Page 47 of Beast

“Privyazannost, I’m over here…” I shouted as I waved at him. I hadn’t spoken Russian for a while, so it was weird being able to speak and hear it with him. I felt like once I left there, everything about the place I once knew as home had died, but it was in my blood, as much as my time in America had tried to erase it.

He started to pick up his pace, but with the way he ran with such heavy footsteps, I had a feeling something was wrong. We were on an island and he was slightly tanned, but it was as if all the blood had drained from his face and he looked like a cold sheet of white.

“Tomas, what is it? Why do you look like that?”

He was sweating, and he wasn’t running that long to have built up such a sweat. There was only one thing that made a man look this way, and that was fear.

He was scaring me with his silence. His lips moved, but they were forming no words, and he was avoiding my stare, so I got up to face him. He looked as though he’d seen a ghost.

“He’s here.”

Who?

I was about to ask, but then realized the one person we’d been speaking about. The one I’d had a flashback about was on this island almost like I had a premonition, a warning.

No, he couldn’t be. Tomas said he didn’t know where I was. Had he lied and told him?

Bile burned the back of my throat and I took a step backward. “How?”

If Tomas had told him, he wouldn’t be looking the way he was right now. He would be more confident in his actions and not act like a scared little boy.

Tomas shrugged. “I don’t know. This is so fucked-up. I fucked up. I wanted to protect you, and now I worry that I’ve brought you to harm. If he found us so easily, then the other guys could too.”

He lifted his hands to his hair and ran his fingers through it. While he was doing that, I noticed his eyes were full of sorrow.

“After you left the house, I wanted to make sure you were safe. I need to protect you, Natalia. I don’t want anything to happen to you. Immediately, I checked in with my men. There was no response. I remember thinking maybe they left their posts, they’ve gone to the bathroom or to get something to eat, that they cannot be on watch all the time. So, I went to the balcony and saw the boat was gone too. No, it was too much. It could only mean one thing.”

They were dead, and Dad had killed them. I clamped my arms over my stomach, trying not to be sick. All this time away, I’d forgotten about the bloodshed that I never batted an eye at before. Now my uncle’s gentle smile haunted me. Those men probably had families, people who loved them, and because of me, they were dead.

“I was trying to figure out a way for us to get off the island, trying to do it all. Then he was on the boat, driving up to the dock, and he said he came in peace. I asked him about my men…”

I lifted my hand, thinking he should spare me the details. I didn’t want to hear about his men, his friends who had been slaughtered at the hand of my father.

“And he told you to get me.”

He nodded. “He said he wanted to talk to the both of us. Then he would talk to you alone.”

I got up and ignored Tomas’s hand as he tried to help me up. I had to be strong to face my father, and Tomas thought all it had to do with was my uncle. If we made it out of here alive, then I would tell him everything. He deserved it. If we were going to be together forever, then I had to be honest with him. But now wasn’t the time.

19

BEAST

Iknew I had to act fast. Natalia’s father wanted us dead, but I still couldn’t believe he would kill her over what happened to her uncle. She’d been raised by a powerful mafia boss, she’d have been used to betrayals and murders. No, it had to be something else besides him killing his brother. Though that was frowned upon even in our circles, I couldn’t see him disowning her over that.

I felt like she was holding out on me and I needed to let her come to me with everything.

But for now, we had to survive this. The stupid Saint Lucia pit viper I'd found on the island was no accident. Her father must have had it dropped overnight when we were sleeping. Fucking asshole. And he wouldn't stop.

Even me morphing into my wolf and ripping his throat out wasn’t going to help. It would just paint a bullseye for every other Russian to take me out to avenge her father. Plus, he didn’t come alone. There were half a dozen men on my boat with him, and I didn’t doubt there would be his ship or more waiting for orders and possibly watching from the sidelines.

“We have to leave, now,” I whispered to Natalia, taking her hand. “It’ll be okay.”

She nodded, her eyes wide with fear. Pain and betrayal were etched on her face. She had always known that her father was involved in criminal activities, but she never could have imagined that he would turn on his own daughter.

The weight of danger pressed down on my shoulders and my wolf howled inside me to shift and fight.

“Thank you for everything,” she said, her voice shaking.

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