Page 87 of Bratva King's Secret Twins

“Sho, what's the new plan?” Alek deadpans.

“Let them shoot.” He shrugs.

A muscle in my jaw twitches. “Let them shoot? That’s all you got?”

“Aleksandr knows me. I have to want to die for them to kill me.”

“I don’t care if they kill you, Sho. I care if Boris kills Gwen,” I growl, turning to look at his bored expression.

“Aw, I’m hurt Nik.” Sho’s tone is playful, his dark eyes bore into me. “I have something up my sleeve. We will get Gwen out safe. And then my debt to you is repaid, Alek.”

“Not even close,” Aleksandr says, his voice cold and certain. “But think–a huge dent if Gwen makes it out alive.”

“If?” I growl.

“When,” Nadia says with certainty.

I close my eyes for a moment, trying to steady my breathing. The thought of losing Gwen is enough to make my blood run cold. I can’t let that happen. I won’t.

“We’ll need to be ready for anything,” I say, opening my eyes, meeting Sho’s in the rearview mirror.

Aleksandr nods, his expression unreadable. “Then let’s get the weapons and make sure we’re not the ones who end up in the ground.”

The trade offis scheduled for dawn in Staten Island next to the floating barges of trash. Nadia leans against the SUV, her face twisted and hands tucked deeply in her leather jacket. “It fucking stinks.”

“It smells like New York.” Aleksandr rolls his eyes, an AK 47 lazily draped across his lap as he hangs out of the side door of his truck. It smells like rotten fish and vomit, but with the sweet tinge of vanilla. I can’t tell if the vanilla is true or if my mind is playing tricks on me because Gwen is so close to being back in my arms.

Sho is tucked in the backseat of the SUV, sliding doors wide open, tossing a grenade in the air and catching it despite Nadiatelling him to stop four times around. She clicks her jaw and the fifth time is coming. “Sho, you’re going to get us all killed, stop fucking throwing that grenade.”

“Hime, I told you if the pin is released I have about fifteen second to through it into the ocean. We’ll be fine.” He yawns, tossing the grenade once again.

Nadia steps up into the SUV. Aleksandr lets out a low whistle as she leans over him with fire in her eyes. I smirk, popping the gum in my mouth. Twenty minutes until I see Gwen, might as well have a show first. Nadia rips the grenade out of Sho’s hand, pulls the pin and tosses it into the Alantic.

No one flinches when the explosion causes some of the water to splash the floor around us, and Sho smiles in Nadia’s face like he just won the fucking lottery. It makes me want to punch him in the face. “Nadia, if you wanted to get my attention, you didn’t need an explosion, just sit in my lap next time.”

His tattooed fingers curls around her right hip, but before I can say anything, Aleksandr growls and Nadia pushes one knee into Sho’s crotch. Nadia flashes him a sickening sweet smile as she pushes her knee deeper until Sho winces in pain. “Milyy,” she purrs, leaning so she is a breath away from his lips. “The next time I am in your lap, I will be making you a eunuch.”

His grip on Nadia’s hip loosens as she shoots him a venomous glare before swiftly extracting herself from his grasp.

Sho coughs and leans forward out of the SUV, looking at me with a foolish smile. “I think I may be in love with your sister.”

I bristle, a growl escaping my lips as I look him over. “You really have a death wish, don’t you, pridurok?”

Sho flashes me a toothy smile that makes me growl, but before I can punch him in the face, three black SUVs pull up to the dock and my heart stops beating.

Sho leans in close to my ear, that same smile on his face and says, “Well, let the fun begin.”

The car barely comes to a complete stop before Boris is flinging his door open, bearing his yellow teeth with the flourish of an executioner. Sho dips back into the SUV, probably to find himself another grenade. Aleksandr straightens his backs with the AK 47 hanging on his shoulder pointed at Boris’s car. Nadia plays with her signature knife and has three guns attached to her body. And as a sign of fake good faith, I have one gun tucked in my waistband. Everyone has on bullet proof vests and if I didn’t know that there were probably twenty men waiting to kill me, hidden all around this dock, I would have more faith in us.

“Nikolai,” Boris whistles. “What a ragtag crew you got here.”

“Only the best to kill you, Boris!” I give him a shining smile and open my arms like I was showcasing a glorious event and not the downfall of the three other killers next to me.

“So that’s your plan, Nikolai. No deals or negotiations?” He shrugs, looking back at the members of the Yakuza slinking out of their cars. “You just want me dead?”

“I couldn’t care less if you live or die, Boris. Where’s my girl?” I snarl, looking towards the car.

Boris laughs to himself as he slides the door open to his black car and Gwen is kicked out onto the ground, followed by a colorfully inked man grinding his teeth. Guilt crashes through me, sharp as a blade to the gut, the second I lay eyes on her. Gwen’s barely recognizable—just a shadow of herself, batteredand broken because I wasn’t there to stop this. I want to tear my own heart out for letting her get to this point.

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