Page 93 of Forgotten Vows
To start a family with her. To give Lev a baby sister and brother, as many as we wanted.
To move into a house and build a home with her.
“No.” Luka’s reply was a cold one-word answer. “I want to be there to see Konstantin Petrov dead, once and for all.”
I didn’t blame him for that.
We reached the waterfront resort that Konstantin once kept to a fine level of hospitality and elegance. In his years of faking his death, though, he’d let it fall to run. The dump was a mess. Graffiti and trash showed up everywhere. It was obvious squatters had been trying to take over the place, but the Cartel members arguing out front set a different scene.
The second we showed up, they got in our faces and started firing.
They were no match for us, a minor inconvenience at the wrong time. We’d come with too many, and we were all packing. Leaving no one alive, Emil and I checked over for any Petrovs in the fallen. None were here. A thorough sweep showed no sign of Raisa, either.
“Fuck.” I grimaced as I met Luka back at the cars. “It looks like we came here to bust up a drug running op and nothing else.”No sign of Raisa at all.
Before we could discuss another plan or wonder why the Petrovs who’d driven here hadn’t stayed, I heard a strange ping on my phone.
“What the hell?”
I set up my emails to come to one main account years ago, but it’d been a long time since I heard the ping for the email I’d used when I was younger.
It could’ve been nothing, but something about that sound brought up a memory.
A memory of how Raisa would giggle and smile so sweetly when we’d spam each other’s emails after we’d first met.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and read the incoming message. “Got her.”
“Huh?” Luka pushed off the car he’d been leaning on while Emil and I checked the scene.
“I’ve got her. She emailed me. They must have moved her or I don’t know.” I was already on the go, getting in the car. “Let’s go.”
The driver took the direction to the large cabin Konstantin once had as another fancy resort. His real estate portfolio had taken a dive, but it seemed he still thought he had rights to some of the dump. While the cabin Raisa told me to come to was on the other side of the city, that wasn’t stopping us.
Luka ordered a helicopter to be on standby, and we sped to the landing strip to fly there.
I’m coming.
I will always come for you, Raisa.
I love you too much to lose you.
Please, just be there.
Be alive.
Because I love you too much to lose you again.
Soaring through the air was a much faster means of transportation, but it did mean that we couldn’t take many men with us. More Dubinin crews were being dispatched to come this way as backup, but when we landed, it was only the four of us heading into the building. The pilot was armed, so he, too, had his gun up and ready to use as we crept to the cabin.
Anyone within a five-mile radius would’ve been alerted to the sound of the chopper landing. It was a dead giveaway that we’d arrived, but I supposed relying on the element of surprise wasn’t our goal here.
The pilot and Emil went ahead, taking out every single Petrov we found guarding the space. There weren’t many, and I couldn’t decide if that was a good sign or a bad one. Or maybe it just meant that Konstantin was running out of people who’d serve him and defend him.
It didn’t matter who they were, they were dead.
We wouldn’t leave anyone alive.
Emil and the pilot gestured for us to enter the cabin.
