Page 66 of Forgotten Vows
Moving onto the other man, I shot into both of his thighs. Then his arms. He would be a rag doll, unable to move if he didn’t bleed out first. His screams splintered through the air, and the tang of blood annoyed me.
“This is the only message I will give you.” I grabbed his hair and forced him to face me. One eye was swollen shut, but I knew he was listening past the sobs from the gunshot wounds I’d given him.
“Touch my son and die.”
I aimed my gun at his dick and fired again, relishing the mournful, pathetic cries.
Pivoting in place, I sighed and let the relief of delivering justice comfort me. Before moving away from the men, the pathetic moles, I faced the hidden camera in the corner of the room.
“Touch my son and die,” I repeated.
If Konstantin was alive and had tasked these two men to turn against the Dubinin Family like this, he’d hear me loud and well. And if he was alive but not directly tied to this madness, he could heed this message anyway. He wouldn’t win. Anyone acting in his memory wouldn’t win.
Raisa and Lev had been threatened once before, and that was one time too many.
Knowing that video would spread among the men within no time, I wiped off my gun then set it back in its holster.
Emil and I left, heading home. The further we went, leaving those liars back there—dead or dying—I was glad to have left a message just like that.
Touch my son and die.
Touch my woman and die.
It was a combination of vows I’d never forget and never forsake.
Raisa and Lev would always be safe with me looking out for them.
28
RAISA
Dinner was tense.
I recalled this somber mood when I was a child. Whenever my father would be mad about a fight or pissy that his soldiers were harmed, he’d sulk and lash out at anyone who dared to speak up.
It wasn’t like that. Thanks to Misha, we had a running commentary about what would make the indoor pool Luka had put in even better. Lev piped up, too, never wanting to be left out of this friendship with Misha.
But all of us adults were quiet. We glanced at each other not quite in solidarity, but more like checking in. Gabriella seemed to watch me. Alexsei looked wary.
Luka was fine, or he was really good at acting like it. He made the most effort to be engaged with Misha and Lev.
Like this, I saw a different side to the leader. And I dared to hope that maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t exactly like my father. Perhaps after this scare, he would be more willing to officially welcome me to the family.
Because it wasn’t my father who orchestrated today.
If my father was alive and he had been the one to hire those men to rush into the school like that just to prevent another shift of power, I never would’ve been looked at the same again. Because I shared his surname, I’d always carry the stain of all he wanted and did. I wasn’t my father, but I was stuck being my father’s daughter. The only silver lining I saw in this experience was that I wasn’t literally stuck in the middle of a power struggle between two Mafia bosses.
After dinner, I took Lev to our room. When Ivan moved us next to his room, I had mixed feelings about being closer to the man I was so tempted to desire.
Now, it just made sense. He was patient and giving me the space all this time, and I had to admit it was just what I needed.
I neededhim.
I helped Lev get ready for bed, knowing already that he and Misha would be playing tomorrow. The school wouldn’t be open tomorrow, not for the private tutoring students like Lev. But I prayed with all my heart that he wouldn’t mask any fear or trauma because of this.
“Mama?” he asked once I had him bathed, dressed, and tucked in bed. A wide yawn crossed his face.
“Hmm?”
