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ANDREI
My brothers and I army crawl towards Kira quivering behind an overturned crate. Even with the gun in her hand, she’s now looking much less sure of herself. Her youth and inexperience are clear.
Before we can get to her, the door is kicked in, banging against the cement walls with a heavy thud, as men dressed all in black and armed with AK-47s file into the space, one after another, surrounding us in a semicircle. Plumes of smoke follow behind them, the noxious gas seeping into our eyes and nose, obscuring our vision.
And then, through the smoke, a familiar form appears. He stops just inside the room, surveying it carefully. Ice-blue eyes land on Kira.
Oleg Antonov stands in the center of the room, a gun aimed at his own daughter's head.
“Kira, come here,” he barks. A brutal command.
“Don’t move a muscle,” I instruct her. And then to Oleg, I say, “Leave her. She had nothing to do with any of this. If you want someone, take me.”
Despite my outward bravado, my stomach is in knots. Without weapons, we can’t protect her. We’re surrounded. There must be at least a dozen men in this room armed to the teeth, with all their attention focused on us. Except for Oleg, who is staring at Kira, his face red and pinched as he looks ready to murder his only child.
She slowly unfolds her body and approaches him.
“Did you think I would be so easy to fool?” he sneers at his daughter. “Did you think I wouldn’t find out about your elaborate plans?”
Kira fights to remain calm, but a layer of sweat forms on her upper lip, and her hands tremble. In one swift motion, he rips the gun from her, and uses it to strike her in the face. Bleeding and hurt, she crumples to the cement floor, hugging her knees into her chest.
The need to pummel Oleg into the ground is nearly overwhelming, but Leo’s hand on my back serves as a reminder that we’ll only make things worse for her if we try to fight. It’ll surely end with our death. Whatever we do, we need to be smart.
It’s not only our own lives in the balance, but Kira’s too, and possibly Georgia’s. A quick glance confirms the TV screen has gone blank. I can only hope that Georgia is far from here and safe.
“To betray me like this. My own child.” He spits at her feet. “Did you have a chance to tell them your brilliant plan, or did I interrupt your cozy little meeting too early?” A single tear falls down Kira’s cheek; the only emotion she betrays as Oleg shakes with anger.
“Leave her, Oleg,” I command. “This meeting was my idea. She had nothing to do—”
“Shut up,” he barks, eyes narrowed, a sneer on his lips. “I know everything. How my daughter wanted you to help her overthrow me, to join forces with her as the head of the Antonov family.” He laughs, and it’s a cruel, hollow sound. “As if a stupid little girl could lead the Antonov Bratva. As if my men would take her seriously.”
He roughly pulls her up by the arm, a gun pressed firmly into her ribs. She looks terrified, her right eye swelling where he hit her, but she doesn’t respond to his taunts.
I don’t have high hopes that we’ll make it out of here alive today. But I refuse to go to our graves without the truth coming out.
“Why don’t you tell her the truth, Oleg? Kira clearly doesn’t know who her mother is—or that we are her brothers.”
Kira's eyes are wide, confusion replacing the fear that was on her face a moment ago. “What’s going on?”
Oleg bares his teeth in a menacing smile. The air pulses with tension. “You don’t know shit,” he taunts. “Your father was a moron who I took great pleasure in wiping off this earth, and you’ve proved yourself no better. You couldn’t even kill me when you had the chance. And now, you never will.”
I block out his insults and focus on Kira. “Your father seduced our mother. She gave birth to you shortly before she died, but by that time Oleg had taken you far away. We only learned about you six months ago—we’ve been searching ever since.”
Kira turns towards her father, devastation written all over her face. “How could you keep this from me?”
Oleg’s lips twist in distaste, and he pushes the gun farther into her side. “You're lucky I bothered to keep you alive. The only thing you were good for was destroying the sanity of Dahlia Kozlov, and by extension, the rest of her family. I never had a need for a daughter, and I still don’t.”
Fire flashes in her eyes and with a yelp, she twists from his hold and knees Oleg between his legs. He doubles over, crying out in pain.
My brothers and I move in unison. In the blink of an eye, I tackle the soldier closest to me. We land on the concrete ground with a heavy thud. His gun flies out of his hands and skids several feet away as he roars in outrage. Around me, all hell breaks loose, but I focus on one task—killing this man.
Straddling his torso, I reach into the inner pocket of my jacket and remove the pen. With a flick of my wrist, a four-inch razor-sharp blade emerges. Without hesitation, I plunge it straight into the side of his neck. It’s a bloody fucking mess, straight out of a Monty Python skit, but it has the intended effect—he’s dead within seconds.
Shots ring out and a soldier to my right drops like a ton of bricks. Daniil kicks the fallen man’s weapon my way as Leo drop kicks the soldier behind him. It all happens in a flash, years of training kick in and my body just reacts to what’s happening around me. It’s chaos. We don’t notice Oleg until it’s too late.
“Drop your weapons or I shoot her in the head.” He has Kira’s back pressed roughly against his front, the barrel of a gun pressed to her temple.
“Fuck me,” mumbles Leo. I catch his eye, and he gives me a nearly imperceptible nod. We don’t doubt Oleg would kill his own daughter.
