Page 133 of The Lazarov Bratva

Die.

I can’t say the word, even as it blares around my mind like an alarm. A lump forms in my throat and I can’t swallow around it. It locks in place, choking me from the inside.

“Ivan… Ivan died first.” My voice sounds alien to my own ears, and I switch focus back to Alena.

She’s the only thing that keeps me calm.

“Single shot to the head. Aleksander killed him quickly. He just crumpled and there was nothing I could do. I was just there to… to watch. The cry that came from Nastja was…” A sharp pain suddenly blooms in my chest, and I press one hand firmly against my breastbone, trying to hold myself together.

“Kristof…”

“Everyone was shooting. I was blinded by rage, furious that this man was driving the Family into the dirt and coming after everyone I love. We took a good few of the bastards down.” My laugh is dry, humorless. “Then Alexei gave us a window and we took it. Literally.”

The sound of broken glass rains down around me.

“Aleksander fired, and Nastja… she took a bullet for me right in her…” My voice fails, and I press my hand to my throat. “She was drowning, begging me to end it. Begging me to save her, and the only way I could was to…”

The slick, wet shuck of the knife sliding into Nastja’s body swims through my mind, and a strong pulse of nausea rises in my gut. It was the merciful thing to do, and yet part of me is horrified I was able to do it.

“I killed her,” I finished, my voice completely tight and restrained. “To save her.”

Silence falls. Then August moves forward, wraps one large arm around my shoulders, and pulls me in for the briefest of hugs. It’s a silent offer of sympathy, of comfort between two war-scarred men. I allow it for a few moments until the warmth of his comfort threatens to break down my carefully constructed walls. That’s when I step away.

“I should have been there,” August says thickly. “I should have sent men.”

I don’t reply. I can’t find the words, and I don’t have the space in my heart to reassure him that more men wouldn’t have made a difference. Instead, I watch Alena as she curls tightly around the cushion and sleeps soundly. The silence drags, broken only by the dying crackle of the fire or the hiss of ash on the end of August’s cigar. It drags until I can’t take it anymore, and I roll my shoulders, glancing up at August.

“I think it was the Irish.”

“That betrayed us?”

“They’re the only plausible route. The contact I had with Seamus was the only connection I had to the outside since arriving here. Their ceasefire meeting must have gone better than either of us could have anticipated if Aleksander was bold enough to fly out here.” I press my tongue against my teeth in thought. “I can only assume Aleksander put two and two together to realize I have Alena.”

“And there’s no one else?” August fixes me with a steady stare. “No one else closer to this who could have revealed Alena to him?”

“No. My inner circle are the only ones who know how Alena and I came to be,” I explain. “And I trust all of them.”

“A given, considering they’re your inner circle,” August murmurs. “One thing I cannot shake is why Aleksander is even here.”

My attention flickers to him. “What do you mean?”

“That man refused homeland meetings for decades. The trouble I had with the Yakuza trying to open a supply chain through Russia to Europe? The bloodshed wasn’t enough to get a peep out of Aleksander. Even when we were hemorrhaging men and strength, he only ever sent an envoy, and in recent years, he sent you. He never left the States.”

“A show of power?” I offer, with my eyes locked on Alena. I know I’d fly across the word for her. “Alena is his heir, after all. Maybe he views it differently.”

“Maybe.” August takes a final puff of his dying cigar and presses it into the ashtray on the window sill. “Do you know what comes next?”

“Nope.” A bone-tired sigh rumbles through me. “Keep Alena safe. Get revenge. I don’t know after that.”

August clasps my shoulder under one large hand. “No, rest is what comes next. You are injured and grieving. You need time.”

“I need Aleksander dead.”

August snorts. “In time. You are safe here. Both of you are. Rest. Recover. I will send out my men and see if I can recover Ivan and Nastja’s bodies.”

My heart stops briefly. I hadn’t even considered that. “Thank you.”

“Of course. Now rest. I have you and Alena up on the second floor tonight, so anything you need that you cannot find, just ask me. My clean-up crew is already at your estate. There won’t even be a hair left by the time they are finished, and I have increased my scouts throughout the city. Aleksander won’t be able to sneeze without us knowing about it. You know I run a tight ship here.”

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