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He doesn’t say anything else after that, so we just sit in silence as he drives us out of town and along the road that leads to the top of the falls. Memories of the nights that Buck would sneak me up here resurface, making my head spin. As we drive, the road looks increasingly familiar. Miles turns onto the road that leads to only one place, and I can’t breathe.

“Miles, stop,” I call out.

“What?” he asks in confusion.

“I fucking mean it. Stop right now,” I scream hysterically.

Miles slams on the brakes, bringing the car to a screeching halt. I throw the door open, flinging myself out as I dry heave. The ground under my hands is cool to the touch, so I dig my fingers in, trying to stop the rising panic. I can’t be here. I can’t do this. Why would he bring her here?

What did I do to deserve this?

Approaching footsteps cause my breath to freeze in my lungs. The heaving stops, and I sit back onto my heels, watching the approaching figure outlined by the bright headlights. Horror slams into me because the figure approaching us isn’t Buck but my father. I try to stand, but my head spins, keeping me on the ground.

“Why must you always be a disgusting person?” he grits out, slapping me across the face.

He stands over me, getting ready to land one of his infamous kicks when the sound of a gunshot breaks through the night sky. Miles is standing at the back of his SUV, gun pointed at my father.

“I will not stand by and watch you hurt her anymore. LeeAnn come here, sweet girl,” Miles coaches me.

I know I won't be able to stand, so I start crawling toward him. As I get close to him, lights come up behind him, blinding me and distracting Miles enough for my father to turn and take off back toward the house. The SUV comes to a sliding stop behind us, and the doors fly open simultaneously. Miles spins around, his gun raised and ready.

“LeeAnn?” Nikolay roars as he comes around the SUV, completely ignoring Miles as he falls to his knees in front of me and pulls me into him.

I hiss at the pain in my stomach from where my father kicked me. Nikolay’s grip loosens only slightly, so he can shift me to pick me up and carry me back toward the vehicle. He sits me on the passenger seat, tilting my head to get a better look at my face. Reaching out, I grip his jacket in both fists, keeping him close. The look of anger and murder on his face settles me in a way that I can’t explain.

Looking up into his angry gaze, I whisper, “Make it painful.”

“As you wish,” he promises, before kissing my forehead. “He looks over my shoulder at the man who came with him. “Anything else happens to her and you will be the one who pays with your life.”

The man just nods, not saying a word as he climbs into the SUV and closes the door. Nikolay places a kiss on my forehead before turning me to face the front and closes the passenger's side door. I watch the man that in just a few short days has come to be my safe place walk over to Miles and speak quietly, then disappear into the night like a ghost.

“Be safe and come back to me,” I whisper to myself.

“Don’t worry about Nik,” the man beside me says. “There is either an angel watching his back or the devil himself doesn't want him because I’ve watched that man make it out of situations that should have killed him.”

I chuckle humorlessly. “That, I believe.”

Thirteen

Nikolay

Closing LeeAnn’s door, I turn and make my way to Miles, working to rein in the anger boiling in my soul. He stands tall but guarded, as if bracing for impact.

“One reason. Give me one goddamn reason why I don’t end your life right now,” I demand.

“I don’t have one,” Miles holds his gun out to me. “Here you can use my fucking weapon.”

I contemplate it, I really do, but I know LeeAnn wouldn’t forgive me for this one.

“There are worse ways to make you suffer that keep LeeAnn from hating me,” I snip at him. “Now tell me what the fuck you know about this place and what the fucking plan really was.”

A look I can’t explain crosses Miles’s face that tells me he is tired of keeping secrets. “At the end of this road is a hunting cabin. It is the cabin that Denver kept LeeAnn at the entire time she was pregnant. He even had the basement made into a makeshift hospital room and kept a midwife on staff there to do her care. That’s why there are literally no records or anything about the baby. Denver didn’t want it to spoil his name with the Bratva, having a daughter that was used goods.”

The longer he talks, the more I want to start ripping heads off. Right now, I’ve heard everything I need to hear, so I hold my hand up to stop his words.

“Why didn’t he just have her marry the dumb fuck?” I bit out the words through gritted teeth.

“Denver would never have his little girl married to some nobody with no connections.” Miles’s words are emotionless.