“You still alive, son?” Krystoff asked.
Before Jozef could answer with a grenade, Krystoff sprayed the apartment again, his aim wildly off. As soon as he stopped, Jozef leapt to his feet with the rocket launcher and aimed it at the island.
The grenade hit the marble and exploded. Jozef ducked back down as debris littered the apartment. This explosion was bigger than the one that’d taken out his couch and TV. When he looked around the side of the couch, there was nothing left of the top of the island. There had been no Kevlar to reinforce the structure.
Jozef stood and then had to steady himself as dizziness engulfed his vision. Blood loss was weakening him. He blinked it away quickly, worried Krystoff would take advantage. When his vision cleared and his uncle still hadn’t come out from behind the island, Jozef walked slowly toward the kitchen, his gun in one hand and the RPG in the other in case his uncle reached around to shoot him.
No bullets came, and Jozef saw why seconds later as he rounded the island. His uncle was leaning against the cupboards. The island was completely destroyed above Krystoff’s head. Shrapnel had exploded through the kitchen, hitting Krystoff in the face and chest.
He was bleeding profusely from several wounds and a piece of metal was sticking out of his left eye. He was still alive, his chest lifting and falling rapidly as blood poured down his face and chest.
Jozef dropped the RPG and collapsed next to Krystoff, reaching for his chest. He gripped Krystoff’s shirt and pulled it away from his body. It came away sticky with blood.
Where is your vest? Jozef demanded. Where the fuck is your vest? You don’t leave for battle without one.
He shook his uncle as shock pierced him. His uncle knew better. He’d walked into battle without a vest and now he was dying.
“Jozef…” Krystoff groaned. “I need… lay down.”
Jozef realized his uncle was trying to push himself away from the cupboard, but his hands were bloody and broken. He’d probably lifted them to protect his face when the explosion had happened, instead getting them torn up by shrapnel.
Jozef set his gun down, knowing his uncle was no longer a threat. Others might come through the door, but Jozef would deal with them if that happened. Easing his uncle’s last few seconds of life was more important.
He gripped Krystoff by the shoulders and pulled him down until he was slumped onto his side. Jozef shifted and moved Krystoff until he was lying flat on the floor where his breathing eased.
“Th… thank you.”
Krystoff reached out, his bloody hand waving until Jozef took it and held on. He looked down at the stump where Krystoff had lost his finger just over one year earlier. That finger, the kidnapping, had started everything, had led to this moment.
Jozef had been so distracted by his own ambitions while he was incarcerated that he had stopped looking for the Phantom. Maybe if he’d found her, punished her, given her to Krystoff, he could’ve stopped all this. It was too late though to give the family a common enemy.
Jozef watched, holding Krystoff’s hand, as the life drained from his uncle.
Chapter Forty-Five
It took Shaun a few minutes to find the light switch in the panic room. She was slow and clumsy from the painkillers she’d been given. She realized the dose was far larger than she would have given herself.
Likely Jozef had told the doctor to make sure she wasn’t in any pain. And it was working, she hardly felt a thing except for an intense desire to leave the panic room.
Once she found the light switch, she immediately went to the panel, intent on releasing herself. She stopped and stared at it.
Jozef had put her in that room for a reason, so he could do what he had to do without Shaun being in the way. If she went running into the fray without a clue, she could get herself and others killed.
“Oh god,” she moaned and gripped her head.
She turned her back to the door and sank to the floor staring sightlessly at the wall opposite.
This was her fault. She hadn’t done anything intentional, but she was the cause of the destruction of the Koba family. She’d nearly killed Jozef’s aunt, a woman who’d raised him.
Now Jozef was faced with the decision to take out his own family or allow them to kill Shaun. It would have been better for him if he’d put a bullet in her head the day they met.
Then she remembered, the day he took her wasn’t the first time he saw her. He admitted that he saw her in the streets of Luhansk with a child. A little boy who’d experienced hearing loss from the percussive force of the bombs dropping on his city.
She’d sat with the boy and taught him several words in sign language.
Jozef had been watching them. Had thought about her and remembered her when he needed a doctor.
A part of him had connected with her before they met.
Maybe this moment was inevitable.
Maybe they were always meant to find a way to each other. God knows, they couldn’t seem to stay apart.
Shaun swiped at the tears spilling down her cheeks.
Her emotions and thoughts were all over the place, the drugs making her scatter-brained.
An explosion sounded outside of her little room and Shaun turned over onto her knees, pressing her ear against the door.
It was torture being locked in a room and not knowing what was happening. She hoped her mother was locked away in her own panic room. The two women had explored it once they found out about Shaun’s. They were identical.
A minute later another explosion sounded, this one much louder. It rocked the apartment. Shaun felt the vibrations through the floor. She assumed the walls were sound-proofed, or reinforced, or something, since she couldn’t hear anything except the explosions.
She was relatively certain they were coming from inside the apartment, which
