Page 51

CHAPTER 51

CILLIAN

“Please!” Lenny cries out, blood dripping from the deep slash across his face as Konstantin idly spins a knife between his fingers.

Another wound splits his chest open, but we’re still nowhere closer to the truth. I pace the length of Konstantin’s den, my pulse hammering, fury burning through my veins. We need to find Dinara. Now. Every second wasted is a second too long.

But the thought I keep pushing away slams into me again: she could already be dead.

Konstantin’s mole did give us a location, but by the time we got there, it was cleared out. Someone tipped them off. Konstantin believes Lenny is the rat, and honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised. I remember overhearing that suspicious conversation in Dinara’s room all those years ago. Told Konstantin as much. Now we just need Lenny to confess—to give us something, anything, to work with.

Konstantin leans back in his chair, unnervingly calm. “It’s in your best interest to tell me the truth. You know what happens when I grow impatient, yes?”

Lenny shudders. “Please! I would never betray you. I’m not stupid. I know what you’d do to my family.”

“Maybe.” Konstantin tilts his head. “Then answer me. Why were you in Dinara’s room that day? Who were you talking to?”

“That was a mistake, I swear!” Lenny pleads. “My wife, she called from Russia while I was looking for Sonya. I just stepped into the room for privacy because Dinara wasn’t there. That’s all! I didn’t touch anything. I didn’t do anything.” His breath shudders as he sobs. “Check my international calls. It was my wife. She was fighting with her father back home, trying to drag me into it, but I told her I was not getting involved. That’s the truth.”

“Aleksei is already checking,” Konstantin says coolly.

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.

Then, with a sharp nod, my father signals to one of his men, who quickly exits the room.

My chest tightens. What the hell is he doing?

Footsteps echo down the hall, drawing closer. When they finally drag someone into the room, confusion grips me.

Why is she here? What does she have to do with this? And then realization slams into me.

No…it can’t be.

“Ludmilla?”

She clicks her tongue and rolls her eyes. “Leo, must you be so dramatic? Why you need to tell her?”

My father steps toward her, his gaze scrutinizing. “Are you ashamed for helping me?"

I trusted her. Loved her like family. And yet, this whole time, she was the enemy. She must have been feeding my father information this whole time. She betrayed us all.

But why? Why would she do this?

My hands shake as white-hot rage surges through me. My vision blurs, blood pounding in my ears.

If I had the chance, I’d kill her myself.

“No. Of course I am not ashamed, my love,” she purrs.

My love?

My stomach churns.

He drapes an arm around her. “You see, Ludmilla and I have been together many years now. I met her when I learned she was working for that pig. I convinced her she’d have much better life with me. Then, of course, we fell in love.” His grin makes me sick. “Isn’t that right, my darling?”

“Yes, very true. Your father is good man.” Her eyes settle on me. “You should always stand with family, Dinara.”

“I do stand with family, and that’s not him.” Disgust twists my face. “You really want to be with a man who bashed his first wife’s face in? What the hell is wrong with you?”

She lifts her chin defiantly. “I am not your mother.”

“Yeah, that's obvious.” My voice drips with contempt.

My father’s expression darkens with rage. “You do not speak to her like that.”

“Go fuck your?—"

The words die in my throat as gunfire erupts beneath us.

My father freezes. Then, he realizes.

They’ve found us.

A quiet sob escapes me as relief floods my trembling body. Konstantin. Cillian. They’re here. I know they are. We’re going to be okay.

My eyes pinch shut as the tears fall. I can't wait to see him, to throw my arms around him and tell him how much I love him. Something I wish I could’ve said before all this.

“Go!” my father barks at Ludmilla, and she disappears from sight. He grabs the weapon he gave Gregory. “Let’s go, Roman. We end this now. But Konstantin is mine, understand?”

Roman nods, cocking his gun.

“You stay with them,” my father orders one of his men.

“Horosho.” Okay.

As my father and Roman charge out of the room, I turn to my siblings.

My words are steady despite the storm inside me. “We’re going to be okay. I promise this is over.”

Gregory’s face crumples. “I’m sorry,” he whispers, thick with guilt. “I was afraid to tell you she was letting me talk to Dad. I didn’t know he would do this, I swear!”

“It’s okay. I know.”

He tries to step toward me, but the guard blocks his path with an outstretched arm.

“Just stay there,” I tell him. “This will be over soon.”

And I hope more than anything that Cillian and the rest of them survive this.