“I’m not making a decision until I see Don Semyon’s body,” one man shouts.
The others yell in agreement, and I nod. “Very well. But in order to give you proof, I’m going to need to enter the house.”
The slight man gestures towards the door. “None of us will stop you.”
I nod and jump down off the roof of the jeep. I land on my feet and straighten immediately. Jax and Gaiman approach from both sides.
As the three of us step through the bullet-marked doors of the Mikhailov compound, I listen for sounds.
The sounds of my wife.
The sounds of my son.
But all I can hear is the pumping of adrenaline through my body. It sounds like a drumbeat. It sounds like a dirge that’s playing me home.
“That had to be the shortest fight in history,” Jax complains.
“Disappointed?”
“Of course I am! We’ve been waiting for this moment for eight years. That was anticlimactic, to say the least.”
“Calm down, Jax,” I tell him. “It’s not over yet.”
37
WILLOW
Somehow, he’s not dead yet.
I stare at the old man. My grandfather, though it’s still hard to think of him as that. His eyes lull sightlessly in his head. Against all odds, he’s still in there.
I know he doesn’t deserve it. But in his last moments of life, I decide to do the only humane thing. I kneel down beside his wheelchair and take his hand.
“He would have married you off to a powerful fuck with a lot of money and the ambition to match,” Spartak says, watching me intently. “Be thankful I got rid of him for you.”
As if on cue, Semyon’s head slumps forward. His hand goes limp in mine.
He’s gone.
“Right,” I say, releasing the old man’s hand and stepping away from his body. “And in contrast, you’ve done so much for my benefit.”
He shrugs. “In a way, I have. I’ve restored a crumbling Bratva. And one day, I will deliver it to your son. He will have my name, but what will it matter?”
In a way, I’m relieved. He is planning on keeping Pasha alive.
I glance towards the woman who killed Semyon. I’d always thought she had a kind face. Guess I was wrong.
“You took care of him for years,” I say softly. “Why waste your time keeping him alive only to kill him in the end?”
She looks at me with a bewildered expression, like the question simply does not compute. “I was hired to obey.”
Spartak laughs and moves forward. “You see, my beauty? That’s how you survive in my Bratva. You obey.”
There’s so much more I want to say to him, but I bite down on my tongue until the combative words retreat. I didn’t come here to argue with him or prove myself.
I came here for one reason only: to protect my son.
“I did obey,” I point out. “I came here. I accepted your deal. I will obey. But only so long as my son stays safe.”
He rolls his eyes. “I’ve already promised that.”
“I want to see him.”
“Jesus,” he mutters. “Fine. You can see him. Come on.”
I head to the door as Belov gives the killer nurse instructions on what to do with Semyon’s body. In the hallway, he takes the lead.
The house is a labyrinth. The last time I was here, I spent a week trapped in one dank, dark little room with no one but a blonde nightmare for company.
It’s strange that I find myself back here now, longing for that blonde nightmare to be at my side again.
When he finally stops at a door, I rush forward. But Spartak throws out a hand and stops me before I can even touch the handle.
“Not so fast, my pretty girl,” he says with a sickening smile that makes my insides twist with disgust. “After you finish squealing over your fat baby, I expect to see you in my… our bedroom. Is that understood?”
I stiffen immediately, as much as I try to avoid it.
“Did you or did you not promise to obey?”
“What do you want from me?”
“I want to fuck Leo Solovev’s wife.” His eyes spark with cruelty. “The next time I see him, I want to be able to tell him how you felt clenched around my cock. I want to tell him how you tasted.”
I now perfectly understand the expression “made my skin crawl.” Because standing in front of Belov now, I feel like I’d rather skin myself alive than be touched by him. My entire body revolts at the fact that I’m even standing next to him, let alone discussing having sex with him.
“I said I’d obey. I never said I’d make you happy.”