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Right on cue, Aleksei walks in, his expression unreadable.

“So, what did you find on our friend?” Konstantin asks.

“It was the wife.” A cruel grin stretches across Aleksei’s face. “I just spoke to her. Lovely woman. Said she was trying to get Lenny to convince her father to stop screwing some mistress behind her mother’s back. But Lenny didn’t want to get in the middle.”

Konstantin’s eyes narrow. “And what about Dinara? Any leads on where they’re keeping them?”

“Yeah. Surveillance picked up movement at an abandoned warehouse about twenty miles from here. We’re sure that’s where they took her.”

“Then what the fuck are we standing around for?” I snap. “Let’s move.”

Once I get the address, my fingers are flying across the screen as I send the location to my brothers and the rest of our army waiting at my house here in Jersey.

Konstantin gives a sharp nod to one of his men.

“Leave him here. I’ll handle him when I return. And you'd better pray I’m in a good mood," he warns Lenny, his voice cold, before following me out.

As soon as I slide into the car, adrenaline surges with brutal intensity. She’d better be there. And she’d better be unharmed.

If they touched one hair on her body, there’s not gonna be an inch left of them when I’m through.

* * *

DINARA

“I…I can't, Papa.” Gregory shakes his head, fresh tears welling in his eyes.

He's terrified. He doesn't want to kill me. Maybe whatever poison my father has been feeding him all these years hasn’t worked as well as he thought.

Fury flashes across my father's face. “You told me where you would be, and now you are being coward!”

Oh, no… Gregory. No.

An ache slams behind my eyes. But I know it wasn’t his fault. He’s just a little boy who was tricked into doing something stupid.

“You—you said you wouldn’t hurt Dinara. You promised!”

“Well, maybe that is lesson for you, my son. Never trust anyone. Now shoot her! Don’t be disappointment like your sister. That is not way to make Papa proud. Look at your brother, Roman. He understands what must be done. You must also learn.”

Roman grins, his expression one of twisted pride, sadistic amusement glinting in his eyes as he briefly meets mine.

“Don't listen to him,” I tell Gregory. “He's trying to turn you into one of them, and you don’t want that.”

My father's glare snaps back to me, his words like venom. “You will kill the bitch.”

I meet his gaze without flinching. He thinks he can decide how this ends. He’s wrong. I have no intention of dying here. I will survive this. We all will.

And him? He’s going to burn in hell.

I seize the moment. “Who helped you?” I need that information in case I make it out alive. “If I’m gonna die, what does it matter if I know or not?”

His eyes narrow. He’s considering it.

Good. If nothing else, it buys me time.

“Fine,” he finally says with a smirk. “I tell you. Not that it matters now. I have army. Loyal men who would die for me. I will take Konstantin’s empire. His family. I will live in his house like king while he rots, knowing it’s all mine.”

Hatred surges through me, my hands curling behind my back. He has no idea what Konstantin will do to him.