who had been incarcerated and tortured like me, I calculated I was down to my final hours in this life. Despite loving Zoya with such a fierceness I had no idea I possessed, the very moment her brother found out what I’d done to her he would slit my throat.
And that was okay.
As long as he rescued my sister and Zoya first, as long as he kept them safe.
Then this man-made ugly beast—194—could at last be put down.
19
VALENTIN
I sat in the back of the van the Night Wraith had brought me to Brooklyn in, flanked by Zaal and Luka. Their male guards followed behind in another van. The collar was back around my neck, but the needles were removed. We had to maintain the pretense that I continued to be under Mistress’s control. I hated having this contraption around my neck. The heavy metal scraped against my new wounds. But with one thought of Zoya pinned on that bed, the pain faded to vapor.
We had sat and planned out our attack for hours. The Pakhan and another Bratva king joining us at the table. I had stared at Kirill Volkov as he listened to his knyaz plan this attack. I could see the pride in Kirill’s eyes. The entire time my stomach had clenched. No one but Zoya had ever loved me like that. As a twelve-year-old child even I had heard of the Volkovs of Russia. Sitting at a table watching the legendary male let his knyaz handle business convinced me that the knyaz would probably not be the knyaz for very much longer.
Dawn was about to break, but the sky was still dark enough to approach the mansion undetected. The three of us sat silently in the van. The three of us were impatient for the van to arrive at our destination. Luka and Zaal had dressed all in black, Zaal refusing to wear a top, so Mistress would see his identity number straightaway. Luka dressed in dark clothes, the hood from his sweatshirt pulled over his head and bladed knuckle-dusters sitting ready on his hands.
Suddenly the van came to a stop. The van door opened and the three of us jumped out. Luka’s head guard stood, gun already in hand. Luka’s and Zaal’s guards pulled up behind us. We were in the middle of the forest, just outside the mansion’s grounds. Zaal stood before me and said, “Make it look believable.”
Without hesitation I slammed my fist into Zaal’s face, the huge man taking hit after hit. I struck him ten times until he was bloodied, his skin cracking open on his cheeks and forehead. The bruises and swellings would emerge soon. Mistress would be pleased that I had brought him pain.
Zaal wiped his bottom lip, glaring at me like he wanted to crack my skull. I strongly suspected that he knew I’d done something to his sister. I could see it in his suspicious eyes. He spat the blood from his mouth to the ground before turning and putting his wrists together. I bound them in rope. Zaal turned and silently waited for us to move. I nodded at Luka to let him know I was ready. He handed me a small white bottle.
“Put a few drops in your eyes; they’ll dilate your pupils. We need that female in there to believe that the shit ton of serum she put in your collar still has you under its control. You fuck this up, everyone in there dies.”
I ripped the bottle from his hands and put some of the liquid in my eyes. I did not need the prince of the Russians to tell me what would happen to the only two people I loved on this Earth. The drops’ sting was immediate, but the fade was quick. I threw the bottle at Luka and without reacting, he said, “You have an hour to get to the mansion before we come in.” He inched closer. “We’ll kill everyone in there. Everyone but the two females you want to protect.” He paused and, leaning in, said quietly, “Including anyone who betrays us.”
I got his warning, but I stepped back and confirmed, “Understood.”
We set off deeper into the forest. Walking ahead of Zaal, Luka followed close behind me, never letting me out of his sight. We never spoke as we trudged through the trees. When we crossed the boundaries of the estate, I took hold of Zaal by the wrists and began dragging him until we reached the lawn.
The Wraiths