Page 69 of Auctioned to the Russian Pakhan
“Well played,” he said quietly, just loud enough for her to hear.
Then chaos erupted. Kozlov’s men moved to protect their boss, weapons appearing as if from thin air. Guests screamed and scattered as the ballroom transformed from an elegant social gathering to a potential battlefield. Irina found herself grabbed and pulled behind a marble pillar by Viktor, his body shielding her from the mayhem.
“Are you hurt?” he demanded, his hands checking her for injuries.
“I’m fine,” she gasped, adrenaline making her voice shake. “Did you get it all?”
“Every word.” Viktor’s smile was fierce. “That bastard just confessed to everything.”
Through the chaos, she could see Kozlov and his men fighting their way toward the exits, using the panicking crowd as cover. Matvei was trying to get to them, but there were too many people, too much confusion.
“He’s getting away,” she said.
“Let him run. We have what we need now.” Viktor pulled out his phone, probably to coordinate with their security teams outside. “Both our families are cleared, and we have enough evidence to...”
“Viktor.” The cold fear in her own voice stopped him mid-sentence. “Where’s Raya?”
She’d spotted the girl earlier, gorgeous in a silver gown and talking animatedly with some of the younger Volkovcousins. But now, scanning the chaos, she couldn’t see Matvei’s youngest sister anywhere.
Viktor followed her gaze, his face paling as he realized what she was seeing. Or rather, what she wasn’t seeing.
“Matvei!” he shouted across the ballroom, his voice cutting through the noise.
When Matvei turned, Viktor pointed toward where Raya had been standing. The space was empty now, with no sign of the girl anywhere.
The look that crossed Matvei’s face was pure anguish. He understood immediately what had happened. In the confusion of the confrontation, in the chaos of Kozlov’s escape, someone had taken his sister.
As sirens wailed in the distance and the last of the fleeing guests cleared the ballroom, one thing became crystal clear: their victory in exposing Kozlov had come at a terrible price. And now they had to live with the consequences.
Chapter 24 - Matvei
The abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of the city looked like something out of a nightmare. Broken windows reflected the harsh glare of floodlights, while rusted metal siding bore the scars of decades of neglect. Irina crouched behind an overturned car with Viktor and Kostya, her heart hammering against her ribs as she watched both families coordinate their assault on the building where intelligence suggested Kozlov was holding Raya.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Viktor muttered for the tenth time, his pale eyes scanning the perimeter where Matvei’s men were taking their positions. “Pregnant women don’t belong in war zones.”
“And yet here I am,” Irina whispered back, checking the earpiece that would keep her connected to the operation. “Someone needs to monitor communications and coordinate between our families. I’m the only one both sides trust completely.”
It was true, though she knew that wasn’t the only reason she’d insisted on coming. Raya had become like a sister to her over the past months, one of the few people who had welcomed her into the Volkov family without reservation. The thought of that sweet, spirited girl in Kozlov’s hands made Irina’s blood burn with a rage that had nothing to do with family politics and everything to do with protecting someone she loved.
“Alpha team in position,” came Matvei’s voice through her earpiece, steady and controlled despite the fact that his sister’s life hung in the balance.
“Beta team ready,” Ilya’s voice followed, and Irina felt a strange thrill at hearing her cousin and her husbandcoordinating like they’d been working together for years instead of plotting each other’s destruction.
“Kozlov’s got at least twelve men inside,” Simon’s voice crackled through the comm. “Thermal imaging shows them spread across three floors. Raya’s being held on the second level, northwest corner.”
Irina closed her eyes, visualizing the building layout they’d studied obsessively for the past six hours since tracking Kozlov to this location. Every entry point, every potential escape route, every place where things could go catastrophically wrong. The plan was solid, but plans had a way of falling apart the moment bullets started flying.
“Remember,” she said into her microphone, her voice carrying to every member of both families, “we get Raya out first. Everything else is secondary.”
“Copy that,” came the chorus of responses.
“Breaching in three... two... one...”
The world exploded into chaos and carnage.
Flash-bang grenades tore through the night with blinding fury, their light pulsing like lightning across a battlefield. The thunderclap of detonation was followed by the brutal, relentless scream of automatic weapons fire. Muzzle flashes flickered like hellfire through shattered windows, illuminating dark figures moving with lethal precision.
Inside the warehouse, it was a slaughterhouse.
