Page 122 of The Lazarov Bratva

Chek.

His body is cold, his heart no longer beating.

Dead.

No, no, no!

“Chek?” I ask hoarsely, as if the fucker can answer me.

He’s gone. Alena’s personal bodyguard is dead.

I need Alena.

I surge up and crash through the door into Alena’s bedroom. For a terrifying second, I’m certain I’m about to come face to face with a bloodbath that will be the final nail in my coffin.

By some sheer stroke of luck, there’s nothing here.

No bodies.

No Alena.

Nothing.

I can’t decide whether I’m relieved or more scared. I check the bathroom at a glance, but it’s also empty, which renews my energy, and I sprint from the room to search the rest of the house.

I need Alena.

I check the safe rooms, the kitchen, and even yell myself hoarse in the garden, but there’s no sign of Alena, or Andrev, for that matter. A cold silence greets me in every corner of the property, echoing through my mind as all attempts to call either of them result in a long dial tone and insufferable voicemail.

My search eventually takes me back to the bedroom, as if Alena will somehow have spawned in my absence.

She’s not here.

Fuck.

Her fate tips in my mind like scales, unable to decipher what would be a kinder fate between death and ending up back in Aleksander’s clutches.

At least she’s not dead.

That single uncertain through floods around my mind as I trudge to the bed and very slowly sink down onto the mattress, utterly exhausted.

The rifle hangs down between my legs, and my head drops.

She’s alive, I tell myself. I’d know if she were dead.

Something catches my eye. A twinkling under the dresser near the window. A twinkling I recognize.

I’m on my hands and knees in an instant, crawling toward the item, and the second I touch it, the tidal wave of grief I’ve held at bay becomes too intense and the dam bursts.

Something inside me snaps painfully, and my limbs go numb as I pick up pieces of Alena’s diamond necklace.

No.

Her new collar.

No, no.

They twinkle pathetically at me in the light from the window.

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