Page 173 of Twilight Sins

Neither of us speak as we hurry up the stairs and down the hall towards my room. The house is bizarrely quiet. No staff milling around. The guards who were on the porch earlier are gone. Probably to take down the threat, I tell myself.

But inside, my stomach twists.

Mariya closes and locks the bedroom door the moment we’re inside. Then she moves to the windows. “This is the best vantage point in the house. There’s a reason Yakov made it his room.”

The lawn spreads out below us. I can see black shapes advancing across the grass.

“Get away from the windows! They’ll see you.”

She shakes her head. “They’re one-way. As long as we keep the lights off, they can’t see in.”

Mariya props the laptop open in one arm and scans the property through the windows. The silly, troublemaking teenager I’ve come to know is gone. She is all business. All Bratva.

I, on the other hand, am shaking from head to toe. As the adult, I should be taking care of her. But Mariya grew up in this world and it shows.

“What are we going to do?” I ask.

“We’re going to let the guards do their jobs. They’re trained for this.”

Shots fire over and over and over again. There are men dressed in all-black mowing down guards on every single security camera. There have to be three dozen men out there, at least.

I’m not sure how you could ever be trained enough to face something like that.

Mariya stares down at the screen, her lower lip pinched between her teeth. Then the screen goes dark.

“Shit.” Mariya quickly presses the spacebar again and again but the screen stays black. “The cameras are off.”

“Is the computer dead?”

“Maybe.” She curses again. “Or… or maybe the guards shut down the alarm. Maybe the threat has been neutralized.”

It’s hard to believe after what we just witnessed, but I can’t help but hope she’s right.

Then there’s a loud bang from downstairs.

We both spin towards the door. My heart is thundering, my body perfectly still as we wait for something. Anything. More noises, loud voices, for someone to tear down the bedroom door.

Nothing.

I take a step closer to Mariya. “Do you think they’re inside the house?”

“I think… The guards are searching the house to make sure they found all of the intruders. I’m sure that’s what it is.”

She drops the laptop on the bed and moves towards the door, but I grab her hand. “Where are you going?”

“I need to know what’s going on.”

“No. No, you don’t. We don’t need to do that at all. We can stay here. Hide until?—”

“Until what? Yakov and Nik aren’t here. I’m the only one left.”

Are Yakov and Nikandr dead?

Mariya can’t mean it that way. There’s no way Yakov and Nik are gone. It’s impossible to imagine the two of them, broad and strong and confident, just… gone.

But why isn’t Yakov answering his phone? Where are they?

If this was a planned attack, they could have been killed the moment they stepped off the property. Now, Akim is barging in here, knowing he won’t have to face Yakov’s wrath.

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