Page 79 of Vows of Blood
He smiles slowly at Alexei and says, “Whether or not she leaves isn’t your decision. It’s hers.”
I stand up. After everything that was said this morning, Alexei… Alexei’s made himself clear. If I leave, he’s coming with me. It’s all I wanted to hear.
“Thank you,” I tell Maxim, “but I have to decline. My place is with my husband. And if he can’t go, then neither can I.”
Maxim’s smile turns into a sneer and he says, “That’s so fucking touching. Oh, Alexei,” he sighs, standing up from his desk. “I didn’t want it to be this way, but sometimes a son needs a reminder of to whom his loyalty belongs. And that means that I must be cruel to be kind.”
In a flash, his hand twists toward me, the gun now pointed at my head. I flinch and cover my face instinctively. There’s no gunshot. I look up to see that Alexei’s grabbed Maxim’s arm, holding it up and away from me. There’s a moment of shock between everyone in the room and it’s like we’re frozen in time. Even Pavel’s standing by with a stunned expression.
Alexei pushes his father hard. The two crash into his desk, arms still locked together as they fight for the gun. I see Pavel move toward Alexei and I’m rushing toward him before I know what I’m doing. As he goes to grab him, I leap onto his back, nearly knocking him over. He shouts, grabbing at me as I pull his hair and scratch his face.
“Fucking bitch!” he hollers, twisting under my weight. He finally starts rushing backward. My back collides with the farthest wall, sending a shock of pain through me that loosens my grip on him. I fall to the floor as he turns around and faces me, his face twisted into a snarl.
I kick him as hard as I can in the shin and he folds, stumbling backward as he grabs at his leg. I get to my feet and rush over to the lamp by the door. I only get a step before I feel him swiping at my blouse to try and grab me.
I get the lamp. It’s heavy ceramic. Probably an heirloom of some sort. As I turn, I bring the lamp around with me, aiming for his head. The end of the lamp hits him across the jaw with a thunk that’s almost musical. The vibration rings through the ceramic and my fingers. He nearly falls over, his head rocked to one side.
I bring it back around, this time catching him full in the face. The hard ceramic cracks under the pressure, smashing against his face. His nose explodes in a splash of blood that flies from him and hits the wall. The second hit spins him and he’s down. I go to hit him again, raising the lamp over my head, but I stop the minute I see him, mouth open, a pool of blood forming under his head.
He’s out. Or dead. I don’t have time to debate it because a gunshot goes off. Startled, I drop the lamp and it shatters next to his head.
I look up to see Alexei and Maxim are still locked in battle. Their arms are now twisted between them, their rage-filled snarls slowly disappearing as they both realize the gun has gone off.
I stand up straight as I see blood appear on Alexei’s shirt.No.
30
ALEXEI
It’s like something out of a movie. The minute the gun goes off, everything just stops. There’s no sound. There’s nothing. I’m stuck in a freeze frame where I’m staring at the ugly, twisted version of my father’s face.
The heat of the gun’s discharge burns my chest. My first thought is to Isabella. How poetic it is that my wife watches me die in the same way I watched Kira. This may be worse, in a way. She didn’t have to fight her father over a gun.
And then, everything starts moving again and I see the scowl on my father’s face start to leave with the light in his eyes. His grip on the gun loosens and it falls between us. I look down as he pulls away from me, stumbling backward toward his desk.
There’s a black hole in the center of his shirt. Tendrils of smoke are rising from it. The light blue of his dress shirt is suddenly changing to red as a circle of blood spreads from the hole and moves outward across his chest.
As he turns to try and hold himself up, his face flushes. All the strength in his tree trunk arms is gone. His knees buckle and hefalls to the floor, rolling on his back. I walk over to him, looking down into his face as the last bits of life drain away from him and onto the floor beneath him.
The king is dead. Long live…
My mind stops. I am the logical choice. Father even admitted that himself. If I decide to take over, no one will question it. I probably won’t even receive any retribution for killing my father. I look over my shoulder at Pavel, who’s lying in a pool of his own saliva and blood, his face smashed to shit. He’s fucked up, but he’ll live.
It’s over. My father’s reign, even this war if I want it. The mantle is mine for the taking and not even Pavel can challenge me. It’s something I’ve wanted since I was a boy.
No, that’s not quite true. It’s something that I’ve alwaysexpected. That’s a different thing. And the one thing that my father said that was correct was that absolutely nothing was promised. Not even my place in line.
Just the same. Everything I have ever worked for in my entire life is right at my fingertips, if I want it.
“Alexei?”
I look over to see Isabella standing near Pavel, her crystal blue eyes filling with tears. We don’t have to leave the life now. I can make this the kind of life that she wants. I could…
My thoughts are washed away as she rushes into my arms, hugging me warmly. I think about the way she looked as those thugs carried her away, the terror and anger in her face. I think about how she looked while my father had his gun on me, theuncertainty in her eyes. I can’t imagine what kind of horror it must be to have to fight so hard for a life that we should have.
And in this moment, holding her in my arms, smelling her sweet hair, I realize that there is more to life than this. The Bratva life isn’t for me. Not anymore. Wherever she is, that’s where I want to be.
I break the hug long enough to touch her stomach. “Are you okay? Is the baby…?”
