Page 3 of The Enemy’s Defector (Ivanov Syndicate #3)

KATERINA

J oann wasn’t ready to see me go. She chased after me as I tried to leave my room for the last time.

When she took my hand, catching me and squeezing my fingers once, I stopped and closed my eyes at her touch.

The contrast of her weathered, cool skin against mine reminded me of how fragile she was.

This woman was the only maternal figure I’d had to lean on in my life, in my home, and that was limited to when my uncle wanted us to stay at this mansion compared to other properties.

It also reminded me of how old she was and that she couldn’t be doing this job forever. If I left now, how could I plan to come back and make sure she was safe?

“Wait. Katerina, where will you go?” The desperation in her voice was clear. “Where can you go that Anton won’t find you?”

I sighed, hating how hard this life had to be. I’d only come back here to get into that secret storage area. I had exhausted all other places, and this mansion’s basement level was the last spot for me to look for evidence of who’d killed my father.

“Where can you go that none of his guards would hurt you?”

She wasn’t being paranoid. Anton had guards and spies everywhere, and they all remained loyal to him , not the family and organization my father built.

As I stalled on a reply that wouldn’t endanger her—because if Anton thought she knew where I was, he’d hurt her—she opened her eyes wider with alarm. “Wait a minute.” She sucked in a breath. “You’re not going to try to get Nik out yourself, are you?”

I loved this woman who was so concerned about my safety. But I refused to lie to her, too. If I knew where Nik was, I wouldn’t hesitate to break him out. I pressed my lips together and shook my head.

I couldn’t explain my plans here. Even though the house was quiet and my uncle was still supposed to be in Greece, I couldn’t risk saying anything out loud. It was too ingrained in me that Anton was my enemy. That his loyal guards and soldiers were my enemy. And I had to always be wary.

“Not here,” I whispered to her. “But I will find you. I will make arrangements for you and?—”

“No.” She held both my hands and gave me a stern expression. “No. You are not worrying about me . I need to know that you will stay safe.”

“I will.” I nodded, aware that she wouldn’t be able to believe that. “I’ve got a car that’s not registered to the family. I swapped plates and hacked into the license department.”

“Good.” She had learned long ago not to judge me for the hacking skills I’d taught myself. I never used my skillset to harm others, and that was an anomaly with the way Anton ran things.

“I’ll go to one of the other houses that have been empty for a while.” I didn’t need to tell her that I could sneak past the guards. I’d been practicing that skill since I was a toddler.

“I promise,” I told her. “I promise I’ll be as safe as I can be.” With all my heart, I swore I would see to her comfort after I destroyed my uncle. He would pay for killing my father, but I had to go about it properly. Otherwise, I wouldn’t live long enough to see to Joann’s retirement.

After a teary nod and farewell, she kissed my forehead. Still holding her hand, because I was reluctant to let go, I exited my room with her. Before I could turn my head both ways to check the hallway for anyone lurking nearby, I was attacked.

Someone tall and fearsome lunged at me. Joann screamed as another one of Anton’s guards hauled her away, securing her in a harsh chokehold.

“No!” I fought back at Dmitri as he tried to keep me still. “Let me go!” He was the one who’d snuck up to capture me.

“You lying whore!” he snarled, too big, strong, and fast for me to overpower. “I heard it all, you little whore. You lied!”

I panted, frantic to break free and evade him.

His anger was a tangible force that blasted at me as he grabbed me and started to drag me away.

I didn’t doubt that he could’ve been loitering and eavesdropping on my conversation with Joann.

He often took liberties to do as he pleased, and Anton never cared so long as Dmitri remained his lethal, loyal lapdog.

“You didn’t leave to marry like Anton ordered you to!” he yelled.

I shook my head, gritting my teeth as I tried to hit, kick, and pry his fingers off my arm.

“You tricked Anton. You tricked us all, getting out of that marriage arrangement!”

No matter how much I fought back, he pulled me away from Joann and into another bedroom. “You little fucking lying whore!”

“Stop. Just let me go,” I begged, beating at his chest as he shoved me toward a bed.

“No,” he growled, pinning me down with his body as he unzipped his pants.

“Anton knows you didn’t go to them to be his spy.

He’s aware that you lied and tricked him.

He’s on his way home now. To punish you, you fucking bitch.

” Grunts and hard breaths left him as he struggled to keep me in place and also undo his pants.

“But I want my turn first. I’m going to punish you first, you teasing whore.

I’m going to fuck you into submission, and maybe then you’ll be the good little bitch you should be and listen to your uncle’s orders. ”

“No!” I screamed, kicking and flailing, moving all of my body to get away from him and the inevitable threat of being raped. His dick was out, bobbing and too close for comfort. “Stop! Help!”

No one would help me here. I was all on my own. Joann would be held away from me, unable to get me free.

“I’m going to fuck you up,” he growled. “For lying about leaving to marry into that arrangement. For avoiding the order to go there and infiltrate their family to be our spy.”

I almost escaped, and he took that chance to backhand me and keep me with him. “Have you no respect for your family, bitch?”

Another hard hit. “Have you no honor to the Kozlov name?”

Once more, his beefy hand smacked my face as he shoved my skirt up. I blinked, dizzy from the panic attack of this horrendous situation and his hits. My skin stung from the hits, almost numbing my mind.

“Have you no loyalty for your uncle?”

“No!” I screamed, bucking back so hard that he leaned forward too far over me.

I recoiled, shuddering at him touching me at all despite my clothes that he hadn’t fully gotten off me yet.

“I will never be loyal to him!” The idea of being loyal to the asshole who killed my father was so ludicrous that it jarred me into action.

The suggestion that this brutish guard could try to touch me like Nik had spurred me into fighting back harder.

Dmitri slanted over to keep me in place, but he was so obsessed with punishing me before my uncle returned that he didn’t realize he wasn’t only bringing his body closer to pin me. He also thrust his side toward my hand. More specifically, the holster strapped to him that held his gun.

I grabbed it, not thinking twice, and wedged my hand between us.

One shot stopped him. I aimed it at his body, not caring where I hit. Inches gapped between us and I was sure I’d get a solid hit. And I did—I sank a bullet into the center of his mass. Right in the neck, near his collarbone.

“No,” I yelled again as he slumped to the side, clutching at the blood oozing out of him.

“I will never be loyal to the man who killed my father.” Gritting my teeth as I watched the realization cross over his face, I stared at him with utter defiance and shot him again, this time, right at his heart.

Another rushed exhale and grunt of pain left him. Shock took charge, though, and as he locked his bewildered gaze on me, I let it sink in that I was the one who’d end his life. That I was the woman who would stop him and tell him that he could not do as he pleased with me.

“I renounce the Kozlov name,” I growled through clenched teeth, empowered yet terrified of the fact that I’d killed someone. That I’d taken charge of my defense and shot at this horrible man.

Watching him stagger and drop to the bed as blood seeped out of him, I kept my fingers locked in a tight grip on the gun.

They trembled. My arms shook, but as I stood, my knees stayed steady and I turned to face him as he lay more on the bed he’d tried to rape me on.

Flatter now, as he lost the energy and blood to be upright, I trained the gun on him and narrowed my eyes, daring him to survive those hits.

“You will not punish me. You will not do anything to me—ever again.” All the memories of him trying to paw at me, the instances where he wanted to take advantage to cop a feel, order me to suck him off or show him myself.

Those recollections filed through my mind as I stared him down.

Triumph at removing such an awful man came next.

The flesh on my face where he’d hit me was still warm, tingling with the impact of his strikes, and I relied on that to keep me in the moment.

I’d never killed anyone before. I’d never shot someone like this.

The stunned state of ohmygod could render me too numb and speechless, locked in panic mode, but this was no time to break down and accept the finality that I was, actually, a killer.

A sharp shriek from the hallway sounded over the panted, shallow breaths Dmitri gave as he lay on the bed. His eyes stayed open, albeit narrowed in pain, and he didn’t allow a second for me to look away from the gruesome reality that I’d shot him.

But the sound of Joann in pain or reacting in fear snapped me into action.

Stepping back from the bed but keeping the gun pointed at Dmitri, I forced the panic and ohmygod sensations of shock away.

I’d dwell on this later. I’d rationalize how I’d killed Anton’s favorite lackey at another time.

Right now, I had to help Joann. I had to get away.

And I had to clean up the evidence of what I’d done here.

When I refused to go to the Ivanov household to fulfill that old marriage arrangement my father and Grigory Ivanov made many, many years ago, I made myself a defiant traitor to Anton’s wishes.

But killing Dmitri solidified how against my uncle I was. Nothing could undo this action. It was the last straw that would make me an enemy of the Kozlov name—my own name—but I didn’t regret a second of it.

Dmitri growled, making a gurgling sound, and I worried that he could still hurt me. Without letting him have a chance to grab for another gun he might’ve had on himself, I shot him in the face, ending his life once and for all. This time, he dropped fully back onto the bed and didn’t stir again.

Go. Go. Go!

I breathed faster, unsteady and shaky as I spun and ran out to save Joann. The other guard was trying to rape her, holding her against the wall, and I didn’t have to slow down to think. I shot him, too, in the head.

Joann screamed as he pitched toward her, but before he’d fall on her, she dodged to the side.

Again, and again, I emptied a few more bullets into him, ensuring he’d stay dead and would no longer be a threat.

Not to me. Not to Joann. Not to anyone ever again.

This asshole was finished doing my uncle’s nefarious dirty work for him.

If I could, I’d kill all his men, most of which were new recruits and not at all loyal to the standards my father used to insist upon.

“Are you all right?” I asked Joann, then swallowed hard. My throat was so dry from the adrenaline rush, and I had to swallow again to hopefully make my voice less hoarse. “Are you?—”

She snapped out of her reverie with a flinch. Looking down at the guard who’d tried to hurt her and rape her, she nodded and stepped back toward me. “Are you?”

I nodded, telling her that I was the one who’d fired the gun and that Dmitri wouldn’t be coming for either of us now.

“Someone will have heard the shots,” she whispered.

“Yes,” I replied, willing my heart to slow from the trauma and fight-or-flight instinct that revved me up and emboldened me to kill the one trying to harm me. “I need…” Again, I swallowed and cleared my throat. “I need to hide them.”

“ We .” She turned toward me suddenly, wrapping me in her arms. She didn’t cower at the blood splatter on me.

She didn’t hesitate to offer me comfort.

In her embrace, I could slow my pulse and close my eyes at the pure relief and security she offered me.

Hugging her back for the briefest moment, I absorbed all of the love that I could.

“We need to hide them and then you must go,” she said, dropping back to the whispering level of conversations. Because she was right. Another guard would’ve heard the gunfire. More soldiers would be here soon, to investigate and then capture me for going so darkly against my uncle’s wishes.

I couldn’t be here like this.

I couldn’t linger by the evidence of my kills and the proof of my ultimate defiance.

“Let’s drag them to the closet, and I’ll figure out how to have Malcolm assist me,” Joann said, grabbing the dead guard’s hand.

I took the other one, following suit to slide the corpse out of the hallway and into one of the rooms. I didn’t want to pass the buck and expect Joann to handle cleaning this mess up.

Malcolm, the butler, would likely do it all, another good man who didn’t appreciate Anton being in charge.

But I couldn’t be here. Killing Anton’s men promised that I’d be a wanted woman now.

He’d want me dead. He’d scorn me for the damage done.

And it was that fear, that dread, that prompted me to help Joann stash these dead bodies as quickly as we could before I’d flee into the night and never look back.