Chapter Seventeen

A week later, Ferma La Guzun...

“I’m surprised Bogdan isn’t hogging your private space as usual,” Vanya quipped as she joined Zafira in the sunroom of her mansion.

“I chased him off. Sent him to exercise my horse since I’m not allowed to ride.” Zafira snorted delicately. “Why I even allow that Goliath to order me around is beyond me.”

“Really? Do you want me to spell it out for you?”

“Vanya, stop. I already told you, I am not in love with Bogdan Rusu.”

“Hmm.” Vanya selected a sandwich from the tray on the coffee table and sat back. “You do know there’s a difference between being in love and loving someone, right?”

Zafira pressed her lips together. Her daughter was too forward and too persistent. Once she caught wind of something, she wouldn’t let go until she was satisfied with the outcome.

“Drop it, my darling. I refuse to become one of the projects you need to fix. The relationship between Bogdan and me is beyond that. In fact, it was torn apart before it truly began.”

“Do tell!” She finished the sandwich and picked up a chocolate croissant. Biting into it, she sighed heavenly, “Ohh, this is sooo good.” Glancing at Zafira, she prodded, “You know I’m not gonna stop, so you might as well tell me the dirty tale.”

“It doesn’t put Bogdan in a good light, Vanya, and I know how much you love and respect him, so let’s just drop it, please.”

“Now I’m even more intrigued. C’mon, Mother, spill the beans!”

“We were in love. It was inevitable but my parents and the Guzuns had struck a deal that your father and I should marry. We were the perfect match to form a Bratva allegiance between the two families. Unfortunately, Bogdan was the one my heart wanted. My parents refused to listen to reason and continued to make wedding arrangements. On our wedding day, I put my foot down and pleaded with them to understand my love for another and why I couldn’t marry Viktor. My father showed me a check stub where he had paid Bogdan off to forget about me.”

“A check stub means shit, and you know it.”

“My mother confirmed that she had seen the cleared check. The fact that Bogdan wasn’t at the wedding, even though he was Viktor’s best man, was the only reason I went along with the marriage. It was the only confirmation I needed that he had taken the money. His love for me was worth a measly ten million rubles.”

“That’s bullshit.” Vanya jumped up and turned on Zafira. “Did you even bother to look into what Andrei said about Bogdan inheriting the duke’s title and entire estate?”

“Yes,” Zafira admitted with a crestfallen look. “It doesn’t change anything. Secrets like those were what had destroyed the trust we supposedly had. Don’t you see that?”

“No, Mother, what I see is a woman refusing to admit she made a mistake in believing her parents, even after all these years. Bogdan inherited billions two years before Granddad offered him that money. You know as well as I do that wealth never held meaning to him. If it did, why would he have lived a life of an underling to Dad? I’ll tell you why.” She stabbed a finger in the air. “Because he loved you, and he knew the day would come that you would need protection.” Her voice lowered. “And you did, didn’t you? All those years, that’s how you coped living with a man you never truly loved... because the one who did own your heart was by your side every day, protecting your life as much as your heart.”

“What was that?” Zafira’s head jerked at the dull popping sounds coming from the patio where Antonio and two guards kept watch. She ran to the window and cautiously peered out. Two of the guards were lying in a pool of blood. Antonio was hunched behind a large concrete pot plant. He furiously gestured for her to get out of sight while he made a phone call. “Blyad’! They’ve been shot. Get to the study. Run, Vanya! Go, now.”

Vanya didn’t ask questions but sprinted down the hallway to the study, where their escape route was waiting for them. Viktor had ensured the house was prepared for situations like these, and a shadow wall leading to an underground tunnel offered them safety.

Another volley of shots from the front of the house echoed through the hallway, followed by the crash of the front door giving way under a heavy boot.

“They’re inside. Get into the tunnel and run. You know where the safe house is. Get to it and phone for help.”

“I’m not leaving you behind, Mom. Come, we need to—”

Zafira caught her hands. “No, my darling. It’s my duty to keep you safe, and it’s your duty to keep your children safe. That’s what’s important now. Think of your unborn children. Go. I’ll keep them off as long as I can. Hopefully, Antonio managed to get hold of Bogdan, and he’s on his way.”

“Be safe, Mamochka.” Vanya hugged her fiercely. “Your grandchildren are going to need their nana around.”

“Go!” Zafira urged as the soft footfall ascending the stairs warned her the perpetrators were close. “Slava Bogu.” With a sigh of relief, she watched Vanya disappear through the hidden door in the corner of the room. When the shadow of the assassin darkened the doorway, Zafira was ready. Her stance was perfect, calm, confident, and unwavering as she lifted the Glock and took aim.

“I hate uninvited guests,” she sneered as she squeezed the trigger. By the time the man’s head turned in her direction, it was too late. The bullet slammed into the door behind him, splattering brain matter and blood as the bullet drilled a path through his skull. When his body hit the floor, he was already dead.

“I swear, Luciano Maranzano, when I get my hands on you, I’m gonna squeeze you like the low-life bug you are,” Vanya sneered as she quickly crawled along the narrow space in pitch-black darkness. She knew these tunnels all by heart since she had played in them ad nauseum when she was little. Except danger had never chased her, and now the short distance to the stairway leading to the underground tunnels seemed miles away.

“God, please keep my mother safe. She’s too young to die,” she murmured as she fumbled for her cell phone and switched on the flashlight. Maneuvering the uneven stairs in the dark was dangerous, and she refused to put her unborn children’s lives in more danger by being overly cautious.

Vanya hated running from a fight, more so leaving her mother behind to battle alone, but Zafira had been right. The only thought that had been running through her mind from the moment the first gunshot had sounded was to protect her twins.

“Don’t worry, poppets. Mommy isn’t going to die today because Daddy will be seriously pissed if I do, so... we’re gonna do this together.” She hesitated to open the steel door when she reached the outside latch two miles from the house on the far side of a rocky hill. “Blyad’! What are the chances that someone is waiting on the outside for me?”

Vanya depended on her ever-present sixth sense cautioning her against storming out blindly. There were guards all over the farm and still a group of assassins managed to bypass them to get to the house. Clearly, there were some corrupt members on their team. Vanya flinched at the echo of a shot coming from the study but refused to give way to the fear that her mother might be dead.

“She has survived two attacks. This time, she knew they were coming and was ready. I have to believe that. Mom isn’t dead!” Vanya checked her phone. “Blyad’! No signal,” she muttered as she keyed in the access code that would unlock the latch. “Well, poppets, we can’t stay here. If there are more of them, they’ll find the hidden door at some point. Just go to sleep. Mommy’s got this.”

Vanya’s heart pounded wildly as she cautiously pushed open the latch of the underground tunnel’s exit. With every creak, her fear intensified, her mind racing with the thought of the danger lurking just beyond. But she couldn’t afford to hesitate; her instincts urged her forward, driven by a fierce maternal determination to protect her unborn children.

Stepping out into the open air, Vanya squinted against the sudden brightness of the day. Before her stretched a vast expanse of grassy hillside, rolling gently beneath the azure sky. In the distance, the patchwork quilt of farmlands spread out like a painting, a tranquil scene that belied the turmoil raging within her.

Though the landscape was serene, Vanya’s senses remained on high alert, and every nerve tingled with trepidation. She couldn’t discount that danger lurked in the shadows, that every step she took could be her last, but she refused to let fear paralyze her. Instead, it fueled her determination to keep her children safe at all costs.

“Don’t worry,” she exhaled slowly and repeated the words, more to calm herself than anything else, “Mommy’s got this.”

Resolutely, she scanned the immediate area for any sign of trouble. Her back snapped ramrod straight as a familiar mocking voice sounded from atop the grassy knoll where she stood just outside the tunnel entrance.

“One thing I have to give the Guzuns. If nothing else, you are predictable as fuck.”

By the time she turned to face him, Luciano Maranzano stood an arm’s length from her. Hatred for the man threatened to choke her, but she forced a smirk on her face.

“Well, I can’t say it’s a pleasure seeing you again, fuckface.” Acting irresponsibly wasn’t an option, but that didn’t mean she had to be polite. Still, it would be prudent to be cautious. This man had no empathy and wouldn’t care that she was pregnant.

“Careful, la mia bella donna. I might just believe you missed me.”

“I’m not your anything, you demented, dickless, piece of shit— Ugh!”

Vanya realized it was the worst thing she could’ve said as the black claws of unconsciousness wrapped around her before the pain of the gun smashed against the back of her head penetrated. The words he sneered accompanied her drifting off into the dark void of nothingness.

“You fucking bitch... you’re gonna pay for that.”