Chapter 26

Viktor

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

I can't get through this fucking fence. I try to break it with my fists, but it's going to take too long to do it this way. I need to get in there, and I need to find her.

I wish I had my phone with me. I run back to the house at top speed, my feet pounding on the pavement. “Nikko!” I scream. “Nikko!”

Vera leaps out onto the front step, her eyes wide.

“They’re in the campground. They’ve got her. I need to get in. Tell Nikko I need him. Now! How do you get in there? Where is the entrance?”

Shit. I can't take Nikko with me. What if he has someone here, just lying in wait, ready to attack Vera and her mother?

Nikko stands in the doorway. “What happened?”

“We got into our fight like we planned. She went into the campground. It’s an old haunt of hers. I swear to God I heard someone there. They’ve got her.”

Nikko nods. “We’ll come with you.”

“Shit,” I shake my head. “I have to go in alone. You stay here with Zofia and Vera, you have to. Toss me my phone!”

He looks behind him at Zofia, too weak to run with them. He can’t take Vera with him either and put her in a vulnerable position. With a growl, he goes in to grab my phone.

I’ll have to go in alone. Just me and Lydia against our enemies. Maybe it’s only ever been me and Lydia against the world.

“I’m calling in backup,” Nikko snaps, tossing me my phone.

Zofia stands in the doorway. “Go, go! Leave me. I’m an old woman. Leave me and go get her.”

“You’re safer here.”

“We’ll all go,” Vera says. “Nikko, we have to.”

Nikko’s jaw clenches and hope soars in me. We’ll get her so much more easily if it’s not just me alone in a vast, vacant campground.

“Zofia, get on my back. I’ll carry you in.”

“Give me a weapon, Nikko.” Vera’s eyes widen, and Zofia shakes her head. “Do you think I spent the better part of five decades in this life, and I don’t know how to use a weapon?”

Nikko hands Zofia a gun, and I turn and bend so she can leap onto my back.

“This way,” Vera says. “Follow me!”

We go all the way down to the driveway and take a right. About a mile down, I finally see the entrance.

“Listen,” Vera says. “They'll be looking for you at the main entrance and by the gate. But there was another entrance for deliveries or something that Lydia and I knew about. This way.” She leads us off the main path and shows me a break in the fence covered by a worn wooden sign.

Due to current dry conditions, open fires are strictly prohibited. Help us protect our forests and keep everyone safe!

Vera pushes the sign. It wobbles. “Lift it, and I can get in and open the gate for you.”

I yank it off its hinges, and it splinters in my hands. Behind the sign is a small space, just big enough for her to squeeze into.

“Well, that will do the job, too,” she mutters to herself.

“Careful,” Nikko growls. He reaches for Zofia and gently takes her off my back. “Once Vera opens it, you come in,” he says gently. Zofia stifles a cough and nods. Her hand on the gun trembles slightly.

The gate creaks open, and we enter. I pull up my phone and remind myself of what I tell Lydia.

Staying calm is most important and gives you an advantage.

The tracker I have embedded in Lydia’s a high-end deal Aleksandr helped me secure and will track her to within one centimeter. I flip open the app. Immediately, a map of the campground comes into view. There’s a tiny red dot behind several cottages further down the road.

“He’s got her in one of the cottages.”

We walk through the nearly vacant campground. I swivel my gun toward the sound of a twig snapping, only to find a doe staring at us with wide, sad eyes.

“A sign of good luck,” Zofia says softly. “The Native Americans believed seeing a deer in the wild like this was a sign of good luck or good fortune.” She sighs. “Let’s find her.”

We can do this.

I didn’t even tell Lydia before she lost her shit that everybody in my family has these, including Vera. Me, all my brothers, my mother and my sister. It doesn't just track our locations but our biometrics.

I scan her reading. Her heart rate is elevated, but it’s still beating. She's alive but terrified.

Clouds move in, covering the sun, and a brisk wind kicks up. Distant thunder rolls overhead just before fat raindrops begin to fall.

“You have her?” Nikko asks, standing behind me, Zofia and Vera between us.

I nod. “Yeah. It says she’s about half a mile up ahead.”

“It’s one of the cabins,” Vera says, swallowing hard. “It’s apart from the rest on a little island… there’s no possible way to get there without them seeing us. It’s a trap, you guys.”

“I don’t fucking care,” I say, shaking my head. “If I had time, I’d get a helicopter and a bomb squad, but I don’t trust them.”

“You’ll go after her,” Nikko says. “I’ll stand on the shore and shoot anyone who fucking moves.” I nod. It helps to have a trained assassin on your side.

“You’ll save some for me,” Zofia says softly, her eyes gleaming. Nikko gives her a look of surprise. Her eyes narrow. “That’s my daughter, Nikko. You know how I feel about my daughters.”

“I do,” he says. “And I’ll give you whoever you shoot first. Deal?”

The skies open, and rain pours down in torrents. I’m glad Vera is with me because she knows the layout of the campground better than anyone else.

“This way,” she says, speaking above the sound of the pouring rain. Mud splatters onto us, our footsteps slippery. Zofia slips, but Nikko grabs her arm and rights her. We move forward as one.

Lightning strikes, the campground temporarily illuminated in vivid white before we’re cast back into a cloudless darkness. I look back at the monitor and see Lydia’s pulse has slowed, only a little. She’s remembering to stay calm.

Good girl.

“Here, Viktor.” Vera comes to a stop. “Do you see past that huge tree, there’s the water?—”

I’m already past the clearing of trees, trying my best to see the small cabin in the middle of the water.

Suddenly, a gunshot rings out. Two. Three. Zofia screams, and the heavy sound I know too well to be a body thuds to the ground. Lightning strikes again, lighting up Nikko’s face. “Sniper,” he says, jerking his chin in front of us to where a man lies on the ground, blood pooling from his head onto the earth.

“Good catch, babe,” Vera says, her voice wobbling.

Nikko nods. “But we just rang the doorbell,” he says as the cabin door flies open. “They know we’re here.”

His gun is poised next to Zofia’s. “Viktor!” she screams. “Behind you.” She pulls the trigger just as the cold blade of a knife hits my neck. I turn on instinct and grab the fucker who tried to hit me by the throat as Zofia’s shot goes wide.

I squeeze hard, feeling the cartilage crunch beneath my fingers. He gurgles, clawing at my hand, but I don’t let up. Time slows. The woman I love is in danger, and I’m going to fucking murder anyone who gets in my way. I don’t let up until I feel him go limp. I release the man in my grip, his body crumpling to the ground. Nikko doesn’t hesitate and with one quick shot, he finishes what I started.

“Dammit,” Zofia says, shaking her head. “I promise you, I won’t miss a second time. There!” She screams and pulls the trigger again. A body falls to the ground, and Nikko swivels to get another and another.

“It’s an ambush,” he yells at me. “Go! We’ve got you covered here. We’ll use them as a diversion, and I’ll cover you when you surface.”

Two more come out of the forest, barely visible through the downpour. Thunder roars overhead as I yank off my shoes and shirt and toss my phone beside both of them. I step toward a roughly hewn peer and dive into the water.

The icy cold drags me under. I hold my breath and go as far as I can until my palms hit the soft mud of earth. I swim hard and fast underwater toward the cabin, as close to the surface of the ground as I can so no one sees me. The muted sounds of gunshots ring overhead. Someone knows I’m coming, and they’re trying to shoot me, but I’m a moving target and too far, too unpredictable.

I can estimate I’m almost there. In front of me, the water begins to shallow as I near the cabin on the island. Through the murky haze of the water, I can see the thick chains where Yudin anchored his boat.

I grab onto the chain to keep myself in place and slowly rise to the surface. Another gunshot rings out, then another and another. I have to have hope that my brother’s hit his target. No one outshoots Nikko. And no one outfights me.

I need to breathe. My vision is beginning to swim.

I can go on.

I’m going to strangle Yudin’s fucking neck and feel the life drain out of him until I feel his pulse stop beneath my fingers, and I know my woman is safe.

The pressure engulfs me, muffling all sound but the frantic beating of my heartbeat. My chest tightens as my lungs scream for air, each second stretching into eternity. My vision begins to blur, and I’m engulfed in a sense of urgency to breathe, my body begging for oxygen. The need for air becomes a relentless force, my primal needs demanding to be met. My muscles tense as I head for the surface, my hand gliding along the heavy chain as I push toward the surface. I’m almost there.

I break through the surface, gasping for breath. Gunshots ring out, splashing the water beside me. I take another breath and plunge below the surface one more time, my murky gaze riveted on the boat. I anchor my feet on the rocky foundation of the cabin and push the paddle boat to break the surface of the water. Gunshots sound all around me. I can feel them embed into the wood of the boat I’m using like a shield. In front of me, I can see the door to the cabin.

“Go, Viktor!” Nikko shouts from shore. “I’ve got you covered. Go!”

I throw the boat into the water, turn, and leap onto the island, my bare feet clinging to the rocky surface. The door’s locked, but I could knock down the Empire State Building now with the fury and adrenaline I’ve got coursing through my veins. I rear back and throw my entire body weight into it. It splinters and groans. I do it again as someone comes around the corner. A gunshot sounds from the shore. He trips, hits, and falls into the water. Nikko’s got me.

I throw my weight into the door again, and it splinters, falling to the ground.

Lydia’s in the middle of the room, gagged and tied to the chair, naked. I see red momentarily and take a deep breath to clear my vision. Lightning strikes overhead. She’s shaking her head as if to warn me, her eyes wide with terror. I feel someone behind me and immediately snap into action the way Kolya taught me.

I pivot swiftly on my heel, blindly grab for the arm reaching for me, twisting it sharply and forcing my assailant to his knees with a pained grunt. Lightning strikes again, illuminating the face I fully expected to see—Timur Yudin, his face twisted in shock and pain. I stare into the face of my enemy for only a second before I drive my knee into his ribcage, winding him. He collapses to the ground.

“Stay down,” I growl, my voice low and menacing as I pin him beneath me. “Down.”

The room is a mix of shadows and flashes of light from the storm outside. I turn my attention back to her, tied to the chair, vulnerable and scared.

“Are you alright?”

She nods and blinks, fat tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Did he hurt you?” I’m barely breathing, holding out for her answer.

Swallowing, she nods. I turn back to him and lift him by the back of the head, slamming his face into the wooden floor. He lies limp beneath me. I look up at her, and she shakes her head, her eyes widening as Yudin comes to life beneath me and slashes at me with a blade. It slices into my bare chest, and pain radiates through me. I hit him again and again, but he fights hard.

With a roar, I grab him and slam him into the floor. The force of the impact knocks the knife from his hand. I lift him and slam him against the wall. His head cracks against it. A lamp crashes to the floor as thunder rolls overhead, lightning coming closer. I unleash a flurry of hard, deadly punches, each one driven by years of pent-up fury and the need to punish him for hurting my Lydia. Blood splatters with every hit, his face a broken, unrecognizable mess.

He crumples to the ground, and I kick him away. He doesn’t move.

I lift him with one arm and drag him behind me, holding onto him with my left arm as I bend and take the blade he used against me. I slash at the knot where the rope tied her up. I can’t cut it into shreds like I want to.

I need that rope.

Lydia rushes to my side, her eyes wide with a mix of fear and relief. I pull her into my arms, holding her tight against me.

I slam Yudin into the same chair he used for her. He slumps forward, one eye swollen shut and the other focused with hatred on me.

“I’d slit your throat,” I growl at him, shaking my head. “But I won’t take this from her. You don’t get to see her naked, you fucking asshole.” I lift the knife. “Turn away, Lydia.”

She buries her head in my shoulder while I advance on him. He screams in terror while I slice at his face and blind him. Blood drips down his face in torrents. I throw the blade to the floor.

“I want you to know what you lost. You wanted her money. You wanted the power. You hurt her mother and tried to hurt the woman I love. You worthless piece of shit.” I turn to her, my hands covered in blood. My thumb slips along her cheek as I raise her face to look into mine.

“It’s over,” I murmur into her hair. “He’ll never hurt you again.”

Lydia pulls back slightly, looking up at me with tears in her eyes. “Thank you,” she whispers, her voice trembling. “Oh God, I was scared. I still am.”

“We’re going to end that now. You’re safe, baby.” I cup her face in my hands, my thumb brushing away a tear. A streak of red smears across her cheek, and I kiss her temple. “I’ll always protect you, Lydia. No one will ever harm you as long as I draw breath.”

“I love you,” I say to her as the sound of rain overhead begins to slow. “He will never, ever hurt you again,” I repeat. I want her to know this down in her bones.

She nods, blinking tears away. “And I love you, Viktor. Let’s end this. Let’s end this once and for all.”

I look around the cabin and find a fireplace with firewood and lighter fluid.

Perfect.

I lift a blanket from the bed and cover her with it.

Hand her the matches.

Lift the lighter fluid and douse the cabin with it. The liquid sloshes onto the floor. I make sure Yudin’s fucking drenched.

“This place is going up in flames, Lydia. But I’ve got you. Do you trust me?”

She licks her lips and nods. “I trust you with my life.”

“Here, baby. Light it up.”