Alle Kapitel von Kisses of a HitWoman: Kapitel 21 – Kapitel 30

Dimitri Volkov walked through the cathedral like he was walking through his own home. His footsteps echoed off ancient stone. Federal agents positioned themselves at every exit, hands resting on weapons. Victoria stood behind him like a ghost, her face a blank slate that revealed nothing.Anastasia's entire body went rigid."You haven't aged a day," Dimitri said to her. His voice was soft, which made it more dangerous. "Still beautiful. Still defiant. Still mine.""I was never yours, Dimitri," Anastasia said. Her voice was steady, but her hands were trembling. "I stopped belonging to you the moment I held my daughter."Dimitri's eyes moved to Lena. He studied her like she was a piece of inventory he was assessing for value. His gaze was cold. Clinical. He was looking at his creation and finding it disappointing."And this is the mistake," he said. "The reason you ran. The child you were supposed to eliminate."He turned to Dominic. His expression didn't change, which somehow made the

The train moved through tunnels that existed outside of time. Emergency lighting cast everything in shades of grey and shadow. Dominic was bleeding through Anastasia's hands, his breathing shallow, his eyes flickering between consciousness and something darker.Irina moved with practiced efficiency. She had a medical kit already prepared, already waiting. Bandages. Antibiotics. Blood plasma. The kit of someone who'd been expecting exactly this scenario."The bullet went through," Irina said. She was examining the wound with hands that had done this a thousand times before. "It missed the lung. Missed the artery. He's lucky."Dominic laughed weakly. "Doesn't feel lucky.""That's how you know you're surviving," Irina said. She was working as she spoke, her voice steady and calm while her hands moved with urgency. "If it felt good, you'd be dying."Anastasia couldn't stop touching her daughter. Her hand on Lena's shoulder. Then her hair. Then her face. Like she was confirming Lena was re

The facility was larger than Lena expected. Modern. Comfortable in a way that felt wrong underground. Elena led them through corridors lined with photographs—decades of operations, decades of secrets, decades of a war that existed in shadows.Anastasia couldn't look at her mother.Her hands were in fists at her sides. Her breathing was controlled in the way of someone holding a scream inside her chest. She kept her eyes forward, refused to acknowledge Elena's presence, but her body language screamed everything her voice wouldn't say.Lena couldn't stop looking at Elena.She was studying her grandmother like she could read answers in the silver hair, in the careful posture, in the way Elena moved through this underground fortress like she owned it. Because she did. This was hers. All of it."We should establish who's armed," Marco said. His voice cut through the tension like a practical knife. He was standing slightly apart from the group, reading exits, counting operatives, calculatin

The facility was quiet in a way that felt wrong.Dimitri's body was gone. The medical team had moved him, processed him, prepared him for whatever came next. Anastasia sat in the main room and couldn't find a name for what she was feeling. Relief? No. Guilt? Yes. But also something else. Something like being untethered. Like the rope that had been holding her in place for fifteen years had been cut and now she was floating.Elena sat beside her daughter without speaking. Just being there. Just confirming through presence that this was real. That Anastasia was alive. That they'd both survived.Lena came and sat on her mother's other side. The three of them in a line. Three generations of women learning how to exist without running."What do I do now?" Anastasia asked. Her voice was hollow. "I've been running from him for fifteen years. Now that he's gone, I don't know who I am without him as the threat."Elena reached over and took her daughter's hand. It was the first time she'd done

The video played on every screen in the facility simultaneously.A man appeared. He looked like a fusion of Elena and Katarina. Same sharp features. Same precise eyes. But his were hollow. Damaged. Filled with thirty years of rage so deep it seemed to physically emanate from the screen."My name is Nikolai Volkova," he said. His voice was calm. Which made it worse than if he'd been screaming. "I'm Elena and Katarina's brother. I'm also the person you've been looking for. The one you thought was dead."Elena stood frozen. Her entire body had gone rigid."Dimitri didn't kill me," Nikolai continued. "He kept me. Trained me. Broke me. Rebuilt me into something worse than a weapon. He spent thirty years perfecting me while you all were playing games with each other, pretending to be morally superior."He leaned closer to the camera, and his face filled the screen."I've been building an empire while you've all been delusional. I've been recruiting your operatives. I've been dismantling you