"Because he was raping my best friend," Yuri shouted. "He was hurting my best friend."
"LIAR!"
"I wouldn't lie about that. Your father was a monster—and I'm glad he's dead." Yuri purposely taunted her in the hopes she'd fly at him and leave Lena alone. Something told him Jake wasn't onboard with Katya hurting an innocent woman.
"You're the monster!"
"Maybe you're right," he conceded. "I'm the one who picked up a pipe and bashed his fucking head in like a rotten apple. And I'd do it again in a heartbeat."
Katya screamed with anger and pointed the knife at him. The mad gleam to her eyes chilled him to the very core. "Maybe that's how I should kill her. Jake, find me a pipe."
"Now, wait, Katya," Jake said hurriedly. From the sound of his wavering voice, the bodyguard was quickly losing his will to carry out this brutal attack. "You never said anything about hurting Lena. You promised we were going to use her as bait to lure him here to make him pay for attacking and robbing and killing your father. You said they used the mob to cover it up, to get away with murder but—"
"Don't be stupid! She was never going to leave this house alive."
"She's innocent." Jake's composure faltered. "This isn’t about justice anymore. This is about something ugly—and I won't be part of it."
The gun fell from Yuri's side but Jake kept his tight grip on Yuri. Katya raised her knife and pointed it at her partner in crime. Screaming like a Russian demon, she lost her fucking mind on Jake. The knife swung wildly in front of Lena's face. If her hands and ankles hadn't been bound she might have had a chance to escape…
Lena's tearful gaze met his. For a few heartbeats, the world slowed to a near standstill. Without saying a word, she telegraphed her intentions with a single look. Silently, she mouthed one simple, beautiful phrase. I love you.
In the next instant, Lena chomped down on Katya's arm. The shock of witnessing his sweet Lena perpetrate such a barbaric act froze his limbs. Blood spilled around her lips as she bit down even harder. Katya shrieked with agony and ripped her arm free. The wild movement brought the knife dangerously close to Lena's neck but his brave woman threw up her bound wrists and blocked the knife's blade with that wide gold cuff he'd given her. The very tip of the knife bounced off the cuff and sliced her jaw.
Lena's pained shout pulled him from his stupor. Throwing back his head, he slammed his skull into Jake's mouth and nose. A solid kick to the balls dropped the bodyguard. Scrambling forward, Yuri reached Lena in time to snatch her by the shoulders and toss her out of the way.
Katya flew at him with the knife. There was nothing to do but block her slashes with his forearms. He hissed as the blade plunged into his arm again and again. The stab wounds hurt like hell but he refused to let this deranged woman anywhere near Lena again.
As the knife slashed at his chest and ripped open his shirt and the flesh beneath, two gunshots startled Yuri. Like him, Katya jumped with surprise. Terrified Lena had been hurt, he glanced at her but her gaze was fixed on the doorway behind them all. Looking back, he found Nikolai standing there with his pistol still raised. Jake had fallen to the floor, a gun gripped in his hand and blood pooling around his chest and arms.
"Aaarggh!" Yuri's guttural burst of pain exploded from his mouth as Katya jammed the knife into his right shoulder. The blade became stuck as he twisted away from her and fell forward. Before she could rip it free and stab him again, Nikolai fired two more times, hitting her square in the chest. The weight of her body dropped onto his back and drove him to his knees.
In an instant, Nikolai had reached him. He pushed Katya onto the floor where she gasped and clawed at her bloody chest. Yuri reached back to touch the knife sticking out of his back but Nikolai gripped his hand. "Leave it alone. This is for the surgeons to handle."
Huddled against the wall, Lena sobbed loudly. Nikolai crouched near her and produced a knife from his boot. He quickly cut the ropes binding her wrists and ankles. Once she was free, she scuttled across the rickety floor. "Yuri!"
Bleeding profusely, he crawled toward her and rested his head in her lap. The throbbing pain of the knife embedded in his shoulder was easy to ignore when her soft hands touched him.
"Oh, baby, you'll be okay." She ran her fingers through his hair. "Just hold still, Yuri."
He reached up and touched the spot just below her bloody jaw. The wound would scar and serve as a reminder of all they'd survived. "I'm sorry."
"Don't," she whispered and bent down to brush a kiss across his temple. "I love you so much—and you came for me. That's all that matters."
A terrible rattling breath interrupted their declaration of love. Katya gasped for air as her lungs filled with blood. Yuri had seen enough chest wounds during the campaign in Chechnya to know the woman had only minutes. He wanted to hate her for what she'd done but he felt only the most supreme sadness. Her mind had been been twisted by that terrible, vile man she called a father and then filled with hatred when she'd been left orphaned and alone.
Showing the depth of her kindness and forgiveness, Lena grasped Katya's hand, the same hand that had wielded the knife that sliced her face, stabbed her father and her lover. Voice shaking but calm, Lena said, "You're all right. You're going to be all right."
It was a lie—and Katya knew it. Even so, the woman's expression softened. She dragged the final gurgling breaths into her destroyed lungs. Lena kept a tight grip on Katya's hand even after it was all over.
Dizzy from the blood loss and awash in adrenaline, Yuri started to fade. As he fought to stay conscious, he watched Lena hold out her now bloody hand toward Nikolai. "Give it to me."
Nikolai couldn't hide the shock on his face. "No."
"I'm not asking. Give me the damn gun and go."
"It's a clean gun." Nikolai hesitated for a moment before handing over the weapon he illegally possessed. He crouched down and gripped Yuri's hand. "I'll stay close by—just in case."
"Go," Lena urged.
As Nikolai fled the scene, Lena expertly unloaded the weapon and made sure to wipe down every inch of it—even the shiny rounds—before marking the gun and bullets with her fingerprints. The way she expertly handled the weapon would have impressed him under different circumstances. Today, it saddened him.
"You don't have to do this." He stayed on his side as she slid away from him and started to rifle through the drawers in search of another knife. When she found one, she used it to slash at the ropes that had been binding her wrists and ankles. She dropped the knife on the floor there.
"I do. He saved us. I know he's done some shady shit in his life but I won't throw him to the wolves. We'll tell them this was the gun you brought. If Nikolai's DNA or fingerprints show up on it, you tell them that Nikolai took it away from you because he didn't want you to go after Jake and Katya on your own. We'll tell them I was able to get to the gun when it was knocked off the counter after I cut the rope cuffs. I got behind Jake and shot him. Then I shot Katya."
Yuri cringed at the ugly idea of letting Lena take the fall for the shootings. "No. I won't let you do this."