Chapter 24 - Stefania
I’m lying flat on the floor, as low as I can get behind the bed in my room. I ran in here when I heard gunshots downstairs. Grabbing my phone, I just darted into the first bedroom, looking for a place to hide.
I was reading in the library when I heard a loud crash that sounded like the front door being ripped off its hinges. That was the first warning that something was wrong. I was still curious then, bold enough to get up from the library chair and walk toward the stairs.
But when I heard gunshots, I switched from curious to survival mode.
If I had been thinking more clearly, I would have chosen Marlen’s room and hidden in his bathroom, behind the door that locks.
But it’s too late for regret now. I just have to hope that whoever is shouting orders downstairs didn’t see me come in here.
I’m convinced it’s Bardil and his men. Still angry and looking for revenge. He probably knows Marlen isn’t here and came to grab me while he had the chance.
Somehow, with the intruder being Marlen’s brother, I should feel comforted. But I’m not. Bardil has proven himself to be ruthless and cold. There’s no telling what he wants with me.
I try to press myself harder against the floor, to make myself smaller.
My heart is beating too fast, and I can barely breathe. I’m so scared.
Call Marlen. You have to do it now. You might not get another chance.
Moving quietly, I scroll through my phone to his contact details and press the green button. My body is tingling with fear.
The line rings, and I push the volume button on the side of the phone down, terrified someone will hear. I wait, and each unanswered ring becomes an eternity until I realize he isn’t going to pick up.
Hanging up, I hesitate, peeking up from the side of the bed to steal a look around the room. No one is here. I have to try again. I lay back down, as flat as I can, and dial him again, silently pleading for him to understand how badly I need him right now.
My heart leaps with relief when I hear his voice. As soon as he answers, I blurt out, “Marlen, someone’s in the house, someone’s here.”
I wince at how loud I spoke. I squeeze my eyes shut and press my lips together to listen for movement outside. “Who? What’s going on?” Marlen snaps. Footsteps are thudding in the hallway outside the room, moving toward me. I wince and fight the tears stinging my eyes.
“Please, I need you to come home. I need help,” I whisper desperately, my voice tight as my throat closes with steadily increasing fear.
Marlen says something in response, but I don’t have a chance to hear him before the phone is snatched from my hand. I roll onto my back to stare up at the man responsible.
It’s not Bardil. But maybe it’s someone who works with him?
“His little wife is here. The bitch we saw him with the other day,” the man shouts, sneering at me with disgust.
More footsteps flood into the room. I don’t dare move. My body wouldn’t obey me even if I tried. To my left, on the other side of the bed, I can see three or four men standing in my room.
The first man nudges me with his foot, smirking when I wince away from him.
“The boss wants Bardil’s brother, not his wife,” another man says.
“The brother is the one who was supposed to pay us. That’s what Bardil promised.”
“Well, clearly he isn’t planning to keep that promise, so now we have to teach him a lesson,” the first man snaps. “Stop yakking about it and come and pick this bitch up off the floor. We’re taking her,” he demands.
“What good is the wife going to do? We’re meant to torture the brother to teach him a lesson,” someone huffs.
Two men come around the bed and lean over, reaching toward me. I scream and kick, finally finding my strength. I catch one of them in the head and the other on his arm.
“Fuck sake, will you two hurry up?”
“She’s wild!”
She won’t be for long. The boss will break her quick. The fighters are more fun anyway,” the first man laughs coldly.
They yank me to my feet and hold me so that I’m unable to move. Two men against one girl. It hardly seems fair. Each of them has one of my arms, gripping me painfully.
“Whatever Bardil promised you, his brother doesn’t even know about it!” I shout. “Bardil’s deals are his own. They have nothing to do with the rest of his family.”
“Sorry, missy, but we don’t really give a fuck. Someone has to pay. And today… that someone is you.” The first man appears to be in charge. He grabs my chin and forces me to look at his scared face. A smile stretches over his face, and his lips curl back to show how stained his yellow teeth are.
“You are a pretty one, aren’t you?” he muses, then drops his hand away. “Let’s move. We’ve been here too long already,” he snaps.
The men filter out of the room, dragging me along with them.
My heart sinks lower as they carry me downstairs and out of the front door. My hope is quickly dissolving as they pull me past the bodies of two of Marlen’s guards, lying in a pool of their own blood, face down on the bricks.
I yelp and tear my eyes away. I’m going to die. They are going to torture me for something that Bardil has done.
“Never seen a dead person before?” the boss man laughs.
The two men holding me throw me into the back of the car and sit on either side of me, wedging me in place, unable to escape.
“Take the other car. Go ahead and tell the boss we’re on the way and we’ve got a treat for him,” he barks orders to his other men as he ducks into the driver’s seat.
One other man climbs in beside him, and then he starts the car. They smell like sweat and cigarette smoke.
I’m going to die.
Fear whispers quietly in my mind. My eyes dart everywhere, searching for a way out.
Ahead of me, the security gate leading into the mansion is wide open. They came in stealth, killing silently until they got the front door open. I wish I’d heard them sooner. I wish I’d paid more attention.
The car drives toward the gate, and when it drives through and onto the road outside, I can’t fight the tears streaming down my cheeks.
It’s embarrassing to cry in front of these monsters, but leaving the mansion means that Marlen will have no idea where to find me. He won’t know where to go.
“What the fuck is this?” the boss man shouts, slamming on the brakes as two cars come flying across his lane and block him. The nose of our car smashes into the side of the other car.
“Go around! Reverse!” one of the men next to me shouts.
“Get out of the fucking car and start shooting!” the boss man yells.
One of the men beside me shoves his door open, and as soon as he does, a bullet hits his skull and blood spatters into the car.
The metallic taste of iron touches my lips, and I gag in disgust, frantically wiping it off with my sleeve.
The man on the other side of me climbs out, staying low, firing toward the attacking cars.
In the chaos, no one is paying attention to me. I slide frantically across the seat, scampering over the dead man’s body, fighting the urge to vomit when my hand squelches into pieces of his brain that are splattered around everywhere and impossible to avoid.
I trip over him and fall onto the tarred road, banging my knees hard.
But I can’t stop worrying about the pain or the fear.
Standing up, I look around, trying to figure out which way to run.
That’s when I see Marlen.
He looks like a madman, angry enough to tear an entire world apart as he fires a shower of bullets onto the men spilling out of the car that was ahead of us.
Behind him, Jaroslav and Diomid are coming around the side of their car and join the fight.
I can hardly believe what I’m seeing. They’re all working together to save me.
Marlen spins, turning toward our car. His eyes fall onto me, and his face is flooded with relief, but then quickly replaced by fear when the boss man realizes I’ve escaped.
“Stef, run!” Marlen shouts.
“Run, Stefania!” Jaroslav yells at me.
I snap out of my trance, and my feet spring into action.
I leap away from the reaching hands of the man who was in charge.
He snarls in anger, cocking his gun and taking aim at me.
Looking left and right, there is nowhere for me to hide.
I start walking backward, lifting my arms in the air, not daring to take my eyes off him or his gun.
Bullets smack into the car next to him, but he doesn’t seem to notice.
He’s focused solely on me.
“Don’t you take another step, sweetheart!” he snarls.
“It’s over, can’t you see you’ve lost?” I shout.
“I never lose!” he says. In slow motion, his finger squeezes against the trigger, and in slow motion, I see the bullet leave the chamber. It spins toward me in a slow spiral.
I don’t know if I’m screaming.
I close my eyes, waiting for the bullet to hit me. I hear a muffled thud, but don’t feel the impact.
I take a shaky breath and open my eyes.
Lying directly in front of me on the road is Marlen.
This time, I do scream.
Bolting toward him, I grab his jacket and use all my strength to roll him over onto his back.
Blood gushes from his side, and I lean over, pressing my hands against the wound to try and stop the bleeding. He groans in pain, his face knotted into a grimace.
Looking up, I search for help. Desperate. Terrified.
The boss man is dead, and Jaroslav and Diomid are running toward me.
Jaroslav kneels down next to Marlen and pulls his shirt up to see how bad it is. Behind him, other cars are arriving. My other brothers and the Abashins.
“You’re going to be ok, man,” Jaroslav says, standing up and offering Marlen a hand.
“No, he can’t move, he’s bleeding,” I yelp.
“It’s ok, Stef. I’m ok. I had the wind knocked out of me,” Marlen groans as he takes Jaroslav’s hand and lets him pull him to his feet.
“More than wind… you’re bleeding!” I say again, rushing to his side to slip my arm around his waist.
He chuckles dryly and leans against me, not for support, but more to be close to me. His arm is locked tightly around my waist.
“You need an ambulance, Marlen,” I insist.