Page 181 of Blood & Snow
"You destroyed my organization, killed my son, burned everything I built. Now you lose what you love most."
I'd like to think this is where I slit his throat, the moment I take him out before he can hurt her, but the boom of gunfire doesn't come from my rifle.
The barrel of Igor's rifle smokes as Arkady's weapon rises ever so slightly and blood blossoms across his neck and chest.
His gun goes off in a secondary blast that draws fire from my weapon and that of one of my men behind me.
Three more bullets hit his chest as the one from his gun lodges in the wall on the far side of the room and Nadya topples to the ground trembling and screaming.
I lower my weapon and cross to her, cutting the zip ties that bind her wrists.
She curls forward into my arms, body shaking with sobs that tear from her throat in ragged gasps.
"I've got you," I whisper against her hair.
"You're safe now."
Pulling her against my chest, I hold her tightly, feeling every tremor in her muscles.
Never again will I let her out of my sight.
"I thought—" Her voice breaks.
"I thought you wouldn't come."
"I'll always come for you,Ptichka. Always."
She clings to me with desperation, face buried against my chest while tears soak through my tactical vest.
"Is it over?" she asks, her voice muffled.
I survey the carnage.
Arkady himself lies at our feet, his empire reduced to a corpse in a bakery.
His soldiers are scattered across three floors, their blood staining surfaces that will require cleaning, and when those cars return from the chase, there will be a few more men to fall, but for now it's done.
"Every last one," I confirm.
"The Brotherhood is finished."
Ivan appears in the doorway.
"Upper levels are secured, Boss. No survivors."
The war that has consumed two months of my life has ended in a commercial bakery on a quiet Moscow street.
The Sokolov Brotherhood, once powerful enough to threaten our organization, now exists only in memory and obituaries.
"We need to move, Boss," Igor says.
"Police will respond within minutes."
He's not wrong.
I'll deal with the final few stragglers later, and the fallout from Markov will be painful, but I've done it.
I lift Nadya in my arms, carrying her toward the door.
