Chapter 179 179

Chapter 179 179
Sergey swallows. I feel the desperate gulp against my arm. He’s nervous.

And it hits me then—all at once. Sergey is not some all-powerful leader. He isn’t special.

He is a man. A selfish, prideful, foolish man.

And, worst of all, he’s desperate.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t be standing here in front of me. If he had any other option available to him, he never would have come to see me. Especially after I stabbed him in the gut. But he is pressed into a corner, and he doesn’t see another way out.

“If the Bratva is as unsteady as you seem to think, you wouldn’t need to secure a deal with me to survive,” I tell him. “Would you?”

Sergey doesn’t answer. His eyes are wide, and he keeps looking at the door like he expects someone to burst in and save him.

“Would you?” I repeat, squeezing the air out of him.

“I have allies that would surprise even you,” he rasps. “Work with me, and you can keep your Bratva. You can even become CEO of Viktorov Industries again.”

I lean closer, my teeth bared. “Fuck the Bratva and fuck Viktorov Industries.”

“Some loyal don you are,” he spits.

“Nothing is more important to me than my family. Nothing matters more than Piper and Benjamin.” And my unborn child. “Do you have her?”

“No.”

“Don’t fucking lie to me.”

“I’m not,” he says. “I don’t have her. But like I said, I have a lot of allies.”

I’m torn between the urge to grab my phone and call to check on Piper and to keep interrogating Sergey. I should have stayed home with her. I shouldn’t have left her alone. Piper’s face floods my mind, and I have to wade through the images to focus on the task at hand.

“I have allies, too. Detective Rooney has proven to be well worth the money. He’ll bury you so deep that no one will remember your fucking name.”

He blinks, realizing I’m serious. “I’ll tell you where Piper is if you let me go. I’ll flee. You’ll never see me again.”

I wrinkle my nose. “Desperation does not look good on you. You are a rat fleeing a sinking ship. There’s nowhere to go, but you keep scurrying in search of a lifeboat.”

“You don’t understand. Piper is in danger… right now. If you don’t listen to me, she’ll die. Benjamin, too.”

I freeze, turning on him with full intensity. “What?”

“Kreshnik has them both. He’s holding them as ransom to secure the Bratva from you. But if you listen to me, I’ll help you keep the Bratva and—”

“I don’t give a fuck about the Bratva,” I growl. “And I don’t give a fuck about you. There is nothing in the world that would make me trust you after everything you’ve done. You deserve to die, and I’ll see that it happens. Either with my own hands or in prison. Either way, there is no happy ending for you.”

Sergey shakes his head. “I took you from a nobody—a nobody—and gave you the fucking world. And this is how you repay me? By tossing me aside for some dead weight whore who can’t give you a fucking thing?”

“Piper has given me more than you could ever imagine. She has given me everything I could ever need.”

There’s not a single cell of my body that doesn’t believe that statement.

He snorts. “And when she dies, you’ll be broken. Your enemies know that. They’ll never stop going after her.”

“I can keep her safe.”

“No one is that powerful. She will die, Timofey. It’s just a matter of when.”

“Is that a fucking threat?” I hiss.

“It’s a warning. Without me, you’ll never find her in time.”

Just as Sergey finishes speaking, I hear something. It’s a distant sound. A muffled cry or a scream. I tip my ear towards the doorway. “You said these hallways echoed.”

When I look back at Sergey, his face is pale. “There are hundreds of people in this hotel. It could be anyone.”

“But it’s not, is it?” I ask, studying his pained expression. “It’s her. She’s here in these tunnels.”

His nostrils flare. “You can’t beat Kreshnik on your own. You can’t beat him without me.”

All of the pieces start to fit together. “You brought Piper here so you could… You’re working with Kreshnik to bring me to my knees, just so you can be the one to help me back up. You’re trying to make amends.”

“You don’t know his plan,” he continues, ignoring my accusations. “I can help you defeat him. I have—”

“Nothing,” I finish for him. “You have nothing, Sergey. You chose to work with Kreshnik even though you know as well as I do that he’ll kill you when he’s finished with you. And your only other choice was to appeal to my sense of mercy. Unless you really think I’m a fool, in which case you hoped I would fall into your trap.”

“It’s not a trap. It’s a—”

Another cry echoes down the hallway. It’s Piper. I know it is.

Sergey knows it, too. He just lost his leverage.

His lips are pressed into a tense line. When he looks back at me, his eyes are wide and childlike. “You wouldn’t kill your father.”

“My father died when I was a kid. My mother, too.” I shake my head. “I don’t have any family left. You made sure of that when you killed Rodion and Emily.”

He switches tactics. “You wouldn’t kill me here. There are too many witnesses. Someone saw you come back here with me.”

“I doubt it. Even if they did, they won’t find you when I’m finished.”

He’s sweating. Fat beads of it rolling down his forehead. “I can help you! I can be… I can be useful! Whatever you need, I can—”

“I spent most of my life trying to be useful, Sergey. That’s what you taught me: a person is only worth what they can do for you. But life is about more than that. Relationships are about more than that. They are about love.”

I let go of Sergey just as I hear another muffled cry echoing down the hallway.

Sergey inhales deeply, assuming I’m sparing him. “I love you, son. I—”

Lightning fast, I grab each side of his face and twist with all my strength. His neck cracks in two, and Sergey’s words dissolve into a strangled whimper.

And then there is silence.