Page 196 of The Lazarov Bratva

“And I’m telling you that you need to go to him and find out what the hell is going on because?—”

“Alena!” Katja bursts in through the door, her face flushed from running and struggling to catch her breath. She doubles over briefly, then points wildly behind her. “One of the guards has been shot!”

“What?” My heart stills, and a coldness washes over my shoulder. Andrev reaches for his gun and leaps toward the door, peeking out, then he turns to Katja.

“What the hell happened?”

“I was taking some things upstairs and there was a knock at the door. The guard opened, it and one of the men who was here with August was standing there. He was bleeding and he tried to speak, but then he got shot! He landed on the door guard, who also got shot, and there’s all these men in the house. Strange men but, Alena—” She rushes to me and clutches at my hand.

“I think they’re Kuznetsov’s men.”

“Why would you think that?” Kuznetsov? Mikhail was here? Working for my father, surely.

“Because,” Katja gasps, “Mara is here!”

Mara.

My mother?

“What the fuck?” I gasp, placing one hand protectively over my stomach. “I fucking hate this house.”

“Alena, we need to get out of here,” Andrev says, reaching for my arm, but I slap him away.

“No, no, just… give me a second.”

“Alena!”

“No!” I snap and pace away, trying to gather my thoughts. Andrev clearly has orders for us to run if anything goes south, but I can’t do that, not realistically. I’m pregnant. I can’t go on the run no matter how safe of an idea it might be. What would that do to the baby? The poor thing has already been under enough stress, and now this?

“I can’t run, I can’t risk anything happening to my baby because we decide to go running through that damn forest.”

“You think Mara isn’t a risk to your baby?” Katja scoffs. “She’s here. Fuck knows what she wants.”

“No, she won’t hurt me. If she was going to, she wouldn’t be here herself. This has to be something else. Fuck, I hadn’t thought about her in so long.” Running my hand through my hair again, slowly, a plan comes together, and I turn back to Andrev.

“You have to leave. You have to get out of here, and take Katja with you. You have to find Kristof.”

“What? I’m not leaving you,” he snaps, and he surges forward, grabbing my elbow.

I snatch my arm from his grip and shake my head. “You have to. If they kill everyone here and Kristof is just late, then he’ll have no idea what happened here and no idea where to look for me, don’t you see?” I plead with him, staring up into his eyes and pouring all my determination into the look. “You have to slip away. Take Katja because Mara can’t know that she’s here.”

“Kristof will kill me if I leave you,” Andrev says, but his voice quavers as if he’s starting to see my logic.

“Mara will kill you regardless,” I say, and from the growing sounds of gunfire, that’s a certainty.

“Alena, I can’t abandon you.”

“You’re not! You’re saving someone I love,” I say with a glance at Katja, “and you’re taking valuable information to Kristof and August. Please, Andrev, you have to get out of here!”

I’m uncertain what it is, exactly, that suddenly makes sense to Andrev, but after kissing me briefly on the forehead, he takes Katja by the arm and drags her out the side door, leaving me in the smothering silence of the library.

A silence broken every so often by the crack of gunfire.

Mara is here? That fact still seems so alien. I’ve never known her to get her hands dirty, but if she’s here, then it’s not a good sign. Whatever is keeping Kristof and August had better be damn good if I have to face time in Mara’s company.

Leaning against the desk, I stare out the window to the willow tree at the bottom of the garden, and an unexpected chill steals down my arms. I shiver, then lurch as the door to the library is kicked open.

Three men dressed in black and armed with assault rifles charge in, then they stumble to a stop as they spot me. A clack of heels follows them, and suddenly, Mara, my cold-hearted mother, stands before me.

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