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"And she was lost in the fire?" His pitiful voice weighed my heart down with a frown.
"Yeah… It was a freak accident, one of our client liked wax play and had a candle lit. There was a jug of gasoline that had spilt earlier in the day and wasn't cleaned up properly, and when the candle got knocked over, everything just lit up." The flash memory of that night made me shudder as my body erupted in goosebumps at the phantom feeling of flames licking the scarred areas of my body.
I tried to keep myself together, but my voice cracked. "I tried to save her, but the flames took her before I knew it. She was just there one second then gone the next. I didn't think I was going to make it out of there, to be honest. I got blocked in by some collapsed beams. I crawled into a corner, cowered, and accepted my fate before I passed out because of the smoke. So, it was a damn surprise to wake up, alive, in a hospital." I forced out a dry chuckle as the survivor's guilt started to pull me under.
"Hey." My body jolted at Stepan's touch on my thigh. "Don't. There was nothing you could do if she wasn't there. You tried. You're here and she's not, and that is fine. Don't feel guilty. If she's not here to enjoy life then enjoy your life for her. She's probably out there watching you, so live a good life for her to watch." His strong fingers stroked at my inner thighs as he squeezed me softly.
Unable to help it, I let my smile spread. Dropping a hand from the wheel, I laid it over his and held it tightly. "You know, you make it hard to be mad at you." I remarked before reaching over blindly and smacking him on the chest.
"Good, because you can be terrifying when you're angry." No doubt our chase left a good lesson on him. "Where are we headed anyways?"
"Into the city. There's been a problem with one of the new businesses not wanting to comply with the new rule. So, just gotta bash a few heads." And get these pent-up emotions out of me before I blow; if I did blow, Stepan would most likely be the receptacle.
"Is it just you or are you meeting others there?" Stepan continued to question, his hand finding mine and interlocking our fingers.
"Just me, it's just a small little crew if anything. No one should be around the business but the boss and some stragglers. Going in there shooting would have been more than enough to get their compliance, I mean, that works most of the time." I've only done this a hundred times. Besides, my reputation was usually enough to have people backing down when I set foot somewhere.
"Chertov ad. YA rad, chto zastavil tebya vzyat' menya s soboy." Stepan muttered in his spot.
"What?" Unfortunately, my Russian was very limited still, and probably for a long while because I was never a good learner. Hell, I'm surprised I retained what I have learned, which were a bunch of cuss words and hot things to rile Stepan up.
"Nothing, just glad I'm with you then." He spoke a little too quickly for my liking, but I could do nothing about it.
In hindsight, going alone was probably a bad idea. Even though I wasn't too ecstatic about Stepan tagging along earlier, now that my head was out of the clouds, I could see it was a good decision on my part.
BANG! SLAM!
"Gospodi, blyad', Gospodi." Stepan uttered in shock behind me after I kicked the man into the door, breaking the door down in the process.
Everyone, meaning the five men playing poker at a round table, turned their heads towards me and reached for their guns, only to stop short when Stepan released a warning shot into the table they sat at.
I'd already pumped myself up in the car before entering the area; the adrenaline had buzzed and dulled my senses to where I felt as if I'd fly into some roid rage. But all of that disappeared in a hair of a second when my eyes landed on a particular man at the table. Dread drowned me like a tidal wave, and I felt myself grow sick to my stomach again.
"Oh my, Nana, you've grown so much." The man spoke with a sick smile that further churned my stomach.
"D-don't call me that! That's not my name… That's not me." I snapped with a backstep, bumping into Stepan, who wrapped his arms around my waist to steady me.
"YA tut, u menya ty malen'kaya." He whispered soothingly in a low voice that made his chest rumble. "You want me to put a bullet through his head now or later?"
"Later. I want him dead now. But I wanted to burn him like he loved to do to Nana." I could barely get my words out in an audible voice as I shook like a leaf against Stepan.
"Who's in charge and who's the idiot who's been giving my brother and his wife grief with business?" Stepan's strong voice took command of the room in a suffocating manner.
Silently and shakily, a man next to my nightmare raised his hand. The moment his hand went up in the air, three shots rang out in succession of each other, and the other three men slumped over onto the table with holes through their brains.
"Are we going to have a problem with you and your business going forward?" Judging from the smugness in his voice, Stepan probably had an unhinged smirk and look in his eyes.
"N-no, no problem from me, I swear." The man looked ready to piss himself, and I wouldn't be surprised if he did from how terrified he looked.
"You." Stepan trained his gun onto the other man, making him flinch. "Get up, you're coming with us."
"Listen, Nana—"
The name made me wince involuntarily. "I said to stop calling me that. Stop calling me her, I'm not her."
Why does everyone keep calling me that? Calling me her? I'm not her!
Chapter 40
