The waiting room is empty.
It’s not the exact same room I sat in five years ago, but it might as well be. I’m surrounded by the same plastic chairs. Familiar machines beep somewhere down the hall, a consistent heartbeat.
I remember thinking how unfair it all was, knowing my father was dead and hearing someone else’s heartbeat carry on. The constant beeping, like a repetitive press on an open wound.
They rushed him back to the operating room like there was a chance, but I knew it was too late before the swinging doors even closed behind his gurney. Everything after that was a cruel charade.
Nikandr drove Mariya back to the mansion. He’d only had his license for a month. It wasn’t safe for any of them to be out in public. Not if the Gustev Bratva was willing to murder my father in the parking lot after a high school soccer game. He told our mother what happened. She called and called and called until I finally turned my phone off.
Now, I stare down at my phone, practically begging it to ring. But I know it won’t. Mariya is in surgery. Nik is with her. Our mother doesn’t know what’s happening. Luna is…
My knuckles turn white around my phone. The edges are still biting into my palm when the glass door to the waiting room opens.
“Mariya is out of surgery,” Nik says. He’s panting like he jogged here. “She’s going to be okay.”
I can only blink and shake my head slowly. “This can’t be happening again.”
Nik lets the door close behind him. “I said she’s going to be fine. Mariya is okay. Her shoulder is fucked for a while. She’s in a sling. But she’s okay.”
“I heard you. I just mean—” I shake my head. “When Otets died, I couldn’t even think about it. The only thing I could focus on was that I was in charge. It overshadowed everything else.”
It’s all my responsibility. All of it.
Nikandr, Mother, Mariya, the Bratva. People’s lives and safety were suddenly in my hands.
“That makes sense,” Nik says softly. “You had a lot going on.”
“When the doctor walked in here and told me he was dead, I wasn’t even sad. I was… I was fucking furious at him for dying and dumping all of this shit in my lap.” I clench my teeth. “Now, Mariya is here because of me, and all I can think about is finding Akim and…”
“Luna,” Nik finishes. “It’s okay if you’re preoccupied.”
“She’s our sister, Nik.”
“And I took care of her,” he retorts. “That’s what I’m here for. I’m here to be your second. To handle shit when you’re busy. Right now, you’re busy getting your woman back.”
My woman. I don’t even bother correcting him this time. Akim wouldn’t have gone after Luna unless she meant something to me. The reason she’s in danger right now is because I care about her.
The least I can do is finally admit it to myself.
“You shouldn’t even be here,” Nik continues. “I got Mariya to the hospital just fine on my own. If anything changes, I’ll call. You should be tracking down Luna.”
The blinds behind Nik’s head are half-opened. Through the slats, I see someone on the phone. A man. His arm is bandaged. I can’t see his face.
“Are you hearing me, Yakov?”
I wave him off, trying to hear what the man is saying through the glass. I’ve been on high alert all night, but right now, all of my senses are pinging.
Nikandr curses under his breath. “I can tell you’re pissed, but I don’t care. You don’t have to handle everything on your own all the time.”
Then the man turns towards the waiting room and I lunge at Nik.
I drag him down to the floor as he struggles against me. “I’m not gonna fight you over this, Yakov. I can handle things, too. You need to let go and—”
“Shut the fuck up and listen,” I hiss in his ear. “One of Akim’s men is standing outside this door.”
Nik goes deathly still. “What’s the call?”
I could grab him and question him here. Nik could block off the waiting room easily enough. But if the man doesn’t talk, we will have wasted time and still be no closer to Luna.
“I’m going to follow him,” I decide. “I’ll see where he goes and hope he takes me to Luna.”
“I’m coming, too.”
“You need to stay here with Mariya.”
He shakes his head. “She’s stable and sleeping. Plus, there are guards in her room. She’s safe. You, however, might need backup.”
I want to argue. Enough people I care about have been in danger tonight. I’m not interested in adding to the list.
But Nik is right. He may be my little brother, but he’s also my second. He’s never stood in the way of me doing my job. I won’t stand in the way of him doing his.
Akim’s soldier walks past the window and I nod. “Fine. Come on.”
Nik and I take the stairs down to the lobby and wait for the man to step off the elevator. He’s still on the phone.
In the bright fluorescents of the main floor, I can see the bruise around his eye socket and the scrape on his cheek. The bandage on his arm disappears under his jacket. It looks like his shoulder was dislocated.
“Do you think Mariya did that to him?” Nik asks, no small amount of pride in his voice.
“I wouldn’t be surprised. She is a Kulikov, after all.”
I’d love to watch the footage back and see how long she fought them off. But I can’t watch Luna get taken again.
The man stands outside the glass front doors of the hospital for a few minutes before a black car pulls up and he climbs inside. The windows are deeply tinted.
“Shit,” I growl. “I parked in the garage next door. By the time I get to my car, he’ll be gone.”
Nik grins and points to the dark SUV with the stolen plates we drove to the club tonight. It’s somehow parked only feet away from the front doors. “And that is why I keep a fake handicap tag in my wallet for emergencies.”
We climb in, flip an illegal U-turn, and tail the car at a distance as it weaves across the city. We drive in silence for twenty minutes before the black car pulls into an asphalt lot behind a warehouse. Nik and I hang back as three men climb out of the car and walk towards the back door of the warehouse.
“She’s in there,” I say. “She has to be.”
Nik turns the car off and grabs the keys. “Let’s go save your woman.”
