26. Mila

26

MILA

I ran out of the apartment and nearly skidded to a rough stop against the wall. A guard lay dead on the hallway floor, a bullet neatly embedded between his eyes.

Geoff had killed him. He had to have. There was no other explanation for it, but I knew that man was too far gone.

I couldn't stall. Stopping or hesitating would be a grave mistake. With Geoff wounded and furious in the apartment, he'd been eager to chase me down. I had no way of guessing whether he had backup, where others from my father's force could be hiding or waiting, or if anyone here would help me.

If Alek could question himself and give evidence of not being able to fully trust me because I was a Kastava, would his men?

I ran all the way out to the streets. Being in the open helped me beat back the gnawing claustrophobia that had overtaken me in the hallways as I fled the scene, but on the streets again, I felt more vulnerable. My father's men could be out here. Alek's could too. It seemed that no matter where I looked or what I did, enemies would always be lurking too close.

Who can I trust? Where can I go?

Rain fell from the skies, and with a chilly gust of air cutting down the street, I was instantly chilled by more than just fear.

I shielded my face as I dared a look back. No one ran after me, but a phantom sense of feeling that I was being chased kept me running from the building. I couldn't hear anyone running after me. No one popped up and tried to grab me, but the terror remained under my skin, propelling me to hurry away.

I had no sense of direction. Deep in this Valkov territory, I was lost and unaware of my surroundings. All I knew was to keep running and seek somewhere to hide. Three times, I almost ran out at intersections. People shouted and horns blared, but I dismissed it all and kept going. If I stayed mobile, it would be harder to be caught.

Time fell away from me, and I grew colder and wearier without a clue of how long I'd run for, much less where I was going.

I had no one to call for help. Alek hadn't given me a phone, and I wouldn't have known his number, anyway. My father wasn't a source of help, either. He wanted me dead. Rosamund might have been the closest thing to a person I could consider a friend, but she wasn't within reach, either.

I had nothing and no one, and I fought back tears with how badly I wished I could have Alek with me.

He'd protected me so far. I felt confident that he would again. I had so much to learn about him, but I knew somehow that he was a man of his word. When he married me, he'd meant it.

"Hey!"

I regretted that I'd slowed to a walk. My lungs burned. My skin was chilled and soaked, and my feet bled from running so hard on the sidewalks barefoot like this.

A pair of beat cops had noticed me, and I knew they wouldn't give up. I hadn't dressed for the weather, and I was sure my eyes hadn't yet lost that look of pure horror and fear.

"You on the run?" one asked. The other spoke into his radio piece on his coat.

"No." I swallowed, forcing moisture down my dry throat that felt so raw and harsh from the exercise of running hard.

"Easy, Ma'am, easy."

I backed up as they approached.

"We're here to help."

I shook my head. They might think they could, but I knew better. They'd want to know who I belonged to, where I called home, and I couldn't reveal that.

"Ma'am." One lifted his hand. His partner hurried after me as I turned to sprint away again.

A third cop stopped me. He must have been coming to join them on this rainy day, and it was his wide chest that I ran into.

I bounced back from the impact, but he caught my upper arm. His fingers wrapped around the spot where I'd been shot, and I hissed at the contact.

"Are you hurt?" he demanded.

I was. But I refused to speak to them. It was too dangerous. Even if I wasn't a Kastava anymore, I was a Valkov woman now, and no bratva women ever spoke freely with law enforcement. That rule of life had been ingrained in my brain from an early age.

I sagged, caught and kept in place as the cops ganged up around me. Pedestrians didn't notice, keeping their faces down or tucked under umbrellas. They all parted us as we stood in the center of the path, and I prayed that just one of them, anyone, could intervene and help me get away.

I'd been praying for a rescue, but I knew these figures of authority wouldn't save me.

"She's Kastava's daughter," the redheaded cop said. A sneer slid over his face as he looked me up and down. Water beaded and dripped from his auburn facial hair, and he tightened his grip on my arm.

Fuck.

"Guess we should get her back where she belongs," another said as the redheaded man held on tightly.

"No." I swallowed. "I'm not her. I'm no one."

I'm Aleksei Valkov's wife, goddammit!

The scream waited on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn't release it.

As he prompted me to walk with him, I realized he was taking me toward a station that I'd run past. If he brought me in there, I'd have no chance of escape.

I didn't want to go back to my father. That promised death.

I didn't want to be tossed around or held like a prisoner. Once had been enough.

"Murphy, maybe she's right," the other cop argued. "She looks lost."

Murphy? I racked my brain, thinking back to the last time I'd seen that name. I hadn't heard it but read it. Way back when my father asked me to begin forwarding those emails in that wonky cycle of chain emails, that name had been included in the abbreviations and codes. I'd only seen it the one time, and after that, the nickname of Doc had been used.

Oh, my God!

It was him. He was the one they were referencing in all those secret emails.

A cop! Those codes and abbreviations were hiding the fact that my father was leaning on the cops to help him take over Alek's family.

My father had gone too far, stooping so low as to work with the law enforcement to bring down the Valkov Bratva once and for all. His greed was so severe, an all-consuming drive, that he'd gone to the outside to defeat his enemy.

My heart raced faster as all the details clicked into place. I'd never been told anything concrete, but with the little I knew from managing the fake S.T.L. business, I was aware that a large illegal shipment was due in soon.

When? When is it supposed to happen? I hadn't been at the computer for a few days now, and it seemed like those hours spent in the office could have been years ago. I'd been so nostalgic about being married off because it signaled the end of my service in the office. I'd liked having busywork to do, even though it had been undecipherable.

Tomorrow! I gasped as I realized the timeline of the days that had passed. With my wedding, its abrupt end, then being kidnapped, fucked, and married, enough time had passed that the big shipment was almost here. Whatever my father had machinated against Pavel Valkov, it was going to go down at the Colver dock tomorrow.

I have to tell Alek! I thought again to how Maxim had handed him papers that looked so similar to the emails I'd forwarded. I hadn't thought about them enough, but Maxim must have somehow intercepted it all.

Alek wanted to oust his uncle from power, likely because he had his suspicions about what his uncle and my father were doing, working "together" on this shipment. I doubted Pavel was aware that this dirty cop was also included in that secretive and duplicitous version of teamwork.

It's a setup. No wonder he's been so on guard and edgy with me.

Alek wasn't just jaded, he was sharp and determined to make sure the Valkov Bratva wouldn't be ruined.

The cop tugged me to walk faster. "I said what were you doing out here?"

I hadn't heard him ask me the first time, too busy connecting all the dots.

He didn't deserve the truth from me, and I fought to wrench my arm from his grasp. "Let me go."

He whistled, lifting his head to a man lurking in the shadows near the station's entrance.

I cowered back, afraid to see Lev standing there, like he'd been waiting. He'd probably come as Geoff's backup, waiting in the distance while Geoff tried to get me to heel.

"Fuck." I shook my head, clawing to get away from the cop. "No. Let me go."

"Oh, I'll let you go, all right." He shoved me forward so Lev could capture me.

"I'll let you go right back into the hands of your handlers." The cop chuckled, nodding a greeting to Lev. "Found one of yours."

"No!" I wiggled, fighting to slip free, but Lev tightened his arm around me.

"Thanks, Doc."

I gasped again, knowing without a doubt that this cop was in on the setup.

"Let me go!" I shouted it louder, earning some glances as Lev dragged me down the alley.

"Let me go," I shouted at him as he hauled me through the rain. "I want to go to my husband."

He laughed darkly, pulling his hood lower as he dragged me toward a car parked in the alley.

My life flashed before my eyes again. The second he got me in that car and drove me back to my father, I would be dead. I would get no mercy, no chance to beg for my life. He didn't value me, not for anything, especially after I'd defied him by marrying Alek instead of Andrey.

"He'll be looking for me," I screamed, desperate to return to the man I wanted to help. "My husband will be looking for me!"

"See if I give a fuck."

"Lev, you can't take me back. I don't want to see my father."

He scoffed. "Neither does he. He just wants you dead. Out of the picture, you traitorous bitch."

"Just let me go!"

"No." He shook my arm, moving me to hurry faster to his car. "If you can't serve as a spy the way he wants you to, you're good for nothing!"

Lev grabbed me as I dragged my feet, forcing him to turn and catch me.

He stopped short, lifting his face as we saw we weren't alone in this alleyway.

A murderous glare locked on us.

Alek.

He came! Hope filled me, and I let out a cry of relief just at the sight of him in my darkest, most hopeless moment.

He stood there, cracking his knuckles with the promise of rabid rage in his dark eyes.

Like a premonition of pain, he looked ready to kill.

For me.