Page 83 of A Silent Reckoning

She slammed his door shut and climbed into the driver’s seat. She secured her own seatbelt and then hit the garage door opener. As soon as the door began sliding open, men ran toward it, guns pointing into the garage. The estate was crawling with men. She’d known it wouldn’t be easy to get off the grounds.

She hit the accelerator before the doors finished opening and smashed through them.

Bullets thunked into the side of the vehicle and she winced. They clearly hadn’t seen her behind the wheel, or they wouldn’t be trying to kill her, which made her escape even more dangerous. She’d assumed they would know it was her trying to leave the grounds. That they’d try to stop her but ultimately pull back so as not to hurt her.

She hurtled down the driveway, ignoring the men who were chasing her and accelerated toward the big, reinforced iron gates at the head of the property. There were men waving at her and shouting, but she didn’t slow down. They were forced to leap out of her way as she smashed through the gates. The truck jolted and slowed for a second, then picked up speed.

She guided her vehicle onto the highway leading away from Prague. She had another vehicle, one that would blend in better than the Marauder, waiting for her in a nearby car park. She would abandon the truck and take the other vehicle into Poland where she had a hideaway.

She glanced in the rearview mirror to make sure the jolt of hitting the gates hadn’t disturbed Kristoph. He remained asleep.

Reaching across to the passenger seat, she opened the zip of her bag and dumped it. She picked up the burner phone she’d activated before leaving the mansion and dialed her father’s number.

Chapter Forty-One

Krystoff stared at his man.

“Both of my daughters?”

“Yes, they left when we tried to collect them. We don’t know where they are. They might’ve collaborated on this.”

Krystoff was stunned. His daughters had betrayed him?

He stared down at his wife and tried to make sense of the situation. His entire family. Gone in a single evening. He hadn’t truly known a single one of them.

His wife had tried to kill an innocent woman. His daughters scattered when the family was threatened, and that threat was coming from the one person Krystoff thought would remain loyal until the end.

He wanted to sit down and think, work out what’d happened. Saskia had told him he wasn’t a good father, yet he’d provided everything they’d ever needed and then some. Hadn’t he?

He didn’t have time to think about it. Maybe later he could work out what happened, see if he could repair his relationship with his youngest daughter. He wasn’t sure where Leeza had gone but he had a difficult time believing his obedient eldest daughter had betrayed him. Except when it came to her son, she was compliant to a fault.

Wasn’t she?

Fuck, he didn’t have time to think about it. He had to set his mind to his next move. Jozef wouldn’t be taking a time out. He’d be planning his attack. Which meant Krystoff had to beat him to it.

Pain blossomed in Krystoff’s chest as he finally allowed himself to accept the inevitable. He would have to kill the man he considered his son. If he didn’t, then Jozef would kill everyone Krystoff loved.

A searing anger rushed through Krystoff. He blamed the woman. If she hadn’t come into their lives, then none of this would’ve happened. He should have insisted she be put in the ground the day Jozef dragged her home. If he could, he would take her out himself. Slow and painful.

She might be an innocent in the big picture, but she had destroyed an entire multi-generational crime family. There was no forgiveness in Krystoff’s heart for her. Soon she would die, and he could set about putting what was left of his family back together.

Krystoff knelt next to Dasha’s bed and gripped her hand, holding it against his lips. “I will finish what you started, my love. I will make this right.”

Krystoff stood and stepped away from the bed. He was loath to leave Dasha, but he couldn’t stay. He had to lead the men he was sending to take out Jozef at the club. They would need a strong leader if they were to make it out alive. Jozef would not be an easy target.

He stepped out into the hallway to speak with Dasha’s bodyguard.

Rassoul turned as Krystoff approached him. “Sir?”

“You stay on her room,” Krystoff told the other man. “No matter what you hear reported back from the other teams, you stay on Dasha. Fail to protect my wife again and you can consider your life forfeit.”

“Yes, sir,” Rassoul said steadily, positioning himself outside the door.

Krystoff arranged for another man to watch the door, then walked away from Dasha. He didn’t look back. He couldn’t. If he saw his wife, pale and helpless in that bed, he wouldn’t leave. He had to join his men a few blocks away from Jozef’s apartment complex to organize the strike. To protect his family.

Krystoff had a bad feeling about taking the building. His team of men weren’t nearly as prepared as Jozef’s would be. Jozef had taken those men from him, the men Krystoff had invested in and trained.

These thoughts helped him build the rage he would need to take out his nephew.

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