A Silent Reckoning: Sinner's Empire by Nikita Slater (ereader iphone .txt) 📗

earlier, it had been Dasha who’d suggested inviting Jozef and Shaun over for dinner.

Krystoff cast his mind further back, to the beginning of their relationship. The way she’d dealt with her half-sister’s interference had been to poison the girl. Vasha had survived, but her father had cut ties with the Kobas and married his daughter off to another -- Vasiliy.

Dasha had been the one to poison Shaun.

It had to be her.

Krystoff was about to ask Rassoul if he knew anything about the poisoning when the door opened and a doctor ducked inside.

Krystoff lurched to his feet, but he could already tell by the look on the other man’s face what the verdict was. His knees buckled and he sat quickly before he fell.

“Mr. Koba?” At Krystoff’s nod, the doctor continued. “Your wife has survived the surgery and should make a full recovery. She will need rehabilitation to regain the full use of her arm again.”

“Where is she?” Krystoff demanded hoarsely, gripping the arms of the chair until his knuckles cracked to keep himself from launching out the door and tearing down the hospital until he found his wife.

“She’s in recovery now. It’ll be a few hours until she wakes up. You might want to…”

Krystoff stood and strode to the door. “Show me where she is.”

The doctor didn’t hesitate, leading Krystoff straight to Dasha’s room, Rassoul trailing behind. Krystoff was relieved to find the two men he’d messaged earlier, asking them to get to the hospital to protect Dasha. He nodded at them as he entered the room.

His heart leapt into his throat as he looked at his wife. She looked nothing like the Dasha he’d been married to for over thirty years. She was so pale she looked as though she would fade away if he didn’t keep his eyes on her. Dark circles ringed her eyes and her face was slack and haggard. Her hair was pushed back against the pillow, as though someone had pulled the operating cap away from her and left her hair in a bunch.

Krystoff reached out to smooth it against the pillow.

He sat heavily in the chair next to her bed and reached out to touch her arm. He wasn’t sure what part of her to touch. She was covered in bandages and the parts that weren’t bandaged were severely bruised. She’d clearly fought for her life.

Krystoff didn’t understand. Shaun was tall, but she was thin and had no fighting experience as far as he knew. She should have been easy for Dasha to take down. Dasha had been practicing Jujitsu and Krav Maga for two decades. She was skilled in both forms of martial arts and she wasn’t afraid to use it if she felt threatened.

Krystoff got his answer almost right away as the doctor slipped into the room and gave Krystoff a rundown of his wife’s injuries and what her recovery would entail.

“Her brachial artery?” Krystoff asked, when the doctor described the wound that had nearly killed Dasha.

The doctor pushed the sleeve of Dasha’s hospital gown up to her shoulder, showing Krystoff the bulky bandage. “If it weren’t for someone’s quick thinking she would’ve bled out within minutes.”

A chill ran through Krystoff. “What do you mean?”

“Someone wrapped a belt tightly around her upper arm, cutting off the circulation and slowing the bleeding until your wife was able to be transported to the hospital. The paramedics told us the belt was on when they arrived. If someone hadn’t tended to her at the scene, she would likely have died. She has a guardian angel.”

“Or a guilty angel,” Krystoff murmured.

Though Shaun had spent less than a month with the family at the mansion, Krystoff considered himself a good enough judge of character to understand the woman. She was a simple creature. She held onto her oath to ‘do no harm’ like it was the only thing worth living for. She would have helped Dasha, even after Dasha attacked her.

A picture of what’d taken place in the washroom began to form in Krystoff’s mind. Dasha had lured Shaun to the restaurant under the pretense of wanting to spend time with her. When Shaun went to the washroom, Dasha attacked her.

Only somehow, Shaun had managed to gain the upper hand. Given the imbalance in fighting skill, Krystoff suspected Shaun had accidentally managed to turn the tables and had gotten hold of the knife. She would know exactly what part of the body to cut to stop her opponent. Only once she’d hurt Dasha, she’d probably been horrified, and had done her best to save the other woman.

Krystoff barely registered the doctor leaving quietly, he was sunk deep into his own thoughts. It wouldn’t matter that Shaun had tried to save Dasha. The fact was, the girl had tried to kill his wife, making her own life forfeit. Even if he could find it in himself to forgive, he wouldn’t be able to spare her.

Jozef would now be preparing to take out the Koba family. Once he knew who’d attacked Shaun, their fates would all be sealed. The family would go to war, and Krystoff wasn’t entirely confident he could win. Jozef was the stronger of the two, with better trained men. Jozef wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger. He’d been taught his entire life to take out the threat, no matter who or what it was.

His only hesitation had been Shaun and twice she had almost died at the hands of the Koba family. Jozef would not forgive them.

Krystoff looked at his wife. Her face almost angelic in repose, as though she was now above their earthly concerns, despite being the one to cause this mess.

“What have you done?” Krystoff asked quietly, carefully picking her hand up off the mattress and twining his fingers through hers.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Jozef paced back and forth, never stepping further than a few feet away from Shaun. She was laid out on their couch, Jozef’s private doctor tending to her wounds. Jozef didn’t take his eyes off her as he catalogued