Page 6

Chapter Six

Elena

I t takes me a moment too long to realize Finn is standing on my stairs as the darkness makes it hard to see but it’s unmistakably him.

By the time I realize it, he’s running right for me.

My body reacts on instinct and I run back into my mother’s room and slam the door shut. The lock on it won’t hold Finn off for long.

“What is happening?” my mother mutters, turning on the nightstand light. “Elena? Why are you acting deranged?”

“He’s here,” I whisper.

“Who’s here?”

As if on cue, Finn bangs on the door. “I’m getting in, Elena.”

My mother squeaks. “That man is back. Oh my god. He’s come to finish us off.”

I thought for a moment that I was safe coming back home but it was all pointless. Finn is hellbent on revenge. Killing my father wasn’t enough.

“Call for help,” I say.

She nods and scrambles for her phone. At least she’s not arguing with me about it. “I don’t know who to call!”

“What do you mean?”

“Ivan would have done that. I haven’t had the time to replace the guards that those filthy brothers killed when they stole my Ivan away.”

“Erik? Viktor? Anyone?”

“I don’t have their numbers. I… don’t know who to call.”

I wrench the phone out of her hand.

“Excuse you,” she mutters.

“Finn will get in this room in a matter of minutes. There’s no other way out. We’re on the second floor so going out the window is not an option.” I keep scrolling through her contacts. She only has women in it. “Who’s married to the most powerful Bratva man from this list? Call her for help and have her send her husband.”

She takes the phone back from me. “I don’t take orders from you.”

“Mom,” I hiss.

Finn bangs on the door again.

She jumps. “Right, right.” She finally finds a name to call. “Kat? It’s Viktoriya. Someone is on our house. We need help. Have your husband come help.”

I don’t hear Kat’s response. I’m not even sure who Kat is. My mother never let me come with her to any Bratva ladies’ functions as she deemed me not worthy enough. I think she was just embarrassed by me and didn’t want me there.

She hangs up the phone. “She said her husband is going to call Erik Koslov. Hopefully he’ll get here in time.”

I don’t think he will.

Finn continues to bang on the door. The reality is, he could easily shoot the doorknob and kick the door in if he wanted to but he’s toying with us. He wants to drag this out.

He’s going to get inside and when he does, he’s either going to kidnap me again or… kill me.

I never got the chance to have my last words with my father but I can try with my mother.

“Mom, I know we haven’t always gotten along. But I do love you, despite it all. I just wished you loved me too.”

Her eyes widen and for once, she doesn’t look annoyed or judgmental with me. She just looks… scared.

“Elena, I…”

She can’t even say it back. She can’t even prove me wrong.

My mother doesn’t love me.

It’s not surprising. I’ve always been a nuisance to her. I think she only had me because it was expected of her to have children.

“It’s always hurt me how you can’t stand me,” I admit. If there’s any time, it’s now.

“That’s not true.”

“It is true and you can’t deny it. Not now. Not when something bad will happen to us. I just need you to know how I feel. I love you despite the fact that you don’t love me. And while it hurts and I’m not ok with that, I just need you to know.”

“Stop talking nonsense. We’ll be saved.”

I know we won’t be.

Because at that very moment, Finn bursts into the room. “You got away from me but you won’t this time.”

I don’t bother fighting. What’s the point? He has a gun, he’s stronger and faster than me, and he’s filled with rage.

Finn grabs me and hauls me from the room.

My mother doesn’t even try to help me.

I stumble on the stairs and Finn practically drags me down them. “Why?” I gasp out.

He looks down at me with surprise. “Why not? I wasn’t finished hurting you and my brother took that from me. So, I’m taking you back. What else is there?”

“You’re a monster.”

“You say that like I don’t already know.” He hauls me to my feet and forces me to keep walking. It’s clear he’s not going to kill me. If he had wanted to, he could have done it back in my mother’s room.

No, Finn wants to torture me and that’s worse. At least death is painless.

He pushes me into his car and drives away from my home. I know for a fact I’ll never see my home again.

Because no one is coming to save me. Not when my father is dead. Not this time.

Aiden

Dante finds me nursing a beer in one of the many bars he owns.

“Where’s your brother?”

I sigh and take a large gulp. The beer is cheap but at least it does its job. “Why do you ask?”

“Because he just kidnapped Elena Romanov again.”

“I figured.”

Dante goes still. “What do you mean ‘you figured?’ Did you know this was going to happen?”

“He knocked me out. By the time I woke back up, an hour had passed. I figured I was too late. When Finn wants something, he works fast. He’s kidnapped her and that’s that.”

“No it’s not. Because now Erik is even more angry with me. I was supposed to kill Finn and I failed.” He brushes his hand over his arm where he got shot.

“Looks like you survived that.”

“Fortunately. And it seems that Finn survived the wound I gave him. He is forcing me to go back to war. Erik will try to kill me. Other Bratva men will come after me and some of them won’t care that Nadia was once a Bratva daughter. Some of them will try to kill her to get to me. That is the last thing I can have.”

“So?” My beer looks pathetic on the bar counter. Everything feels fucking pathetic right now.

“So? So, I need to find Finn and kill him and get Elena back to make sure my wife stays safe. And I need your help with that.”

I turn in my seat to fully look at him. “Why would I do that? I would have to kill my brother then.”

“I wouldn’t ask that of you. But if you find Finn for me, you tell me where he is and I’ll come kill him. Simple as that.”

“And what makes you think I can find him?”

“Because you’re his brother. If anyone knows where he went, it’s you.”

I shake my head. “I’m not going to help you kill my brother.” I start to rise from my seat when Dante speaks again.

“You brought Elena home for a reason. Finn kidnapped her again. He’s going to torture her, you know that. You saved the girl once before. You can do it again.”

Damn Dante. The thought of Elena getting tortured lights my blood on fire. I don’t even know why.

“I’m not some knight in shining fucking armor. I’m not the good guy.”

He shrugs. “You could be.”

“I don’t want to be. I like my life. I like my job. It’s simple.”

“You don’t like your life.”

I go still. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“You don’t like your life. You’re numb, Aiden. You barely feel anything. We’ve worked together for over five years. I know you. You are not happy. But this is your chance to do something good. You could prevent an all-out war.”

“Maybe I want that.”

“I really don’t think you do.”

Damn him again. I really don’t. I like doing my job and not having to look over my shoulder constantly. A war would change everything. A lot of those fucking Bratva men would come after me just because of my association with my brother. The risk of death just went up and I’ll be honest, I don’t want to die.

But I can’t help Dante kill Finn.

There might be another way though…

“Fine,” I say in a clipped tone. “I’ll go save the girl. I’ll tell you where Finn is. And the rest is up to you.”

“Good. No one else can know about this though. If Erik finds out I’m having you help me with this, it will only piss him off. Do this quietly and fast. And if you help me take down Finn and save Elena, then you’ll be welcomed back in.”

“To what? Your weird Mafia/Bratva alliance? The one that is crumbling right before your eyes?”

He leans over me, forcing me to sit back in my seat. “That alliance has the potential to make us invincible.”

“But only if you and the Russians can get along. So far, it doesn’t seem to be that way. Erik wants an excuse to turn on you. This is it.”

“Just get the job done. And do it fast.” Without another look at me, he storms out of the bar.

I finish my cheap beer for good measure.

Elena

Finn takes me to an old, rundown house that has seen better days. The roof looks like it might collapse at any moment. It stinks of cat pee and feces.

It’s also incredibly cold inside.

This is nothing like the house he and Aiden took me to before. That place was at least nice, despite them forcing me to be there.

Despite the fact that my father’s murder took place there.

But this house is a place Finn wants to torture me in. I start shivering. Whether it’s my fear or the cold, it doesn’t matter.

“Remember these?” He pulls out handcuffs from his pocket. “Over there.” He nods at a radiator on the wall.

I sit down on the dirty floor and watch as he cuffs me to the radiator. This is it. Hopefully Finn won’t torture me for long and I can die and be reunited with my father. That’s the only saving grace I have.

The pain of missing him is too much anyway.

“You’re going to stay there for a few days. Get hungry. Get thirsty. Your body will be craving sustenance and it won’t get any. And when you’re begging me for food and water, that’s when I’ll put you out of your misery, like an old dog at the pound.”

Finn looks down at me like he’s expecting me to beg him. But he’s already done the worst he can do to me.

“Ok,” is all I say.

He frowns. “Ok? You’re not going to cry or beg?”

“You killed my dad. What more can you do to me?”

He looks a little unsettled by that before walking away. I hear him go into a different part of the house, muttering to himself. Good. I want him to know this won’t be what he wants. I refuse to give it to him.

If I’m going to die in a few days, then I want to die with strength.

I want to die proud of myself.

Aiden

Finn and I have a few different houses for any such occasion. Parties, safehouses, or just plain torture dungeons. Well, Finn is into the torture dungeons more than me. I kill people and move on.

So why can’t I move on from Elena?

I’m not just doing this to save the girl to stop an all-out war. I’m choosing to do this because I just don’t want to see her die. She doesn’t deserve it.

And I just can’t seem to get her naked body out of my head. It’s ingrained in my mind.

I keep searching the many houses Finn and I own and when each one comes up short, I move on to the next one and the next one… until I find the one I’m looking for.

It’s one of the more ugly houses we own. A fixer-upper. We never bothered to make the repairs. It’s not a house we use that often, so it makes sense that Finn would use it for this occasion.

Dante wants me to go inside of there and kill him but I’m going to do something else.

I use my own key to unlock the door. The first thing I see when I enter is Elena, chained to a radiator.

She jerks up. I hold my finger to my lips, telling her to be silent. I can’t alert Finn with this.

Slowly, I go over to her and look at the handcuff. I don’t have the key for that particular one, so I’m going to have to go about it a different way but that will draw Finn’s attention.

Fuck. There’s no avoiding him. I have to confront my brother.

“I’ll be back,” I whisper.

Elena doesn’t give me any indication she heard me. She only looks at me with a blank expression.

I keep my steps quiet as I go through the house. It doesn’t take me long to find Finn in the barebones kitchen, sitting on a chair, his head in his hands.

I step on a creaky floorboard and he jerks up with a gasp and has his gun pointed at me within a second.

Once he sees that it’s me, he lowers the gun. “Oh.”

“Oh is right. You kidnapped Elena.”

“Here to take her back? I won’t let you.”

“You’d have to kill me to stop me and you won’t kill me, Finn.”

“Funny. I could say the same about you. You won’t kill me. You’re incapable of it. Why are you here?”

“Dante wants me to take Elena back home.”

He raises an eyebrow. “That’s all?”

“And he wants me to tell him where you are so he can kill you.”

“Coward. Having you do his dirty work.”

“More like smart. I knew where you’d be. You can’t hide from me forever,” I tell him.

“So what are you going to do? Join my side or do what Dante wants you to do?”

“Neither.” I settle back on my heels, getting ready for anything. Finn is faster than I am. He took to fighting much more effortlessly than I did. I had to work harder. I was punished for not being as talented as my brother.

No. Now is not the time for those memories.

“So what are you going to do then?”

“I’m going to reason with you,” I say. “Give me Elena. Let me take her back home. You go into hiding. We let this blow over. And no one else has to die. Eventually, our lives will return to normal.”

“Bratva men hold grudges.”

“But someone else will take your place as number one on their hitlist. So, what’s it going to be, Finn? Get yourself killed over stupid revenge or continue living?”

He leans back in his seat, his fingers brushing his gun. “When you put it like that…”

“What are you going to do with her?”

“Starve her until she begs me to end her life.”

Uneasiness fills my stomach. “That seems excessive. What did Elena Romanov ever do to you to make you hate her so much?”

“It’s not her. It’s what she represents. Good little Bratva girls. They think they’re protected and safe because of the men in their lives but they’re not. Their fathers and husbands and brothers should know. None of them are safe. And I want all of them to pay for it.”

I’ve always known my brother had hate in his heart, whereas I’ve been numb for a long time. But right now, I don’t feel numb.

I feel fear.

My brother has become unhinged. He cannot be saved.

But I will not kill him.

There’s a plan B to my plan, since I figured reasoning with Finn would not work.

And that’s to do this.

I lunge at him and he jumps back but not quick enough. I manage to land a punch right to his nose that sends him stumbling towards the ground. Using that to my advantage, I pistol-whip him across the head.

He lets out a grunt and sprawls to the floor. I’m the only one he would lower his guard around.

That was his mistake.

Finn will be out for a while and in that time, I can get Elena away. After I dig through his pockets and find the keys to the handcuffs, I hurry back to her. “Ready to go?”

“What happened? What’s going on? I don’t trust you.”

“But you trust me more than you do my brother.” I unlock her wrist. The cuff clatters to the ground. “We have to hurry.”

She only hesitates for a moment before following me to my car. “How do I know you won’t hurt me?”

“Because I let you go once before. I have no intention of starting a war. Do you want to go home or not?”

Quickly, she gets into the car.

The only thing I can think about on the drive is how good she smells. Like vanilla and rose. It’s warm and wintry even though it’s summertime.

“What’s going to happen to your brother?”

“I’m supposed to tell Dante where he is so he can kill him.”

She hugs her arms around herself. “Good.”

“But I’m not going to do that.”

“What?!”

“He’s my brother,” is my explanation.

“He’s evil.”

“And he’s still my brother. Wouldn’t you do anything to save your family?”

“I tried until your brother killed my dad.”

I wince. She’s not wrong. Elena has a perfectly valid reason for hating Finn and honestly, I kind of hate him right now for dragging me into this fucking mess. Life was easier when all I had to think about was myself.

Now I have Elena to consider.

I keep driving in the direction to her house when an idea occurs. If I bring her back home, Finn will just come for her again. He won’t stop coming. The only thing that will stop him would be his death, which is not an option for me.

Elena is not safe if my brother is alive. It’s a conundrum.

The answer would be to let Dante kill Finn and be done with it. Never think about Elena again. Never think about how good she smells or how sexy her naked body is or how innocent her eyes are.

But I don’t want Finn to die, nor do I want Elena to get hurt.

There’s only one other option: I kidnap her myself to keep her safe.

It’s fucking crazy. Dante and Viktor and Erik will come for me to get her back. But they won’t be able to keep her safe from Finn. I know my brother inside and out. If anyone can keep her safe, it’s me.

With that in mind, I turn the car around.

“What are you doing?” she asks.

“I am sorry for this.”

“Aiden? What are you talking about?”

“Finn won’t stop until you’re dead. And I can’t kill him. Don’t ask me to. He’s good at avoiding detection when he wants to. Dante and Erik will have a hell of a time finding him if I don’t give him up. So there’s only one thing I can do. Keep you safe myself.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you can’t go home right now. I’m going to take you somewhere Finn won’t be able to find you. Just until everything blows over.”

“And if it doesn’t? If Finn keeps hunting me forever?”

“He’ll eventually give up. And if he doesn’t, then…” Then I might have to consider the possibility of him dying. But no. Not yet. I just need time to think. Getting Elena somewhere safe will give me that time.

“So, you’re kidnapping me again?”

“Call it protecting you. It’s for your own safety. I won’t hurt you, Elena. I can promise you that.”

“Your word doesn’t mean anything to me.”

I deserve that. “Then let me prove it to you. I won’t keep you locked up. But if you try to leave me, there’s a good chance Finn will find you. You know that. You don’t seem like a stupid girl to me. Staying with me is your best option.”

“Going home is my best option. Viktor is going to marry me. He can keep me safe.”

I almost slam on my breaks before I think better of it. “You’re not going to marry him.”

“Why would you say that?”

“Because I don’t want you to marry him.”

“Why?”

Like hell if I know. I just know that the thought of Elena belonging to another man makes my teeth clench and my stomach hurt.

“He wasn’t able to keep Nadia safe,” I say instead. “How do you think he’ll be able to keep you safe?”

“But he has a sister he’s kept safe all her life.”

“A sister anyone has barely seen because he keeps her locked up. I’ve heard the stories. Everyone has. Do you want to be a prisoner to your own husband?”

“So, instead, I should be your prisoner?”

“You’re not my prisoner. I’m doing this to protect you from Finn.”

“But the solution is right there.”

I grit my teeth. “I am not killing him. End of discussion.”

Elena goes silent for a moment. “I met Viktor’s sister once a year ago on Nadia’s wedding day to Viktor. She seemed nice. Not like a prisoner at all.”

“But have you seen her since?”

She hesitates. “No,” she finally admits. “He does like to keep her sheltered away. She wasn’t even allowed to come to my birthday party. I think because of what happened at Nadia’s wedding.” She lets out a heavy sigh. “I’m a prisoner no matter what I choose, am I?”

“Seems that way.”

She studies me with those innocent eyes before saying, “You really won’t hurt me?”

“I have no desire to torture you. I won’t hurt you. I won’t lay a hand on you.” Unless you want me to . The thought comes to me unbidden. Fuck, what has gotten into me lately? Why am I risking my entire life to save this woman?

“You mean that?” she whispers.

“I mean it. I can keep you safe from my brother. I’m the best one who can and I think you know that. So stick with me and we’ll figure this out.”

“You make it sound easy.”

“It’s not easy,” I admit. “But what other choice do you have?”

She’s silent for a long moment as we drive. I’m still trying to figure out which place to take her to. I can’t use any of the houses Finn and I own together. He’ll know to look at them, which means I need to find a new place to either buy or rent. Something on short notice. Somewhere I can use cash.

Elena finally speaks. “You want to know something sad? My own mother couldn’t even tell me she loves me when Finn kidnapped me.”

Fuck, this girl is messing with my head.

“You don’t have a plan, do you?” she asks.

“Not yet. But I will soon enough.” That’s as much honesty as I can give her.