Page 69 of Cruel Knots

Whirling around, he eyes me with astonished silver eyes. “What’re you stopping me for? I’ve got to see what this is about.”

“I’ll tell you. Just get back here.”

He glances at Lilja’s grim expression before moving toward me. All the while, explosions and gunfire rain outside our home.

“Leon warned me just now,” I tell them. “We’ve been breached.”

“What?” Mikhail shouts. “I didn’t hear anything about an attack on our family.”

“Listen to me very carefully,” I say in a low, commanding tone. “They’re here for Lucia. Callum Baldwin shook hands with the Morelli family to get back at us. He’s even made traitors out of our men.”

“The sleazy mob families have needed a kick up their asses a long time ago,” says Lilja. “Same with the men who guard our home. Everything’s been too quiet lately. They’ve forgotten the consequences of biting the hand that feeds them. It’s time to remind them not to fuck with the Volkov Pack.”

“This is crazy! How did they go undetected by my network of spies?” Mikhail looks disturbed but there’s no time to explain everything to him at the moment.

“We’re heading toward the southern quarters,” I say, injecting fierce dominance in my tone. “Mikhail, be ready to face them on the first floor. Lilja, second floor. Anyone who makes it past you guys, faces me. Remember. Their target is Lucia. She’s the prize. We defend her.”

“Are we allowed to kill the bastards?” Lilja asks hopefully.

My baby sister looks extremely excited about the prospect of being on the frontlines. She’s rearing to go tear some heads off.

“Be careful, Lilja,” I warn in a grim tone. “I don’t want a scratch on you. One single scratch or bruise and you can forget about the Harley I ordered for you.”

A pout forms on her lips immediately as she glares at me.

“Same for you, Mikhail,” I say. “No matter what happens, you must stay alive.”

He rolls his eyes at me. “We’ll be fine. Stop nagging.”

Getting to my feet, I glance at them both. “Let’s go, then.”

21

Lucia

My eyes jerk open in the dark. Heart thudding in my chest, I wonder what caused me to wake up so abruptly. That’s when I hear the explosions and gunfire.

My fumbling hand finds the light switch and flicks it ON. Throwing the blankets off me, I climb out of bed and run toward the window. It takes a while for my eyes to adjust to the darkness outside but soon, I’m able to see the groups of warring men.

Some fight. Others shoot. Explosions erupt all around them, making the windowpanes rattle hard.

What’s happening? I wonder as fear grips me by the throat.

Moving across the room, I try the door and find it locked.

No ordinary people would be attacking the Volkovs. Lilja told me enough about them earlier for me to understand their power in the criminal underworld.

Callum, my mind whispers. He’s the only one who’ll dare to retaliate against them. I know he won’t sit back while I’m being held by Damien and his brothers.

The Volkov brothers hate me. Their rage is something I can handle, even embrace. It’s Callum’s suffocating love that triggers the flight-or-fight instinct in me.

I want to run away and hide at once. There’s no way I can let these men find me here and take me back to my brother.

Going back to the window, I open it and look down. The third floor is too high. Even though there are no bars to stop me from jumping, I’d end up hurting myself.

Opening the window proves to be a bad mistake though.

A couple of scattered men notice me standing there and point toward me. I can’t hear what they’re shouting with the sound of explosions and gunfire in the background but I’m sure they’ve found what they were looking for.

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