“Bogdan,” I stated quietly. “You must be aware that the only reason you’re still alive is because I’ve allowed it, but if you hurt one hair on that woman’s head, your body will hang from the Brooklyn Bridge.”
A few seconds passed before he responded, “You pushed me today, Levan, and I’m not going to let it go. Consider your time up. Tomorrow morning the Solicitor General will announce to the whole world how your family has had her and half of the law enforcement in the country at your bidding, or I will kill the boy. You and your family are finished, Levan,” he spat. “Oh, and I’ll give you one more day to return the woman you stole from me. Otherwise, I’ll deliver her best friend here in pieces to your doorstep.” He ended the call.
I slowly lowered the phone from my ear.
“The deadline’s in …” Maxim glanced at his watch. “Six hours, but you don’t seem to be worried at all about missing it.”
“It’s ended now,” I said flatly.
Maxim rose to his feet. “What!”
I lifted my gaze to meet his and he saw exactly what I wanted him to see.
He shook his head in wonder, “You’re prepared to hand us over, aren’t you?” His voice sounded far too calm. “In exchange for her.”
“We’ll survive,” I said. “She won’t.”
“And what makes you think that you will? If Dad doesn’t put a bullet into that thick head of yours, I fucking will.”
“Go ahead,” I said, and turned around towards the door.
“Come back here,” he commanded.
I yanked the door open and went into the hallway.
“Levan!” he shouted.
I was just about to reach the front door when a heavy hand landed on my shoulder. He spun me around and drove his big fist into my face. The blow was so powerful it felt as if my jaw had caved in from the force of it. I was thrown against the door. Pain wracked through my head, blinding me, making me see stars.
I took a few moments to recover and when my hand went to my face it came away with flowing blood from what I was certain was my now broken nose. With a sigh, I staggered to my feet and turned to gaze at my brother. “Let’s get this over with.”
The veins on his forehead visibly throbbed with fury, but his blue gaze was filled with something that looked like disappointment. He pounded his fists into my stomach and I let him. In fact, I welcomed them. I knew I deserved his rage and I was truly sorry for the mess I had brought onto my family, but I just couldn’t let Bianca go.
Anything but that—I would rather die.
My brother was big and strong and his punches were crushing. I was left reeling, gasping. I doubled over, the wall against my back.
In the distance, I heard Bianca scream, “Stop it. Stop it! You’re going to kill him.”
I shouted back to her, “Stay away. Don’t come any closer.”
Her voice triggered something in Maxim as he drew back and looked down at me while I collapsed to the ground, my arms wrapped around my bruised rib cage. “I’m going to go clean up your fucking mess,” he swore at me. “And then I’m going to come for you.” With that, he turned around and stormed out of the house.
I couldn’t help the smile that bubbled up to my face. I had gotten off easy.
22
Bianca
I watched, struck with horror at what was going on.
As his brother slammed the door, I ran towards Levan.
He was lying on the floor bloodied and battered, almost in a fetal position.
The sight drove a chill so cold up my spine, the little hairs I had never seen on my back stood up.
His brother was the fiercest man I had ever laid eyes upon, and it had very little to do with his build although that was nerve racking enough.
It was in everything else about him … his gaze … piercing and almost crippling… the tone of his voice as though he held dominion over every single person and thing he came upon. His stance was authoritative and assertive even when he wasn’t speaking.
Levan was quite similar to him in all of these regards, but something about Levan was unmistakably different. That something was kindness. It shone in his eyes, his smile, his voice. It made him approachable.
That note of humanity seemed to be completely absent in his brother. Levan commanded admiration and respect at first glance, while Maxim, was unsettling in the darkest of ways. He seemed like a man who had seen more darkness than you ever wanted to know existed.
For a moment there, I had been certain he would kill Levan. My heart was pounding ferociously in my chest. “Levan!” I cried, as I crouched next to him.