Chapter 25
Not to brag, but I was alive when you could slam the phone down to hang up on someone. It was spectacular.
— Auden to Athena
AUDEN
I didn’t expect the trigger of the gun to be pulled the moment our eyes locked.
Nor did I expect the way a gunshot would hurt.
I mean, yeah, logically, I fully expected it would hurt to be shot.
But the burning pain that accompanied the bullet tearing into my face?
No , I never would’ve expected that kind of pain.
I fell backwards, twisting my body awkwardly, as the sound of the bullet leaving the gun sent a shockwave through my ears.
My eyes couldn’t focus, and there was ringing in my ears.
Dizziness started to overtake me, and it took all I had to keep rolling out of Scott’s line of sight.
I could feel warm blood leaking down my face, and my adrenaline was spiking so fast inside of me that I couldn’t think straight.
“ Lucky ,” Scott drawled. “ I was hoping you’d take that one right to the eyeball.”
I gritted my teeth and rolled some more until I was behind the couch.
I heard the door to my place get pushed open wider and cursed my stupidity.
There I was worried about Maven this morning, and I should’ve been just as worried about myself.
“ What do you want, Austin ?” I snarled, army-crawling on the ground, hoping beyond hope that I could make a mad dash for my kitchen without him catching me.
“ I want a little… oh,” he said. “ Look who it is. My non-sister.”
Stomach clenching in knots, I army-crawled farther so that I could see his face between the couch and the recliner and saw him smiling down at his boots.
Now or never…
I went up on my toes, keeping crouched low, and ran.
I didn’t hear whatever else he said to her on the phone.
However , it was as I got to my room and realized I didn’t have my phone that I understood what I’d done.
This morning, I’d had my phone in my hand.
I’d dropped it on the floor next to the entryway.
God dammit .
I picked up my gun, checked to see if it was loaded, and whirled around to the door, moving until I was in a more fortified position.
Heart in my throat, I waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Just when I was about to lose my patience, I heard the footsteps.
“ Don’t shoot me,” I heard an unfamiliar male voice say. “ I incapacitated him.”
I froze.
“ My name is Shasha Semyonov . I’m gonna slide my ID down the length of the hallway to you.”
He did just that, right into a puddle of my blood.
“ Shit ,” I said as I came out of my room, gun still slightly raised.
I saw him standing in the mouth of the hallway, hands up.
I dropped the weapon and said, “ Not that I’m not happy to see you, man, but…”
“ Why am I here?” he asked. “ I found out we had located our sister yesterday. I’ve been looking for her for what feels like my entire life. Of course, I’m going to come down the moment I hear she’s alive.”
He had a point.
“ I thought you were going to wait for her to come to you?” I asked.
“ We were gonna,” I heard a female voice say. “ But you know, Semyonov’s patience is atrocious.”
“ I have to get some pants on,” I said. “ Can you call 911?”
I came out five minutes later, fully dressed, with a hastily slapped 4X4 gauze pad on my face— I hadn’t had the courage to look at the wound. I was scared of what I’d find.
“ Could’ve lost your eye,” Shasha Semyonov said.
“ Feels like I kind of did,” I admitted, offering him my semi-clean hand.
“ It’s your chin,” he said. “ Nowhere near your eye.”
“ It’s my cheek,” I removed the pad. “ Along my cheekbone.”
“ Bluster . Looks worse than it is,” he said.
My brows rose. “ How would you know that?”
“ Because I’ve been shot a time or two in my life,” he replied cryptically.
“ Let me up, motherfucker,” Scott fumed.
“ Absolutely not,” a different female voice from earlier said. “ You’re about to experience hell.”
Older .
Much older.
Maven’s grandmother, Jessa .
“ Grandma ,” the female voice from earlier said. “ How about we introduce ourselves before we offer any more violence?”
“ Oh , my manners are atrocious, aren’t they?” she said in the frailest voice I’d ever heard. “ I’m Jessa Semyonov . This one is Shasha Semyonov , my eldest grandson. And this beautiful girl here is my granddaughter Milena . Nastya and Dima are at the bakery. We decided to divide and conquer so we could find her faster.” She held out that frail hand, and I took it gingerly, scared I would hurt her with just a forceful breath.
“ It’s nice to meet you,” I said. “ Though I wish it’d been under different circumstances.”
Jessa’s brows rose. “ I know who you are, because we had our private investigator look into you in the twenty or so hours we gave him upon hearing about Mar … Maven being alive. But how about you do the introduction thing anyway, just for propriety’s sake.”
I liked her a lot.
“ You remind me of her,” I let her hand drop. “ I’m Auden Carter , and your granddaughter is the love of my life.”
Maven’s grandmother beamed. “ I only pass my best traits down to my grandchildren.”
Shasha scoffed. “ What about that drinking gene that Nastya likes to blame on you at least once a week?”
Jessa snorted. “ That’s just silly. Her drinking is recreational, not an issue.”
My lips twitched.
“ Someone needs to let me up before we have problems.”
Jessa looked down at the worm on the floor.
Her doing that reminded me of why my fucking face hurt so goddamn bad.
He’d shot me. He’d tried to kill me.
I reached for my phone and called in legitimate backup.
When I was done relaying the information, Jessa had an odd look on her face.
“ What ?” I asked.
She looked over at Shasha , then back to me. “ Oh , nothing.”
Her words had me curious, but the throb of my face had me letting the curiosity go.
“ I’m gonna run to the bathroom and check this out,” I said. “ Can y’all handle him?”
“ You might want to change your clothes so that when my sister sees you, she doesn’t lose her shit.” He paused. “ That is, of course, if she reciprocates the love of your life thing.”
“ You’re not her brother, I am,” Scott snarled, trying in vain to make an attempt at taking Shasha out, and failing.
Miserably .
And who was the one that kept the attack from happening?
Jessa Semyonov .
She delivered one swift kick right to Scott’s nose, and he was out like a light.
“ Gran ,” Milena sighed. “ How many times do I have to tell you not to choose violence? You’re not the same young girl you used to be. You could seriously hurt yourself.”
“ I have steel toes on, Milena ,” Jessa grumbled.
I looked down and, sure enough, she did have steel toes on.
How had I missed that before?
I shook my head and left the three of them bickering, wondering what it was about them that let me know they were more than capable of handling Scott on their own.
Hell , even if Jessa was alone, I’d trust her to handle Scott .
The question was, what did they do that gave me that impression?
I was halfway through getting my face cleaned up when I heard her.
I winced, looking at my face, and realized that there was nothing to be done for it.
The police department, and Brooks himself, had arrived while I was getting cleaned up.
So had the ambulance.
The medic was currently cleaning off my face in the bathroom, with me sitting on the edge of the claw foot tub, when Maven’s worried cries filled the room.
“ Auden !” she cried out again.
I tapped the woman’s shoulder. “ Give me a second.”
“ Hey , you’re only losing blood. What do I care?” she quipped.
I ignored her and pressed the gauze I was using in between her cleaning back to my face.
Maven rounded the door of our bedroom just as I hit the mouth of the bathroom.
She took one look at me and went gray.
“ I’m okay,” I told her. “ I’m okay.”
She took a step toward me, and her knees went wobbly.
I had her in my arms in two steps, pulling her into my chest right where she belonged.
“ Baby ,” I said. “ Listen to me.”
I heard her sniffling into my throat and squeezed her lightly. “ Your brother intercepted Scott’s attempt at murdering me.”
She stiffened.
“ Nothing else happened besides this,” I promised.
“ What is this?” she whispered brokenly.
I swallowed, definitely not wanting to admit this part but…
“ A gunshot wound,” I said.
She sounded much steadier when she said, “ To the face?”
“ He had the gun raised before I could comprehend,” I admitted. “ It was stupid. I know better than to do what I did today. Years and years of training went out the window because I was sleeping.” And thinking about you. “ It’ll never happen again, I swear it.”
She pushed lightly at my chest and said, “ Get that fixed up enough that it’ll ride. We’re going to the hospital.”
I stepped backwards into the bathroom and said, “ I’ll be quick.”
“ He’ll be done when he’s done,” the paramedic said shortly.
Her temperament left a lot to be desired.
But I liked that she was thorough.
Her nametag read ‘ Howe ’ and I was curious of her first name.
Not that I would ask her.
She looked ready to murder me.
I sat back down in my spot.
She cleaned me up for the next ten minutes until she was satisfied with her work.
It was as she was gathering up her things that I heard rapid fire Russian coming from my bedroom.
I glanced out of the bathroom doorway to see what had to be the other Semyonov brother—they all looked a lot alike—in my bedroom on the phone. He was halfway between me and the door, staring at me. Yet he was speaking in Russian so fast that one syllable flowed right into the next.
“ I wonder what he’s saying,” I mused.
“ He’s telling whomever he’s on the phone with to get a private investigator on the ‘fake brother’ who just assaulted his sister’s fiancé,” the medic replied.
I looked at her. “ You know Russian ?”
“ I know Russian ,” she confirmed.
“ What’s your first name?” I asked.
Her eyes narrowed. “ Don’t you have a fiancée?”
“ Not a fiancée. Yet .” I grinned. “ But I have a brother who’s just as grumpy as you.”
She and Garrett would be perfect together.
No joke.
“ I’ll pass,” she said. “ But thanks for thinking of me.”
I also noticed she hadn’t given me her first name.
She shouldered past me with her large bag.
The brother, whom I assumed was Dima , stepped out of her way, allowing her to pass.
Once we were alone, he ended his phone call and stared at me. “ My sister is currently about to be arrested if you don’t get out there and help.”
Any hint of Russian was gone, replaced with a man who sounded so solidly American I never would’ve assumed he knew a second language, let alone one he spoke with perfect clarity.
I ignored my curiosity and headed out of the room, finding Maven screaming her head off outside, windmilling her arms and legs as she tried in vain to get to her ‘brother’ who was sitting on the dirt next to one of the squad cars.
My brother, Garrett , held onto Maven easily—it wasn’t hard to do when she was so small and cute.
Boss watched from his perch next to my mother, tongue lolling.
What was a surprise was to find the paramedic staring avidly at Garrett .
My lips quirked as I made my way into the fray, stopping in front of Maven .
“ You thought it was okay to shoot him in the face?” Maven screeched. “ I’ll fucking k…”
I covered her mouth before she could finish the death threat in front of a yard full of law enforcement.
She glared hard at me, then melted against my brother once she saw who it was.
“ Calm down, baby,” I said. “ Let’s go to the hospital so I can get this checked out.”
Her eyes filled with angry tears, but she nodded.
Garrett let her go, and I caught her hand loosely in mine and led her to my truck that was surprisingly not blocked in the driveway.
I’d just gotten her to the passenger door, and let her hand go to grab the door handle, when she darted out and ran full force toward Scott .
I cursed and started to follow her, but she turned out to be surprisingly quick despite her small stature.
Before I could say a word—and before the cops next to Scott could react—she reared back and kicked Scott straight in the balls.
Then she calmly turned and walked away, much to everyone’s stunned astonishment.
“ That’s definitely our sister,” one of the Semyonov sisters whispered.
“ If there were any doubts about who she belongs to,” Shasha said sardonically, “then there isn’t anymore.”
“ That’s my girl,” Jessa mused from her perch in one of the cop cars. “ Let’s go get a hotel.”
“ You can stay with us,” my mother offered. “ We have plenty of room.”
I didn’t hear the rest of it.
Not when Maven was back saying, “ Let’s go.”
My lips twitched. “ Yes , ma’am.”