Page 155 of Sinful Promise

For a moment, I stare down at him as I try to catch my breath.

A few ragged breaths still escape him, but it won’t be much longer until the last of the air leaves his lungs. All it will take is one more swing of the bat, and it will finally be done.

I toss the bat onto the concrete floor. “Someone else should have the honor of finishing him off. I’ve got enough blood on my hands to last me a lifetime.”

Alexei glances around at each of us and just when I think he’s about to toss the bat to Mikhail, he changes his mind.

He holds the bat out to Lev. “You should do it. It’s only fair, considering the hell he put you through.”

Dimitri and Anton nod.

I wipe my sweat from my forehead on the back of my hand. “Do it, Lev.”

Lev eyes the bat before shaking his head.

“Lev, come on,” Dimitri starts, but Lev holds up a hand.

He cracks his knuckles. “I want to feel the life leave his body.”

I glance at Mikhail, whose lips have lifted up in a feral smile.

I move to stand beside Alexei, Dimitri, Mikhail, and Anton, and we all watch silently as Lev stalks over to the man he once thought was his father. The man who tortured and abused him for years and kept him locked away from his real family. From us.

I hold my breath as Lev crouches over Igor’s limp body and fists his shirt.

“I hope you burn in hell,” Lev snarls before lifting Igor’s head and shoulders off of the floor and slamming it back down so hard that Igor’s head smashes against the concrete.

The infamous Igor Ivanov has been reduced to nothing but a rag doll, helpless to Lev’s fury as he repeatedly slams his head against the hard concrete.

There is so much blood that it’s now forming a river that runs along the length of the room toward where I stand with my brothers.

It pools at our feet, but still Lev doesn’t stop. Not until we hear the sickening crack of Igor’s neck breaking echoing around us.

In that moment, as I stand beside my brothers and cousin with Igor Ivanov’s blood dripping from my hands, it dawns on me.

The nightmare is finally over.

EPILOGUE - EMILY

Twelve months later.

“I can’t believe he slept through the entire ceremony.” Danil laughs as he looks down at our sleeping son in his arms.

I stroke the tuft of dark hair on his head. “It’s better than having him scream the place down.”

Even at four months old, he is starting to look so similar to Danil that it’s uncanny. He has the same dark eyes and hair, and even his slightly fuller bottom lip.

He’s perfect. And so is my new husband.

Before I have a chance to reach up onto my tiptoes and press a kiss to Danil’s lips, my sister suddenly appears.

“My turn to have a cuddle with Dima. Plus, you two should go and mingle. It is your wedding day after all, so stop using the baby as an excuse to be antisocial.”

I roll my eyes at Zara. I told her that I was more than happy to go down to the courthouse and sign some papers to make this marriage official, but she wasn’t having any of it. Apparently,being pregnant and then giving birth to an almost ten-pound child is not a good enough excuse not to have a wedding.

As a compromise, I let Bianca and Alexei host the wedding at their Forest Hills mansion, and it was definitely the right choice. It’s been a perfect July day, with not a cloud in the sky.

Bianca set up gazebos around the grounds to provide shade for the tables, and the pool was filled with flowers and covered with glass that we used as an aisle.

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