Chapter 30—Lukiyan

Judas Kane is already in the hotel.

I have eyes on him on the outside, feeding me information.

I’m waiting in his suite with my men.

I’ve never felt more eager to kill before. My blood is simmering with the thrill of killing that bastard. The long months of waiting will be over soon. I have one shot to take him down, so I can’t fail.

He’ll be entering the suite with two armed bodyguards in the next few minutes. Judas is armed too, but that’s not the problem if I miss the shot—which I won’t.

The problem is that he’ll use the guards as a decoy to get away. Then I don’t know how he’ll do it, but I won’t see him again.

The same way people call me the Shadow, they call him the Chameleon.

Today it will be the clash of the titans, and I’m not going down without a fight or without taking Judas with me.

The room is dark, but I’m between the bookcase and the archway leading into the bedroom. Aleksei and three of our men are in the kitchenette.

We’ve set things up so we can attack from all angles. From right and left, back and front.

The soft click of the lock on the main door heralds their arrival.

My heart speeds, and I place an image of Melissa in my mind.

Not her during the sad times of our lives, like when we were cold and starving in Russia with no hope of getting anything to eat or anything warmer than the tattered clothes on our backs.

I think of the times we laughed because we were truly happy. It wasn’t when the Kozlovs adopted us and spoiled us rotten with whatever we wanted.

It was during the simpler times when we were with Mom, and she’d play with us in the park. That’s it—simple but effective.

Those are the things that matter to me.

The door swings open, and Judas comes in first. The lights come on, and the bodyguards follow, one going to the left, the other to the right, checking the place out.

I could take the shot now, but they’d have an escape route through the door.

Once it closes, that’s our time to strike. Aleksei and the others will take the guards down, and I’ll deal with Judas.

I wait for the wooden door to slide across the carpet, and as it clicks shut, I raise my gun.

Bang-bang.

The gunshots rip through the air, hitting each guard in the head.

Before Judas can think to move, I shoot him straight in his chest, just a few millimeters away from his heart.

Fuck. I did it!

I got him.

I got him, Melissa. Now I’m going to make him bleed and suffer the way he made you suffer.

And I will do it with a song in my heart.

Grabbing his chest, Judas cries out in pain and falls to the floor. He tries to crawl away, but that’s not going to happen.

He’ll bleed out before he could get his keycard in that door.

In the Yurkov, when we want to make sure you’re dead, we shoot you in the head.

When we choose the chest or the stomach, it’s either a mercy killing, or we want you to die a slow death while we torture you.

Mine is the latter.

We all step out from our hiding places, and Judas’ eyes go wide with terror.

He looks at me and keeps his gaze fixed on mine.

Yes. He recognizes me.

I heard he was crazy, so I’m not surprised when he starts laughing as if his favorite standup comedian is in here doling out a series of their greatest hits.

I’m not surprised, but I don’t believe he’s crazy. I think he’s evil.

“Lukiyan Romanechka.” He says my name as if we’re old friends.

“Live and in living color.” Pride fills my voice, and when I smile, I know I’m the one who looks like Jack Nicholson in The Shining, but that’s the look I’m going for.

His laugh becomes staggered as the pain takes him. From the ghostly color populating his skin, I can see that life is leaving him. However, he manages to get to the wall to rest his back against it.

“You knew I wouldn’t give up until I found you,” I taunt.

“I give you credit. You’re the first. How… did you find me?”

“That would be my doing,” Aleksei chimes in proudly.

I dip my head toward him with gratitude, then return my focus to the motherfucker I’ve been looking for, for what feels like millennia.

“You killed my sister, and now you’ll pay.” I walk up to him and shoot off his dick.

He screams with pain but ends it with another round of crazy laughter.

Maybe he is insane.

“What kind of sick motherfucker are you to kill your unborn child?” I crouch down when he starts panting, and the laughter fades.

“You don’t know me. But few people do. Those who know me know I wouldn’t have done that if the child was mine.” He smiles wide when mine falls.

“You deny it? Melissa was pregnant with your child. I have pictures and footage of the two of you together. I also found the letters.” There were love letters Melissa wrote talking about the baby and her excitement at being pregnant and in love. She called him her love.

“Those letters weren’t for me.” He coughs up blood and allows it to trail down the side of his mouth. “Yes, I fucked your Melissa all six ways to Sunday, but I can’t have kids. If the child were mine, there’s no way I would have killed her. So a job was a job.”

I stare him down, holding his dark gaze, as I realize he’s telling the truth.

He’s already a dead man, so why lie?

“Someone hired you to kill her?”

“Yes, my avenging friend.”

Damn it, there’s more to this shit. “Who hired you?”

“A friend of the man she shouldn’t have fallen in love with. The man she shouldn’t have tricked into getting her pregnant. I was hired to get rid of her when she threatened to ruin him because he didn’t want her or the baby.”

“Names, give me names.” I ball my hand into a tight fist.

“Knew you’d ask that. Now you just have to hope I don’t die before I can tell you.”

“Start talking before I butcher you.” I reach for my knife and hold it up.

“Antonio Marchesi was your sister’s lover, and the friend is Frankie Vittorio.”

All the blood leaves my body as I stare back at him in disbelief.

What the fuck is he telling me?

Open-mouthed, I glance from him to Aleksei, then back to him. “What the fuck are you talking about? Emilio gave her to you.”

“Frankie is responsible for the L.A. branch of Emilio’s escort service. He recruits the poor unfortunate girls who are so desperate they’ll do anything. Emilio only allocates the VIP girls to his clients and associates as he sees fit.” He smiles when he sees I’m catching on to Frankie’s part in all of this.

It started with him. He would have known how old Melissa was. He would have known she was an addict, and he used her.

“That’s how I met her.” Judas chuckles. “Frankie and Antonio are as thick as thieves. Always plotting and scheming, always fucking. Frankie cleans up Antonio’s dirt. If your sister had exposed Antonio, he wouldn’t be eligible to marry Emilio’s daughter, and he wouldn’t get the benefits of the empire.” His voice is starting to sound weak. “Melissa used a fake surname. When they found out her true identity and that she was the adopted daughter of one of the Yurkov leaders, they got me to kill her and make it look like one of my flights of fancy. You see, no one is supposed to be able to find me. Looks like I got sloppy.”

“No, you just fucked with the wrong family.”

“I don’t think so. I think it was them who were careless, and Frankie couldn’t scrub the dirt clean enough, so I landed in shit.” His lips freeze in a smile, and the life recedes from his eyes as he dies.

I push to my feet and growl like a vicious animal.

Frankie and Antonio did this. My sister is dead because of them.

There was no way in fuck I could have foreseen this twist of shit.

But… wait.

I stare at Aleksei, who is already looking at me.

“Frankie,” he mutters, and something clicks in my mind.

Things felt off with that whole scenario about Antonio and Emilio. Yes, Antonio was seen with the Order members, but it didn’t all fit.

I knew the same person who tried to get to Emilio in the past had to be responsible for what’s happening now.

Frankie fits.

He’s the kind of man who could summon the Order and offer them whatever they want—which could be money or even the hacking device.

If Frankie and Antonio are always in cahoots, then Emilio’s death would have benefited them both.

Fucking hell! I just left Persephone with Frankie.

“I have to go back to the manor,” I stammer, already moving out the door.

“Right there with you.” Aleksei follows.

We jump in our cars and tear out of the hotel parking lot.

I drive way over the speed limit, trying to get my car to go faster than it can.

Persephone…

God, please let her be okay.

I delivered her to the dragon himself, and placed her in the arms of danger when she was mine to protect.

Fate or coincidence…

Sometimes I believe they are one and the same, but then the Universe corrects me and shows me they aren’t.

The night I met her was an example of that.

It had to be.

I refuse to believe the circumstances which led me to Persephone Vittorio could have been anything close to a coincidence.

When I first saw her, I was instantly in love.

I just never realized love had infected me until it dug its claws into my heart and ripped it from my chest, showing living proof that I’m still human.

At that moment, I understood perfectly why Hades did what he did.

So when my Persephone danced her way into my life, I decided she had to be mine, no matter the cost.

No matter the sacrifice.

No matter that stealing her from the light meant pulling her into my world of , death and darkness.

She was always going to be mine to keep.

Mine always.

Mine, whether she wanted to be or not….

So I can’t let her go.

I have to save her and love her and keep her away from the darkness.

When we drive onto the manor and the guard at the gate, who I’m used to working with, opens fire at me, I get my confirmation that I’ve landed in the heart of trouble.

And clearly, they know now that I’m not who I said I was.