“It was Maxim Karev, Maddie. Vlad’s brother. He’s the one who murdered their father.”
When she opened them again, she saw a red dot emblazoned on Peter’s forehead.
Madison’s scream cut through the gallery, but it only succeeded in spurring Vlad on faster. He pounded up the building’s west steps and wrenched his way through the backdoor, just in time to see Peter Franklin fold and collapse backward in a pool of his own blood.
“Madison! Get down!” Vlad roared. She whirled; even from a distance, Vlad could see that her terrified face was flecked with blood. His heart seized in his chest. Was she shot? Was she hurt?
Was the baby?
All other obligations flew from his mind, and in that moment Vlad understood what was most important to him. He doubted if he’d ever forget, now that he had finally found it.
But there was no time to meditate on this new discovery. “Vlad!” Madison called to him, his name bubbling up on a sob. She looked about to run into his arms, but Vlad gestured swiftly, violently. Too late. Another shot rang out, but it flew wide and hit the sculpture to Madison’s left. She screamed and ducked down, hugging her head as chunks of plaster and a glittering rain of something else showered down around her.
No time to think. Vlad sprinted through the glistening field toward her, crunching winking lucid gemstones beneath his boots, heedless of their value, caring only about the immediate safety of the woman he loved. As soon as he was before her, shielding her, Vlad drew his handgun, twisted his body, and fired, his shots clipping the remaining pieces of jagged glass from the upper window. A stray bullet exploded the plaster head of another of the sculptures, and more precious stones rained down around them.
“Are you serious? You were using my gallery to launder diamonds?” Madison shrieked. “How could you?”
“I knew nothing about this!” Vlad shouted as they sought cover behind the platform. “And is that really the question you should be asking right now when we’re both getting fucking shot at?”
“Oh, God. They shot Peter.” Madison rocked beside him, and Vlad didn’t need to glance at her twice to know she was in shock. Maybe he could afford to ease up with his own questioning, if only for the moment. He took himself away from her, only for a second, to lean around the side of the podium and fire off another round toward the building opposite. His bullets went unanswered, and Vlad knew he had the sniper on the run. Whoever it was, they were working alone, likely under orders from some faceless higher-up… and the shadow of authority had told them to retreat.
There were sirens wailing from down the street. Vlad turned and saw flashing lights emanating from behind the gallery’s glass-front doors.
“Good man,” he said, facing up toward the security camera. The light blinked off, an acknowledgement. Lukas had likely put in an anonymous tip to the PD before shutting down operations. Vlad would catch up with him later, but right now, he had more pressing matters to attend to.
He reached down to lift Madison to her feet, and she came with him, unresisting for once. He tucked her beneath his arm and against his waist, half-carrying her out the front doors and into the awaiting bedlam. Below them in the street, officers and agents ran this way and that, too busy answering the reports of gunfire from the other building to do anything yet but check the couple superficially for gunshot wounds and usher them to safety.
“Savannah… is on the Blood Diamond Task Force,” Madison stated as Vlad maneuvered her between cop cars. “She’ll know. She’ll know about the diamonds. God, what is going on here?”
“It’s nothing for you to worry about now. You’re safe.” Vlad yanked a navy FBI coat off the backseat of one of the open vehicles and settled it around her shoulders, shooting a glare at the young agent nearby who looked about to object. The boy snapped his mouth closed abruptly with a click.
“Peter said it wasn’t him,” Madison was muttering. “He said he didn’t murder your father, Vlad.”
“I don’t care about that.”
“He was investigating Maxim,” she said in a rush. “Your brother. They had an argument the night Sergey was killed, about Maxim cutting ties and leaving the family business. Peter overheard them; he told me all this before he—”
“We don’t have to talk about it now.” Vlad steered her toward the back of one of the flashing cars. “Savannah’s on her way. She’s been trying to call you.” He held up her phone and watched some of the debilitating shock fade from Madison’s wide brown eyes. She reached for her phone, and he held it away from her.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were pregnant?” he asked pointblank.
“Oh, God.” Madison buried her face in her hands, her red hair littered with glass—or diamonds, or both—spilling past her ears to hide her sudden misery from him. “I thought you came to rescue me from the sniper, not continue his work for him. Yes, Vlad, I took a test.”
“So you left the kit out where I could see it?” he demanded. He was immediately remorseful for his harsh words when he saw her face fall. He felt no less vindicated in his questioning, but the resigned expression Madison wore in the face of his fury made him feel the villain. It was a role he was used to inhabiting; now, he wanted to personally vanquish the person responsible for her misery. He didn’t think his head could be more turned around than it was.
“Yes,” she confirmed, eyes downcast. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know what else to do. I guess I thought I could invite a reaction from you without mentioning it directly… I guess I thought I could know how you really felt about the situation before I spoke to you. I was a coward. I know that. But it was all so shocking…such a surprise.”
Vlad exhaled sharply, a long gust through his nostrils as he considered the woman before him. “No… not a coward. Never a coward,” he replied. His fingers found the proud jut of her chin. He raised her face up until her eyes met his own. Sorrow swam in those familiar brown depths, but she didn’t give herself over to crying.
“How do you feel about this?” he asked her. “Truthfully.”
He knew how important honesty was to her. He knew that now, more than ever before, was a moment to share truths between them.
Madison half-gasped a laugh of surprise. “About carrying a child of the mob? About being an expecting single mother complicit to a money-laundering scheme and surrounded by murderers? I’m terrified.” Her eyes took on a sudden steel that Vlad had never seen before. “But you just said, I’m not a coward. So you won’t be surprised to know I intend to keep the baby. Just also know that I—we—won’t expect anything from you,” she concluded. “This child is going to grow up knowing he or she is safe and loved. No matter what.”
“How can I object to those terms?” Vlad asked her. “Did you really think I would be angry?” His expression softened as he gazed down into her stricken face. “We aren’t fighting, Madison. Though I can’t guarantee we won’t in the future,” he concluded as his hand drifted from her chin to the soft plane of her stomach concealed beneath her shirt. He touched her with wonder, with reverence, knowing now what secrets developed within her. He understood now, everything Dmitry had been trying to tell him. How could he have not seen it before? Everything that was important to him, and everything that he cherished, was standing right in front of him. It had been in front of him for a long time.
“The future?” Madison echoed his words, blinking in disbelief. “I… that’s…” Now the tears were no longer just a threat; they spilled over, wetting her cheeks and lashes with the crystal-clear evidence of her anguish. “I don’t know if we can have a future together, Vlad. Not when things are so complicated. Not when I can’t reconcile the life you choose with the life I want for this child.”