Page 92 of Unleashed

Something in me breaks when I hear my brother call my name. I heave a sob, desperate and terrified. “It’s me,” I sniffle. “Please, Viktor. Don’t hurt them.”

Rafail steps forward, deliberately putting himself in the line of fire. He’s calm, determined, and fearless. “That’s my wife. Put your gundown.”

As huge as he is, he’s nowhere near as big as Viktor, and still fearlessly faces him unarmed.

“Rafail!” I scream. “That’s my brother! Viktor, don’t shoot!”

Surprise flares in Rafail’s eyes. Mikhail curses softly behind me.

“Hiswife?”

Viktor jerks his head at Semyon. “Interrogate him,” he growls. “Or I will.”

Gleb cowers and whimpers. “I don’t know where he is,” he sobs. “He’s gone, but I can find out where he is, I can!”

Rafail steps forward, his hands up in a gesture of surrender to my brothers. Viktor gives him a subtle nod, his eyes narrowed. “Go.” My heart pounds. It’s a temporary boon.

Rafail’s gaze sharpens, his presence darkening as he turns the full weight of his authority on Gleb. The shift in the air is palpable—predatory. Lethal. Gleb shrinks back, shaking under the force of Rafail’s ruthless stare, and it’s in that moment I fully understand. The man I thought I knew… the one I’vefallen in love with,has been holding himself back all along. The softness I’ve seen, the restraint, was only evidence of his self-control.

Because now, before me? This is the real Rafail. A man whose eyes sear with promises of violence. My heart stutters as thereality hits me: this man will stop at nothing. There are no limits, no lines he won’t cross for the people he loves.

His voice is low and calm as raw power radiates from him. “We’ll find Soloto,” he says with deadly intent. “Popov’s man led us straight to him. Now, the truth from you.”

I shiver when he says with deadly calm, “You broke trust. You manipulated our family.” He spits on the ground. “Youbetrayedus all.”

Each syllable is a threat and a promise that he has no intention of stopping until he knows everything. If I ever had a sliver of doubt before, I don’t now—I’m hopelessly in love with a man who will stop at nothing to protect what’s his.

“The-the truth?” Gleb stutters, staring at Rafail in wide-eyed terror.

“The truth!” Rafail bellows. We all watch in stoic silence. “Tell us. Tell us in front of her brothers. Tell us how Anissa came to be here, how you manipulated all of us.”

Yana’s grip on his hair tightens.

I stare, my heart pounding, torn between the violence before me and the fear of whatever he’ll say, wrapped in undeniable relief that finally,finally,I’ll be able to clear some of the fog.

Zoya squeezes my hand. Rafail walks in front of me, facing my brothers head-on.

As my brothers close in, Rafail’s voice cuts through the silence. “I want answers. He’smine.”

Shit. Gleb is going to rue the day he was born. I shiver.

“I worked with Soloto,” Gleb confesses, his face a mask of terror. Between the Kopolovs and my brothers, he’s facing a firing squad from the depths of hell.

“When I saw the picture of Anissa, it triggered a memory.”

Yana shakes him. “You accessed the files before Rafail planned to marry.”

“Yes,” he admits. “She looked so familiar it was uncanny. So I investigated and knew that she looked almost identical to Polina Romanova.”

Mikhail and Rafail share a look. “We are all adopted,” Mikhail says, his jaw tight. “We’ll need to bring my mother into this conversation.”

Nikko lowers the gun trained on Rafail. I release a breath with a gasp. Zoya gently squeezes my hand, and the lump in my throat dissolves. Hot, fat tears silently roll down my cheeks.

Rafail nods before returning his attention to Gleb. “Go on.”

My mind, however, is reeling.

She looked almost identical to Polina Romanova.

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