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We were both imperfect, broken monsters and I wouldn’t have her any other way.
Now I just have to convince her to give me one more chance.
I refused to dwell on the thought, since I had already made up my mind to wait until after the business with Korol had been taken care of. She didn’t need any distractions while we were taking out the biggest crime lord in the world, and neither did I. What she needed from me was the ruthless killer side of me, not the lovelorn fool.
Right?
I had been convinced of these things until today when Emilia hadn’t even given her instructions for a formal dinner to me, but to Meiling. Any other time, I would have expected Meiling to gloat about that fact, but even the mischievous Chinese woman seemed pensive and tense as she relayed the message to all of us. She had held my gaze for a long moment, and I had read the concern in her body language loud and clear.
“You better, D’yavol. Or I will blow you up for real this time.” Jazzy huffed, bringing me back to the present and the fact I had just promised to talk to Emilia. Though Jazzy’s words were harsh, the way she bit her thumb repeatedly and the softening of her eyes convinced me it was really concern and not anger that had prompted the Albanian hellion to seek me out. With one last worried glance my way, she stomped out of the gym, grumbling in her native tongue.
Closing my eyes for a moment, I let out a small sigh. We still had to formulate a plan concerning Korol, but there were more pressing matters at hand. We either had to get out of the city, sooner rather than later, and work out a plan from Lesbos… Or we had to strike immediately, without mercy, without hesitation. I knew Korol. I knew how he worked. Him changing the plans for his party at the last moment told me he knew something. Whether he knew we were in the city, or something else was going down, we needed to be prepared, be vigilant, and be wary.
I had my suspicions that Korol knew something now that he hadn’t before Ground Zero - that stupid fucking night out to the club- and it had to do with Emilia. Judging from her reactions to everything the last two days, she too knew something she hadn’t before Ground Zero, and I was going to find out what.
“Awfully deep thoughts there, Vik. Pretty sure this room wasn’t designed for all that thinking.”
Whipping my head around, I caught sight of the most beautiful creature in existence.
God damn it, she really has turned me into a goddamn poet.
Emilia was leaning against the closed door, the half-smile she wore making her eyes sparkle the tiniest bit. It was the most emotion I had seen from her in days, and I couldn’t suppress the relieved smile that broke my face. She noticed, arching a brow, but kept silent. She tilted her head, the dark waves of her hair looking so soft in the iridescent gym lights. We simply stared for a few moments at each other, the comfortable silence stretching on. Finally, she opened that Cupid’s bow mouth of hers.
“Korol knows we’re here.”
I froze, processing her words slowly. Standing up to my full height, I very slowly but deliberately walked over to my kapitan, my heart, my little demon. Coming to a halt mere inches from her, I crossed my heavily muscled arms over my broad chest and gave her my most frightening glower that had sent grown men to their knees.
The little shit arched an eyebrow at me.
“And how, pray tell, do you know that?” I growled, not amused at her little show of defiance.
“Never you mind.” She smiled, looking up at me like I was a big, dumb beast. “All you need to know is that tonight, when we sit down for dinner, I’m making the announcement that we are returning to Lesbos to regroup and reformulate our plan of attack. I already have Kiernan’s band of idiots packing as we speak. The Usami sisters are over-seeing their progress.”
I couldn’t help the small smile that peeked out, and neither could Emilia. We both gave a snort of amusement, knowing full well that the Usami sisters had Kiernan’s Irishmen wrapped around their small, deadly little fingers. And that the sisters were little slave drivers, so the packing would more than likely be done within the hour.
“As you wish, Kapitan. I will relay your orders-”
“I already told Mark to start the evacuation of the outside staff. Half of your team has already been loaded up and are on their way to the airstrip. They’re heading out tonight. We’ll all leave tomorrow so I figured one night without the outside team wouldn’t hurt.”
I blinked.
Then blinked again.
Emilia’s teeth came out to toy with her bottom lip. Worrying it. Like she was worried about her stupid, dumbass, horrible decision.
I’m going to spank her raw.
“Emilia.” I said softly, trying to reign in my complete fury and tamp down my desire at my previous thought. “You realize that cutting our security in half, without my fucking consent, after telling me that Korol knows we’re in the country, without telling me how you know that, is probably in the top five worst decisions you’ve ever made, right?”
Emilia huffed, a spark of humor lighting her eyes and making her exaggerated scowl that much more charming.
“Viktor, come on. It’s one night. I was going to send the entire security team home save our group, but I didn’t do that. You’re welcome.”
Oh my god, I might murder her.
“No, you only sent half of them home. The half being the entire perimeter staff that I need in case of an ambush.” My rage wasn’t in the mood to be contained and I felt my face heating from the effort of holding it in.
“That’s what cameras are for-”
“Emilia.” I growled, stepping right up into her space, grabbing her by the arms and pushing her into the door behind her. A spark traveled between us, as it usually did whenever we made physical contact, but I ignored it and the perfect lips that were pouting up at me.
Jesus Christ, they’re pouting up at me. So fucking perfect-
“No. I will not be distracted.”
“I didn’t say anything, Vik.” Emilia said, her brow furrowing in confusion. A flush of embarrassment scalded my cheeks, and I cleared my throat, ignoring it.
“You know better than this. Kapitan, you’ve been our leader for three years and have never taken this kind of risk. Why are you doing this with so much at stake?” I asked the question softly, gazing right into her stormy eyes.
She looked back up at me for a full minute in stony silence before the cold, unfeeling mask that she had adopted fell away. In that moment, I saw something in Emilia I had never seen before and it nearly brought me to my knees.
Defeat.
My beautiful Emilia was gazing up at me with eyes shining with defeat and I released her arms to cup her face in my hands. I pressed our foreheads together slowly, simply lending her my strength for as much time as she needed. We both closed our eyes and simply breathed each other in, our body heat entwining and our breaths mingling.
Finally, Emilia said the most heartbreaking words I had ever heard cross her lips.
“I want to go home.”
Her voice, so soft and broken, stirred up every protective instinct I had. I evaluated her words, knowing full well she didn’t mean back to our home that we had built in Lesbos. I gently squeezed her cheeks, rubbing my nose along hers in silent support.
“Emilia,” I murmured in the kindest voice I had ever heard from my own lips. “I told you from the beginning. I will always stand beside you. No matter where we are, what we do, where we live, who we pretend to be… I will never, ever let you be alone. Tell me, printsessa. What do you wish?”
Emilia’s breath hitched, and I felt single tear slide over my hand that was pressed against her face. I let her cry, as I had all those years ago after we had escaped Korol and had merely sat in the bedroom in the cabin, her in the bed sobbing, me sitting beside her, our hands firmly clasped together. And as I had all those years ago, I felt another part of my heart that I hadn’t realized I possessed chip itself free to fling itself at Emilia’s feet.
Finally, she answered me in a whispe
r.
“I wish I was someone who didn’t deserve to be alone.”
My heart broke in that moment, and I opened my eyes, finding her anguished gaze on me. I tugged her into my embrace against my better judgment, clutching her close to my chest. She wrapped her arms around me, and we simply held each other. I tried to convey the best I could through my embrace that she was someone worth so much more, but I couldn’t bring myself to say the words that she needed most.
We had too many other things that needed to be dealt with first.
There would be time for this later. My first priority was her safety and she had just made my job ten times harder. I sighed, squeezing her closer against my chest.
“Emilia. I wish-”
“So do I.”
Her broken whisper shattered my already breaking heart into a million pieces and I almost gave in to my instinct that was telling me to open up to her. To tell her all the things that I hadn’t two nights ago. There was something urgent inside me that needed me to vomit my feelings at her feet and let her see that I wasn’t the man she should want. The secrets and lies that lay between us were still too great. I knew that the moment they came to light, the soft emotion I sometimes saw reflected in her gaze that both elated and scared the fuck out of me would vanish, replaced with revulsion and hatred.
I couldn’t take that chance.
Not yet.
So, I did the opposite of the urgent instinct inside me and brought us back to business.
Just as I always did.
“Kapitan. Do you truly wish to go back to America or not?”
Fucking coward.
Emilia didn’t reply for a few long moments, but finally she gave a small laugh. She sniffed, then stepped back from me, our arms falling back to our sides. I felt the loss of her heat against me like a stone on my chest, and I couldn’t help the grimace of pain. Emilia smiled sadly up at me, then shook her head. Her cold, calm mask slid back into place and she cleared her throat.
“Of course not. I was being sentimental. Probably the situation with Korol getting to me. You understand.” She said, waving her hand like her admission had been unimportant. Her cold smile that didn’t reach her eyes made me want to vomit, but I nodded instead. She looked away from me, crossing her arms over her chest like she was cold, and I wanted nothing more in that moment than to yank her back into my arms and give her anything she could ever want.
Not yet.
“You wanted to know how Korol knows we’re here, yes?” Emilia asked, glancing back up at me. I nodded like an idiot, not trusting my voice until I had my emotions under control.
“Someone betrayed us at the club that Leonid recommended. I informed him this morning of my suspicions, and he was… displeased.” Emilia said it with a small smile that had real emotion behind it.
“When I informed Leonid, it seems that Hound was listening in, as well. She was even more pissed off than Leonid. She should have returned with the traitor by now, and she said she would call as soon as she was finished questioning him.”
“Was it Anton?” I asked, remembering the slimy bastard who had tried to hit on Emilia.
Over my dead body, fucker.
“Yes, I do believe it was.” Emilia said, shrugging. “I really know how to pick ‘em, huh?”
Though unintentional, the remark hit me hard. Was I just another man that was letting Emilia down? I knew Emilia didn’t put me in the same category as Zakhar, even though if she knew all of my secrets, she damn well should. Emilia seemed to attract monsters like a brilliant flame in the darkness, and I didn’t have words to tell her that it was because she was so beautiful at her core, that monsters like me wanted nothing more than to possess her, to own her.
To be her everything.
“I should go over and help them question him.” I said, wanting to escape from her cold gaze and my own cowardice. She nodded, and a flash of relief crossed her face before she could suppress it. And even though I had no right to the emotion, that fucking hurt. This was the first time in the entirety of our relationship that I had ever seen Emilia relieved to see me go.
Tell her. Tell her everything. TELL HER.
And once again, I ignored the urgent scream through my mind and took the coward’s way out.
“Do not leave the house while I’m gone, Kapitan.” I said instead, watching her step aside so I could walk through the door.
“Take Silas, Cin, and Masamune.” Emilia said, still looking away from me. I began to argue, but she held up a hand.
“That’s a direct order, Vik. I’ll keep everyone else her and I won’t leave the house, but you don’t go alone. That’s non-negotiable.”
I felt my jaw tighten. “Cin and Silas are more than sufficient-”
“Yes, and having Masamune with you will make me feel all warm and toasty. Argue with me again, and I’ll send them instead of you and put you on kitchen duty.” Emilia’s words had frost dripping from them, and her gaze was now fully on me. The ice from her words was reflected in her eyes, and I couldn’t help the small shiver that ran through me.
“As you wish, Kapitan.” I inclined my head, letting her know with my expression how much the idea pissed me the fuck off. She merely raised a haughty brow, walking ahead of me out the room.
“Kapitan.” I said, stopping her in her tracks.
“You do not take your choker off the entire time I’m gone. That is nonnegotiable.”
Emilia stared up at me while her hand came up to toy with the jewel at the center of her choker. The fake jewel contained a tracking device. She was one of the only members of Downswing that didn’t have the small chip inserted under her skin at the shoulder. Surprise, she had been a complete asshole about the entire situation. It was only her safety that she was jeopardizing, nothing important.
Viktor counted backwards from ten when the urge to throttle her came over him.
It was a practice he found himself doing. A lot.
Finally, she nodded to me, giving me a small smile.
“Have fun, Vik. I’ll see you soon.”
Then, the love of my life, the bane of my existence, the demon angel that haunted my every waking moment and nightly dream, walked away from me, humming that damn song she loved to sing to her victims about the man and the gambler.
Well played, printsessa. Well played.
Chapter Twenty
Kicker
Viktor
“Why the fuck did we have to come again?”
I rolled my eyes for what seemed like the thousandth time, before turning in the general direction of Cin’s annoying-as-fuck voice.
But Silas cut in before I could get more than a huff of annoyance out.
“Oh, just shut up, pompe á chiasse.” Silas snarled from somewhere to my right.
“Oh, that’s a new one.” Masamune’s deep, amused voice came from right beside me. “What does that one mean, chibi-tan?”
“In English, it translates roughly to ‘diarrhea pump’.”
Masamune and I both guffawed, and Cin began cursing not-so-silently.
“Motherfucker, Si, I am going-”
“If you all are quite done, we have arrived.”
A bored voice interrupted Cin’s outburst, and we all shut up as the car rolled to a stop. Leonid had sent three cars to pick us up from the mansion and escort us to his compound outside of the city. We all had been made to wear black hoods, much to the fury of Cin, who had insisted on bitching about it the entire ride over. We were all helped from the car, and our hoods were ripped off. I blinked against the light from the setting sun and squinted up at the familiar sight of the compound in front of me.
Cin, Silas, and Masamune gaped at the sight of the behemoth of a house that was the fortress of Father of Assassins. The house was three stories high, with mismatched siding and irregular design, like there had once been three separate houses that decided to mash themselves together and form one huge mansion. There were men and women milling about the grounds, some training in hand
-to-hand combat, others drinking around large barrels that had fire crackling from inside the metal containers. We were being led by one of Leonid’s top men, who had introduced himself simply as Gregor, and men and women from around the yard turned to look at us in knowing amusement as we were led around the back of the house. There was a small shed that was off to the left of the main house, and as we approached, I heard the telling smack of flesh striking flesh coming from inside. Gregor grinned back at us, and flung open the door with a flourish.
As we stepped inside, the mystery of the sounds was answered when my eyes adjusted to the darkness. Hound stood above a bound man that I couldn’t even recognize. The only reason I could tell the form was male was from the sheer size of him, and the fact that Hound had him naked, bound with rope to a wooden chair. His eyes were swollen shut from the beating she was giving him, his lips split wide open with blood gushing from them. A few teeth were on the ground at his feet, and I could see that a few of his toenails were missing. There were bloody pliers to the right, and my eyes adjusted enough to see that there was a small table in the corner. There, sitting idly in a chair, sipping a steaming cup of tea, was Leonid Sokolov.
“Ah, bobriy vyecher, comrades!” Leonid told us good evening in Russian, smiling serenely as Hound continued to beat the man bound to the chair.
“I’m afraid our friend Anton became unconscious after Hound’s removal of a few of his toenails. Men are not built how they used to be, you know?” Leonid said, shrugging.
“What did you get from him so far?” Masamune questioned from beside me.
“Ah, sadly, he has not responded much to Hound’s torture methods. I told her to let me go ahead and have a go, but she is a stubborn one.” Leonid shook his head in mock sadness, but winked at me. I heaved a breath, frustration riding me hard.
“How much does he know about us, Leonid?” I asked softly.