Chapter 31 Nikolai
NIKOLAI
I’d been warned to stay away from the windows, but I went and peeked out anyway. Lorenzo had gone out to check on Landry because he had been unable to get him on the phone. Lorenzo was well armed. He’d said he’d be fine, but something was wrong. I could feel it in my gut.
“Any sign of him?” Alina asked.
I shook my head. “Not that I can really see anything. It’s pitch-black out there.”
“I don’t like this,” she said.
“Me neither. Landry should have answered, and Lorenzo had plenty of time to check on him and come back. What if he… What could be out there?”
“Other than alligators, there could be—”
“I didn’t really want an answer to that.”
“Get the gun Lorenzo left you,” Alina said. “We need to be ready.”
“An alligator or a mountain lion or a tiger or bear or whatever is not going to come in here.”
She shook her head. “No, but a man would.”
“Fuck, you don’t think… Surely they couldn’t find us out here.”
“Nothing is impossible.”
I grabbed the gun, and she double-checked the locks on the door. “Come on, let’s make a plan.”
I sat beside her on the couch, holding the gun awkwardly. “I told Lorenzo I don’t know how to use this, but he insisted I have it anyway. I guess I know basically how to shoot, but my aim is no good.”
“Mine is. Give it to me.” I was happy to hand it over.
“All right, there are plenty of knives in the kitchen. You can get one of those.”
I did as she said, though the thought of stabbing someone made me queasy. I could do it if I had to though. I would do anything to defend Lorenzo. Please don’t let him be dead.
Alina was checking out the gun, verifying that it was loaded. I started to sit back down, but she said, “Go check the window again.”
I looked out, trying to make out anything in the darkness. “I don’t see any—oh my God.”
“What is it?”
“A man. It’s not Lorenzo. He’s too short.”
“Then it’s not Landry either. He’s taller than Lorenzo.”
Panic had my hands shaking. “What are we going to do?”
“We’re going to defend ourselves. Our bodyguards aren’t answering. They’re out there. We’re in here. We don’t have any choice.”
She was right. “We need to get to them. To Landry and Lorenzo. We need to see if they’re okay.”
“To do that, we’re going to have to go through this man.”
I glanced out again. “How do we know he’s alone?”
“We don’t.”
A knock on the door made us both jump.
“Open up,” a man yelled.
Alina motioned for me to stay quiet. Like I would dare respond.
More banging. “I said open up!”
Seconds later, a gunshot sent me and Alina running. It was followed by a click and then something being thrown against the door.
“He’s out of ammo,” Alina said as I pushed her into her room and slammed her door.
Another loud bang had me reaching for her hand. “That was the door swinging open,” she said. “He must have shot the lock.”
“You might as well come on out,” the man yelled. “I’m going to kill you both, and there’s nowhere to hide.”
Without the door to muffle the sound, I knew that voice. It was my father. This had gone on too long. I had spent too many years afraid of him.
“Are you ready to shoot him?” I whispered to Alina.
She nodded. “This ends now.”
I yanked open the door of her room. My father stood there. He looked like he had aged ten years. His hair was wild, standing up at all angles. The clothes he wore were torn and bloody. If I had been told he was a zombie, I would have believed it.
He had always been crazy, but I could tell from the look in his eyes that he’d really snapped.
“There you are,” he snarled. “Were you in there fucking, or are you both waiting for Lorenzo to come back and have you?”
I reminded myself to focus on the best opportunity to save ourselves. I couldn’t listen to any of his vile words.
“You were supposed to make a baby, and then you were supposed to serve Ivanov, please him so he would work for me.”
He held a piece of wood over his head, but he didn’t seem to have another gun. I glanced at Alina and nodded.
I met my father’s gaze. “Ivanov was never going to work for you. He hates your guts.”
He roared and charged toward me. Alina lifted her gun. I heard the crack as my father fell. She had put a bullet through his temple.
He lay on the floor, blood pooling under him. Bile rose in my throat, but I swallowed it down. I didn’t have time to puke now. I looked at Alina. “You… You really are a good shot.”
“Come on.” She held the gun in her hand, and I kept hold of the knife she had given me.
I screamed as we opened the door, and a man was climbing the steps to the porch.
“It’s me!” Lorenzo shouted.
Alina lowered her gun as we both said, “What happened?”
“Someone hit me from behind when I went to check on Landry.” We stepped back inside, and Lorenzo immediately noticed my father’s body. He looked at Alina, down at her gun, and back up. “Good work. Did he hurt either one of you?”
“No,” I said. “He can’t hurt anybody now.”
Lorenzo pulled me into his arms. “That’s right, baby.” After a quick hug, he released me. “We need to get Landry in here and take a look at him. I think he was surprised the same way as me. God, I was such a fucking fool to go out there.”
“We took care of things,” Alina said.
“We did,” I agreed.
Lorenzo smiled. “I told you that you were stronger than you thought.”
Maybe I was.
“That’s one asshole down,” Alina said. “I hope I get to be the one to end my father too.”
Lorenzo nodded. “You’ll have to beat me to it.”
I had to stand with my back to my father’s corpse. As much as I had wanted him dead, I couldn’t look at him. I already knew it would take a long time before I got the image of the hole in his head out of my mind. “Are you okay?” I asked Alina. “I mean, have you ever killed anyone before?”
She shook her head. “No, but I’m fine. I wasn’t raised to be sentimental about human life.”
“Alina. I know, but—”
“I’ll be all right.”
I didn’t argue. It was best if she held herself together for now.
“You stay here. I’ll get Landry,” Lorenzo said.
Landry was a huge man. “Can you carry him by yourself if he’s still unconscious?”
“I’ll manage.”
“I can help,” Alina said.
“No, both of you need to stay in the cabin. Alina, do you still have my gun?”
“I do.”
“Keep it with you.”
Lorenzo left, and Alina encouraged me to sit in her room, away from where my father lay on the ground. My father’s corpse. He wasn’t really here anymore. He couldn’t hurt me or anyone else.
A few minutes later, Lorenzo knocked on the door and called for us. I held it open as he pulled Landry inside, gripping him under his arms.
Alina scowled at him. “Did you drag him here?”
“It’s not hurting him. He’s fine.” Lorenzo brought him to the couch, and the two of us helped him get Landry up there. “I checked him over and made sure nothing was broken before I brought him in. I think he was hit on the head, just like I was. There’s a bump here.”
When Lorenzo touched the swollen spot on the side of Landry’s head, he started to come around but didn’t fully wake.
“Landry!” Alina said. “Landry, come on, wake up.”
Lorenzo headed toward the kitchen. “I’m going to get some ice for him,” he said.
“What about you? Don’t you need some too?”
“My head hurts like hell, but I’ll be okay.”
I wasn’t going to let him ignore being injured. “You might have a concussion.”
“True, but we can’t worry about that right now.”
He was right. We were in the middle of nowhere with a disabled guard and a dead body, but I needed to know he wasn’t seriously hurt.
“Hold this.” Lorenzo handed the ice pack to Alina.
When she placed the ice against the knot on his head, Landry’s eyes fluttered open.
“Landry,” she said. “Are you okay?”
He groaned and started to close his eyes.
“No.” She slapped his arm. “Stay awake. Talk to us.”
He blinked at her and then looked around, eyes widening when they landed on Dimitri. “Fuck. What happened?”