41
“He’s a fucking piece of shit,” Grace mutters beside me.
Her hands are still on my back, making me feel even worse, but I’m already dry inside.
I have no more tears to shed. “I didn’t receive an invitation, and Sergei didn’t even mention it to me.
” She seems so lost in her own world that she doesn’t notice my confusion when I hear Sergei’s name on her lips.
“Sergei?” I ask. She whispers a curse under her breath before looking away, her cheeks flush.
“Sergi and I have something damn good going on, we just sleep together. It’s not serious.
” She bites her lip, still nervous. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, we want to keep it between us.
No one knows. Well, except for Alekei, but that’s because he caught us together that day at the bonfire.
” Aside from cheating on me, he’s hiding information about my best friend too.
“That’s great, Grace,” I murmur with a feigned smile, ignoring the twinge in my chest at hearing his name. “I thought you two hated each other.”
“Well, it turns out he goes to the same hotel as me on Friday afternoons to play poker.”
“Poker?” I repeat, holding back a smile. Those tears come back to my eyelashes. I’m not thinking about him, not much at least, and yet, I have a terrible urge to cry. Just when I thought I had no more tears left.
“I’m sorry, did I say something?” I shake my head and rest my head on her legs again. Despite my sore eyes and head I can’t stop. Why does it hurt so much?
“I hate him,” I whisper in a small voice.
“It’ll pass. Besides, if it makes you feel any better, he wasn’t that handsome.” I glance at her. “Well. Actually, he was, but he’s a lying traitor who deserves to die. I still have my hitman’s contact info if you need it.”
I let out a stifled laugh as I wipe the water dripping from my nose with my hand. Disgusting, I know.
“It seems hard now, but I know you’ll get through it. You’re much stronger than you think. I trust you and I love you…” Her voice trails off when she hears a noise behind the door.
Then she gets up and walks over there. I see her face change to a more worried one when she closes the door.
“The demonic Dracula is here.” My pupils dilate when I hear the nickname that my brother took upon himself to spread. My stomach twists again, almost making me writhe in pain. “I’ll tell him you’re not here. In the meantime, hide.” I nod in dismay, unable to think clearly.
Maybe he came to my house to look for me and found out that I know. What did he want? If he was planning to come with the usual thousand stupid excuses or ask me to take him back, the only thing he would get would be a kick in the balls.
I run to the wine cellar they have in the house, being as stealthy as possible. The good thing about this place is that it’s connected to the garage, and if anything happens, I could just escape through here. I wait sitting in a dark corner.
I don’t need to close my eyes for a million memories of him to flood my mind.
I still can’t believe that it was all a lie, that he only used me to get to my father and destroy him.
Was our previous relationship also fake, or were his feelings sincere at the time?
I bit my tongue hard, wanting to punish myself for being stupid enough to believe his words.
The marriage certificate he showed me… He had a lot of power, so it was more than possible that he had faked it.
My other thoughts are interrupted when I hear footsteps coming down the stairs.
It’s not Grace. She wears panda slippers.
I curse inwardly as I look at the button that opens the garage door.
It makes a lot of noise and wouldn’t give me enough time.
I would have to hide somewhere else while I figure out how to distract whoever came downstairs and escape.
I move my legs silently and lean my back against one of the many barrels, holding my breath as long as I can.
He doesn’t turn on the lights. Instead, he starts walking until the beginning of the barrel aisle where I’m at the very end. My heart is beating so loudly that I can barely hear the boots thumping on the floor, taunting me.
“Stop playing with my patience.” His hoarse voice echoes in the room. The hairs on the back of my neck stands on end as I sense the threat in his words.
I gasp when a bullet whizzes past me, piercing the wood of the barrel. Wine begins to pour out of the hole, forming a puddle on the floor. What a waste.
“Come the fuck out, Lena.”
I bring my hands to my mouth when I feel him closer.
Then he moves away and I wait a couple of minutes to make sure he’s really gone.
That’s when I slowly crawl out on the floor.
My hands end up touching something with a hard texture.
I lift my head and see the blue of his eyes looking at me amused, but without hiding his annoyance.
He kneels down until he’s level with me.
He lifts my face holding my chin. My body begins to tremble slightly with rage when I have his annoyed eyes this close to mine.
“Since when do you go out without your phone, huh? I’ve been calling you all afternoon.” I turn my face away, freeing myself from his grip, and get up without bothering to hide my anger.
“From the day you committed to someone else and hid it from me.” He tenses his jaw but doesn’t flinch. I guess he already knows that I know and doesn’t care in the least.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t talk to you about that now. We don’t have time.” My teeth are grinding together as I give him an incredulous look.
He just admitted to me that he got engaged to someone else behind my back and apologized as if it were nothing.
I want to slap him, but I don’t even have the strength to stand up.
My knees start to buckle and my eyelids burn with the warning of new tears that I avoid.
I back away when he reaches for my hand.
“Let’s go.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you. In fact, from now on, you can forget I exist. I never want to hear from you again.” I hiss with clenched teeth. He just smiles, making me clench my fingers into fists.
“You’re coming with me whether you like it or not. You don’t have any fucking choice anymore, your damn thinking time is over.” His eyes give me a creepy look as he spoke. He would almost intimidate me, if it weren’t for my anger being greater than any intimidation he could make me feel right now.
“Fuck you,” I reply before walking past him. He grabs my arm and turns me around. “Let go of me.” His grip isn’t strong enough to hurt, but it wouldn’t let me move.
When he tries to drag me with him, I move, almost desperate to free myself.
That desperation leads me to knee him in the balls.
I expect him to fall to the floor and start writhing in pain, like Jason does when I hit him during our fights over the last piece of cake left, but that never happens.
He just grimaces and closes his mouth again, clenching his teeth.
His arms clamp around my body, lifting me into the air and slinging me over his shoulder like a sack. I scream as loud as I can for someone to come and help me, but mostly because I want to piss him off and, if possible, break his eardrum.
“Shut up,” he mutters through clenched teeth as he settles me over his shoulder.
My breathing becomes heavier as I move nonstop on his shoulder, realizing that I cannot escape.
I spot something shiny tucked into his back pocket.
I stretch a little further and fish it out of his pocket.
It’s a gun. I point it at his arse, pressing the barrel against his trousers.
He stops dead and glances sideways at me.
“What are you doing?” He doesn’t seem scared, in fact, I’d say he’s pretty much enjoying himself. I take the safety off and continue to point it at him.
“Let me go or I’ll put a bullet in your ass.” He lets out a hoarse laugh then pulls me down to the ground, his hands now on my hips.
I don’t miss the chance to keep pointing it at him, this time at his head, and I look at him with a victorious smile that will last until he manages to take it away from me, but I won’t make it that easy for him.
“Put the gun down, lyubov’,” he murmurs, bringing his lips close to my ear. “These are not things you should play with.” His voice sends a shiver down my spine that I ignore, strengthening the rage in my eyes.
I clench my fingers around the handle in an attempt to distract myself from the dampness between my legs that the memory of how weapons ended up between us in the past brings.
In an instant, his lips are on mine, moving eagerly.
I moan when he sinks his teeth into my lower lip, forcing me to open my mouth for his tongue.
His hands now hold my face forcefully and won’t let me go, so I pull the trigger without seeing where I’m aiming or caring too much about hurting him.
When he breaks the kiss and his eyes look at me in bewilderment my heart crumples a little more for being the cause of his injury.
Then I think about his cheating and point the gun at him again, smiling broadly.
He moves a few inches away, bringing his hand to the spot of his leg that wouldn’t stop bleeding.
I pull away and escape before his hand reaches for my arm again, keeping the second bullet for the near future.
“Fuck! Get back here!” he yells, trying to walk faster even though he can barely take a single step.
I glance at him sideways, unable to bear the uncertainty of how he can move with a bullet in his leg.
I even fainted when I was shot in the arm.
Shaking my head, I ignore his growls and go up the stairs leading to the living room.
My mind swims in fear and concern as I see his men pointing their guns at Grace’s men while others search the house, turning it upside down.
I assume that something is actually someone: me.
They are all in black military uniforms as if they are army soldiers, and the rifles they hold so easily would intimidate anyone.
“Shit,” I whisper as I look for a way out.
They can’t see me because of the wall dividing the living room from the hallway where I am, but it’s only a matter of seconds before he comes for me.
I slide down the wall with my back, making my way to the door leading to the back garden.
I try to make my feet barely touch the floor until the point I’m almost levitating.
“I’ve already told you there’s no one here, you’re wasting your time,” Grace says to the men. “Hey, don’t go in there!” She paces back and forth, trying to prevent them from making a bigger mess in the house.
Our eyes meet for a millisecond, and she signals me with her eyes to run for my life toward the exit.
She doesn’t need to tell me twice. As soon as I start running I catch the attention of those armed men.
I leave a trail of heavy footsteps behind me.
My legs and lungs are burning because I can’t breathe properly.
Soon I would feel that sharp pain in my sides if I don’t stop to catch my breath, but I can’t.
All I can think about is getting into the bushes, thanking Grace profusely for living in a big countryside house.
When I think I have left them behind, I stop next to an apple tree to catch my breath. I freeze again when I hear one of them shouting in Russian as he gets closer to the tree where I am hiding.
I crouch down, hiding in the thick grass on the ground, and wait for him to get a little closer.
When I have his boots in front of me I kick him hard in both legs behind the ankle and he falls, dropping his assault rifle.
Now, this is what I call an upgrade. I murmur to myself, kicking aside my pistol to hoist the heavy assault rifle.
I swear it weighs a ton. I have to make a good effort at aiming it at the man’s head.
The man slowly gets up with a cocky smile on his lips that makes me grit my teeth in annoyance. I don’t waste another second to fire a bullet between his eyes. His body falls limp into the grass, leaving a wet puddle of blood on the ground. Glad I sent him to hell’s gates with a smile on his face.
Someone behind me puts a wet rag over my face, pressing a chemical-soaked rag over my nose and mouth.
I try to hold my breath and thrash, but the heavy fumes force their way into my lungs, making my vision swim.
I drop the weapon to the ground and start to struggle in that person’s arms until my vision blurs and all I can sense is darkness.
Once she faints in my arms, I toss the rag aside and lift her up. It’s not easy to carry her to the truck. With every step I take, I feel the bullet digging deeper into my leg, but I prefer that to someone else touching her.
“Fuck,” I hiss under my breath, watching the corpse on the ground. He was one of my best shooters.
After I head to the truck. Forgetting the body in Grace’s territory. Let it be a gift from me for her useless help.
“You can’t take her! Ray will find out about this,” she bellows in Sergei’s arms.
It’s not until I settle her into the back seat of the truck and sit down next to her that I order him to let her go. She immediately runs to us, banging on the car window.
“Motherfuckers! You and I will talk later,” she warns, pointing her finger at Sergei before the truck pulls onto the highway.
I put Lena on my lap, resting her head on my arms. She must have been really angry if she dared to shoot me.
“Aren’t you going to get that treated?” Denis asks, looking at my leg in the rearview mirror.
The pain turned into a pleasant tingling sensation, making me forget that the wound was still there. Gritting my teeth until my jaw aches, I use the knife to slice open my pants, plunging two fingers into the torn flesh to fish out the jacketed lead before tossing it out the window.
“That’s what will happen to you too if you decide to cheat on Grace,” he says again, glancing sideways at Sergei driving. “Although with how crazy she is, you’ll probably end up worse. Maybe dead.”
I take off my shirt and tear it in two, bandaging my leg with it to stop the bleeding.
Then I resume caressing her face, not caring that my hands are slick with my own blood as I resume caressing her face.
Her hands and feet are tied. She’s fucking dangerous when she’s pissed off and I’m not going to risk getting shot again or losing more of my men.
I pause at her right cheek and notice a redder than usual mark. As if she had been hit.