God in Heaven.
The entire house is on fire.And there doesn’t look like there will be a way where I’ll make it in or out alive.
I rush out of the car and the sight of my guards strewn out on the lawn with blood and bullet holes all over their bodies makes me stop in my tracks.In the mingle of the moonlight, and the wild orange blaze of the fire the image before me looks like a scene from a horror film.
As I stare the sickening thought hits me that there’s not a face I don’t recognize.
All are my men. All are men I’ve known for years.Some I grew up with and treated like family.
The crackle of flames snaps my attention back to the real nightmare which might be inside the house.
My Gabriella and Aleksei.
My soul weeps when I imagine my wife and child inside the hellish flames.
They must have gotten out.
This cannot be their fate.
Not because of me.
Aleksei is only a month old. A baby.
I’m his father. It’s my job to protect him from danger.
How could I have been the one to cause this?
Sirens wail in the distance and get closer, but I already know they’ll get here too late and won’t be able to do anything.
Panic pushes through my soul, and I run around the corner of the house trying to find a way in.I have to make sure my family got out.
Movement on the terrace catches my attention and a masked man throws a rock at the kitchen window, smashing it.When he sees me, however, he runs in the opposite direction.
With a savage growl, I launch myself forward, vaulting over the balcony as he runs down the stairs.
I knock the fucker to the ground and land a fist in his face, punching in his mask but it doesn’t come off.
He’s strong though. He manages to dodge my next blow and escape my hold.
Just as he was about to make a run for it like a fucking coward,I grab his arm and yank him back to me, tearing the sleeve off his shirt.As it comes off and my gaze lands on the tattoo on his forearm of the dagger with the snake going around the handle, I realize I’m right.
This is about the Order. The tattoo marks him as a member.
I stare at the fucking tattoo for seconds too long, tightening my grip on his arm.
Above the tattoo is a deep knife scar.He’s about to get another one.
I pull my knife from my back pocket and ram it into his stomach.
He cries out, doubles over, and makes a gurgling sound.
I don’t give him the chance to feel the pain.I have more to deliver his way.
Grabbing his neck, I hoist him into the air.
“Where are my wife and child?” I shout in his face.
“Inside. Inside the house,” he sputters and something inside me dies.