Page 59 of Bound Vows
“You’re not going anywhere except into the grave I’ve prepared for you.” Katarina raises her weapon with the steady grip of someone who’s made peace with committing murder. “I appreciate the defiance. It will make Andrei’s grief more authentic when he realizes what he’s lost.”
I’m already moving when her finger tightens on the trigger, and I throw myself sideways behind a concrete pillar as the gunshot echoes through the warehouse. The bullet clips my shoulder instead of finding my heart, sending fire through my arm and spinning me around before I hit the ground.
Blood soaks my sweater as I scramble for better cover while my injured shoulder screams in protest, and Katarina’s laughter fills the space.
“Running won’t help you, Maya. This is my territory now, and you’re not leaving until our business is finished.”
I press my back against the pillar and assess the damage to my shoulder while listening for her footsteps. The wound burns like fire, but I can move my arm, which means no major damage. The bleeding needs attention, but it’s not life-threatening.
Squealing tires in the distance make us freeze for different reasons. The cavalry is arriving just in time, and Katarina is realizing her carefully planned execution is becoming significantly more complicated.
The warehouse doors explode inward with enough force to rattle the windows, and familiar voices fill the space as Max, Vincent, and half of our family’s soldiers pour through the entrance.
“Maya!” Max screams out. “Where are you?”
“Here!” I call back while staying behind cover. “Armed and bleeding, but functional.”
“Volkov?”
“Chained and unconscious, but alive!” I peek around the pillar to see Katarina spinning toward the new threat with her gun swinging between Andrei’s position and the advancing men. “Be careful; she’s unhinged! How the hell did you find me?”
“We’ve tracked your movements since the wedding,” Max explains as his men spread out through the warehouse. “When you left the safe house alone and drove straight to an abandonedwarehouse in Queens, we figured you weren’t going shopping. The GPS in Volkov’s car led us here.”
The warehouse erupts into chaos as my family’s arrival transforms a private execution into a full-scale battle, and I realize that whatever happens next will determine whether any of us survive Katarina’s final descent into madness.
Chapter 26
Andrei
Waking up chained to a warehouse support beam with gunfire erupting around me proves that even the most careful security arrangements have their weaknesses, especially when the threat comes from someone you’ve trusted for eight years.
“Maya!” I roar as consciousness crashes back, and I spot my wife pressed against a concrete pillar with blood darkening her sweater. “Are you hit?”
“Just a shoulder wound,” she calls back as she returns fire at Katarina. “Nothing fatal, though my aim is shit with my off-hand!”
The warehouse has transformed into a battlefield as Max Mastroni’s soldiers pour through multiple entrances, engaging a team of mercenaries that Katarina had waiting in reserve. Professional gunmen in tactical gear advance through the maze, and I realize this confrontation has been planned for a while.
“Where’s Katarina?” I test the chains securing my wrists to the beam behind me.
“Moving toward the back exit!” Maya fires twice more before ducking back behind cover. “She’s not going to stick around for the family reunion!”
I wrench against the restraints with enough force to send fire through my shoulders, but whatever Katarina used to secure me was designed for this situation. Heavy chains wrapped multiple times around both my wrists and the beam are locked with industrial padlocks that won’t yield to brute strength.
The sound of footsteps makes me look up to see Vincent Russo advancing through the gunfight. He moves from cover to cover while laying down suppressing fire, closing the distance between us despite the chaos erupting.
I don’t know how the hell he got here, but I thank God for it.
“Vincent!” I call to get his attention. “Maya’s hit, and Katarina’s running!”
“I see her!” He slides behind the same pillar where I’m chained and begins examining the locks on my restraints. “Bolt cutters?”
“Whatever works fastest.”
Vincent produces a compact angle grinder from his vest and fires up the motor before applying the cutting wheel to the chain links closest to my wrists. Sparks fly as metal shrieks against metal, and within thirty seconds, I’m free enough to slip the remaining chains over my hands.
“Go!” Vincent shouts over the continuing gunfire. “We’ll handle the cleanup.”
I sprint toward Maya while flexing circulation back into my hands, but when I reach the concrete pillar, I find nothing except blood droplets leading toward the warehouse’s rear exit. Through the maze of machinery, I catch a glimpse of Katarina dragging Maya toward a door marked with emergency lighting.
