by Nicole Fox
“It’s a long story,” Kian says.
“Are you saying now’s not a good time?”
He looks at me, surprised. When he sees the soft smile on my lips, he laughs. “If we get out of here—when we get out of here—I’ve got a lot of stories for you, Renata.”
I squeeze his hand hopefully. “I want to hear them all.”
“Fuck!” Sarah cries suddenly, ruining the moment as we turn a corner and come face to face with a bunch of men with their guns raised. One look and I know that they’re Rokiades’s soldiers.
Kian shoves me to the side so hard that I land on my hip. My arm breaks my fall somewhat, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to leave a bruise that’s going to last weeks. As I clamber upright, I watch as Kian and Sarah fight off the four men who’ve unwittingly accosted us. Sarah’s impressively fast and confident. But I can’t take my eyes off Kian.
It strikes me that I haven’t really seen him fight properly. Fighting with me doesn’t really count. And truth be told, it’s amazing to watch him in action. I almost forget to be scared.
He moves with calm assurance and the kind of precision that takes decades to master. You’d never be able to tell that he’s got injuries all over his body. It feels like even he’s forgotten that inconvenient little fact in the moment.
Blades flash, guns flare, fists and feet and elbows flow, and in a moment, all four of the men are incapacitated on the ground, blood pooling beneath them.
Sarah and Kian turn to each other and nod with grim satisfaction. I’m relieved, too—until, at the last possible second, I see one of the soldiers on the ground raise his gun. His hands are bloodied and trembling and he’s got maybe a few minutes left before he dies. But for now, he’s alive enough to aim in Kian’s general direction.
“No!” I scream. “Watch out!”
My words mix with the scream of the exploding gunshot…
And Sarah crumples to the floor. Kian turns to the murderer and kills him with a bullet to the face. Then he falls to his knees next to Dr. Lenore. “Sarah, no…” he murmurs, voice racked with anguish. I sprint to his side. My stomach is churning with horrified anxiety.
The bullet has hit her in the dead center of the abdomen. She’s bleeding badly, but she’s still conscious. Her face is so ghostly pale that I can hardly bear to look at her.
“Sarah,” Kian croons, checking her pulse. “Sarah, can you hear me?”
“Just… go…” Her voice isn’t strong, but I still hear her loud and clear.
I can see steely determination in his eyes when he shakes his head. “We don’t leave Clan behind,” he says firmly.
She shakes her head right back. “Get Renata out of here.”
I grab her hand instinctively. “We’re not leaving you.”
Kian looks at me and understanding flits between us. Then he turns to Sarah. “Stay with me, okay?”
She nods slowly, but I can see the strength wane from her eyes just a little. She barely seems to register the new round of gunfire occurring just over our heads.
The walls are closing in.
55
Kian
“Do you know what’s happening?” Renata asks me with wild eyes.
“The Clan is here,” I tell her. “Just like I told you they would be.”
She frowns. “Then why are we trying to hide?”
“Because at the moment, the Greeks and the Italians are all over the place, and we don’t know who we’ll run into. Now, come on. We’ve got to get Sarah somewhere safe.”
I get to my feet and heave Sarah into my arms. Renata looks around, flinching at every sound. I’m slightly surprised by how skittish she seems to be. And then I notice the way her hand curls over her stomach.
Of course. The baby.
“Stay close to me,” I order. “And grab a gun.”
She doesn’t hesitate when she reaches for one of the guard’s guns and plucks it from his dead grasp. Then, Renata sticking close to my side, we start to move. We turn into the first room we find and move behind the sofa.
“Hold on,” Renata says, grabbing a repulsive yellow carpet and throwing it over the floor first. “Okay. Put her down here.”
I place Sarah down on the shag carpet. Her eyes wobble even as her jaw stays clenched tight. She’s in pain, but she’s trying to bite it down. She’s a warrior, this one.
Renata grabs a pillow and places it gently underneath Sarah’s head. There’s a trickle of blood running down her nose, and she wipes it away slowly. “Kian,” she whispers, “what should I do?”
“We need to stop the bleeding,” I instruct her. “Press something soft against it.”
She nods, leaves Sarah’s side instantly, and returns a moment later with a piece of curtain fabric that she’s torn from the rod. She bunches up the material and presses it down over the gunshot wound. Sarah groans and sputters at the initial contact.
“Good,” I say. “Stay with her.”
“Where are you going?” Renata asks, the panic is back in her voice.
“I’m checking the situation outside.”
“Kian,” she says, grabbing my arm, “you’re only one man. And you’re badly injured.”
“Good. It’ll be an even playing field then.”
“Stop it,” Sarah wheezes. “I’m dying here. It hurts to laugh.”
I narrow my eyes at her. “Can you save the tough talk for when you’re not bleeding out?”
Renata looks between the two of us as though we’re both out of our minds. “You can’t go out there alone,” she says again. “It’s not safe.”
“I’m not waiting for them to find us, Renata.” The thundering of running footsteps has me on high alert again. I grab my gun. And then, on second thought, I grab another one.
Renata still has both hands on Sarah’s wound, but her eyes fly to the door in alarm. “Hey,” I whisper to her. “Listen to me. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. Or our baby.”
She needs to hear the words. Even if they don’t make a difference, she needs to hear them.
I wish I could say more, but we don’t have time. I rise slowly to my feet, prepared to shoot at a second’s notice. The footsteps are approaching.
“Kian,” Renata says softly.
“Yes?”
“You need to make sure nothing happens to you. We need you, too.”
I don’t have time to revel in the feel of those words, because a second later, the door bursts open and I’m staring at—
“Collin!”
“Fucking hell, boss!” Collin cries, his face splitting into a massive grin. “Almost blew your head right off.”
“Back atcha,” I say, rounding the couch. “What’s the status?”
“They’ve got more men than we expected,” he says grimly. He’s bleeding from the forehead and covered in sweat. But otherwise, he looks fine. “We’ve managed to beat them back enough to get more of our men in the house. The first group of soldiers we sent in are upstairs. I think they’re getting their asses handed to them.”
“They need backup,” I say. “Go.”
He looks at me. “What about—”
“I’ll join you soon,” I say, cutting him off. “Go. The men need you.”
He nods and rushes back out. A few more of my men storm past on their way to join the fight. And then I notice…
“Artem?”
The massive man halts to a stop and has to double back to the open door.
“Jesus, Phoenix,” I say when I realize which Kovalyov it is. “Thought you were your da—”
“Yeah, yeah,” he says, cutting me off. “You okay?”
“Fighting fit,” I reply. “Where’s your father?”
“Around here somewhere. So’s Uncle Cillian.”
“And Yannis? Does anyone have eyes on him?”
Phoenix looks past me, noticing that Renata is behind the couch. “You found her?”
“Concentrate, Phoenix,” I tell him firmly. “Yannis. Where is he?”
“Good.”
“But I don’t know where exactly he is.”
“Doesn’t matter,” I reply. “We’ll find him soon enough.” I don’t bother to tell him that finding Yannis Rokiades is going to be my fucking pleasure. Instead, I place my hand on his shoulder. “Phoenix, I’m gonna need you to do something for me.”
“Anything,” he says, straightening up immediately.
“I’ve got Sarah back there with Renata. She’s been shot and she’s bleeding out. We’ve managed to stop the bleeding now, but she needs medical attention fast. And she’s in no fit state to be moved.”
“Okay…?”
“I need you to stay here with both of them.”
His face falls instantly. He wants to be out there, fighting alongside me. I can understand that. I’d probably feel the same thing in his position.
I squeeze his shoulder. “Phoenix, I wouldn’t ask if this wasn’t important,” I say. “Renata… she’s pregnant.”
His eyes go wide. “Pregnant?”
“The child’s mine,” I say, feeling a glow of pride work its way into my tone. “And there’s no other man I trust more to take care of them.”
Phoenix nods slowly. “I’ll keep them safe.”
“Thank you.”
When I walk back behind the sofa, Renata is looking at me closely. “What’s that look on your face?” she asks.
“There’s no look,” I say. “I’m just going to get more guns.”
“You’re leaving us here?”
“Only for a few minutes.”
“You’re going after Rokiades, aren’t you?” she asks accusingly.
“Renata…”
“No!” she says. “No.” Given her hand is still clasped on top of Sarah’s wound, she’s unable to stand up and face me. “Kian, don’t go.”
Phoenix hovers behind me. I glance back at him. “Take her place for a moment.”
The future Kovalyov don gets to his knees beside Sarah and presses his hands onto her gunshot wound. I help Renata to her feet, then pull her to the corner of the room by the closed windows.
“Don’t go,” she says again—this time, more passionately. “I need you.”
He words are a punch in the gut, but I can’t just sit here knowing that Yannis is out there. As long as he’s alive, he will continue to be a threat to my Clan and to Renata. I can’t allow him to live. In any case, I’d made myself a promise. I’d made Rokiades a promise, too.
And I’m a man of my fucking word.
She grabs my hand and forces me to meet her eyes. “I can see what you’re thinking. You want revenge,” she says. “I can see the bloodlust in your face. But it’s not worth it, Kian. Just stay with me.”
“We won’t be able to be together in peace, Renata. Not as long as he’s alive.”
“You’re in no fit state to fight,” she points out.
“I’m stronger than I look.”
“He’s got too many men.”
“Renata,” I say, grabbing her face between my hands, “enough. I will survive. And I will come back.”
“You promise?”
The youth shines back at me from her eyes. She’s so fucking young, so fucking pure, and yet somehow, over the last few months, she’s given herself to me. A grizzled old man with too many scars on my body and too many skeletons in my closet.
“I promise.” I pull her face to mine and kiss her hard. I’m pretty sure I’m bruising her lips, but I don’t care and she doesn’t seem to, either.
When I release her, she grips my wrists, keeping my hands on her face. “Come back to me,” she orders. “In one piece.”
“I will,” I say with a firm nod.
Then I kiss her forehead and slip out of the room. I’ve got two guns on me, but I know I’m low on ammo. I can’t afford to go searching for more right now, though. Time is short. Windows of opportunity only last so long before something changes the game.
There’s a part of me that registers that my off-the-cuff plan is bordering on reckless. Especially in light of the promise I’ve just made to Renata. But the adrenaline is surging now. Determination courses through my veins like crack cocaine. And all I want is to wrap my hands around Yannis Rokiades’s throat and squeeze the life right out of the motherfucker.
I can feel the battle drawing to its inevitable conclusion. It can only end in one of two ways.
His death… or mine.
I hear a sound and freeze immediately. An instant later, two guards run into my line of vision. I recognize them instantly as enemies. They’re definitely not Clan. Nor are they Bratva.
They look like they’re running from something. But I don’t pause to ask what. I just raise my gun and fire twice. Both men drop to the floor. One’s dead on impact. The other tries to crawl away.
“Not so fast, motherfu—”
I’m about to end him when another bullet finishes the job for me. I step forward, just as a tall man with curly blonde hair steps through the open front door.
“Well, well, well,” Cillian remarks with a lopsided smile. “Look who it is.” He looks relatively put together. In fact, he’s barely broken a sweat.
“What did you do?” I ask. “Spend all morning getting your hair nice and coiffed, then wait ‘til the fight was over to join?”
He rolls his eyes. “I come all this way to bail your ass out of trouble, and this is the thanks I get?”
I smirk, moving forward to clasp his hand. “It’s good to see you, brother.”
“And you,” he replies. “Although you look like shite.”
Before I can respond, more men filter in through the door. The one heading the pack is a massive, dark-haired man who’s the spitting image of Phoenix, albeit aged forward thirty years or so.
“Decided to join the party, huh?” Artem asks me.
“Can we save the quips for when the battle is won?”
Artem shrugs. “There’s always enough time for a joke, friend. Your brother taught me that.”
“Yeah, well, my brother has a lot of dumb ideas. Best for all of us if we ignore him, I think.”
Cillian frowns and starts to say, “Hold on there; I think I—”
But I cut him off. “Phoenix is with Renata and Sarah,” I inform both of them. “Sarah’s been shot.”
Cillian jumps into business mode. He gestures forward two of his men. “Find Phoenix. Get Sarah out of the compound and to a doctor ASAP.”
They glance at me for further instructions. “Down the corridor, fifth door on the right,” I tell them. They nod and disappear down the hall.
“What’s the situation?” I ask.
“Rokiades is back there,” Cillian says, gesturing towards the rear half of the house.
“Then let’s go get him.”
I’m already walking forward when Cillian grabs my by the collar and pulls me back. “It’s not going to be easy getting to him,” he warns me. “Most of his forces have converged around him. We’re outnumbered.”
“But not by much,” Artem adds.
“Then what are we waiting for?” I demand.
“Kian,” Cillian says sharply, “I know you want to get this motherfucker. But the Marianis and the Lombardis have rallied around him.”
“The Marianis picked a side?”
“So it would seem.”
“Fuck,” I growl. “Still, that doesn’t change anything. We need to get in there. He’s backed into a corner.”
“With a fuck ton of men and a lot of ammo. It’s a dangerous corner.”
“But a corner nonetheless. We’ve got the brains,” I point out.
More Bratva soldiers rush into the foyer to await the next batch of orders. Artem gives them a curt nod and holds up a hand to keep them in place.
“Guess there’s no sense waiting any longer,” he says. “Kian’s right—we’ve got to move. Fi
rst, we need to find other points of entry into the room he’s taken cover in.”
“Which room is that?” I ask.
“No clue. Large fucking space, though. Looks like a ballroom from the outside.”
Jesus. As amped as I am to finally end the bastard behind all this shit, I don’t like the idea of charging guns blazing into a massive room without a shred of cover. It’s a good way to get a few dozen bullet holes in your face really quickly.
The thing about that, though—I stopped caring a long time ago about my own life. There are only two lives in this world that matter to me anymore: Renata and the baby in her womb.
“Fine. You find alternate points of entry. I’m going in the front.”
Cillian tries to stop me as I move past him, but I shake him off. I’m done waiting around. I need to eliminate the threat Rokiades poses to me. And to my family.
Funny—when I think of family, I see Renata’s face first. I wish I had time to figure out what the hell that means.
“Kian…” Cillian starts.
“Cillian,” Artem says, cutting him off. “We’re all dons here, remember?”
He sighs. “Knew that decision would come back to bite me in the ass one day.”
I almost smirk.
“Fine,” Cillian concedes. “Take a contingent of men and go. We’ll hold the rest of them off and bring reinforcements.”
“Thanks, big bro.”
“In the meantime,” he says sternly, “don’t fucking die.”
I smile. “I’ll do my best.”
Then I rush through to the dining hall where Rokiades is barricaded with half his army. I’m going in with only half his number of men. But I don’t give a fuck.
I don’t know if I’m going to see this day end. But Yannis Rokiades sure as hell is not.
56
Renata
Phoenix sits beside Sarah, looking at her wound with almost professional curiosity. “How’re you feeling?” he asks.
“Is that a trick question?”
He chuckles. “Are you always this cranky?”
“Not usually,” Sarah coughs. “But, you know, gunshot wounds tend to irritate me.”