Chapter 25

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Renata

My hand trembles. Even now, with everything he's done, with all the lives he's ruined—including mine—I hesitate. I should want to hurt him, but I don't. And that's what I hate most about myself.

The spray goes a mile wide.

Carlos only shakes his head, and then, in two steps, he reaches me. He doesn't hurt me, though, but puts my hands behind my back, almost gently, and pulls a large zip tie from his pocket.

He's planned this. This is exactly what he planned to do all along.

"I told you what would happen, didn't I?" he whispers softly. His voice is cold, and I hate the way my stomach turns just looking at him.

"I told you what I would do," he says, and I can't help it. I see the little boy I knew. I see it in his eyes and the way his mouth twists, as if he's acting, like somebody is pulling the strings on a puppet.

"Who's putting you up to this, Carlos? This wasn't you, this isn't you !"

He only stares at me and doesn't move, but his muscles are tense, his eyes alert. He's waiting for his chance.

Ollie won't let him live; he can't. Carlos is dead. I know it. But how can I be the one who pulls the trigger? How will I forgive Ollie if he does?

Carlos continues to lecture as if convincing himself that he's doing the right thing.

"I told you what the consequences would be if you betrayed me. You provided me exactly what I needed, little sister. A way in to the Romanov family. Thank you for that," he says with a smile.

What is he talking about? I feel half-sick.

"I promised you this, didn't I, Renata? You'd watch me destroy everything you love— slowly, painfully—and now look at you. You handed me the perfect opportunity. It's almost like you wanted me to do it."

A blade glints in his hand. He's holding me to him as he addresses Ollie. "I saw what you did, Romanov. Now you can have a taste of your own medicine."

"No!" I scream. Where is everybody? How are we at the Romanov estate, and it's just me and Ollie in a standoff with Carlos and one of his men? There should be guards, his other brothers, anybody .

Carlos advances on Ollie.

I still have the slim knife Ollie gave me tucked in the back of my pants so I could retrieve it if need be. This is my opportunity. My brother doesn't consider me a threat yet.

He will soon enough.

I slide the slender blade down my arm and feel it hit my fingers. I try to do it as quietly as I can, all while trying to distract Carlos. "You were never like this!" I scream. "Our father would be disgusted with you!"

I go on about tradition, loyalty, all the while sawing at the zip tie. He fastened it lightly, it's not hard, I just need more time. Out of the corner of his eye, the masked man holding Carlos looks at me. He sees what I'm doing. Shit . I wait for him to give me away, but he says nothing. What the hell?

It all happens in seconds. Carlos springs at Ollie as my binds come free. I keep my hands together so he doesn't see that I'm freed and eye my canister where it fell to the floor. Carlos is standing with his back to me. I stand still, pretending that I am still restrained.

"You fucking asshole," Carlos says with fury to Ollie. Ollie's still restrained, so Carlos easily decks him. Ollie's head snaps back, and blood spurts from the corner of his mouth.

No.

I can't take this anymore. I will not see him hurt Ollie.

In one quick movement, I grab the canister from the floor and lunge at him. I push him from behind, and when Carlos twists, I do exactly what Ollie told me to—I kick him between the legs. My foot meets its target with sickening accuracy.

My brother howls, and when he falls to the floor clutching himself, I pull the trigger on the spray. This time, I don't miss.

My belly twists with nausea, but I keep at it. I pull the trigger again and again until my brother is screaming in agony and writhing on the floor, one hand between his legs and the other at his eyes.

"Help me!" he screams at the man holding Ollie, but the masked man does nothing and only watches.

I reach for Ollie as the man holding him lets him go. I stare in shock, ready to defend Ollie, ready to help when all of a sudden, Ollie is standing in front of me smirking. I blink in surprise, but he doesn't hesitate. It's like he knew it was only an act, that the man holding him had no ill intent.

"Get back, Renata!" Ollie orders while he picks up Carlos and slams him against the wall. He hits him with an uppercut that makes Carlos scream. I stand back and watch in horror as the only two men I've ever loved brawl.

I scream as they punch each other, rolling on the floor. Fists fall like anvils, but Carlos is basically blind, so he lashes out like cornered a wild animal.

It's a fight to the death, as if his life depends on it, and it fucking does. I know it does. Ollie punches and kicks, and Carlos claws and screams. Knives flash and slice, blood splatters on the floor. Finally, Ollie kneels on my brother, holds his hands above his head, and exposes his neck.

Carlos blinks, still blinded. "No!" he shouts. "You can kill me, but it doesn't end here."

He turns toward me. "They want you, Renata. They want your money." He shakes his head, and again, I see the boy I grew up with. "I'm sorry, La Sombra Roja… they made me do it, I had no choice." he says to me, shaking his head from side to side.

Tears well in my eyes. "Don't kill him, Ollie. Please don't, please."

I can't help it. But Ollie stares at me and shakes his head before he wraps a rope around Carlos's wrists.

"He hurt you," Ollie says. "An eye for an eye," he growls.

That's when I see the mark Ollie made on my brother's cheek… one that mimics mine. I knew he would get retribution.

I place my hand on my cheek and don't talk. I swallow. I'm battling mixed emotions.

"I don't ever want to see him hurt you again, Renata."

"There has to be another way," I plead, begging for my brother's life. "Please."

Ollie bows his head, frowning at me. "If I let him go?—"

I shake my head. "I'm not asking you to let him go, Ollie. No. I'm asking you to find another way. Something. Anything."

Gunshots ring out in the distance. Carlos writhes in Ollie's grip. Ollie moves with the lethal precision of a man who has everything to lose. Every punch is weighted with the raw, violent need to protect me— his wife. His world.

"My brothers are coming. You're fucking dead, Carrera. The only reason you're still alive is because I love her." He lifts him by the shirt and shakes him. "Do you understand me?"

My brother nods and turns his head away. "It won't end, Renata. La Sombra Roja want you, they want your inheritance." He pleads with me. "I won't hurt you, Renata. Let me go, and I'll fight for you."

It's the first time in my life I wish I couldn't detect lies. It's the first time in my life I wish for ignorance because my brother is lying.

"Oh, Carlos," I whisper. "You're lying." I shake my head. "He's lying, Ollie." My brother can and will kill me as soon as Ollie lets him up.

"She's mine ," Ollie growls. He gets to his feet and steps on Carlos, holding him in place with his gun locked on him. Carlos throws his head back and screams like a wolf howling. I shiver.

"Anyone who's listening. Anyone who's watching. You don't get to touch a hair on her head without coming through me and every one of my brothers. This is Renata Romanova now. My wife. My whole world. Mine in every way that matters. And if anyone— anyone— ever tries to take her from me, they'll meet the same fate."

I stare at him as if I've never seen him before. Raw pain and savage beauty shine on his face. I know in that moment he'd die for me. I've never been loved like this before.

Turning to me, Ollie reaches out a hand, and once more—right in the middle of his savagery—he finds tenderness. He can annihilate all of creation and still always find space for me. It's our theme, what unites us—beauty in the storm. Love in the midst of tragedy. My vicious protector who will never hurt me .

Ollie cups my jaw in his hand and nods to Carlos's masked man, only… this isn't one of Carlos's men. He takes off his mask. I don't recognize him, but when he does, I see a flash of a scar on his inner wrist. This was the man who protected me from Carlos in Colombia. I realize with a flood of understanding… he's the Romanov mole. He's one of them.

"Take him," he tells him. "You know what to do."

"Turn her away, Ollie," he says in a low growl. "Get her out of here."

I reach for Ollie as he reaches for me. The doors to the dining room burst open, and Ollie's brothers, Nikko and Viktor, huge and ruthless, barrel through the doors.

"He's in there. Get him," Ollie says. "I don't want his filthy blood on my hands."

He slams the door behind them. I bury my head on Ollie's shoulder and flinch at the sound of gunshots.