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MIA

Time slows to a crawl.

I can’t believe my eyes. Can’t make sense of the reality in front of me.

That’s Prizrak’s boss. The realization tries to sink in, but keeps clashing with another truth. One I can’t reconcile with the woman in camo.

Because she’s my boss, too.

Her name slips out of me. In the eerie silence the parking lot has fallen into, it rings out like a gunshot. “… Gwen?”

She turns to me. “Nurse Winters,” she greets with a hint of a smile. It’s the first smile I’ve ever seen on her face. It makes my blood curdle. “What a coincidence. I don’t suppose you’ll give me two weeks to replace you after this, will you?”

A million questions crowd my mind, but only one makes it out. “Why?” I ask with a broken voice. “Why… Why would you do this?”

“Found a criminal syndicate, you mean?” She gives a nonchalant shrug.

“I was bored. Hit the age limit to serve, got deployed back home from Iraq. They told me to get a degree, but what’s college when you’re used to bombs lulling you to sleep?

Sooner or later, I had to find myself a hobby.

ER nursing—now, that wasn’t bad for the adrenaline, but there’s got to be more to life than work. Right?”

I can’t believe what I’m hearing. The words are there, sure, but how do I make them make sense?

This is Gwen. Our head nurse, the ornery boss who keeps our asses in line and the ER running smoothly.

She’s dedicated her life to helping people.

And now, she’s saying that, what? Her thing is killing them?

For fucking sport?!

“You’re upset.” She says it matter-of-factly, as if the emotion itself doesn’t even register. “Huh. Didn’t think we had much of an attachment.”

“You were my mentor!” I spit those words out through the tears. “You took me under your wing. You taught me everything I know.”

“Right,” she says, clearly not understanding. “So you should be grateful, then. Not angry.”

“Exactly!” Desya agrees. “I mean, it’s not like she personally fired the shot that killed your sister or something.”

By my side, Nikita turns to stone. “What did you just say?”

“Oops.” He pretends to zip his mouth closed. “You didn’t hear it from me, Nitya.”

“That wasn’t helpful,” Gwen deadpans, but Desya doesn’t look apologetic at all. In fact, I’d say he’s thriving on the chaos he just created. “Now, you’re gonna tell her I drugged her, too?”

Drugged.

The realization hits me all at once. Gwen’s involvement, her strange reaction when I went nosing around on the basement floor. The fact that I found Nikita right here, mere feet away from the door that connects the underground parking lot to the morgue.

She was keeping Nik here in the hospital. All along, for three months, she had her right under my nose. I didn’t know her then, but I still feel a wave of shame. How could I fail to notice? How could I not see what was happening right under my nose?

“It was you,” Nikita breathes. “You were the face I kept seeing. Whenever I woke up…”

“It wasn’t personal,” Gwen says. “And neither was killing your sister. Though, to be honest, I don’t remember her at all.”

I can see the split-second shock fades and rage sets in on Nikita’s face. Her teeth are practically bared as she turns to glare at Gwen. For a moment, she doesn’t even look human anymore—just a beast ready to maim.

“ Loshad’ machi, ” she curses. I have no idea what it means, but I feel like I can make a pretty accurate guess based on context alone. “ Ya ub’yu tebya, yobanaya suka! ”

Then she drops her gun, grabs her knives, and charges at my old mentor.

Shit. I’m supposed to reach Maksim, but I have no idea where he’s hidden. All I can see is a red dot darting around uncertainly on enemy foreheads.

I need to get out of here. I glance around, but Prizrak is everywhere. I need to ? —

Suddenly, Desya’s in front of me. “Looks like fate brought us back together, printsessa.” He grins. “What do you say to a three-second head start? One for each bullet you put in me.”

His cruel tone turns my blood to ice.

I see it happen in slow motion: his gun raised, his other hand reaching out for me…

“Not so fast, brother.”

Then Yulian is there, closing the distance between him and Desya.

He fires two shots. They both miss, but they succeed in drawing Desya’s attention. “Missed me, huh?” He smirks, returning fire.

“Like one misses the plague.”

As if on cue, an army of suited men swarms the lot, headed by a limping Kazimir. Yulian’s reinforcements, I realize.

We trade glances. Yulian gives an imperceptible nod as he and Desya circle each other.

Now.

I start running like hell. Not towards the staircase—towards the exit.

Suited men protect me as I run. I don’t know their names, have never seen them in my life, but they don’t hesitate. The second I’m in danger, they throw themselves in the line of fire or shoot my assailants from afar. Maksim’s sniper dot is jumping ahead of me, too, paving the way for my escape.

Is this what it means to be Bratva? I dodge bodies, force myself to look away from the carnage happening all around me. Being brothers-in-arms, protecting each other no matter what?

I didn’t get it. I thought I could never get it.

But now, I do.

Yulian’s Bratva is about more than just money and influence. More than just violence.

It’s family.

Which makes it my family, too.

My heart is swelling with too many emotions. Shock, betrayal, hurt—but also gratitude. For five years, I’ve been alone in the world. With the exception of Kallie and Reese, I could count on no one.

Now, I’ve got the biggest family I could ask for.

My hand flies to my belly. I can see the exit in the distance. Just a little longer, I promise my baby girl. Just a little ? —

Then I hear it.

“Mommy!”

No. It can’t be.

How could he be here?

But one look is enough to confirm my worst nightmares.

I see Brad blocking the exit. And then, in his arms, I see…

“Not so fast, sweet thing.” Brad’s gun presses on Eli’s blond curls. “We’re not done talking yet.”