Gavril is standing a few yards away in the mouth of a small alleyway. He glances at Sandro, who isn’t paying attention, and then gestures for me to come over to him.
I run toward him, my heart thundering at a hundred miles an hour.
Why is he here?
He grabs my hips, pushing me against the wall. “This feels familiar, doesn’t it?”
Exasperated, I shake my head. “What are you doing here?”
“Did you think I’d let some man steal you from me by arrangement?”
Hope ignites like a bonfire doused in gasoline inside of me. “How did you find out?”
“Adrianna told Archer.”
I sigh, relief taking a hold around my heart. “But how can you stop it? My brother is set on this wedding going ahead.”
He cups my face in his large, rough hands. “Leave it to me.”
“You know it’s happening in three days, right?”
“That’s why I’m about to stop it now.”
Confusion takes a hold as I search his eyes. “How?”
“As I said, leave it to me.”
“Camilla,” Sandro calls my name, walking in our direction.
Gavril pulls out a gun, and it feels like time stops still as he comes out of hiding. “Over here, dickhead.”
Before Sandro can even defend himself, he shoots him.
It’s all such a blur as Sandro hits the ground and then Gavril lifts me over his shoulders and carries me toward his car, which is in view of the shop where Mia is.
Mia comes running out screaming my name. “Camilla!”
I can’t see her, my mind spinning as I wonder if Gav just killed Sandro, an innocent in all of this.
My belief that I love this man is founded on nothing. What do I really know about him?
Is he a murderer?
It’s not impossible to believe. His grip on reality seems fragile and as he bundles me into the trunk of his car and I’m plunged into darkness, I start to question my sanity.
How can I love a man as dark and twisted as him?
So dark and twisted that he has kidnapped the woman who loves him and shot her bodyguard. A man I’ve known since I was born. As I lie on my back in the cramped trunk of Gavril’s car and it starts to move, I wonder if I’ve lost my mind.
It’s clear I’m in love with a maniac and I’ve lost the plot for ever believing that there could be a future for us.
33
GAVRIL
“Are you insane?” Camilla asks, pacing up and down the old abandoned dock warehouse that I picked to hide in.
Her face is stained with tears and red, but she still looks as angelic as ever.