Taken By the Bratva Boss by Sarina Hart

Chapter Twenty-Four

Leon

The drive to the hospital takes forever, and I’ve never been more relieved than when Adrian drops me at the door with a promise to circle the lot until I can bring Olivia out. My heart palpitates at the thought of bringing her home. I don’t know if she’ll stay, but I am going to do whatever I can to convince her that with me is the right place for her to be.

I don’t stop at the desk, don’t even give them a glance because I can’t wait to see her. I don’t want to waste one precious second on small talk or idle chatter when I have so many important things to say to her. I stride, like a man possessed, into her room.

But when I arrive, I walk in the door and back out to check the plate beside the door. It has the room number, and I’m in the right place—1424—but the bed is made and there is no sign Olivia was ever here.

Now, I go out to the desk. Maybe housekeeping came in while they took Olivia for more testing. Maybe she’s waiting for me in the lobby and I walked past her. Certainly, someone will know where she is.

The nurse at the desk is the same one who was with Olivia throughout the morning. She’s old enough to be my mother but has a smile like sunshine itself.

“Did you forget something?”

“My…” What is she? “The woman in 1424? Is she okay?”

Her brow pinches and her smile fades to a frown. “Are you feeling all right?”

If I look green, sick, it’s because I don’t know what’s going on, but my guts must. They’re churning. Tight. Twisting.

I need to sit and run and hunt and, if something has happened to her because I wasn’t here, I’ll kill. Everyone responsible and anyone in my path. But now, I have to find her.

“I need to see the woman in 1424. Do you know where she went?”

The nurse stands, comes around the desk. Probably because I am breathing but no oxygen is making it into my lungs, my chest is closed. I take her by the shoulders. “Where is she?”

“She left with you almost an hour ago.”

Oh fuck.

I am Leon Krilov, and I’m about to commit a murder. “I need to see your head of security.”

She nods and doesn’t ask a question, but walks around the desk, picks up the phone and speaks low into the mouthpiece.

There’s no reason to panic. Maybe Olivia took a cab.

With me?

No. I wait at the desk, fingers curled around the smooth, stone top. My knuckles are white, and I could probably tear this fucking thing off the wood base, but I don’t. I’m outwardly calm because Leon Krilov doesn’t let emotion take over his body. Or his mind. Or his…

Fuck. Where is that son-of-a-bitch?

And why the fuck didn’t I have a man posted by her room? This is my own fucking fault.

Oh God. If something happens to her because I was careless… again. I don’t deserve her. After everything I put her through, I wouldn’t blame her if she hated me. I would hate me if I was her.

But whether she hates me or not, I have to find her.

A man hurries toward me, and when he’s close enough, I stare hard at him. “Do you know who I am?”

At his nod, I breathe a little easier. He’s an ally. Someone who will help me. Not solely because I’m going to handsomely reward him, but the money never hurts. “I need to see your CCTV footage from this floor and the exit camera from about an hour ago.”

I don’t ask it as a favor. I’m paying him. He works for me now and I don’t ask my employees to do their jobs. They do them. I reward them. It’s business. But for me, this is personal. And I need answers now.

His office is small with ten screens. All with multiple camera views. “What room?”

“1424.” The view fills a screen. An empty doorway. A quiet hallway. No sign a dead man is walking among them. Well, not dead yet, but soon.

Then I see him. I see me. A grin at the camera. And my heart trips; stutters.

Igor.

No mistaking him. Unless it’s for me. And unless the person making the mistake doesn’t know to look for the small scar at the corner of his left eye. So tiny, just a sliver of white, but it’s there. To me it’s like a flashing light with his name above his head.

I nod. “I won’t forget this.” I hand the security guard all the money I have on me and walk out. I’ll come back and properly take care of him later. Right now, I have to find Olivia.

As I storm out of the hospital, phone to my ear to summon Adrian, my guts ache. Every muscle and cell in my body. Igor. Alive. Certainly not back from the dead. And whatever his being here, taking Olivia, impersonating me means, it isn’t going to end well for one of us. Of all the adversaries I’ve ever faced, Igor is the only one who has ever worried me. And he still does.

But I’ve learned a few things. To fight dirty. To not bring a knife to a gun fight. To go for the kill because the other guy always does.

When Adrian picks me up, I’m calm. “Get on the phone and tell the men to meet us at the bunker.” The bunker where we store weapons is a place I want to be right now.

“How many?”

“All of them.”

He won’t ask more questions.

My phone chirps in my hand and I look down. The bastard never even changed his number. I slide the bar across the screen and breathe out slowly before I answer. “Igor.”

“I have something that belongs to you.”

Always with the games. “I’ll kill you if you hurt her and this time, I’ll make sure you stay dead.”

“I’m not going to hurt her. I’m going to have some fun with her. Isn’t that right, sweetheart?” She gasps and one of us—my brother or I—is going to die today.

“What do you want, Igor?”

He laughs. Evil. Maniacal. “To be Leon Krilov, of course. The family prince. Why else would I fake my own death and hide for years, allowing my own daughter to be raised by you?”

“I’m the king now, actually. Pop’s dead.”

Igor laughs again. “Oh, poor stupid Leon. Of course, I know he’s dead. A little vengeance on my part because he cast me out of the Bratva and made me fend for myself. I suppose you thought that it was the Irish who ended his life, maybe? Maybe even Fyedore Adreyev rising from the ashes?”

Aside from his skills in bomb-making, Igor was also a sniper, like the one who’d killed my father. Rage burns through my body. “You killed our father.” It isn’t even a question in my mind now, and I hate myself for not seeing it sooner.

“He chose the wrong son.” His tone is matter of fact. “I hope your woman isn’t so foolish.”

“If you hurt her…” I sound like a broken record, but deadly force is half of what I plan to do to him.

“Oh, brother, don’t be so foolish. I won’t hurt her anytime soon. I’m meant to become you, remember? Anna would suspect something was desperately wrong if I immediately sent your precious Olivia away. No, I won’t have my plan discovered thanks to my own daughter. First, I will take your place, and be just as loving and sappy as you can be. I will keep Olivia with me and Anna, biding my time until your baby is born. Then I will kill them both.”

My baby? “Igor.” I can’t think about anything but saving Olivia right now. “What do you want? From me?”

“Come to the old house, where mom…” He sighs. A sign of weakness. He has so many, but our mother’s death broke something inside him. He was never the same brother I knew before she died. “If I see any of your men, I’ll cut the baby out of her and watch her bleed to death.”

“I’ll be there.”

But I’m not stupid enough to go alone. Neither are my men inexperienced or careless enough to be discovered when I bring them along. I haven’t seen Igor in…years. Haven’t had a brother except the one sitting next to me. The one I love. The one who has my back. The one I would die to protect but who doesn’t need me shielding him anymore.

I look at Adrian. Stare hard at the brother who doesn’t even have the Krilov name but is more a brother than Igor had ever been.

He bangs the butt of his hand against the steering wheel, so much like me it will likely be the death of him. But right now, we have to plan. He will assemble the men and bring them, form a perimeter while I keep Igor distracted and figure a way to protect Olivia from the shooting. At my signal, Adrian and the men will open fire.

“If this goes the wrong way, I…” I need to say something to him, to tell him what to do, how to be the man of his family. Our family. What he’ll need. But I can’t. “Take care of Anna.”

“Nothing is going wrong, Leon.” He drops a hand on my shoulder, squeezes. “You have my word.”

And that’s enough for me.