I pulled back, my body sagging in relief. “And Zaal?” I asked. My father’s face clouded over. My relief soon turned into dread.
“The Kostava is not our business. With Jakhua gone he’ll find his own way.”
Blood rushed so fast through my body, I could hear nothing but its pulse in my ears. As I looked up to my father, he had turned to Kirill. They were speaking in hushed whispers.
Anger seeped into my bones, and shaking, I shouted, “No!”
My father and Kirill turned to face me. My father looked at me in surprise. “No!” I repeated. “You have to save Zaal.”
My father’s face remained unmoved. I knew that silent expression. It was still a no. “Papa,” I argued, “he saved me! Jakhua had a knife to my fucking throat. He was going to kill me, out of hatred for you. But Zaal gave his life for me, he didn’t even hesitate. He was willing to give up his freedom for me!” My father shook his head, and before he could speak, I confessed, “I love him.”
The room hushed to a tense silence. My shocking confession hung in the air. My eyes were to the ground, but I forced them up to look into my father’s face, his face that was filled with disappointment and shock. “I love him,” I said again, pride filling my bones. I stepped forward. “And he loves me, too.”
“You fell for the Kostava?” my father said in disbelief.
I lifted my head and said, “He’s not just a Kostava. His name is Zaal. Zaal who, along with his brother, was taken by Levan Jakhua, and forced to watch the massacre of his family as a child. A child who was forced to be a slave for Jakhua for over twenty years. Zaal is not just a Kostava. He’s the perceived enemy who just sacrificed himself to save your only daughter!”
I panted from exertion. I heard my mama sniffing behind me. I turned to face her. “I love him, Mama,” I said with a trembling voice. “We have to save him. There’s no other choice for me.”
My mother looked over my shoulder at my father. I followed her gaze. He was livid. “No daughter of mine will be with a Kostava! I won’t accept it.” His voice lowered. “And I won’t risk my men rescuing a man from that family!”
Pain shattered my heart. I stumbled back. “Then you’ll lose a daughter,” I said, and meant every word. I watched as my papa’s angry expression faded into shock.
“Talia…,” he whispered. I shook my head, cutting off whatever he was about to say.
“No, he’s my everything. I won’t let him trade his life for mine, and do nothing to help. Don’t you think that a man who would sacrifice his own life in place of another’s deserves to be saved?”
Kirill stepped from behind my father and confirmed, “We will kill Jakhua, Talia, but we won’t send our men in for this man. Ivan’s right. We’ve already lost too many men in this fucking street war. I won’t risk more.” I stared at the Pakhan. And I knew that was that. His word was final.
I didn’t know what else to do.
But then Luka stepped further into the room and stopped beside me.
“Then risk me,” Luka stated. My head snapped up to see my brother’s hard face meeting that of our father and Kirill’s.
Kirill’s eyes narrowed. Father stepped forward. “Luka, we spoke about this—”
“I’m not Alik Durov,” he said coldly, cutting off our father’s words.
Father tensed, and Luka added, “And I’m not the Luka you knew. I’m someone new. Someone the gulag created. I can’t and won’t leave Zaal to suffer at that man’s hands again. His brother saved me. Nothing you say will stop me from feeling a kinship toward him.” Luka’s face hardened, and he emphasized, “I don’t give a fuck that he’s a Kostava. I don’t give a fuck if you won’t risk any of our men for him. Because I’m going in, and I’m stronger and more effective in the kill than twenty of our men put together.
“Zaal knew nothing of his family. He isn’t his father. He didn’t kill dedushka. But his brother saved my life, and he saved Talia’s.” He laughed sardonically. “So that family you hate so much, the Kostavas, the great ‘Tolstoi enemy’ have saved both of your children. And without Anri and Zaal, we would both be dead. You’d have no heirs to your fucking throne.”
My father blanched, and Luka, looking every inch a Bratva pakhan, added, “I was locked in a cage, mind fucked, incessantly raped, and made to fucking kill. There is no way that I’m leaving Zaal to that same fate. He was taken as a child and forced in every way like me. And just like me, he won’t ever be that boy who was captured. That boy was made into someone else, just like me. He’ll forever be Zaal Kostava and 221, just like I will always be Luka Tolstoi, and 818. A part of me will always be Raze. And nothing will ever fucking change that.”