Page 82 of A Silent Reckoning

“Why are you telling me this?” he demanded. “Why don’t you tell Jozef yourself?”

She laughed bitterly. “Because I wanted one last chance to tell you that you are a below average fuck with a below average dick. Have a nice life, fucker.”

She hung up and, without a backward glance, drove away from the university and away from Prague.

Chapter Forty

Leeza checked her gun one more time, glanced in the mirror and then turned away. She stared down at her slumbering son. She’d given him a powerful sedative and it had taken effect. She felt intense guilt for doing such a thing to her child, but the end would justify the means. She needed him to sleep through the events that were about to take place.

She took a deep breath and picked up her bag, slinging it across her shoulders and securing it between her breasts. She picked Kristoph up and held him against her chest, his head on her shoulder.

She took several deep breaths and straightened her spine. She was not a weak person. She would do what she had to do, even if it would haunt her nightmares.

The door opened and her personal guard, Igor, stuck his head in. “Ready to go ma’am? Your sister is on her way to the mansion. She should be joining you shortly.”

Leeza was supposed to go to the main house and cower in the safe room with her sister and her son. She had other plans.

She nodded and held tighter to Kristoph, whose dead weight was difficult to manage. Her constant workouts ensured she was both strong and agile though. She knew she could carry him over a great distance if necessary.

“Follow me.” Igor turned away from her and headed down the hall to the main floor of the house. “Stay behind me and if we’re attacked, run to the house.”

“Okay,” she whispered.

She reached behind her back and pulled her gun from its holster. As Igor descended the stairs, she shot him, the sound an echoing crack through the house. It was the hardest thing she’d ever done. She hated that she was shooting a man in the back, but she was doing it for her son. She had to get him away from the bosom of the Koba family and she knew her father’s men wouldn’t allow her to leave.

Though Krystoff would never give control of his organization to Kristoph, due to his autism, Krystoff still considered his grandson his heir. He would override Kristoph’s own mother if it meant keeping the child with the family. Now, the family was splintering and so was Leeza’s loyalty. She wasn’t one of them. She wasn’t a Koba.

Jozef thought she was though, which made her a prime target.

Igor lurched forward and fell, sliding to the bottom of the stairs. Leeza hurtled after him. She gave him a worried glance when he didn’t move. She’d tried not to hit anything vital, but she wasn’t an expert in anatomy.

She leapt over his prone body, Kristoph held tightly in her arms. Before she could leave, Adam shouted from the top of the stairs.

“What the fuck is going on?”

Leeza whirled around and gaped up at him.

“No one told you what was happening?” she asked incredulously and then started laughing. “Oh my god, that’s hilarious. No one thought enough about you to tell you we’re under attack.”

“Who shot Igor?” he demanded, pounding down the stairs to check on the prone man.

Leeza sighed. She’d been so preoccupied with getting Krystoph and herself to safety she hadn’t thought of Adam. Fuck. She chewed on her lip. Decisions. Decisions. She could leave him, shoot him or take him with her.

She thought about lifting her gun and putting a bullet through his head. The satisfaction she felt rushing through her was heady, and it was what convinced her not to do it. She’d wielded vengeance once. It had been satisfying, but the consequences were what had led to this moment. To her family splintering and attacking each other.

She wouldn’t act on such an impulse again. Not without a great deal of thought.

“Do yourself a favour,” she told her husband coldly. “Leave Prague. Go far away and retire somewhere sunny. If you stay loyal to Krystoff Koba, you will die. Probably tonight.”

Without waiting for a response, she turned and hurtled toward the front door, jerking it open and running into the night. She could hear Adam calling after her. He wasn’t in good enough shape to catch her though. She ran to the family garage, passing by men rushing around the estate with enough weapons to outfit an armory. They really were preparing for war.

Leeza loved her cousin, but she knew she was a target. Her father might underestimate the vicious dog, but Leeza knew better. He was a killer, born and bred. He would take the whole family out for this infraction and he would walk away from the carnage without a backward glance.

Leeza grabbed a set of keys off the wall and opened the back door to her father’s Marauder; a rugged truck designed to withstand mine explosions. She sat her son in the child seat. She’d convinced Krystoff to install one in case they ever needed a safe getaway. Krystoff had laughed at Leeza’s over-precaution but had allowed the seat to be installed.

She belted Kristoph in, tightening it across his small body and shaking the seat to make sure it was secure. She grabbed the blanket she’d brought along and tucked it around him.

She kissed his cheek and then his closed eyelids. “Stay asleep, baby. You’re not going to like this next part.”

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