My brothers and Alexei, along with his men and probably his own brothers, Sasha and Vasili Nikolaev, didn’t hesitate to join me in this rescue mission. But proper planning and scouting would have taken too much time that I feared Louisa didn’t have.
“Don’t be like that,” Sasha grumbled. “We like to have some fun too.”
“Ditto that,” Royce chimed in, sounding like he was on his way to a party. “We like to dance and kick ass too.”
“I’m going in,” I replied, ignoring them all. “Catch up as fast as you can.”
I rammed my shoulder into the reinforced door. A soft creak like the scrape of metal against metal filled the eerie silence and I held my breath, praying nobody heard it.
I lifted my gun high and entered the source of all my nightmares. The prison that stole my childhood. The prison that was trying to steal my future. Yet, knowing the ins and outs of this castle and compound gave me leverage. I knew the floor plan better than anyone.
Sofia wanted to play mind games, always loving the element of mental torment. It was what she and Ivan had in common. She knew I left this hellhole with more than physical scars.
But not even incapacitating nightmares would stop me from entering this property tonight. Nothing would stop me from saving Louisa—not even the risk of being tortured again. I failed her eight years ago; I wouldn’t today.
Spurred on by adrenaline racing through my veins, I entered the castle. I moved in silence, my steps soundless on the marble floor. Painstaking hours gave my brothers and I plenty of time to devise a plan of attack. They would be following shortly, using the tracker on me. Right now, I’d get as close to Louisa as possible before Sofia and her men realized I was here.
It was our best chance.
Her mother was a coldhearted bitch who had no trouble using her own flesh and blood for her own gain. The fact that she tortured Louisa, fucked with her mind, and held her responsible for the death of her twin told me she would have no trouble putting a bullet through her heart.
Sofia blamed Lou for crippling her empire from within, so she wouldn’t go for a quick death. She’d make her suffer, then probably try to brainwash her—again.
My heart thundered, adrenaline pumping through my veins and urging me forward to get my woman.
I needed to get to the woman who proved to me that life was worth living despite darkness and nightmares thrown our way. She was mine, and I’d stop at nothing to bring her home.
Together, we were invincible. We were one, an unbreakable unit.
My focus returned to the task at hand when a soft voice shattered through the silence. I froze, the buzz of adrenaline easing to a dull sensation, and then I heard it again. Louisa’s humming voice echoed through the silence, faint and distorted, but I was confident it was coming from the dungeons.
I headed to a set of stairs on my left. The broken stones were in desperate need of repair, so I took my time, taking one step at a time.
“There are only so many places you can hide, Mother, before your sins catch up to you.” Louisa’s voice was confident, but there was an odd pitch and rasp to it. Almost as if she’d smoked a pack of cigarettes.
She’d been missing for twenty hours, while scenarios of the last torture I witnessed played in my mind. Now that I heard her voice, relief rushed through me and I swayed on my feet.
I was almost halfway down the dark hallways that used to be my home, crouching in the shadows, when a barrel of a gun pressed against the back of my skull. My plan on creeping up on Sofia was ruined. I slowly straightened up to my full height and turned around to find a guard’s aged face glaring at me. Behind him, four other men stood at her back, all with weapons aimed at me.
“We’ve been expecting you, Ghost,” he greeted me in an icy tone. I couldn’t help but think back to the similar scenario not so long ago when Louisa had a gun trained on me. Except, nothing about Lou reeked of this stench and evil.
“Where’s Lou?” I demanded, speaking Russian for the first time in eight years.
His lips curled into a sneer. “She’s dead to you.” My finger on the trigger of my own gun twitched. “By the time Sofia’s done with her, she won’t—”
Bang.
The remainder of his sentence was silenced by a bullet between his eyes. The rest of Sofia’s men swarmed around me from all directions.
“She wants him alive,” someone shouted, and my lip curved into a smile. That knowledge certainly gave me leverage.
I started to shoot. With every dislodged bullet, more men appeared. It was hardly a fair fight, but Sofia never cared about fairness.
I fought through them, killing them one by one like flies as I continued my way down to the dungeon. The stench increased with each step down the hallway, the haunting memories reeking of it. Ignoring it all, I focused on the rush of getting closer to Lou.
The need to see her was scorching my veins.
I’d end Sofia Volkov once and for all, because Louisa’s life would be at risk for as long as she lived. And that knowledge pushed me forward, my possessiveness burning at fever pitch.
By the time I reached the last cell, the very same one where she died—or so I’d thought—eight years ago, I was covered in sweat and blood, my heart pounding against my ribs furiously. The hallways were now empty, the guards I’d killed scattered over the ground.
My boots pounding against the centuries-old stone, I made my way to it, then jerked to a stop, spotting a shadow lurking right outside the cell.
Sofia Volkov.
Her icy eyes locked on me with that cold, cold smile.
“Where is she?” I asked, although I was fairly certain I knew. Confirming my suspicions, Sofia nudged her head toward the last door in the hallway.
“Take me to her,” I gritted.
“I will,” she agreed, surprising me. “But neither one of you will be leaving this place.”
My teeth gritted as anger lined my face. I wanted to pounce on her and decapitate her to ensure she’d never come back to life. She wasn’t a vampire, but she sure as fuck acted like one—vicious, bloodsucking cunt.
The sex trafficking ring was the reason for this woman’s downfall. She should have learned her lesson when it cost her her firstborn. The rumor on the street was that Sofia lost her mind once she lost her daughter to the Irish mafia. Not that it mattered to me. None of it did. Only Louisa.
Not waiting for her to respond, I pointed my gun at her and nudged it into her back, pushing her forward. My heartbeat in sync with my footsteps, I watched her slim shoulders move. She was a full head and a half shorter than me, yet the woman managed to destroy so many lives, causing pain and destruction wherever she went.
Size really didn’t matter in this world. Sofia had come to be one of the most ruthless human beings in the underworld, kidnapping and torturing children. Including her own.
That ended today, one way or another.
The moment we entered the cell, we were curtained in darkness. The scent of death lingered in the air. Sofia ran her hand down the wall, and dim lights flickered on.
The sight that greeted me sent fire through my veins, fury raging like an active volcano. Louisa was tied up, her back exposed and whipped raw, her wrists tied above her head. Her head dangled, her eyes closed and her face red.
Drago stepped into the dimmed light and I aimed the barrel of my gun between his lifeless eyes. It turned out all he was good for was to be Sofia’s pet. I’d take him out right now if his gun wasn’t jabbed into Louisa’s chest.
Sofia’s chuckle had Louisa opening her eyes.
“Kingston,” she gasped, her lips swollen and bruised, the sheer panic on her face had my heart twisting painfully. “Why did you come?”
My brows drawn, I studied her.
“I’ll always come,” I rasped, keeping my tone comforting even though my rage was volatile. “Every lifetime, every scenario, life or death, I’ll always come. My heart beats within yours, and yours within mine.”