Page 169 of The Bratva King

I land on top of Matteo. I can’t hear anything, but I can see. I’m staring up at the moonlit sky.

I’m alive.

I move away from the body under me. I feel more than hear another gunshot, followed by a second and third. Matteo’s body jerks on the pavement, and the man who had Lila drops beside the SUV. Then she’s there.

She’s staring at me. She’s talking, but I can’t hear her.

One of the guards who ran toward the blast comes sprinting back toward us and grabs my arm, trying to pull me toward the SUV.

Matteo is lying on the pavement, eyes wide and very dead. Blood covers his chest.

Sound starts to filter back in, muffled beneath a high-pitched ringing.

“Is he dead?” I shout.

He’s still trying to drag me toward the SUV when I reach for his gun. I step forward, stand over Matteo’s body, and pull the trigger, striking Matteo in the head. I wait, half-expecting him to sit up and reach for me again.

Lila gently pulls the gun from my hand and hands it back to the guard.

“He’s dead,” Lila says.

“He’s been dead before. I want to make sure he stays that way.”

She nods. “Very dead.”

The guard who was shot is pushed in through the back hatch. He’s dead. The other guard who stayed with us is alive but bleeding as one of the men helps him into the SUV.

Lila gives my arm a light squeeze. I look at her, and she shakes her head. I can barely hear her over the ringing. “Don’t,” she says. “Don’t focus on him.”

I get back into the SUV and turn my gaze back to the building. My heart is in my throat. Matteo is dead. Where is Luke?

42

Nikolai

I’m moving toward the building when the explosion rips through the night behind me. The concussion wave hits my back, making me stumble forward two steps.

Everything inside me locks.

“Gabby,” I choke out, spinning around. I see the fireball lighting up the sky just past where we left the SUVs. Orange flames. Black smoke.

No. No no no.

“Pasha!” I shout into my comms. “What the fuck was that? Is Gabby…”

“Checking now,” his voice crackles back. “Hold position.”

Hold position? I’m already running back the way I came. Sergei grabs my arm.

“Nikolai, wait.”

I can’t breathe. My vision is tunneling. If she’s gone, if I lost both of them…

“Nikolai!” Pasha’s voice cuts through my panic. “The blast missed their vehicle. The guards are with them.”

The relief is intense, but I want to go to her. Every instinct is screaming at me to turn around and get to Gabby. But Luke is still somewhere in this building.

“Find my son,” I order into the comms. “Now.”