Chapter 137 137

Chapter 137 137
“I don’t think you understand or recognize what love is, Adrian,” she says sadly. “If you did, you’d have recognized that Kolya was never your enemy.”

Adrian’s eyes flicker to me for a moment, and then back to June. “Remember the beginning, June,” he begs. “You’ve always been my strength. My rock. My lucky Junepenny.”

June takes a step forward to join us, her eyes filled with tears as she looks at the man she once thought she loved.

“I was your lucky penny, Adrian,” she whispers. “And then you sold me off to the highest bidder. I think your luck went into the bargain.”

Then she turns her back on him. And he has nothing left.

Nothing but me.

“Brother,” he whimpers. “Brother…”

My hand starts shaking. The gun suddenly feels so heavy. I try to focus on the bearded man in front of me. The man with blood on his hands, skeletons in his closet, nightmares in his head.

But all I can see is the blue-eyed boy who used to climb into my bed and snake his fingers through mine when he was scared.

“Let me go,” he whispers. “Let me go and I swear, I’ll be better… I’ll do better…”

All I have to do is lift the gun and take aim. Pull the trigger. Watch him fade. And then, it will truly be over. Then June and I can make a fresh start.

I just have to say goodbye to that little blue-eyed boy first.

“Bogdan…”

I lift my gun, but Adrian moves at the same time. I feel something sharp pierce my side. I hear June’s muffled scream right as I pull the trigger.

When I fall backwards, it’s with a deep sense of relief. Because I know it’s over now. He got me, and I got him. We hit the floor together, side by side.

Brothers in life.

Brothers in death.

“Kolya. Kolya!” June gasps. Her face appears over mine like some blinding light calling me forth. “Oh God, oh God. Please… stay with me.”

I said the same thing to Milana not so long ago. She’d laugh now that I’m on the receiving end, I think. It’s funny, if a little depraved.

“You’re gonna be okay. I’m gonna go get help. Please, please… keep breathing. Stay alive. For me. For our baby.”

Our baby.

Our. Baby.

Those are the last two words I’m capable of thinking.

And then it all goes black.

55

KOLYA

I fade in and out of consciousness for days on end. Adrian’s knife had cut deep.

Every time I open my eyes, she is there. Waiting, watching.

Praying.

I feel her hand on my arm even in the throes of the darkness. I feel her kiss on my brow and her breath on my skin. She is everywhere in those foggy hours, coaxing me back to life bit by bit by bit.

And then one day, I open my eyes and they stay open. I pull myself upright, and everything comes into sharp, glorious focus. I’m in my bedroom, in my mansion. But there’s evidence of June everywhere. Her books are strewn about the room. Her robe hangs off the foot of the bed. Fresh flowers stretch tall in the vase by the windowsill.

And there’s a half-empty lemon soda by my bedside.

I look down and examine my body. I’m in black silk boxer shorts and nothing else. The top half of my torso is naked except for the giant bandage. The pain is muted and distant. Not the white-hot sun of it I felt when I tumbled down next to my brother’s dead body in that godforsaken mausoleum of a house.

The door opens and June walks in with her nose in a book. She’s halfway into the room before she realizes I’m awake.

“Oh my God,” she cries out, freezing in place. “Kolya!”

Then she flings the book onto the floor and runs at me.

“Fuck,” I groan when she throws herself on top of me.

“Shit!” she gasps. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I just… I got so excited, I—”

I silence her with a kiss. She grips the bedframe and kisses me back hungrily. When we finally break apart, her lips are plump from the pressure and her cheeks are flush with color.

She tucks herself into my side and kisses my chest. “Sara told me you’d wake up eventually. But sometimes, it was hard to believe her.”

“I wasn’t about to leave you to fend for yourself.”

I notice that there’s a ring on the hand she has splayed across my chest. My ring. Our ring.

I reach out and touch it with a single finger. She gives me a sheepish smile, then kisses my chest again. “You scared me.”

“It won’t happen again.”

She smiles, but there’s a sadness in her eyes that’s not going away. I wonder if she’s mourning him, too. Just like I am. “Was he buried?”

“Yes,” June whispers. “I saw to it myself.”

“And Milana?”

Her spark dims and she drops her gaze as her whole body is wracked with a bone-deep shiver. “I’m sorry, Kolya,” she murmurs. “I’m so sorry.”

I lean back and close my eyes for a moment as a fresh wave of pain roils through me. It fades eventually, but the echo, the memory of it, remains.

“I was with her when she… went,” June says tentatively. “If it’s any consolation, I think she wanted to go, Kolya. I think—I think she was ready for something else. Something better.” Her voice is strangled in a strange way, like there’s something she’s not telling me, but I chalk it up to grief.

“Don’t be,” I say. “She was not happy. She hadn’t been happy in a very long time. Maybe ever. Wherever she is now, I hope that’s changed.”

June smiles, looking every bit as enigmatic as she sounded. I must be seeing things, though. Comas will do that to a man.

She buries her face in my neck and takes a deep breath. “You smell like vanilla. Three days in a coma, bloody bandages wrapped around you like a freaking mummy, and you still smell like vanilla. God, I love that smell.”

I laugh and pull her close. She nuzzles against my chest for a second before something occurs to her and she rears back again. “I’ve never asked you this question,” she says suddenly. “What do I smell like?”

Her eyes are bright and curious. Tears glisten on her cheeks like sapphires in the sun.

I kiss her forehead and breathe her in. “Like my future.”