Page 74 of Defiant Devotion

My lips trembled under the pressure to kill him. In the face of a direct threat like this, I vibrated with so much anger, I couldn’t contain it. Still, I kept my arms locked and ready, the gun firmly in my hands and aimed at his head.

“Do you hear me?” he asked, deferring to me since I was in the front of the room.

“Fuck you,” I growled through clenched teeth.

“Don’t test me,” he warned. “I’ll press this button before you can shoot.”

I wasn’t in any position to guess or wager who would be faster. Maybe he had a quicker reflex and trigger finger. I didn’t know. All I could assume was that pressing that button would cause an immediate detonation whereas the bullet I fired at him would have to pass over the distance of this room to reach him.

“I’ll be damned if you try to ruin my life again.”

He lifted his chin, so loyal to his leader that he would be a kamikaze soldier. If he wasn’t here to capture me and the others behind me on the couch, then he had to be here to kill us.

“You won’t take me. Not again.”

He didn’t respond.

“I’m sick of you fucking Ilyins trying to destroy my family. I won’t be a pawn you can use in your schemes.” With every word I said, the decibel of my voice scaled higher and louder until I was screaming.

“I am devoted to the prosperity of my family,” I vowed. “And I order you to leave. Now!”

“Shut the fuck up and sit down.”

“No,” I bit it out with such vehemence I felt like my blood was boiling and spilling over. “Get out of this house now.”

“I’m not listening to a single fucking thing any Baranov bitch says—” He turned his head slightly. Without taking his attention off me, he shifted just a little. Clued in to someone else entering the house, he reacted and registered that we weren’t alone.

My stupid heart lifted. I wanted to believe it was help arriving. That Ben and Lev were back. Vik and Rurik. Any of the many loyal guards and soldiers in this organization.

Anything could go wrong on a day like today with so many deadly missions and goals being put into action.

But it looked likeeverythingwas bound to go wrong on a day like today.

It wasn’t any of the Baranov men who rushed in from the front door. It wasn’t the man I wanted to call my husband. It wasn’t my brother-in-law or cousins.

It was a stranger. With a deranged, maniacal grin morphing his face, he ran in to stand next to the Ilyin strapped with bombs. As he skidded to a stop, surveying the man then the rest of us in the room, he nodded and chuckled. The long black coat he wore dripped water onto the floor, making his shoes squeak with his steps as he walked in further, but beneath it, his suit gave me no clue who he was.

An enemy.

That was all I needed to identify him.

He was an enemy to smile at the sight of bombs in our place. He was an enemy because he held a gun in one hand.

“Just in time.” He smiled at the Ilyin, pointing his gun at him. “Give me the detonator.”

“Get the fuck out of here,” Eva demanded. “Both of you.” She’d come to stand next to me, gun up and ready.

“No,” the man said. “No, no, no. You’re done. You are all done. This is the end of the Baranovs.” He waggled his gun at the soldier. “Give me the detonator now. I hurried here to watch the carnage. To see this place blown to rubble. All of you bitches dead. Now I can be the one to press the button. And everyone can know I was the one to end your fucking family once and for all.”

The Ilyin handed the detonator to him. His vacant stare proved that he’d accepted his death. In suicide, in the name of serving his family or this stranger. However he justified it in his mind. With a lift of his arm, he moved the detonator closer to this businessman.

But he didn't go far with it.

“Fuck you, O’Malley.” Kelly screamed it, coming between me and Eva. “Fuck you!”

She was the one who’d taken that third gun. She was the one who screamed so loudly as she emptied the clip into O’Malley. Whoever he was, she’d gotten him at the perfect moment of distraction. He dropped the detonator at her scream.

Perhaps he hadn’t seen her seated behind me and my sister. Maybe it was the feral ferocity of her screams that jarred him and distracted him from holding on to the detonator.

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