged me yet since we’d met.
While we talked a little and acted like roommates or with me as a landlord nearby, she hadn’t extended an interest in hugging me.
Until now.
