Chapter 15

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

DECLAN

It didn't feel like a fucking mistake…

Standing in the foyer, waiting for the elevator to take me down to the lobby, I fight the urge to storm back into the apartment. I want to pull her into me and taste her pouty pink lips—like I should've last night—proving to her that absolutely nothing about what nearly happened between the two of us was a mistake.

I'm not sorry about last night. Not in the slightest. That isn't the apology I was ready to share. The apology I wanted to give was the one that is years overdue. The one I should've been a fucking man about fifteen years ago. Fuck, if I were a man, I would've done it three years ago. I would've owned up to how shitty I treated her the moment she reappeared in my life, but I couldn't.

A small part of me was terrified to open up to her and actually let her back into my life. To admit to her everything that happened back then. I was terrified that if I gave her even the smallest piece of my heart the love it held for Sarah would spill out into the void. And I loved Sarah too much to risk that. To risk losing her and the beautiful family we were building together.

God is a cruel fuck, though, because in the end, I lost her anyway.

Probably divine fucking retribution for the shitty life of sin I've led.

And now I've lost Quinn, too.

I've waited far too long, and now it's too late. She gave in to a brief moment of temptation, but that's all it was. A brief moment. It was a mistake. She was resoundingly clear this morning.

My phone buzzes as I step into the cab of the elevator. After pulling it from the breast pocket of my jacket, I swipe open the message from Liam.

LIAM

I'll be out front in 5

I'll be down in 2

Finn found Luka and Kira

He's waiting for us in Brighton

Brighton?

Akim is apparently as useless as he looks. They were hiding right under his nose.

My demeanor is apparently as off-putting as my current disposition. For as chatty as he normally is, Liam hasn't once tried to strike up a conversation beyond greeting me when I slid into the passenger seat of his Tahoe.

We pull to a stop in front ofa long-forgotten industrial warehouse. Based on its condition and the few people loitering outside of it, it's full of squatters . People don't give a second glance at the addicts and homeless who live in places like this, making it a great place to hide.

"You're keeping some friends in some mighty low places if you managed to find them here," Liam goads Finn.

"Those strippers you lot give me shite about have benefits beyond their perky tits and warm cunts," he quips. "Some of the girls at the clubs have some serious demons. It just took my girls asking around a little to find someone who had seen something."

"You've got girls in Brighton Beach?" I inquire.

Finn laughs. "I've got girls all over the city, old man."

As usual, I'm immediately sorry I asked.

The three of us head inside, and the overwhelming stench of body odor, piss, and death floods my nostrils. It's so rank that I don't think anyone will even notice when we leave a body behind.

Liam spots them first and silently alerts us. They're on a dilapidated loveseat in the middle of the room that is soiled with filth. Both of them are asleep. Luka is wedged in the corner, and Kira is curled up beside him with her head resting on his thigh.

Rounding the room, I approach from behind as Liam and Finn walk directly toward them. I flex my hand around the handle of the blade in my hand and silently wedge it against Luka's throat as Liam announces, "Someone has been looking for the two of you."

Startled awake, Luka reaches for the gun, which is resting by his thigh. I pull the blade tighter against his throat, causing it to dimple the skin, and he immediately stills. "We don't want any trouble." His voice cracks with fear as he pulls Kira tighter to him. "We're leaving the city tomorrow."

"Unfortunately, Akim isn't taking very kindly to the two of you running off together," Liam imparts.

Tears well in Kira's eyes as she looks to Luka for help. His voice is gruff as he tries to assert himself, "We aren't going back."

"You're right." Finn grabs Kira's arm and pulls her from Luka. She briefly cries out but doesn't scream like I expect her to.

The shit I will do to protect my family…

" You aren't going back." I pull the blade across his throat, severing him from ear to ear. It looks brutal as blood pours down his chest, but by severing both his windpipe and jugular, death should come for him quickly.

Kira is stoic as Finn pulls her through the warehouse and to the Tahoe we left parked at thecurb. Shoving her into the backseat, she speaks for the first time. She repeats the same phrase in Russian.

Not understanding her, and knowing my brothers don't either, I try to comfort her. "We aren't going to hurt you." Unlike the Bratva, we don't fuck with women. Selling them, hurting them, and killing them are some of the few things that even our skewed moral compasses aren't okay with.

"Akim will." Her accent is so thick that I barely understand her.

I glare at Liam, and he huffs, "Don't."

As though she knows how much it will affect me, Kira stares at me with huge brown eyes when she shares, "He'll make an example out of me. Show the other girls what happens when you run."