“No tears for me, Princess?” Nikolai mused, using Kirill’s nickname for me. I didn’t ask him not to. “If Kirill had used me and manipulated me like that, I’d be pretty upset, I guess.”
I met his gaze as black fury descended over my vision. My hands curved into hard fists on my knee.
Nikolai chuckled. “Ah, there it is. Welcome to the age of enlightenment, Mallory. You can make your choices now that you know the whole picture. I don’t want to tie you up again. I’m done with that, and I don’t think your skinny little wrists can take it. Regardless of what you think about me, I don’t like to make women bleed. If you’re going to run—”
“I won’t.” My voice came out like the hardest metal. “I’m not going to run. I’m going to wait right here for Kirill.”
Nikolai grinned. “Excellent. May the truth set you free.” He looked speculative as he tilted his head to the side. “You know, you remind me of Irina, my mother, before a Chernov used her up and spat her out. Maybe Kirill plans to take your child from you when it’s old enough and leave you somewhere like this to die alone.”
My heart crumbled in my chest as I shook my head. “I won’t let that happen.”
“Maybe you won’t. You have a lot of advantages she didn’t. You can speak English for one. Another advantage is . . . you have me.” Nikolai’s smile was a wicked and terrible thing. “I don’t want to see you end up like her, Princess. I’ll do my part to stop it, but you have to do the rest.”
“I’ll do it.” My voice was a deathly whisper over the husk of my heart. “No matter what, I’ll do it.”
6
KIRILL
Irina Bulgakova had owned a house upstate, near the Pennsylvania border. I was on the move with a handpicked team as soon as I had the location.
We’d searched for properties owned by Nikolai, but I had never considered that his mother had a property to her name. Viktor had never married her, so her surname had been a mystery to me. Viktor didn’t exactly spoil his women after my mother left him, but I supposed giving him a healthy son had been enough to warrant a house in the woods. I was annoyed at myself for not thinking of it sooner.
Molly had been with Nikolai for four days and five nights. I couldn’t let myself become paralyzed with worry over what he’d done to her in that time. If she was alive, everything else could be fixed, no matter what it was. If she wasn’t, well, I didn’t plan on Nikolai or myself leaving those woods.
I’d already decided I would lie down to die next to Mallory, wherever her body might rest. My brother could rot and be eaten by wild animals for all I cared. It was time to end this rivalry between Viktor Chernov’s sons, once and for all.
It took an entire day to travel to the house. When we got close, we suited up and entered the woods. I’d spared no expense in the weapons and my men’s protective gear. Unfortunately, we needed more than Pyotr and Ivan, as I had no idea how many men supported Nikolai in his bid to draw me out. That was clearly the plan. He had taken Molly to bring me here and force me to fight in the arena of his choosing, and here I was, presenting my neck to the chopping block for his knife.
He didn’t know how little I had to lose without Mallory. I was the lethal weapon in this situation, depending on how she was. Nikolai didn’t realize I had little interest in preserving myself if I couldn’t have her back.
I had extra men with me. It turned out that there were more Chernovs than I’d expected who had grown tired of Viktor’s leadership. More made men under my command wanted to continue the cleaner, less risky, and more profitable direction in which I’d taken the bratva. Those men now weaved through the woods with me. Up ahead, the shine of glass under the moonlight caught my eye.
We had arrived.
Ivan paused beside me. “It’s not too late to hang back.”
I pulled the small radio out of my belt to test it. Every man had the same equipment so we could warn each other of threats. “Molly’s in there. I’m going,” I told him flatly.
“If she’s still alive,” Ivan said quietly. I stared him down until he dropped my burning gaze. “You know it’s you he wants.”
“And I want him. We end this tonight. There can’t be two heirs to the Chernov name. I will face Nikolai.”
“And you trust these men with us?” Ivan looked into the dark woods, where the men were swiftly surrounding the property. I couldn’t answer that right now. I trusted some of them, others were wild cards, but I didn’t have much time, and I needed an overwhelming force.
“I trust them enough,” I told him, toggling my radio. “Positions. Let’s get this started,” I said on my radio.
With their guns drawn, my men moved toward the house as I left Ivan and looped around the back. Inside the house was the muted sound of guns shooting with silencers. I ignored the bloodshed and mayhem, climbed up on the porch's roof, and broke the window nearest the second floor. The glass tinkled softly inside. I balanced precariously on the porch roof and waited for someone to investigate. A dark head leaned out, and I grabbed the man, using his momentum to toss him out the window. I was already climbing into the room as he landed hard below and moved quickly down the hallway. Molly had to be in one of these rooms. The main bedroom, where Nikolai slept, was on the third floor.
I moved down the dark hall like a lethal shadow, taking out the two men who made themselves targets by leaning over the banister to investigate the muffled sounds downstairs.
Finding keys in one of their pockets, I unlocked the door and slowly pushed it inward.
There was a four-poster bed in the middle of the space. I approached it slowly, my gun still raised. Then the adrenaline of the night lowered a few notches as I smelled it.
Molly’s scent.
Molly was in this room. I drew the curtain back with a swift twitch, forgetting to be careful.