Chapter 45 Nikolai
Elena was secured in the boat with Anton when the first wave of guards found us.
They came from the eastern gardens, six of them with automatic weapons, and opened fire before we could reach the service entrance. Katya and I dove for cover behind a stone fountain, bullets chipping marble inches from our heads.
"Go!" Katya shouted, returning fire with precision. "Get to Marlena!"
I fired twice and dropped the first guard, his weapon clattering to the ground as he fell. The second guard went down from Katya's shot, clean through the chest. But more were coming, their shouts echoing through the gardens, flashlight beams cutting through the darkness.
We moved through the chaos like we'd been born to it, covering each other's advances, taking down guards with brutal efficiency. My hands were slick with blood, whether mine or theirs I couldn't tell anymore. My shirt was torn and something burned across my ribs where a bullet had grazed too close.
But I didn't stop. I couldn't stop. Marlena was inside with Viktor and every second we wasted out here was another second she was in danger.
A guard rushed me from the side and I caught him with the butt of my gun, driving it into his temple. He dropped hard. Another came from behind but Katya took him down before he could fire, her movements fluid and deadly.
We fought our way through the gardens toward the villa's main entrance, leaving bodies in our wake. The plan had been stealth and extraction, but that had gone to hell the moment Viktor's men spotted us leaving with Elena. Now it was just violence and survival.
The front entrance was heavily guarded but we had momentum and surprise. I kicked in the door and fired three shots in rapid succession, dropping the guards before they could react. Katya followed me in, covering our rear as we pushed deeper into the villa.
The marble floors were slick with blood now, reflecting the chandelier light in dark pools. My boots left red footprints as I ran, my weapon raised, my mind focused on one thing only.
Marlena.
Her voice had gone silent in my earpiece two minutes ago, cut off mid-sentence, and the silence was worse than anything I could imagine. I didn't know if Viktor had found the comm device, if he'd hurt her, if she was even still alive.
We rounded the corner toward the grand living room and I could hear Viktor's voice, loud and triumphant, saying something I couldn't make out. Then Marlena's voice, quieter but steady, responding.
She was alive and still fighting.
I burst through the living room entrance with my weapon raised and the scene before me made my blood freeze in my veins.
Viktor stood in the center of the room with a gun pressed directly against Marlena's head, the barrel digging into her temple hard enough to leave a mark. His arm was wrapped around her throat from behind, holding her against him like a human shield. Her face was pale but her eyes were fierce, burning with defiance even with death inches away.
"One move," Viktor said, his voice sharp and clear, "and she dies now."
I stopped dead in my tracks, my weapon still raised, every muscle in my body coiled tight. The room felt impossibly small, the distance between us impossibly far. One wrong move, one twitch of Viktor's finger, and Marlena would be gone.
My mind raced through scenarios, angles, possibilities. I could shoot but the risk of hitting Marlena was too high. I could rush him but he'd pull the trigger before I made it three steps. I could try to talk him down but Viktor was past reason, his face still flushed with rage.
"Drop the gun, Nikolai," Viktor commanded. "Slowly. Or I paint these expensive walls with your wife's brain matter."
My jaw clenched so hard I thought my teeth might crack. Every instinct screamed at me to act, to do something, but there was nothing I could do. Not without getting Marlena killed.
Behind me, Katya had gone silent and still. I could feel her presence but couldn't see her, didn't dare take my eyes off Viktor and Marlena.
"I said drop it," Viktor repeated, pressing the gun harder against Marlena's head. She winced but didn't make a sound.
I lowered my weapon slowly, keeping my movements deliberate and visible. My eyes met Marlena's across the room and I tried to communicate everything I couldn't say out loud. Hold on. Trust me. I'll get you out of this.
Her green eyes held mine steady, fearless despite the gun at her head.
I crouched down and placed my weapon on the marble floor, then straightened with my hands raised. Unarmed. Vulnerable. Everything I'd trained myself never to be.
Viktor laughed, loud and triumphant, the sound echoing through the destroyed room. "The great Nikolai Volkov, brought to his knees by a woman. How predictable. How pathetic."
"Let her go," I said, my voice steady despite the fear coursing through me. "This is between us. Between our families. She has nothing to do with it."
"She has everything to do with it," Viktor snarled. "She's mine. My blood. My daughter. You stole her from me and I'm taking her back."
"I'm not yours," Marlena said, her voice strong despite the gun at her head. "I never was."
Viktor's grip tightened on her throat and she gasped for air. "You'll learn," he said. "I have all the time in the world to teach you who you belong to."
My hands curled into fists at my sides, rage and helplessness warring inside me. I'd never felt this powerless before, not even as a fifteen-year-old boy finding his mother dead. At least then I'd known what to do, how to survive. Now I was watching the woman I loved held at gunpoint and there was nothing I could do.
Katya moved like a shadow behind Viktor, so silent I almost missed it. She'd circled around during Viktor's monologue, using the chaos and his focus on me to slip into position. Her tactical training showed in every careful step, every controlled breath.
Viktor was still talking, still gloating about his victory, completely unaware of the danger creeping up behind him.
"You thought you could use her against me," he said. "Turn my own daughter into bait for your pathetic revenge. But you underestimated how much I want her back. How far I'm willing to go."
Katya was three feet away now. Two feet. Her hand moved to her belt, fingers wrapping around the combat knife she kept there.
"I'll kill everyone you love," Viktor continued. "Starting with her, then that dying brother of hers, then your precious sister if I can find her. I'll burn your entire world down and make you watch."
One foot away. Katya's movements were precise and practiced, the result of fifteen years spent preparing for moments exactly like this.
"You lose, Nikolai," Viktor said. "You lose everything."
Katya struck fast as lightning, her arm coming around Viktor's throat from behind with the knife pressed against his carotid artery. The blade was razor-sharp, already drawing a thin line of blood.
"Drop the gun," she said quietly, her Russian accent thick. "Or I open your throat right here."
Viktor froze completely still, his eyes going wide with shock. The gun at Marlena's head wavered slightly but didn't drop. His grip on her throat remained tight.
"You're bluffing," he said, but his voice shook.
"Try me," Katya said, pressing the knife harder. More blood welled up, running down Viktor's neck in a thin red line.
The room held its breath. Viktor with Katya's knife at his throat. Marlena still trapped in his grip with his gun at her head. Me standing weaponless and helpless, watching everything hang in perfect, terrible balance.
One wrong move and someone would die. Maybe all of us.
My eyes found Marlena's again across the room. She was looking at me with those fierce green eyes, and something passed between us in that moment. Some understanding deeper than words, built on months of lies and truths and the complicated thing that had grown between us despite everything.
She gave a small nod, barely per
ceptible, her chin dipping half an inch.
Do it, that nod said. End this. Whatever the cost.