Ivan had come for her.

She sensed him well before Father’s men warned him that Ivan and his men were near. It was as though her heart knew the moment his feet landed on Thai soil. It started beating faster, the blood speeding through her veins in anticipation, rushing in her ears, distracting her. Soon she would be safe in the arms of her lover. She closed her eyes, forcing herself to take deep breaths, forcing back the nausea that swelled in her gut at the confrontation to come. It was inevitable, she could do nothing to stop it, so she might as well calm herself. As Ivan would urge her to do. Nerves could get someone killed. She’d heard him yelling this at his men while training with them.

Conversation between herself and the man that professed himself her only family became stilted. There was less and less point in trying to reach a madman. As his life’s goal approached, his ability to listen to reason drifted away, if it had ever been there. Perhaps if she’d known his reasons for hunting Ivan years earlier she might have been able to reach him, but not now. Still, when the first bullets rang through his encampment, Jaya tried one last time to plead for his life, never once doubting who would leave victorious. Ivan never failed. And she had a plan to help him.

“He’s coming for you Father,” she said calmly. “And he won’t let you live. Not after you took me away from him. It was bad enough that you blew up his island, but he might have forgiven you that at my insistence. If you’d given up this vendetta.” Father approached her and looked down, his gaze as cold as hers. She was wasting her breath. But still, she had to try. For the sake of the child she’d once been. The child who had desperately needed rescuing and had clung to this man for support and affection. He had only given her one of the two, but it was worth something, worth his life if she could do something to save him. “Please, just go. Go away and save yourself! He’ll kill you and he’ll do it slowly and viciously. You don’t understand!”

He grabbed her arm and dragged her from the chair, positioning her in front of him. He turned so that they were facing the door and then he bent to speak in her ear. “I understand perfectly, my dear,” he murmured. “I never intended to leave here alive. I died the day he took my family.”

“Then why are you doing this?” she cried.

“I’ve watched and waited for years, trying to find something he loved so I could take it away from him.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “And I handed him the one thing he could love on a silver platter. Now I get to take her away while he watches. It will be my sweetest victory.”

A chill slithered down her spine as he lifted a gun and pressed it against the side of her skull seconds before Ivan stepped through the door. She was reminded sharply of the time Ivan had held a gun to her head, when he’d hugged her after dreaming of his family, of murdering Father’s family. Only she’d felt safe in Ivan’s arms, had known on a visceral level that he wouldn’t hurt her. Father intended to kill her, to use her to avenge himself.

“Jaya,” Ivan said, his voice cool, his eyes devouring her, starting at her feet and lingering on her face where bruises were beginning to show. “How are you, sweetheart?”

She took a few quick breaths to steady her voice and then said calmly, “I’m fine, Ivan. Though the hospitality here leaves something to be desired. I’m about ready to leave on the first flight out. I’m just shocked it took you so long to get here, I was about ready to pawn my bracelets to get out of here.”

“Enough!” Father snapped, waving his gun at Ivan before returning it to Jaya’s head. “On your knees, throw your gun away.” Ivan immediately did as Father demanded, tossing his gun to the side and kneeling on the floor. A detached part of Jaya’s brain noted that even in that position he was still the most commanding man she’d ever been around. He filled the space with his brutal, coolly dominant personality. Even in such a perilous situation it made her shiver, made her want to fly to him, snuggle against him and beg him to hold her.

“Do you know who I am?” Father demanded.

“Borjan Tadic,” Ivan said without pause. “Born 1964. You were among the men that came to my town of Rekovi in 1992 and massacred 77 people, my family included. I returned the favour by killing yours. I’ve known who you were almost from the moment you started hunting me.”

For a moment no one said anything as they absorbed the impact of Ivan’s words. Finally, Jaya whispered, almost to herself, “Borjan,” saying Father’s birth name out loud. Somehow it took away some of the impact of his importance. The man that had built himself a jungle compound and filled it with semi-loyal followers, then spewed his hate at them, insisting they follow him. Giving him a name took the teeth from his hate a little. His fingers tightened around her, as though it angered him to hear his given name on her lips.

“If you knew who I was then why didn’t you kill me?” Borjan growled, anger making him careless as he pulled his gun from Jaya’s head and waved it toward Ivan. She edged her hands, which were still tied behind her back toward him and took a fistful of his shirt. He didn’t seem to notice. “If you’ve been tracking me all these years, why haven’t you brought me down sooner?”

Ivan’s eyes glinted as his focus finally shifted away from Jaya for the first time since entering the hut. A savage note entered his voice when he responded and his accent became more pronounced. “Same reason you didn’t kill me on that rooftop. You’ll suffer more alive than dead. Every day you spend without your loved ones is one more day that I am victorious over you.”

Jaya froze, her hands stilling in their quest to find Borjan’s bare stomach. She stared at the man she’d fallen helplessly and completely in love with. This was him, the vicious animal, the beast in all his glory. She was deeply and utterly glad he’d fallen in love with her, because she had no doubt that if he hadn’t she would be in little pieces by now, shipped back to the man now holding her, using her as both a weapon and a shield.

Ivan spoke again, his stormy, ice cold gaze now returning to Jaya. “I give you one chance only, Tadic. Let her go. I intend that you die here today, but your manner of death is still in question.”

“I don’t care about death,” Borjan snarled, spit flying past Jaya’s face to land on the ground in front of Ivan. “I will take her with me and enjoy the look on your face as she falls. I will gladly spill the blood of my adoptive daughter if it means crushing what is left of your soul. Fuck this mortal body. I don’t care what you do to it.”

He lifted the gun against her head. Jaya pressed her wrists against the bare skin of his stomach and closed her eyes, waiting for the jolt. At least she hoped that’s what she was about to feel, because she’d take electrocution over a bullet to the head any day of the week.

A powerful, sharp vibration hit her, stabbing her arms and running right through her body. Jaya’s knees gave out involuntarily and she tumbled to the ground at Borjan’s feet. Though she knew the electrical current had hit him too, he somehow managed to stay standing. Probably because he didn’t take the bulk of the electricity that Ivan hit them with. As she tumbled, Jaya’s head snapped back and she saw something fly over her head and bury itself deep in Borjan’s shoulder. She lay on the ground, still within reach. She tried to crawl away, but her limbs wouldn’t obey, Ivan had probably hit them with the maximum jolt of electricity the bracelets were capable of.

Borjan hit the ground next to her, collapsing to his knees. She searched for his gun but didn’t see it. He must’ve dropped it when Ivan zapped them. She rolled her head up in time to see Ivan climbing to his feet and talking a step toward them, the dam finally breaking on the fury within.

Borjan didn’t see Ivan, wasn’t looking at him, he was so intent on killing Jaya. So utterly focused on destroying the one thing Ivan loved. He crawled over top of Jaya and wrapped shaking fingers around her neck.

“It’s over, Father,” she whispered.

He didn’t even get a chance to tighten his fingers around her throat. Ivan stood behind him, looking down at Jaya over top of her captor’s head. He took the knife he’d thrown into Borjan’s shoulder and yanked it out. Blood sprayed across Jaya. She tried to turn her head to the side, but her head was being held immobile. Ivan lifted the blade and sank it into Borjan’s other shoulder, weakening his grip on Jaya.

She wiggled in his arms, desperately wishing her hands weren’t tied behind her back, until his grip, weak now and slippery from blood, finally gave way. She crawled out from under him and sat a few feet away, hunched over and gagging. She spat out some blood, maybe hers, maybe Father’s. She looked over at the scene in front of her; Ivan standing over the man that had once rescued her from the streets of Mumbai. She could see Father’s fate written all over Ivan’s face.

“Please, Ivan,” she begged, trying to plead for a swift death. “Please just finish it.”

His gaze became glacial and she knew what his answer would be before he even spoke. “He took from me.” Ivan shoved the man away and knelt down next to Jaya. He took her chin in his hand and he ran a thumb over her bottom lip then her cheek, brushing gently over a tender spot. She couldn’t suppress a flinch. “He hurt you.” Tears filled her eyes and she met Borjan’s shadowed gaze where he lay on the floor watching the pair. “Now I’m going to hurt him more.”