Chapter 174 174

Chapter 174 174
Isaak is standing a few feet away from his mother’s unconscious body. Bogdan is on his knees next to her. I look to the side and realize that Svetlana is lying on the floor, too.

But unlike Nikita, whose chest is rising and falling, it’s painfully obvious that she’s dead.

Light smoke pours from the barrel of Bogdan’s gun. I know immediately that he’s the one who made the killing shot.

I can’t say that I feel anything at the sight of blood pooling around Svetlana’s head. Not pity or remorse or even justified anger. Just… nothing. She was barely human. A hollow space where a soul should have been.

“Don’t you fucking touch her,” Isaak growls to Maxim.

“I told you, cousin,” Maxim snaps. “I’m not going to give up that easy.”

If the sight of his dead mother is eliciting any feelings, he’s certainly a master at hiding it.

“Please, Maxim,” I whisper. “Just give me back my daughter.”

“She’s within your reach,” he tells me. “If you come with me and stop making such a fuss.”

Only then do I realize that I’m struggling, trying to resist his grip on me. I stop immediately and twist around so that I can look up at his face.

“I’ll come with you,” I say without missing a beat.

“Camila, don’t trust him!” Isaak calls to me. “He’s not going to let Jo go just because he has you.”

Desperation radiates from Maxim. He tightens his grip around my upper arm, but I barely feel a thing. I look at Isaak and shake my head apologetically.

“I’m sorry, Isaak… but I can’t risk it. I have to get her back.”

“If any of you motherfuckers follow us into that house, I will shoot her,” Maxim threatens.

He nods to his men and we back up slowly into the house. I notice Vlad say something to Isaak, but he holds up his fisted hand.

He’s letting me go.

The moment we’re in the house, Maxim turns around and pushes me towards the staircase. “Upstairs,” he growls in a voice I’ve never heard from him before.

Five or six of his men accompany us upstairs. All of them have their weapons drawn. One is Andrew. He sticks close to my side with a leering smirk on his face like he’s relishing all of this madness.

Maxim pushes open a door just past the landing and gestures for me to walk through. Then he turns to Andrew. “Stand out here and warn me if any of them get in the house.”

I rush inside the room and look around desperately.

“Mommy?”

I turn around and find Jo cowering in the corner of the room between the wardrobe and the bed. The pop-pop-pop of gunfire downstairs terrifies her. It terrifies me, too, if I’m being honest.

But that doesn’t matter. None of it does. This—my baby girl in my arms—that’s the only thing I care about anymore.

“Jo!” I gasp. “Come here, baby.”

She scrambles to her feet and runs to me. I grab her and pull her close, making sure to bury her head in my chest to drown out the noise.

“It’s okay,” I whisper. “It’s okay. Mommy’s here now.”

“I’m scared.”

“I know, darling,” I tell her. “I’m scared, too. But we’re together now. That’s all that matters.”

The door opens. Maxim storms in.

I pull Jo close to me and shake my head. “Don’t touch her.”

“Careful,” he warns me. “Or your dear mother-in-law is not the only one you’re going to be burying.”

Goosepimples dot my flesh as I try to recognize the man in front of me. “What happened to you, Maxim?”

“What happened?” he repeats. “You happened. Fucking Isaak happened. Do you even remember that you used to love me?”

I blink back my tears, scared of what to say when he’s so volatile. “Maxim, I’m sorry. But… but I don’t think I ever loved you.”

His eyes go wide.

“I’m not just saying this now. I always felt it. I just… I needed someone to help me get out of that nightmare… and you…”

“I was your way out until you found one you liked better,” he growls. “Window shopping for a fucking white knight husband. How charming.”

I’m holding Jo’s head close to my chest. My hands are over her ears, but I’m not sure how much of this she’s taking in.

“Please, Maxim, I’m sorry. But you and I were never end game.”

“And he is?”

“I… I don’t know.”

“Liar,” he growls. “I can see it in your eyes. The way you look at him. The way he looks at you.”

His eyes fall to Jo. I tremble right alongside of her. He brandishes the gun in his hand carelessly, and I try to shield Jo just in case it goes off.

God knows something is going to happen soon. Maxim looks like he’s coming undone. It’s a direct contrast to Isaak’s glacial control to watch rage purpling his features and twisting his jaw.

He glances towards the window, and that’s when I realize that the gunshots have mostly subsided. The sound of fighting becomes distant. Subdued.

I stand my ground. Maxim walks to the window and glances outside.

“Well… good news for Isaak,” he snarls.

Relief floods through me.

But it curdles and dies almost instantly when he turns to me. “But bad news for you,” Maxim finishes. “I’m not about to die today, Camila.”

I nod and swallow. “Okay.”

“Because if I did, I’m afraid I’d have to take you with me. You or that kid you’re clutching.”

Cold, painful fear flushes through my body. “Please, Maxim…”

“Don’t,” he interrupts. “Pleading with me is not going to work this time. If I don’t get out of here alive, then neither will you.”

I glance down at Jo’s dark head. She still has that innocent, childlike smell that I used to long for at night when I was thousands of miles away from her.

I know what I have to do next.

I just don’t know if I have the strength to do it.

“Take me with you,” I hear myself say.

Maxim does a double-take. “What?”

“Isaak won’t hurt you if you have me with you. Use me to get yourself out of here. That way, neither one of us has to die.”

He narrows his eyes. “What’s the catch?”

“Let Jo stay here… with Isaak.”

He considers that for a moment. “You’d leave her behind?”

“Yes.”