“Then drop the gun.”

“It’s ok, Sofiya,” Mila says to me. “I know you tried your best to protect me.”

Her words eat at my heart. I can’t let Andrei win, but I can’t let Mila die.

I lower the gun.

“Good girl,” Andrei says. I flinch when I hear Mikhail’s name for me on his lips. It just doesn’t feel right. “Now, drop it.”

With a sigh, I drop the gun on the ground. Andrei grabs me and pulls me against his chest. His eyes are bleeding. I’m amazed he can even see at all. “You and me are getting out of here. Say goodbye to your sister.”

“Mila,” I gasp as Andrei shoves me toward the front door.

“Sofiya!” she cries.

“Where are you taking me?” I ask Andrei as we leave the house. “You can’t drive. You can barely see. What’s your plan?”

“My plan is that you’ll be mine.”

I hear something behind us as another loud bang goes off, and Andrei grunts and falls to his knees. Jerking back, I look behind me to see Mila in the doorway, the gun in her hands. She shot Andrei in the stomach.

Andrei still has strength left in him, and he swings around to point his gun at her.

“No!” I shout, reaching for the gun. I grab it as he pulls the trigger. I land on the ground and look over at Mila, hoping and praying she’s alive.

She is.

She’s standing in the doorframe, still holding onto Boris’s gun.

Andrei reaches over me to grab his gun from me, but I spin around on my back and fire—landing a shot straight to his throat. He gurgles as he falls back and lies on the ground, twitching as he slowly dies.

Once the light leaves his eyes, I allow myself to slump onto the ground, breathing heavily, knowing Mila and I just saved ourselves. I thought we would need Mikhail.

Turns out, we only needed each other.

Mila runs over to me and helps me stand back up. “What do we do? Where do we go?”

“We should head back to the penthouse. Mikhail will be looking for us.”

“But what about the dead bodies? What if someone saw us, and we get arrested?”

I place my hand on her arm, calming her down. “Mila, Mikhail will make sure we’re all right. We just need to get back to him now. But first, let’s take Andrei’s body inside. You’re right. We don’t want to draw more attention to us than we need to.”

Together, we drag Andrei inside the house and lay him beside Boris’s body. Seeing both men lying side by side, dead, when they were the most terrifying men around just moments ago is surreal. Mila and I did that.

I did that.

I killed both of these men.

I’ve become a lot more like my husband, partaking in the dark underworld of life. I have blood on my hands, just like him. It makes me understand him better—why he might have killed in the past. Sometimes, you have to do what you have to do to protect the ones you love.

Mila slips her hand in mine and holds on tight. We’ll be forever changed by this. My innocent sister might not be as innocent after this.

Footsteps outside make us both stand to attention.

The door opens, and someone steps inside. It’s the driver. His eyes widen when he sees Mila and me standing over the dead bodies of his employers. He scrambles for his gun …

… but a bullet rips through his head, sending him sprawling to the floor, face down. Mila gasps, whereas I don’t make a sound. I’ve seen so much death today that I think I’m in shock. It doesn’t faze me anymore.

Footsteps follow behind the dead driver, and another man enters the house.

A man I know very well.

Mikhail.

He takes in the scene of Mila and me holding each other for dear life with Boris and Andrei dead at our feet. Without a second glance at the man he just killed, he walks over to me.

What will he say? Will he punish me for murdering people? I wasn’t exactly a “good girl” today. I’m now drenched in the blood of the Bratva.

I knew the Bratva had a hold on me after my parents’ death. It’s just come to collect now.

Without a word, Mikhail opens his arms, inviting me into them.

I don’t waste another second before running right to him.

Chapter

Nineteen

SOFIYA

Mila clings to me the entire ride home.

I stare out the window feeling … numb. I killed two men, and I don’t feel anything. It’s probably shock more than anything else, and right now, I’m grateful for it. I don’t think I want to feel everything.

Mikhail doesn’t say a word as he drives us home. He knows Mila and I went through something traumatizing, and I appreciate that he’s not pushing either of us to open up.

All he did before we left Andrei’s house was call his man who handles the cleanup of dead bodies.

Dead bodies. Because I killed two men.

“Pull over,” I croak out. “Now.”

Mikhail stops the car, and I rip the door open just in time to puke. Mila rubs my back and pulls my hair out of the way.

“Sofiya?” Mikhail asks.

I groan as I wipe my mouth and sit back in my seat. “I just want to go home.”