Naomi.The screen lit up a moment later and I shook my head, a wry smile on my face. It really couldn’t be that easy, could it?It didn’t take me long to locate a cache of pictures in a folder, and it was as I suspected. He had taken numerous photos of that day, some with my face fully visible.Fuck me.I let out a slow breath as I dragged the entire folder over to the recycling bin and permanently deleted it. The pictures were still on the hard drive, but I was going to make quick work of that in short order as well. I should just take it with me, but I wanted the fucker to know what I had done.To know he didn’t have a chance in hell of beating me or getting my wife.After I finished with the photos, I turned the laptop over and unscrewed the back, finding the hard drive. A few well-placed stabs to the fragile board destroyed it, but I wasn’t done. I carried the laptop over to the kitchen sink and threw it in, pulling out the revolver that was stashed in my jacket and extracting one
NaomiA Few Minutes EarlierI stared at the gun on the nightstand before glancing at the clock beside it. Gavril had been gone for nearly two hours, and I was starting to grow concerned that he had found some sort of trouble out there.Had Jon been home when he had gotten there, and now Gavril was lying in a pool of blood?I didn’t want to think like that at all, but because of what was going on around us, I had to.After all, Gavril wasn’t going to just walk away from a chance to kill Jon, and I couldn’t blame him.Sighing, I reached over and picked up the gun, turning it over in my hands. I didn’t really like the feel of the cold steel in my hand. The gun implied violence, violence that I wasn’t sure I had in me to kill someone.Years ago, when Jon had snuck up on me at a club and scared me, I had attempted to take some gun safety courses in hopes of getting my concealed weapons permit. I had vowed it would be the last time he would have the opportunity and have me not be armed.Even
NaomiFlipping the locks, I opened it cautiously, holding the gun out before me as Ilsa had shown me.“Naomi! Where the fuck are you?”I flinched, Jon’s angry voice echoing off the walls. Based on the trajectory of his voice, he was still downstairs, which meant that I had to keep him from coming up the stairs.“Naomi! Get your ass out here now, before I kill this bitch!”Vera. Oh God, he had Vera!My knees shook as I walked out of the room, looking over the railing. It wasn’t even an option for me to think about staying in that room now, knowing that he had one of our own.She hadn’t asked for this. Jon was my issue, my baggage that I had brought to this family, and it was mine to try and eliminate from my life.Sure enough, Jon was standing in the middle of the foyer with his beefy arm around Vera’s neck and a gun in his free hand. I gasped as I saw Ivan’s body behind him, a puddle of rapidly spreading blood under his body.Was that the shot I heard earlier? Did Jon really feel like
NaomiI grabbed the gun off the floor and fired quickly, not caring if my bullet killed him as long as it struck him.“Naomi,” Jon growled. “I thought that your bastard of a husband would have taught you how to properly handle a gun.”A small chunk of the wall exploded near my face, and I realized that Jon was shooting back at me.He was shooting at me.With a cry, I ran down the hall, knowing that I was trapped either way I went unless I was going to take him head on. It was clear to me that he wasn’t just looking to take me now.He wanted to injure me, perhaps even kill me.I couldn’t let that happen. I had to protect the child inside me from this madman.“Come on, Naomi,” he called out as he turned the corner. “This is futile, and you know it. There’s nowhere for you to run or hide for long.”I just had to buy some time before Gavril showed up. He was coming. I had no doubt that he was coming to kill Jon if I didn’t kill him first.When I reached the end of the hall, I turned back a
GavrilI charged into the bedroom, horrified to see Naomi naked on the bed and Jon standing before her. Fuck, I was too late.Jon spun around, and I knocked the gun out of his hand before he had a chance to pull the trigger, tackling him around the waist and sending us both to the ground. The ride from his apartment had been gut-wrenching, and I had steeled myself against what I might find when I arrived, half hoping that Jon had been at least delayed from entering the house.I had been wrong. The bodies were piling up around this fucker, but my wife wasn’t going to be one of them. I was going to make sure of that.Jon tried to push me off him, but my fist connected with his jaw, the force bruising my knuckles. “You fucker,” I growled, landing another punch to his nose. “You touched my fucking wife!”He brought up his hands to deflect my hits, and one did a chop to my side, the breath leaving me only momentarily but still long enough to give him the upper hand. He dumped me off him and
NaomiI couldn’t think. I could barely breathe. In an instant, the entire situation had turned upside down, and now I was dealing with the love of my life bleeding out all over the carpet. “Gavril,” I tried again, swallowing the emotion that was built up in my throat. “Please. Tell me what to do.” His face was so unbelievably pale, pain etched into his gorgeous eyes, and I was worried.No, I was more than worried. I was terrified that he was going to die right here. I had watched him fight the bad guy in my life, my heart in my throat, as I knew that Gavril would come out on top. He was stronger, faster, smarter than Jon could ever be, and the glacier look in his eyes told me that Jon was a dead man even if I hadn’t shot him.Oh God, I had killed someone! The thought caused my throat to close up before I forced the feeling aside. Jon had deserved it. He had deserved everything he had coming for all the pain, all the hurt, all the killing he had done in his lifetime. When the knife had
GavrilI opened my eyes to a dull sun shining down at me, my body feeling sluggish. Lifting my hand, I saw that there was no blood on it and when I looked down, I realized I wasn’t bleeding out on the floor of Naomi’s bedroom any longer.Instead my clothing, my suit, was pristine, no sign of the trauma that I had just tried to endure.Fuck. Was I dead? Was I in hell?Pushing up off the floor, I saw that there was a haze to everything no matter where I looked, just a cloudy, empty void that stretched as far as I could see.I had to be in hell. There was no way I had done enough good deeds to make it to the man upstairs. He would bar the pearly gates if I even attempted to approach them.Another thought crossed my mind, and I felt the fear rise up in my throat. I had died. I had left Naomi alone when I had promised not to.Life had a cruel, cruel way of shitting on me, it seemed.A cool rush of air brushed over me, and when I turned, I stumbled back a few steps.“Hello, Gavril.”My mouth
NaomiI ran my fingers over the ivory keys, keeping my touch light so I wouldn’t press them down. Had it really been just yesterday that Gavril had sat here, playing his songs for me?It seemed like a lifetime ago, and now I wasn’t even sure I would ever hear him play again.A shudder sliced through me and I rose from the stool, unable to sit still for a long period of time. The basement was the safest place for me, Oleg had stated. After all, bodies littered the mansion and its grounds, now being cleared away by the Bratva that was left.It was a pitiful crew, no more than ten or twelve men, but they had come running the moment Oleg had let them know that their Pakhan was on death’s door. Even from my vantage point, I could hear them moving things upstairs and didn’t want to think about what would be left.Vera was gone. I wouldn’t see her pinched face anymore or have her give me strength when it was least expected. I thought about our last conversation and how she had begged me not