Page 85 of Unholy Tsar

Still, just to be sure, I open the doors one by one until I’m confident the ground floor is empty. Then I make my way upstairs. It’s not until I reach the second floor that I start to hear shit—movement behind one of the closed doors.

I cock my gun and approach.

“This ends now,” I rumble, my back to the wall. With a final deep breath, I twist the handle and kick the door open.

Time seems to slow to a crawl. I expect to find a dozen men or more, all armed and ready for a fight. Instead, I’m greeted by a single person. They’re sitting on a chair with their back turned to me.

“Finally,” an oddly familiar voice says. “What the hell took you so long?”

My heart trips as I try to place the sound in my memory banks. Before that can happen, though, the person stands up and turns to face me.

My stomach drops through the fucking floor.

No.

“Impossible,” I whisper, shocked to my core.

That oh-so-familiar face tilts up in a wicked grin. “Impossible? Why is that? You thought I had died?”

“I saw your body. You weren’t breathing.”

“Well, surprise, little brother. I made it out. Now, won’t you come give your dear old sister a hug?”

Vera spreads her arms out wide. It’s only then that I spot the gun in her hands.

“How?” I ask, stunned by disbelief. “How are you alive?”

She chuckles and turns away from me, strutting toward the large windows at the far end of the room. Keeping my gun trained on her, I carefully follow behind.

“Ah, it’s alright. I wasn’t really expecting you to hug me anyway. You were never the type. Still, I have to say, I expected better from you, the Tsar of America.”

She clicks her tongue and presses a remote in her hand.

The compound is immediately flooded with lights, exposing the position of my men. They all freeze, shouting orders as they try to make sense of what’s happening. “But at least you finally came to see me—I mean, eventually.”

“So, it was you all along?”

“Yes, little brother,” she sighs, turning to face me again. “It has been me all along. Do you know this gulag has four towers placed in strategic positions?”

“What?”

She raises her pistol at me. “And in all four towers, I have snipers stationed with guns already pointed at your men. They’re listening to us right now. All it would take is a single word, and all of your toy soldiers are—” She clicks her tongue again, dragging the index finger across her throat. “So, you need to do exactly as I say. Drop your gun.”

Fuck. Whatever I thought I was walking into, it wasn’t this. I couldn’t imagine this shit in a million years. Vera was supposed to be dead. I wonder if that means…

No. Stay focused. Get yourself home to Cecilia.

“Never.” I tighten my grip, desperately trying to think of a way out of this.

“Then your men will die.” She pauses, her lips twisting into a sinister smile. “And maybe that little tsarina of yours will too. Cute little thing, by the way. Personally, I would never harm such beauty, but our brother Viktor, well, you remember how uncontrollable he always was…”

It feels like I’ve been punched in the chest.

“Viktor’s alive too?” And he has Cecilia?

“I thought you twins had a second sense about it. He always said he could feel your pain. That’s why he hurt you so much growing up. Because he loves pain.”

My mind races at a thousand miles per second as I try to make sense of it all. It’s all so much that I feel dizzy, faint, frozen.