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“S
pare us the
tears
,” Meinikov retorted. 

Derevenko hushed him with his hand. “Are you presuming that I care about the lives of
my enemies
?” he
asked Boris
with a smile.

“I am presuming that this feud between two empires has become old for you. I am presuming that you would like to bring this to an end.
Mr. Meinikov has already imposed a great deal of devastation upon the Olevsky
family
.
The effects of his actions
have
been felt for nineteen years now.
Kristof will pay the
monetary
debt you feel is owed, but we feel there is no solution to the other issues at hand
because Olivia and her son should be free to make their own choices.
What may
appeal to
you, however, is the end of
Kristof’s
organization.”

Lev actually raised an eyebrow with interest.

“W
e would like to
resign our position in the in
dustry and allow the
Derevenkos
to take c
omplete control of our shares. And i
f they so desire—acco
rding to our recommendation and
persuasion—you can have our associates and their business
as well
.
I am here on behalf of Mr. Olevsky with his full approval of such terms. Miss Adams—and Mr. Huntington—shall not be used as bargaining chips. Instead you have my word.
”

Silence resonated throughout the building as the old man considered his
offer
. Finally he took a deep breath and turned to the men behind him. With one nod of his head the
y
stepped away from Jayden
to let her pass. Without hesitation she made her way to me and I took her in my arms. I slowly released a breath of air, praying that we were one
step closer to making it out alive
.
Boris said Derevenko would be the one to end this, and even though I had been filled with loads of doubt,
I was now grateful he really was hungry for money and power
.

“Tell
Kristof
that this is done,” Derev
enko said.
“I fully agree to those terms, and we can meet at a later time to discuss details.”
He was turning away from us when Meinikov stepped in his way.

“You a
re making a big mistake,” he told him.

“You are the one that is mistaken,” his boss said
evenly. “You let this go Alek
. You have caused me
enough grief to last a lifetime
.
Your business with your son can be handled on your own.
”

As quick as he said it
,
Meinikov’s
temper reached it
s
peak,
and
as
soon as it did, I had the sense to turn Jayden away. The gun in Aleksey’s hand went straight to the old man’s heart and fired, and before
two of
the other
men could react,
they
were
dead
on the ground
as well
.
The other three men in front of us seemed to be under
Meinikov’s
payroll, and they positioned th
emselves to protect their boss
.

Boris had rushed us away from the scene as it happened, but we only got so far before
a
shot was fired into the back of
his
leg. As soon as
Boris
went down, he got back up again, only to receive another shot to his leg
on the front side
.

“Shall I keep
shooting
, or do you want to
stop
moving?” Meinikov sneered. But at the same time, the gun was shot out of his hand—courtesy of the sniper hidden in the rafters. The same sniper had been silently eliminating any other hidden threats in the warehouse—at least that’s what the plan had been—and it was kind of eerie to think about.

“This is between the two of us, Aleksey,” a familiar voice
rang throughout the warehouse
.

Kristof
had appeared from the front entry.
I was shocked to see him standing there
in person
, along with eight other men that were heavily armed. Now there was a
standoff as Aleksey’s loyal soldiers
faced the new arrivals.
The
Meinikov
cronies were definitely paranoid, half of them looking around the warehouse with guns raised to fend off an invisible assassin that was somewhere in their midst.

Meinikov’s
appearance was like stone, so I cou
ldn’t tell what he was thinking, but he did nothing when the man at Kristof’s right slid a weapon across the floor to Boris.
I recognized the man immediately; he was the one that patted me down earlier when we first arrived.
Boris
picked it up and
carefully stood
,
and
then he
began guiding us from the
scene. I could tell Aleksey wanted
to protest, but it was then that I realized every one of Kristof’s guns were pointed only at Aleksey, and he chose to remain silent.

“This has been quite a life for you, hasn’t it?” Kristof asked him. “I can’t imagine why you would spend it hunting one
man
. I’m here now. What is it you want?”

“I want my son back,” I heard h
im reply.

“
That will never
happen, Alek
.
He and his mother can finally have a life they deserve; a life without
you
.
The war between you and I is over. You now have the
rest of the
Derevenkos to deal with.”

Boris
held his hand to his ear, apparently listening to the tiny device that was
in place
for him to hear
. He
hobbled us along until we were within the safety of
a
hallway. We could no longer see the masses of weaponry, but it still didn’t ease my tension.

“Boris, you okay?” I asked.
His pant leg was full of blood, front and back, and I could tell he was barely putting any pressure on his leg.

He nodded.
“Yes, sir. I am fine.
Cole’s team is inside
. We’ll wait here for now—“

Suddenly the sound of gunfire erupted from the warehouse, and it made us jump. I
couldn’t see
what was taking place on the other side of the wall, but I had seen enough movies in my life to paint a clear enough picture. Boris
leaned up against the wall for a second and prepared his newly acquired weapon.

“
There
might be
others
still in the building,” he quickly told us.
“
I want you both to stay close to me until
we find
safety
.”

We could still hear gunfire from the warehouse, and
Jayden’s
hands
gripped me tighter as we followed
Boris
into an office
. I
t was pretty dark
except for
a beam of light that came throug
h a window from a streetlight.

“Ty, the window,” Jayden whispered.

I looked across the office and saw shadows moving outside.
A loud thud came from the end of the hall
and then there was a brief silence
.
Finally I heard,
“Ty? You in here? Jayden?”

I could
tell it was
Cole’s voice from the hallway
,
so I peeked around the corner to make sure. The door at the other end was
now
wide open and several bodies
in combat gear
came filing down the hall toward the warehouse.

I replied, “We’re here,”
just as he appeared at the doorway.

He seemed to exhale his relief. “Follow me.”

Cole led
us outside and across the street where there were a handful of men assembled alongside another vacant warehouse. A medical team was there to look us over, but Jayden and I were fine. It was Boris we were worried about, and I heard someone say that his knee had been shattered from one of the bullets
.

Jayden put her hand on the back of my shoulder but didn’t say a word. I felt bad that I couldn’t offer her any emotional support, but I just didn’t know what to say.
We were both pretty leaden from the events that had just transpired.

A minute later
they loaded Boris into an ambulance. He saluted me with a nod and it made me smile, but my chest still felt heavy with worry.

“Is he going to be all right?” I asked one of the paramedics.

“Well, he’ll live,” he sighed. “Don’t know about the use of that knee, though.”
He climbed into the bus and shut the doors as the ambulance took off.

I released a breath of air and looked at Cole. “What’s going on at the other side of the building?” I asked him
mechanically
. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know
.
I could hardly
understand
what I was feeling at that moment
.

Cole sighed. “Let’s just say there’s a shortage of body bags.”

“Is anyone alive?”
I asked numbly.

Cole pause
d for a few moments. “Yeah,
a few.
Four
of Olevsky’s guys… And Olevsky himself.”

Again
I
didn’t
understand
what I was feeling. I was relieved for some reason. I was still very angry about how he had affected my life, but I was relieved. I took a deep breath, not sure I felt up to sorting my emotions at the time.

I leaned against
a
car
and held Jayden in my arms as Cole spoke to us both. I hardly cared what he said, but I do remember
him informing
us of what to expect from all that
had
transpired
.
I almost felt like we were completely
isolated
from the rest of the world
. It was a completely surreal moment,
standing outside of a warehouse on the outskirts of to
wn following a mob massacre
.

Life was never going to be the same.

The next few days were a mix of everything from miserable police details to…well, some great moments with Jayden. There was a lot to
sort
out, but I could survive anything as long as I had
her
by my side.

First there
were
the trying times with her father
and the fact that he still hated me
. T
hen there was the difficulty of finally talking to
my
father. It was hard, but I think I told him about my mother and Trevor in the best way that I possibly could. It had helped that I’d recounted the story first to Jayden (she was absolutely blown away)
but I felt different emotions as I shared it with my father
.
He was…well, stunned, to say the least. He was confused, angry, and sad, all at different intervals. I couldn’t even imagine what he was going through, so when he asked to be left alone for a while, I easily complied. However, I was afraid to leave the house in case he felt close to slipping into his old habits. Jay
den and I stayed with him for
a couple of
days until he felt strong enough to be on his own.

Jayden took me to visit Brandon in the hospital, whom had miraculously survived being shot
three
times. He’d been through three surgeries so far to repair the damage the incident had caused, and he was still in ICU. Jayden slipped into his room one afternoon, prepared to
just
leav
e him the get-well wishes she’
d brought, but Brandon called her name when we were quietly heading out the door.

“Hey,” she said
softly
, making her way back to his bed. “You looked like you were sleeping.”

“I think I was,” he mumbled. “But then the smell of vanilla woke me up.”

It was Jayden’s signature scent, so I understood the
significance
.