Oh my God. I couldn’t look away for a moment. The mother Massimo had talked about. The one who’d heard voices, just like me. She’d been like Mira? My heart broke at that moment for her,and for Massimo, and for all the women and families ruined by Sergei and his cold-blooded moneymaking scheme. Profiting off the pure misery of others.
“Massimo?” I murmured.
His eyes were hard, lost in the past and fixed on Sergei.
“You won’t kill me,” Sergei called. He was trying to sound confident, but it wasn’t quite working. “I’m the only parent she has left. If you care about her, you won’t kill me. I’m her only chance at a family.”
A muscle ticked in Massimo’s jaw. I raised my free hand to cup it, trying to pull him back from the dark place he’d gone to.
“Mass?” I whispered.
He blinked and then looked down at me.
“It’s true, this man created the place where my mother died. He’s done what he did to Mira hundreds of times.” I could tell that every single word cost him.
He sighed, his empty hands flexing at his sides.
“But it’s your choice, my angel, if he lives or dies. You mean more to me than my vengeance.”
His eyes burned into mine, and I saw that he meant it. He really would end his lifelong quest for vengeance and leave it unfinished if I asked him to.
It was my choice.
“Do you hear, Katarina? Call your pet killer off now,” Sergei commanded. “Do not let him kill your only family.”
“You’re not my family,” I said firmly. “Tatiana is my family.” I stared up at Massimo. “My husband is my family.”
Massimo’s lips curved in the smallest ghost of a smile at those words.
“I don’t need you, and the world certainly doesn’t,” I continued, and then nodded to Massimo.
He shifted his focus back to Sergei.
“Looks like you’re dying alone, unloved and unremembered, Sergei.” He went to take the gun from me, to take that final sin upon his own soul. Sergei must have felt the changeover, because he chose that moment to act.
He threw himself into the helicopter, and the thing lifted off the roof a millisecond later.
“No!” I screamed as the chopper rose. “He’s getting away!” I couldn’t bear the thought that he would survive this and go on living, despite everything he’d cost the world. Everything he’s cost me and Massimo.
Massimo lifted the gun and aimed at the helicopter. Shots sounded—from him, and from the sniper hidden somewhere on the property. The helicopter made it over the garden before the pilot was hit. The tail spun, as the gas tank was also pierced. Then it was falling from the sky. It didn’t have a huge amount of altitude to make a massive crash, but there was enough height for it to hit the ground hard. Not only that, but the gas tank imploded at the moment of impact. A fireball roared up from the ground, scorching the earth and cleansing it from the presence of Sergei Stoyanov... forever.
He was gone and, just like that, the world was a better place.
43
MASSIMO
Katarina didn’t complain about her cuts and bruises or the blood marring her clothes. She was silent on the way home, but her hand was curled in mine, so I took that as a win.
We got to the townhouse at the same time as Elio. He stared curiously at Katarina before we ducked inside. Paolo started to fuss over her immediately, whisking her away upstairs while Elio and Vittorio gathered in the kitchen.
“The little girl fell asleep after her bath. I don’t think the poor thing has slept properly in days.” Vittorio scrubbed a hand over his face.
Elio leaned against the kitchen counter, looking deadly and unruffled despite putting down nearly thirty men tonight.
“I’ve called the De Sanctis cleanup crew for the compound.”
“Oh, and what’s that going to cost me?” I asked, sitting at the table and feeling the weight of the world settle on my shoulders for a moment. God, I was exhausted. The adrenaline of the last few days pressed down on me like a two-ton boulder.