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I just give him a nod before I silently make my way through the woods, following the trail that LeeAnn’s father left in his rush to get away. The drive to maim and kill guided each step. Any men in or near this cabin will die today. Denver’s death will be slow and painful. I will inflict pain on him the way he has done to my LeeAnn her whole life. Moving through the shadows, my steps are sure and quick. The house comes into view, and I slow my steps so as not to set off any alarms or alert anyone to my presence. Standing at the edge of the woods, I observe what Miles had called a hunting cabin—that is in fact a small mansion in the woods.

As I stand there watching the house, I’m shocked when Miles’s SUV comes barreling down the driveway and parks at the front door of the house.

“That crazy motherfucker,” I mutter as I pull my gun from my waist and get ready to move.

To my surprise, no one comes running, and that sets me more on edge because from everything I know about Denver, he always has a wall of men around him. Slowly I make my way around the SUV just as Miles kicks the driver's side door open with a grin on his lips.

“You're lucky that didn’t kill you,” I chuckle slapping him on the back.

“Would’ve been worth it. Now let's find Lottie and see what kind of hell we can raise,” is his response.

A bullet whizzes by my head just before the sound of a gunshot rings out into the night. Spinning around, I fire at the man standing there, taking him down with a single shot to the forehead. Miles fires off a few rounds at the man coming around the corner. I tap Miles on the shoulder and point to the house. We enter and clear the house one room at a time, taking men down as we go. Eventually, we make it to the basement where we find Denver and another man standing behind Lottie, who is tied to a chair with tears running down her face.

“You finally found us,” the younger of the two men jabs.

“Was pretty simple considering you’re trapped like rats,” I shrug.

“Are we?” Denver asks, placing a gun to the side of Lottie’s head. “If you don’t let us go, then I’ll just kill her.”

I shrug, “You really think that I care what happens to Lottie? I’m only here to make sure that by the time the sun comes up neither one of you two assholes is able to cause pain to LeeAnn ever a-fucking-gain. So do whatever the hell you want with her. It will not change anything.”

“Miles would never let anything happen to sweet little Lottie,” Buck tries to sound strong, but his voice comes out as if pleading for mercy.

“Again, matters not to me, asshole,” I state just before firing a perfect kill shot and dropping him.

Denver jumps away from a screaming Lottie, waving his gun around wildly and firing in our direction blindly. Miles grunts from beside me, and as much as I would have loved to make this man suffer the way he did LeeAnn, I’m not willing to lose my life to satisfy that feeling. I drop low behind a cabinet and wait for Denver to empty his weapon before taking aim and unloading my entire gun into his chest. He hits the ground, and I walk over to him, kicking his gun away to make sure that he is, in fact, dead.

I untie a terrified Lottie and help her from the chair. She looks around the room and then passes out. I barely had time to catch her before she hit the ground. Picking her up, I place her on the hospital bed and look around for Miles. I find him propped up against the wall, blood flowing quickly from a wound on his side. Rushing to his side, I drop down next to him, pressing my hands firmly over the wound. Miles groans, blood flowing from his mouth over his chin.

“You’ve made it this far, you can’t go dying now. LeeAnn is going to be pissed,” I state, still pressing hard on the wound.

“It’s no use,” Miles says, and then coughs, more blood spilling from his mouth. “Listen, before it’s too late.”

“It’s going to be fine,” I tell him.

“Nik, I need you to hear me,” Miles grabs my arm. “Look into her maternal grandmother. That’s where you will find all the answers … and him.”

I’m taken aback because everything we’ve found says everyone on her mother’s side is dead.

“Miles, you're losing it,” I tell him.

“Nope, seeing everything right for the first time in a long time. Margery Carlial and she’ll have what you’re looking for. Find her and find all the answers,” Miles gives me a sharp nod, and then he is gone.

“Fuck,” I hiss, standing and taking my phone from my pocket, then dialing the cleaners.

I tell them where I am and what needs to be done. Lottie is still passed out on the hospital bed, so I call Pyotr and have him bring the SUV to the house so we can load her into it and get out of here. My head is spinning as I process what Miles just told me and the fact that I have to tell LeeAnn that her true father is now dead. As the SUV comes to a stop, LeeAnn steps out, coming to me and checking Lottie.

“Is she okay?” she whispers, moving Lottie’s hair from her face.

“It seems so, just in shock from what’s happened to her and here tonight,” I tell her.

LeeAnn looks around me as if looking for someone else. When she doesn’t see him, she looks back at me, and I can see the moment she realizes he’s not coming. The tears run down her face unchecked before she nods squaring her shoulders and turning to go back to the SUV. She pulls open the back door so I can slide Lottie in. Once I have laid her on the back seat, I close the door and then pull LeeAnn to my body, holding her tight.

“I’m so sorry, moya golovolomka,” I whisper into her hair.

She just cries harder and holds me tightly, then pulls back and looks up at me. “Let’s go home.”

I place a kiss on her forehead, “Let’s go home, moya golovolomka.”