Chapter 155 160

Chapter 155 160
At the end of the hall is a sky bar. As we make for a table in the corner, Jennifer grabs the attention of a waiter.

“Two glasses of water, please,” she says. “Add a twist of lemon in one.”

He nods and hurries off towards the bar. Jennifer forces me to sit down, but instead of taking the seat next to mine, she sits on the wooden table in front of me. She rests her elbows on her knees and takes my hand.

“Liv, you need to breathe.”

“I am breathing.”

“Not enough,” she insists. “Shit. He never should have brought you.”

“I’m fine,” I say, even as my head swims and my vision blurs at the edges.

“This might get dangerous,” she says. “And you’re pregnant.”

“Why do you even care?” I spit.

Her eyes fill with sadness. “I do care about you, Liv. I care about your entire family.”

“Is that why you chose Aleks over my brother?” I ask. “Even though Aleks… Aleks is… is a…”

She grips my hands tightly and forces me to meet her eyes. “Is that what you believe, Olivia?”

“What am I supposed to believe?” I ask. “I found the girl, Jennifer. She was locked up in a room, drugged out. God knows what he’s done to her.”

She sighs deeply and looks down. Then she raises her head back up. “I suppose I do understand why he brought you then.”

I frown. “So he can tie up loose ends and kill me along with Hargrove and my siblings?”

“You really think he would kill you?” Jennifer scoffs. “And his unborn child along with you?”

“I don’t mean anything to him,” I say. “And as for the baby, well… he can always make another with someone else. It’s not like he has a shortage of girls, right?”

She nods as though my reasoning makes sense. But I can see the worried way her eyebrows knit together.

It’s the look of someone who knows something vital that I don’t.

The kind of knowledge that might break me when I learn it.

The waiter appears with the waters. She takes them both and dismisses him with a tight smile and a nod. Then she hands me the glass with the lemon in it.

“Drink.”

“I’m not thirsty.”

“Drink anyway.”

I’m too tired to fight, so I take the glass and drink a sip. The water soothes my burning throat and it does help calm me down a little. Reluctantly, I drink more. When I set the glass down, it’s almost empty.

“Feel better?” she asks.

“Marginally.”

“Good.” She glances past me. “Come on then. We’ve got to go.”

She doesn’t grab my hand or try to guide me this time. She just lets me follow behind her at my own pace. When we walk out of the sky bar, both Demyan and Aleks are waiting for us at the door.

“Ready?” Aleks asks Jennifer, ignoring me altogether.

“Yes.”

“Are you sure you want to be there?”

She nods. “Positive. Might as well go out with a bang, right?”

I have no idea what that means. Does she think this is a doomed cause and that they’re all going to die? I glance at Aleks, but nothing on his face suggests that defeat is part of his future.

In fact, I tremble a little in fear for the men who are about to face him. My brother included.

From the moment we met, Aleks has been one thing: undeniable. An irresistible force of nature, a catastrophe consuming everything in his path.

What could possibly stop that? Nothing, as far as I’m concerned.

Then again, I suppose Mia would insist the same about Hargrove.

Aleks turns and walks down the hall. We all follow along behind him. As we walk, he glances back at Jennifer.

“Make the call,” he commands. “Now.”

She nods and pulls out her phone. I watch her with bated breath. Things are happening so fast that I can barely keep up anymore.

Well, that’s not quite accurate. I was barely keeping up in the first place. But now, even little things—breathing, walking, blinking—feel like more than I can manage.

“We’re here,” she says into the phone.

The response is brief, but the muffled voice sounds like it could be male, maybe? It’s over too soon to be sure.

Jennifer listens and nods. “Affirmative.” Then she hangs up.

I want to ask what the plan is or where we’re going, but before I can, Aleks turns to a set of gilded double doors and shoves them wide open.

In the split second before the doors open, I realize he’s wearing gloves. Black leather driving gloves.

He wasn’t wearing them before when he was holding my hand. So he must have just put them on. But why?

I don’t have much time to ponder the question. Because the next thing I know, we’re walking through the doors and facing off with quite the welcome party.

37

OLIVIA

Hargrove stands on the opposite end of the room, surrounded by armed men with deadly purpose in their eyes. My brother stands to the left, separate from everyone else.

But my eyes go straight to the person on Hargrove’s right-hand side.

“Yulia,” I whisper.

Her expression is melancholy. She’s the only one sitting when we walk in, but she stands the moment she sees me. A flicker of worry passes over her face before she lifts her chin and stiffens into the same old mask of imperious confidence.

“Aleksandr!” Hargrove booms, raising both his hands as though he’s welcoming us to his home. “How nice of you to pay us a visit.”

“I wanted it to be a surprise,” Aleks says calmly. “But I see my mother ruined the plan.”

He glances at Yulia, waiting for a reaction. She isn't looking at him, though.

She’s looking at me.

“Olivia, darling, are you hurt?”

Aleks steps in front of me, blocking Yulia from view. I have to step out from behind him to see her again.

I try to speak, but my throat closes. The words are trapped behind fear, behind confusion, behind the jagged shards of my broken heart.

I bite down on my tongue until I draw blood. Snap out of it, Liv. I can’t afford to shut down now. This may not be what I’m used to, but it’s what’s in front of me. And I might as well fight for what’s right.

For myself.

For my child.

For the girl I found in that bedroom.

It’s the only way to absolve myself of the sin of believing in the lies of a wicked man just because he was beautiful. Just because he made me feel special.

“Where’s the girl?” I croak.

“She’s safe,” Yulia assures me.

“Thank you, Olivia,” Hargrove says grandly. “Thank you for helping us. Mia always knew that you would make the right choice once you discovered the truth.”