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In fact, she might be as dangerous with that weapon as her brother—and he is lethal. I’ve seen him in action. He can handle himself.

At least that’s what I tell myself to keep from having a total freakout as I set Slava down so I can arm myself. He immediately grabs onto my legs and stares up at me, moisture pooling in his enormous eyes. “I want Daddy.” His bottom lip quivers. “Where is he?”

I pat his silky hair, my chest contracting agonizingly. “I don’t know, darling, but I’m sure we’ll see him soon. For now, we just need to be prepared, okay? So your daddy knows we didn’t fail this drill and that we can take care of ourselves—that we’re all strong, like Superman.”

Slava sniffles but lets go of my legs and steps back to let me pass.

“Good boy.” I glance at Lyudmila to see if she can take him for now, but she’s arming herself as well, handling the weapons with the same impressive skill as Alina. Which begs the question…

“What the fuck are we doing down here?” I burst out, forgetting myself for a moment. “We should be out there, helping them!” Realizing I’m scaring Slava, I lower my voice as I pick up a gun and begin to load it. “Maybe one of us can stay down here to watch over—”

Another boom rattles the dishes in the kitchen and sends more plaster raining down from the ceiling. The lights flicker several times, then wink out, plunging us into total darkness.

In the silence that follows, there’s only my ragged breathing—and the sound of muffled gunfire overhead.

51

Nikolai

My radio crackles to life as I step out of the house. “Kirilov here. Do you read me?”

My stomach unknots slightly. “It’s Nikolai. I read you.” The guards must’ve realized what’s happening and grabbed the emergency stash of radios from their own Faraday cage armory. “Status report, now.”

“Twelve heavily armed attackers on the north side of the wall, fifteen by the gate. We’ve taken out half of them and are holding off the rest. No drones or cameras operational, and we’ve lost contact with Arkash and Ivanko by the east wall.”

Fuck. That means there’s most likely been a breach. “Take whichever men you can spare and get over there. Also send reinforcements to the house—Pavel and I might need them.”

“On it.”

The radio goes silent, and I pick up my pace. If our enemies are already here, inside the perimeter, there’s very little time left to prepare an important line of defense—the bombs I’ve buried around the house.

The first one is on the driveway, precisely three-and-a-half meters from the front door. Stepping onto the subtly marked patch of gravel, I take out a remote activation fob and type in the pin required to sync it with the explosives underneath. It can only be done at a close distance, so no one can accidentally set off the bomb by grabbing the device from my office safe. Not that it’s likely, with Pavel the only other person who knows the code to my safe, but with my son always playing around here, I couldn’t risk it.

The second bomb is on the southeast corner of the house, the third by the garage. I sync the remote activators with them both and radio Pavel to check on his progress inside the house, part of which—the heavy-duty metal shutters covering the windows—I can see already.

“All set,” he reports. “I’m heading up to the roof.”

“I’ll join you there in a minute.”

With us positioned on two corners, no one will be able to approach the house unseen, and the sniper rifles and machine guns we have stationed there will hold off anything short of an army.

I’m about to instruct Pavel to grab extra ammunition when a flicker of movement to my right catches my attention. Swiftly, I step behind a thick tree—and watch with rage and disbelief as figures in black SWAT-type gear pour out of the forest by the dozen.

52

Nikolai

I count thirty-three invaders before I open fire, aiming at what I suspect to be the gaps in their full-body armor. I have to give Alexei credit—this is a military-grade operation, complete with a full-blown, well-equipped army.

They came prepared for war, and war is what I intend to give them.

I don’t think about Chloe, Alina, and my son hidden in the safe room underneath the house, don’t focus on what will happen to them if I fail. I can’t, not if I’m to succeed. In front of me is a far bigger than anticipated force; as prepared as we were for an attack, it wasn’t for one of this ferocity or scale.

I underestimated how much the Leonovs want Slava back, what Alexei is willing to do to take my son—his nephew—from me. Unless… Slava isn’t the only member of my family he’s after.