me absolutely fucking insane!” I screamed, glaring down at the tiny little bombshell in front of me.
Tatiana Andreeva was the bane of my existence. Long, golden hair. Soft, sun-kissed skin. Curvy hips. She had the face of an angel and the attitude of the fucking devil.
For four years, she’d consumed my every waking thought. Made me ache with a burning, unrelenting need. For four years, she’d tortured me with heated glances and that sassy fucking mouth. Testing my patience, my self-control. She was always on my mind. Under my skin. In my heart. No matter what I did or how hard I tried, I couldn’t get her out.
Tatiana smirked, a sparkle in those bewitching hazel eyes. She enjoyed riling me up, fucking lived for it. “Calm down, Nicky, before you give yourself an aneurysm.”
I ground my teeth together. She knew I hated it when she called me Nicky. She did it on purpose just to piss me off, like everything else she did. A constant thorn in my side.
“How many times have I told you not to go running alone? It’s dangerous.”
“And how many times have I told you to mind your own damn business. What I do isn’t your concern. Not anymore.”
Pain lanced through my heart and I sucked in a harsh breath. Guilt flashed across Tatiana’s face for the briefest moment before she shut it down, returning to the cold, hard ice queen she always was around me.
She might think that was the case, but she couldn’t be more wrong. Anything and everything to do with her was my concern. No matter what happened between us, no matter where we stood with each other, she would always be my concern.
The blistering heat of the Las Vegas sun bore down on me, sweat trickling down the back of my neck. We were around the corner from my house. I could see the tall, iron fence surrounding the property standing tall in the distance.
Tatiana only lived a few miles away. I’d seen her jogging on the side of the road when I was on my way home. She had absolutely no sense, unaware of the danger she’d put herself in. It would be so easy for someone to just pull over and shove her in their car. Shit like that happened all the time in Vegas. People disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again.
Three blue vans zoomed past, pulling up into my driveway and stopping at the guardhouse. It made me frown in suspicion.
Who the fuck are they? I wasn’t aware of any visitors dropping by.
My suspicions vanished when the iron gates swung open, allowing them entry. Whoever they were, they’d been given permission to enter. Otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to get in.
“Look, Nicky, I’ve got somewhere I need to be. So if we’re done here—”
“No, we are not done here,” I barked, cutting her off. I stepped into her space, standing nose-to-nose with her as I stared her down.
Tatiana’s breath hitched slightly, her eyes flaring. Sexual tension snapped the air taught around us, raw and magnetised. My skin hummed with awareness at having her so close, our bodies less than an inch away from each other’s.
That was the way it was with us. The way it always was. Any time we were in each other’s orbit, it was like the attraction between us just exploded, igniting like gasoline on a fire.
The chemistry that burned between Tatiana and I was cosmic. The type of shit people wrote stories about, sang songs about. It would never fade. Never lessen. Never diminish. It would blaze as strong as the sun until the day we died.
The sound of a gunshot ripped my gaze away from Tatiana’s, my eyes snapping to my three-story home in the distance.
Did that come from there?
More gunshots echoed out in the air and I jumped into action, pulling out my Beretta from behind my back.
I quickly handed my car keys to Tatiana. “Get out of here. Now.”
I should have known she wouldn’t fucking listen.
She stared at my open hand with derision, her lip turned up in disgust. “If you think I’m just going to leave when something is clearly going on, you’re even dumber than I thought you were.”
“Goddamn it, Tatiana, I don’t have time to argue about this with you. Get your ass in that fucking car, or I swear to God, you’re going to regret it. I’m not playing around with you.”
She plopped her hands on her hips, staring me down. “I’m. Not. Leaving.” Her shoulders were squared with determination, lips pressed firmly together.
My phone vibrated in my pocket. I dug it out, keeping my irritated scowl firmly on her. I quickly glanced at the screen. It was a text from my brother, Aleksandr, in our WhatsApp group chat with all our soldiers.
There were no words. Just an emoticon.
I took off running.
Bodies littered the front yard, broken and bleeding. Some had been shot, others beaten and hacked at with what I guessed was an axe or machete of some kind. Screams echoed all around us, followed by gunshots and sounds of people fighting, grunting and growling, crying out in pain.
I moved quickly, my body hunched in a slight crouch as I hurried up the gravel driveway, my gun clasped tightly in my hand. I tried to focus, not to let my mind wonder. The fear I felt for my family consumed me, but I had to keep my head screwed on and deal with the target in front of me.
Tatiana was right there with me, her steps light and swift as she stayed on my heels. Her perfectly manicured fingers were wrapped around the handle of my spare gun, her hold flawless. Since she was so intent on coming with me, I had to give her something to protect herself with. I knew that, no matter what I said or how much I yelled at her, she was going to do whatever she damn well pleased. Tatiana never listened to me.
“Remember, stay by my side,” I whispered, bending down to check the pulse of one of our soldiers. Dead. It made me curse.
How the fuck did this happen? Who is attacking us?
“I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me,” she replied, a laser-type focus burning in her eyes as she scanned our surroundings.
Logically, I knew that. Tatiana might not be a Bratva soldier, but she’d gone through the same training we all had. She knew how to handle herself. She could even kick my ass if the occasion called for it.
But that didn’t stop fear from exploding inside me. She was putting herself in danger. There was a chance, no matter how small, that she could be hurt. Killed.
The thought alone made my heart fracture. In a world without Tatiana, I’d be lost. Life just wouldn’t be worth living.
I took the porch steps leading up to the front door quickly and quietly, watching where I put my booted feet so the boards didn’t creak. The door was slightly ajar. I went to push it open further but an angry voice from my left made me stiffen.
I know that voice.
I took off around the side of the house, coming out to the backyard. Groups of people were locked in fights of two or three, spread out across the yard all the way up to the warehouse. It was chaos. Bloody. Brutal. Like a fucking warzone.
My eyes ping-ponged between each cluster of people, searching, searching—there.
My little brother, Lukyan, was lying flat on his back, a blade mere inches from his throat. He struggled with a man in a black jumpsuit who was straddling his chest, growling and snarling with exertion as he tried to push the knife away from his skin.
I took aim and fired. Someone kicked my gun away at the same time I pulled the trigger, making me miss the shot. We locked into a grapple, punching and hitting each other as we wrestled for control.
Tatiana was trying to get a clear line of fire, but with how much we were moving around, it was impossible. I could see her in the corner of my eye, hesitating to take the shot out of fear of hitting me.
“Tati…get…to…Lukyan,” I grunted, blocking hits from my attacker.
Tatiana hesitated. Her eyes darted to Lukyan, who was struggling to keep the knife from piercing his skin, the blade inching closer and closer by the second.
“Go!” I roared, the desperation in my voice spurring her forward. I needed her to save my brother.
A painful punch to the jaw stunned me, knocking me off balance. The man went to tackle me and I twisted my body out of his reach, wrapping my arms around his neck from behind. I squeezed hard, cutting off his ability to breathe as I lifted him off his feet. He flailed, kicking out wildly and gasping for air.
I applied even more pressure and snapped his neck. He went limp in my arms and I dropped him to the ground, breathing heavily. My eyes snapped to Tatiana. She was expertly avoiding knife strikes from another man, her movements light and fluid as she twisted and turned, reminding me of a dancer. Lukyan fought ruthlessly at her side, attacking and defending, attacking and defending.
I saw red and jumped into the fight. I stuck close to Tatiana, helping her when she needed it (which, if I was being honest, was barely at all). I gripped a bony wrist and twisted it inwards, impaling the knife in a man’s hand right into his stomach. I kicked him away and used the same leg to deliver another fast, swift kick to another man’s head, knocking him out.
Tatiana picked up what looked like a mallet of some kind and swung it into a blonde man’s face, teeth and blood spraying into the air. Lukyan kicked and punched, stabbed and sliced. He fought with that primal viscousness he kept buried deep beneath that mischievous, playboy persona, killing and killing and killing.
I wasn’t sure how long we fought for. It felt like forever, but I knew it couldn’t have been more than fifteen minutes at most. By the time we ended up killing the last of those fuckers, we were all panting, covered head to toe in blood and sweat. There was an ear on Tatiana’s shoulder. Teeth peppered Lukyan’s hair. Intestines and organs squished beneath my shoes from when I’d sliced open a man’s stomach. It was like a damn bomb had exploded in our backyard, blood and body parts raining down like snow.
“What the fuck happened?” I breathed out harshly, looking out over the sea of dead bodies. Adrenaline still pumped through my veins, making it impossible for me to stand still.
“I don’t know,” Lukyan panted, wiping blood from his forehead with the back of his hand. “I was in the warehouse working out when I heard the first round of gunshots. Most of the men were. When we came out, we saw these fuckers”—he kicked one of the bodies at his feet—“running towards us with weapons. I have no idea how they managed to get onto the property without the alarm being raised.”
“We’ll worry about the how and why later. Right now, we need to deal with them. Are there any more?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t had the chance to check the house yet.”
“Alright,” I nodded. “You three”—I pointed to three of our soldiers hunched over with their hands on their knees, catching their breath—“clear the rest of the outside area. We’ll take the house. Have you seen Aleksandr? Or Father?” I asked, turning my attention back to my brother.
“No and no. They’re probably inside.” He looked at Tatiana. “Thanks for the save, by the way.”
She smirked, giving him a playful wink. “Don’t mention it.” Her smirk turned into a frown as she glanced over Lukyan’s shoulder, staring intently into the house through the glass sliding doors. “Who’s that?”
