Page 79 of Sexting my Bratva Daddies

I’d become immune to the sight of death. Unless it involved her, Leo, or Viktor, I turned a blind eye. I was not affected.

But Peyton? Peyton mourned her friend despite knowing she’d been betrayed.

Anton’s mouth puckered even as relief lifted the tension from the room.

I’d known what I would say to Anton, but there had always been a lingering doubt in the back of my mind that Leo did not feel as strongly about Peyton.

I should have known better. He would not have put all of us through this if he didn’t love her.

Shouts sounded outside the office, followed by more gunfire. Russian curses littered the air, and that was when we all knew Anton’s men were failing to hold back the flood of our soldiers.

Anton knew it too. The sound of the warehouse doors rolling open caused Anton’s mouth to pinch with disbelief. His head twitched to the side in a tiny motion of denial. An instant later, he’d cut Peyton’s bonds and hauled her to her feet. He pushed her in front of him. “Call an immediate cease fire or she dies.”

Fuck Anton. I managed to grip my pistol in the holster tucked into my spine.

Could I make the shot?

Anton lined Peyton up in front of his body, then pulled his head back so that my only visible target was a single inch of his jawline.

Damn it all to fucking hell and back. I should have taken care of this minutes ago.

Desperation to keep Peyton safe had stilled my hand. Now look. I’d given Anton more leverage than ever.

My hunting drive pressed hard into my chest, demanding I do something.

“Let me go, and I’ll return her.” Anton’s grip on Peyton’s arm tightened.

She bit her lip hard enough to make it bleed, her wince enough to turn me into a frothing menace.

“Leo.” I begged him with nothing but his name. Begged him to unleash me.

Instead, Leo held up a hand and backed toward the door. “Your men must stop shooting as well. I cannot call mine off, only to have yours continue to kill.”

Anton bared his teeth at me and Viktor. “Move aside. We will walk out together and stop them.”

Viktor and I had no choice but to move out of his way.

I raised my eyebrows at Leo, silently asking if I could shoot the bastard in the back.

Leo shook his head.

I knew why. Anton was so full of hot air, my bullet might pass right through his empty head and kill Peyton too.

I could shoot him in the spine.

That ought to stop a bullet. If he was using Peyton as a shield, I had to rethink my body armor assumption.

Then again, I wouldn’t put it past him to tempt us to shoot him.

Anton and Leo walked onto the metal catwalk that surrounded the office, Anton turning as soon as he could to keep Peyton between me, him, and Viktor.

His and Leo’s voices blended together, a mix of Russian and English as both called their men to stop.

The warehouse went silent in an instant.

I was going to kill him. Not today, unfortunately. But I would kill him.

No one touched Peyton against her will. No one put a mark on her.