Page 160 of The Enemy Protector
I twist the knife.
His body jerks once, then goes still. The light fades from his eyes. He’s gone.
I stand, leaving the knife buried in his chest. My hands are covered in blood.
I nod. “Burn it. I want nothing left.”
“What about the brothers?”
That’s the question, isn’t it? Three more Baranovs waiting in Russia. Three more threats to Sofia’s life.
“We handle them,” I say. “One at a time if we have to. But they don’t get near her.”
I walk out of the room, stepping over bodies on my way down the stairs. The house is a bloodbath. My men are already moving through, checking for survivors.
There are none.
Outside, the night air hits my face. I breathe it in, trying to clear the smell of gunpowder and death from my lungs.
I climb into the SUV. Kirill slides in beside me.
“You good?” he asks.
“No.” I lean my head back against the seat. “But I will be.”
I feel the stickiness on my hands.
I killed a man tonight. Drove a knife into his heart and watched him die.
I would do it again without hesitation.
That's what love is.
Love is blood on your hands. The certainty that you'd do it again.
I love Sofia Sokolov.
I have spent eight years making sure she survives. I am not stopping now.
37
Sofia
My phone hasn’t moved from my hand in four hours. Every time the screen dims, I tap it back to life. No new messages. No calls. Nothing.
I tell myself that’s good. If something went wrong, someone would have called. Nelson would have heard something. Kirill would have texted me.
But the silence is killing me.
I pace the office. Then the living room. Then back to the office. Nelson shadows me at a distance, not saying anything. He knows better than to try to calm me down right now.
Every second feels like an eternity.
What if something went wrong? What if Yuri was ready for them? What if Yuri killed Sergei? Without him, I’m dead and our child will die with me.
“He’s going to be okay,” I whisper to myself. “He has to be okay.”
Because I need to tell him. I need to see his face when I tell him he’s going to be a father. I need to see if it scares him or excites him.
