Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 63786 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63786 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
He scoffs. “Like I said, Nephew. Family just gets in the way.”
He nods to his son, and Maksim lifts his gun and shoots Feliks.
Brooke screams as Feliks falls to the floor, and I feel a bolt of panic rip down my spine.
“He’s your son,” I yell at Boris.
“My second son. Not my heir. He sealed his fate the moment he became your right-hand man.”
I glance at Feliks on the floor. He’s not moving, and his eyes are closed. I move Brooke behind me. They’re going to have to get through me to get to her.
“So this is it? You’re going to kill us all so you can be pakhan?”
Boris grins. “Yes, and then, when I’ve served my time, Maksim will step in.”
“Actually, Father, there’s been a change of plans,” Maksim says.
Boris jerks around to look at his son. “What are you talking about?”
Maksim raises his gun again and shoots his father in the head, and Boris drops heavily to the floor, blood spilling out of the bullet wound between his eyes.
Behind me, Brooke gasps and takes a step back.
Maksim stands still, looking at his father’s body before he finally lifts his cold stare to me. “He was right. Family does get in the way.”
Fuck. Me.
All this time my charming cousin was an unhinged psycho and I never even knew.
“What are you doing, Maksim?”
“I’m doing what I have been bred to do. Taking my seat at the head of the table. It’s what he always wanted. It’s what I was raised to do. But I figured, why wait for the old fuck to die when I could just do it myself? Of course, the plan was to do it after he’d done all the heavy lifting. Disposing of bodies is time-consuming and tedious. But today, I realized he was just weighing me down, and I was better off without him.” He focuses on Brooke. “I mean, the fat old fuck had you in the palm of his hand, and he let you get the better of him.” He shakes his head. “I decided right there and then I had to get rid of the old fool sooner rather than later.”
I see Boris’ gun in his suit jacket.
“You’ll be dead before you even reach it,” he warns.
I’ve got nothing left. So I use the last thing I have in my arsenal. My body. I charge at him with the fury of a wounded bull. He tries to aim his gun, but I reach him before he can get a shot off and tackle him to the floor.
We roll around in the mud, and I get a few good slams of my fist into his evil, smug face. But somehow, the sonofabitch is able to knee me in my balls, and I curl up into the fetal position.
He retrieves his gun off the floor and rises slowly to his feet. “You never could admit defeat. Even when we were kids you always had to win. But today is the day you finally lose, pakhan.” He walks over to me and aims his gun. “Your time is up, mudak—”
A gunshot explodes and reverberates around the room, and he drops to the floor like a house of cards.
I look over to Feliks, who still has his gun aimed at his brother.
“Motherfucker,” he moans before slumping against the floor and falling unconscious.
44
BROOKE
As Lev makes a phone call, I kneel beside Feliks. Blood soaks the front of his shirt, and when I rip it open I see a small hole in his chest, high up near his collarbone. Blood bubbles to the surface and keeps spilling over his skin.
His eyes flutter, and he wakes up with a groan.
“He needs an ambulance,” I say to Lev, who is speaking very quickly to someone on the other end of the phone.
Feliks grabs my arm. “No ambulance.”
“But you need medical treatment, and you need it fast,” I say to him, applying pressure to the gunshot wound to try and reduce the bleeding.
“Then drive me to the hospital. No ambulance.” He looks over my shoulder. “He’ll never be able to make this go away if you call an ambulance.”
I follow his gaze to where his brother and father lie dead on the floor, only a few yards away.
“I’m so sorry, Feliks,” I say, understanding how heartbreaking this must be for him.
He grimaces. “I’ll live.” He drops his head back and moans. “Well, I fucking hope I do.”
Another gunshot makes me jump. Alarmed, I swivel around to look for Lev but he’s gone.
“No need to panic.” Feliks assures me, biting back his pain as he holds up his gun. “I’ve got your back.”
I take the gun from him because the more he waves it around, the more his wound bleeds.
“I can’t shoot it if I’m not holding it,” he complains.
“But I can. Don’t worry, I’m practically an expert after today.”