Page 133 of Capuleto

"Or what? Huh? I'm going to leave here with my precious sister, you're going to let us go because if you don't, you're going to lose your wife and your child with a single bullet."

"That is not my wife, she is a traitorous whore, I don't care about her or the child in the slightest."

"I'm not expecting any child!" I shouted exhausted, clinging to his dark gaze.

What I saw in it filled me with dismay. The certainty that I was wrong and that there was a possibility our child was in my womb unsettled me. I thought about the week Yuri held me. There, I couldn't take my contraceptives, and when I returned, we didn't use a condom. It was improbable but not impossible that it had happened.

The idea filled me with anguish and a strange warmth I hadn't felt before. How could I be a mother if I was worse than the Antichrist?! What was I going to do with my allergy to children?! A child of Romeo, one his and mine...

"Let's see then if it's true that you don't care. Because it seems to me that if you had wanted her dead, we wouldn't be talking. " The gun moved to my abdomen, and I felt panic. I was terrified that they might be right and Yuri would be capable of embedding a bullet in my belly. "Either you move away from the door or I shoot. I'm not going to tell you again. And it won't matter much to me, Nikita, if that's what you think. Nothing is above the Bratva, not even family."

"Let me remind you that I have your son in my power." Romeo had just used Adriano as a weapon. "Doesn't that matter either? Do you know what I could do to him?"

"You?" Yuri laughed. "You have raised that fucking bastard of Adriana, given him your last name. Do you really think that kid is going to soften me? For all I care, you can kill him right now."

"You are a wretch; you don't even deserve the air you breathe. You may not feel anything for Adriano, but you won't convince me you'll shoot your queen on the board. I know what you've been plotting behind my back, you want her by your side." Yuri's face filled with insolence.

"Nothing stops me, and if the queen has to be sacrificed to win the game, she is sacrificed." Yuri challenged him with his gaze; Romeo did not back down.

Either of them was capable of killing me, each for their own reasons. Yuri had proven to me more than enough that I was never as important to him as he was to me. And my husband was incapable of forgiving my betrayal no matter how much I begged him. I was alone in this. Alone! Except for the supposed baby growing in my belly. Could it be true? What could I do?

"Stop! Police! Drop the weapon!"

The order echoed down the hall, someone must have called them. Had it been Irene?

Yuri backed away with me towards the bathroom, keeping his gun trained on me. Romeo hesitated between shooting us or not; if he fired with the police right behind, he could end up in jail.

My brother left me no choice but to follow him, I didn't want to die, I wanted a life with Romeo, even though it was impossible now.

I looked at my husband and mouthed, "I'm sorry, amore, I love you." He pressed his lips together. He still didn't believe me; I was sure of it.

"Let her go!" he roared while Irene's shrill voice screamed that there was an armed man in the room and that Romeo was only trying to defend me. We had reached the bathroom, with me serving as a shield. Yuri smiled, leaning on my shoulder.

"See you soon,sukin syn[9]!"

54

Free fall

Ykicked the door shut and dragged me to the window.

"What are you doing?!"

"What do you think?" he asked, opening it without hesitation.

"You just pointed a gun at me!"

"What did you expect? That I would hug your husband in the reunion? I had to give credibility to the scene. The weak Capulet wasn't going to shoot if the pregnancy was true, and judging by his actions, I'd say he got you pregnant. I don't know how you allowed that, although I won't deny it has been very helpful. Don't worry, we'll sort it out; I'm not going to make you give birth to that abomination." Yuri looked around without letting go of me. "Go out, it's clear, climb onto the toilet to make it easier."

"I can't! I'm dizzy, I'd fall..." It was true that I was feeling worse by the minute.

"Suit yourself, but I'm warning you, I won't hesitate. Either you go out, or I kill you," he replied curtly. He pointed the gun at me again. I didn't have mine, and my arms felt like jelly, too weak to try to disarm him. My brother wasn't going to mess around. If I wanted a chance to escape, I had to obey. I climbed onto the toilet and edged myself up to the window.

"I can't, Yuri, it's too high."

"Don't be weak, we're on the third floor, and don't say our father didn't train us for extreme situations. We've done this before. There's a sturdy drainpipe you can grab onto, it's easy."

He wasn't lying; of course, we had done this before. One of our training exercises involved escaping from a building without weapons or any support material, except our bodies. It was one of my father's favorite exercises; he said it sharpened ingenuity, agility, and endurance. We had five minutes to escape while some of his best men pursued us.