Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 92957 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92957 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
My breath catches as I watch my brothers—my brothers, my protectors, alongside the Kopolovs, absolutely decimate Soloto’s men.
“Gleb!” Rodion screams. “Don’t let him fucking get away!”
Semyon barrel-rolls into the crowd without hesitation as Zoya, little Zoya, plants her feet and covers him, gun raised. She screams before each shot but hits with deadly precision.
“Gleb,” Semyon snarls, launching to his feet and advancing with a deadly gleam in his eyes. “You’re not running away again. Take one more step, and I’ll shoot out your kneecaps.”
Gleb, the utter fool, decides to call his bluff. I scream when Semyon pulls the trigger, and Gleb’s left kneecap explodes. With a holler of pain, he falls. Yana, as athletic as a ballerina, soars through the air and reaches him first. She kneels beside him, a blade pressed to his neck and fists his hair.
“You son of a bitch. I hated you since the first time you tried to blackmail me when I was a kid.”
The look of shock on Rafail’s face tells me that’s news to him. If Gleb wasn’t dead before, he’s a dead man walking now.
Semyon steps forward, his voice low and dangerous. “Where’s Soloto?”
The human shield of my brothers surrounds them, menacing and unyielding.
They’re on a mission to decimate Soloto, and then—and then what?
Nikko has a gun trained on Rafail.
I open my mouth to protest but realize we need this information from Gleb. I choke on a sob.
“I-I don’t know,” Gleb stammers. “Please!”
Viktor towers over everyone, casting a shadow over the prone form of Gleb in Yana’s grip.
“You’re with him,” Viktor growls at Semyon, gun raised.
“No!” I scream. “Don’t shoot them! Please, no!”
Viktor swivels to me, his eyes wide. “Polina?”
Something in me breaks when I hear my brother call my name. I heave a sob, desperate and terrified. “It’s me,” I sniffle. “Please, Viktor. Don’t hurt them.”
Rafail steps forward, deliberately putting himself in the line of fire. He’s calm, determined, and fearless. “That’s my wife. Put your gun down.”
As huge as he is, he’s nowhere near as big as Viktor, and still fearlessly faces him unarmed.
“Rafail!” I scream. “That’s my brother! Viktor, don’t shoot!”
Surprise flares in Rafail’s eyes. Mikhail curses softly behind me.
“His wife?”
Viktor jerks his head at Semyon. “Interrogate him,” he growls. “Or I will.”
Gleb cowers and whimpers. “I don’t know where he is,” he sobs. “He’s gone, but I can find out where he is, I can!”
Rafail steps forward, his hands up in a gesture of surrender to my brothers. Viktor gives him a subtle nod, his eyes narrowed. “Go.” My heart pounds. It’s a temporary boon.
Rafail’s gaze sharpens, his presence darkening as he turns the full weight of his authority on Gleb. The shift in the air is palpable—predatory. Lethal. Gleb shrinks back, shaking under the force of Rafail’s ruthless stare, and it’s in that moment I fully understand. The man I thought I knew… the one I’ve fallen in love with, has been holding himself back all along. The softness I’ve seen, the restraint, was only evidence of his self-control.
Because now, before me? This is the real Rafail. A man whose eyes sear with promises of violence. My heart stutters as the reality hits me: this man will stop at nothing. There are no limits, no lines he won’t cross for the people he loves.
His voice is low and calm as raw power radiates from him. “We’ll find Soloto,” he says with deadly intent. “Popov’s man led us straight to him. Now, the truth from you.”
I shiver when he says with deadly calm, “You broke trust. You manipulated our family.” He spits on the ground. “You betrayed us all.”
Each syllable is a threat and a promise that he has no intention of stopping until he knows everything. If I ever had a sliver of doubt before, I don’t now—I’m hopelessly in love with a man who will stop at nothing to protect what’s his.
“The-the truth?” Gleb stutters, staring at Rafail in wide-eyed terror.
“The truth!” Rafail bellows. We all watch in stoic silence. “Tell us. Tell us in front of her brothers. Tell us how Anissa came to be here, how you manipulated all of us.”
Yana’s grip on his hair tightens.
I stare, my heart pounding, torn between the violence before me and the fear of whatever he’ll say, wrapped in undeniable relief that finally, finally, I’ll be able to clear some of the fog.
Zoya squeezes my hand. Rafail walks in front of me, facing my brothers head-on.
As my brothers close in, Rafail’s voice cuts through the silence. “I want answers. He’s mine.”
Shit. Gleb is going to rue the day he was born. I shiver.
“I worked with Soloto,” Gleb confesses, his face a mask of terror. Between the Kopolovs and my brothers, he’s facing a firing squad from the depths of hell.
“When I saw the picture of Anissa, it triggered a memory.”