Til Death Do Us Part (Kornilov Bratva Duet #2) - Nicole Fox Page 0,7

we won’t be able to play anymore. I can’t play anymore. Part of me wishes I could rationalize this woman’s life as a necessary cost of ending my brother. After all, killing her and her unborn child would be far less than the death toll Fedor could rack up if left unchecked. In a utilitarian sense, killing her is the right thing to do.

Still, I can’t stop myself from lowering my gun.

I can’t.

I won’t.

I signal for my men to stand down and then rise to my feet. Petr hisses through the car to ask what the fuck I’m doing, but I can barely hear him over the blood pounding in my ears. I walk out from behind the car door and start moving towards the warehouse. I only vaguely recognize someone is standing next to me, and I turn and realize it is Petr. His eyes are wide, scanning the warehouse windows, looking for snipers or anyone who would shoot at us, but I can’t be worried about that right now.

This needs to end. Now.

As we approach, I can see Fedor is smiling. He is grinning, actually. His face is split wide with obvious joy at what is happening, in stark contrast to the sobbing woman in front of him.

Her eyes are red and puffy, snot is dripping from her nose, and her entire body is trembling.

“Did you really think you could just show up and kill me so easily?” Fedor asks, peeking out from behind the pregnant woman but keeping most of his body shielded behind hers. “I thought you’d be smarter than that, brother.”

“And I thought you’d be a human being,” I snap back. “Who is your human shield?”

Fedor’s lips pull back in disgust. “Just some slut.”

There is no warmth in his eyes. No caring for the woman or the life she is carrying. There is no sign of humanity in his electric green eyes, and I feel like my brother is dead. Because the man standing in front of me is not the brother I knew.

“This isn’t you,” I say, deciding to speak my mind. “Come on, Fedor. You are better than this.”

Fedor shrugs. “Perhaps. Though, I honestly think this plan is pretty smart. Especially given my time constraints. We hit the bar last night, and I only realized afterwards that you might be a little upset about it. So, I rounded up some passersby and brought them back to the warehouse.”

Passersby. “There are more?”

“Inside,” he says with an excited nod. “About ten of them. Well, eleven if you count the baby.”

He points his gun at the woman’s stomach, and she flinches. Fedor grins even wider at her fear.

“Stop.” It’s a sharp command, and for a second, Fedor listens. His smile fades away, and his expression softens. He looks like a guilty little kid. Like the brother who drew on the walls and stuffed a whole roll of toilet paper in the toilet and cried when he was caught. For the briefest of seconds, I see the boy he once was. “You are not a monster, Fedor. Don’t become one.”

Then, his green eyes burn brighter, and his smile is back, but this time it has an edge. “I’m not a monster, brother. I’m a leader.”

As he speaks, people separate from the shadows behind him, and I recognize the dons of the Mazzeo family, Mario and his son Rio. They flank Fedor on either side, arms crossed over their chests.

They’d make a powerful picture if Mario didn’t have a large bruise under his right eye. Clearly, the old man has been beaten recently. I wonder if it was Fedor or one of his men. I wonder how many people he is threatening to maintain his power.

“Mario,” I say softly, appealing to the mercy I know he has. “This is madness. Don’t support this.”

His soft chin lifts, but his son moves to stand partially in front of him. “Don’t address my father,” Rio snaps.

Fedor’s chest inflates now that he has backup. “You are the only one unwilling to do what is necessary to take control, Viktor. Everyone else understands that sometimes people have to die. The sooner you realize that, the better chance you’ll have of saving a scrap of what you’ve built.”

“Innocent people never need to die!” I shout, hands fisted at my side. “What you did to those civilians at the bar is unconscionable.”

Mario flinches like the imagery of what happened there pains him, but Fedor laughs. “I hoped it would make an impression. My idea! Every