Page 30 of Reign of Four

The bang barely registers over the chaos erupting around me. Thankfully, I don’t have to clean up that mess, so I keep moving, using the downed guards as cushy stepping stones to put a little bounce in my step. I reload before hitting the next hallway.

The dining room is empty, but there’s blood on the walls. If Andrei’s with Valentina, he might be busy, but Thanatos should prioritize answering over anything else.

“Hey, Than, where’s the party?” I duck as someone shoots at me and cup my ear to hear his reply.

Outside.

Ah, so they’ve been moving quicker than I thought. Valentina must already be on her way past the gates to freedom.

Well, freedom in the form of an armored Hummer waiting for us at the street.

Most guards don’t realize I’m not part of their outfit, so I snag an AK from a body and empty a magazine in the unsuspecting fuckers. Normally, I wouldn’t kill so indiscriminately, but we’re on a time crunch, and I find that after seven long, anxiety-ridden days of stress and zero sleep, the fucks I have to give are infinitesimal.

I run into a handful of Ezra’s men on the way out back, and we pick off the stragglers. Within ten minutes, our part of the house is littered with bodies and not much else. A few of our men get shot, but unlike our enemies, they have bulletproof vests underneath their gear.

We don’t waste lives by going cheap.

Andrei’s voice clips through the comms, but he’s not talking to me, or Ezra, or Thanatos. He’s talking to Valentina, and getting louder by the second. No, wait—he grunts like he’s balls deep inside her sticky sweet heat, and then he growls out a you’re mine, and I roll my eyes.

Yeah, they’re fucking.

“You son of a bitch—” I hiss, slamming my fist against a wall. “She’s supposed to be mine next?—”

“Now is not time,” Ezra barks, and I hear a distinct click, which means that one of them has cut off their comms.

The bastard’s fucking tuning us out while he rails our girl.

“Fucking bastard,” I growl, pulling out my phone. We installed trackers on each other’s phones years ago, and I ping Andrei’s location with a few quick taps. He’s not outside, the fucker; he’s distracted by the promise of pussy, hidden way the fuck inside the house. He’s probably balls deep inside her right this second. “Motherfucker.”

But if he’s fucking Valentina, that means they must be celebrating Liam’s demise. Good riddance. The world’s already a better place without him.

I follow Andrei’s location deeper into the house and come across a random set of doors. The ping isn’t exact, and it takes me a few tries to find a locked room. I bang my fist against it when the handle won’t turn. “Hey! We don’t have time for this?—”

Something scrapes across the floor inside the room, and the door suddenly opens. Valentina’s bright green eyes widen once she sees me, and then she’s lunging straight for me. “Mikhail!” She wraps her arms tight around my waist before I can hold her off, and one millisecond later, she’s smushing her face against my bloodied chest plate, completely oblivious to the sticky, wet smudge on her cheek or insane for not caring in the slightest.

All at once, my ribs are on the verge of collapsing. It takes effort to draw in breath, so once I have one, I hold it. Valentina squeezes me as tight as she can, but the bulletproof vest absorbs most of her strength. This weight in my lungs, the painful flicker in my heart—it isn’t because she’s hurting me. It’s because she’s finally safe.

I exhale heavily over the top of her head and meet Andrei’s eyes, giving him the dirtiest fucking glare. He should not have prioritized a quickie over safely extracting her from this godforsaken place.

But now she’s here, in my arms. I’ll keep her fucking safe.

A wave of warmth washes over me, and I shutter in a breath. “I’ve got you, malyshka. I’m never letting you out of my sight again.” I cup her face in my hands and gently wipe away the blood staining her cheek. Her huge, doe eyes glitter like ripples of sunlight across an emerald lake, stealing whatever’s left of my heart that doesn’t already belong to her. I lift her on her tiptoes to kiss her deep, groaning as every scattered piece of my heart slots into place now that she’s where she belongs.

Valentina tastes like the last ray of sunlight before night falls—a gift from today, and a promise for tomorrow. I swipe my tongue into her mouth, eager for more of her warmth.

It doesn’t matter that Andrei got the first taste tonight—this moment, wrapped in each other’s arms, is all for me. She ran to me. After years of keeping women at arm’s length, that’s not a welcome I’m used to.

It’s not one I’ll ever forget.

“I’m so proud of you,” I murmur against her lips, drawing one between my teeth. “Such a good girl, coming back to us.” I’d feared she might flee the city and make a run for her old life, but the hickey staining her neck and the distinct swelling to her very-kissed lips begs otherwise.

She’s just as addicted to us as we are to her.

“We need to leave,” Andrei interrupts rudely, snagging Valentina around the waist and pulling her from me. I scowl at my pakhan, but then Valentina reaches out and holds my hand.

It’s not holding the woman of my dreams naked in my arms, but it’s oddly . . . sweet. Especially when she holds on tight. I bring her hand to my lips and flick my tongue between her fingers, enjoying the way her cheeks flush a pretty pink, just for me.

I’m going to devour this woman the first chance I get.

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