Astonishment filled me. Reign spoke again.
“Now that you’re awake and the doctor has assured us you’re on the road to recovery, I need to leave for a while. Iker and Poe will be here. If the rest of your family tries to see you, they’ll stop them. Although I don’t know how they’d know you were in here.
“I hate to leave, but I need to resolve this sooner rather than later. I’ll be back as soon as I can. And based on the way your eyelids are drooping, you’ll be sleeping. Rest, Sia, I’ll be back at your side before you know it.”
Without waiting, Reign gave me another kiss. When he parted our mouths, he whispered against my lips.
“Sia, I love you more than anything or anyone else in this world. Please, never put my life before yours. I can’t live without you.”
“And I can’t live without you, so no promises. Go deal with that mess. I love you. Be careful,” I whispered back.
He gave me a slight smile, pecked me on the lips, then raised himself. He shook Iker’s hand and hugged Mom before he left. I fought to keep my eyelids open after he left my room, but I gave up the battle.
Sinner:
When I exited the hospital, a car was waiting for me. I’d done what Matvey had instructed. As soon as Anastasia was awake and the staff had verified she would be fine, I texted Mikhail. It was prearranged that Mikhail would notify his cousin, and someone would pick me up.
Matvey was careful giving out directions. And he preferred most of the time that his men were the ones to do the driving. If I had doubts about thePakhan’strust or friendship, they were allayed when I wasn’t blindfolded.
“How is your woman?” Vasily asked. He was one of Matvey’s soldiers.
“The doctor said she should make a full recovery, but she’s to take things easy for the next six weeks. She was lucky. The bullet didn’t hit anything major. Thank you for asking.”
He dipped his head. “Good. It is a shame when innocents are harmed.”
“It is. How is that bastard?”
Vasily chuckled darkly.
“He is in a world of pain. His bullet was much worse. Rurik is pissed that his kill shot was messed up.”
I laughed. “I don’t blame him. Is Sam capable of enduring more pain, or is he on the brink of death?”
“ThePakhanensured he was cared for to prevent death. You will get your revenge,” he replied.
We didn’t talk much after that, just random things here and there. Vasily took us out of town along the I-40 W. We ended up on the southern side of the interstate from Boone Trace into the country.
There was plenty of open country, few houses, and numerous trees and dirt roads. It was one of those dirt roads without a sign that he turned down. It was still daylight, but no one was around. We rode back a couple of miles, winding through the trees and losing sight of the main road.
We stopped outside two metal shipping containers. You know, the kind that you saw on cargo ships bringing in items from overseas and stuff. There was one vehicle there I didn’t recognize, and one I did. The last one was Mikhail’s. Standing outside the container were two men who nodded to Vasily and me as we approached, and one opened the container door next to him.
Upon entering, I discovered that the sides meeting in the middle of the two cargo containers had been removed and stabilized, creating one large building. Inside, I saw Mikhail, Hoss, Emil, Rurik, and another one of Matvey’s men, Isaac. However, they weren’t the only ones there.
Seated in a chair, slumped as far as the cuffs around his wrists would permit, sat Sam. He looked worse for wear. He no longer wore the hoodie or mask. On his wrinkled, dirty T-shirt was a huge patch of dried blood on his left side with a bullet hole torn in the center of it. His jeans had splattered blood on them and were dirty, too. His feet were bare.
Sam’s head lifted when he heard the door squeak and our footsteps. His face was gray, and exhaustion or maybe defeat was written all over it. His eyes were bloodshot. When he saw it was me, he tried to sit up. His grimace told me it hurt. Good. I scanned him for evidence of any other injuries. I didn’t see any.
I went to speak to Hoss and Mikhail. I shook their hands and greeted the Bratva men.
“Good to see you. And to hear that Stasia is awake. We hate to tear you away from her, but the sooner this bastard is dealt with, the better,” Mikhail said as he gave me a back-slapping hug, then let go so Hoss could do the same. I pounded back on theirs.
“She’s with her mom. Iker and Poe are with them in case the rest of the Shahs try to show if they somehow find out she’s there. And I agree, this motherfucker has polluted our lives long enough. His entitlement to what isn’t his has to be cured.” I snarled.
“Well, we’re here for moral support unless you decide you need us to take over. And the same for Matvey’s guys. Rurik has been eyeballing him like he’s hungry. Sam fucked up Rurik’s perfect shot record,” Mikhail said loudly, causing the Bratva soldier to curl his top lip and glare harder at Sam. I chuckled.
“I might let you help me, Rurik,” I called over. His glare changed to satisfaction.
“I see you have a bag with you. I assume those are the tools you plan to use. If you need any more, there’s plenty here. As you can tell, it’s been used for this purpose before,” Mikhail said, gesturing first at the cabinets and a workbench along the walls and then to the dark stains on the concrete floor.
