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"Blyat'!" Frustrated, I let go of the rifle to step back and shake out my hands.
The recoil from the shot shook at my aching body to the point where I couldn't keep hold to continue. Hell, I couldn't even pull the pin to disengage the spent casing from the damn thing because my hands shook so much from the blowback.
"Bratik, I think that's enough for today." No doubt Lev's eyes were as concerned as his voice if I were to look back at him.
"I still can't fucking shoot for shit." I gritted out, lashing my arm out and knocking over my rifle that was set on the table.
I didn't even need to look at the target up close to know I missed my mark. Even though I had everything lined up perfectly, there was a slight tremble by the time I pulled the trigger because of my weakened body; I didn't handle the recoil well either—as in, I didn't handle it at all.
"Stepan, you're even lucky to be up and shooting a damn rifle in the first place given that you're barely three months out on recovery. You're lucky you're not getting knocked on your ass with the recoil. So, stop taking it so hard on yourself." Nikolai chided me with a sigh and shook his head. "Honestly, take it easy."
"I fucking can't!" I snapped, banging my fist onto the table with a growl. "I'm sick and tired of being cooped up at home, I can't fucking work out or go for a run like I want, I can barely handle a handgun again, I can't fucking shoot a damn rifle like I'd been doing since I was fucking eight! I'm tired of being weak and useless!"
My chest heaved heavily with my angry breaths. "I should have been more careful that night, I should have seen the ambush coming from my position and warn you guys. I should have seen it all coming and act accordingly."
"Stepan, you really need to stop beating yourself up for it. Shit happens, and you noticed it in time to effectively take out a whole lot of them before shit went down on your end." Nikolai's attempt to get me to ease my shoulders went in one ear and out the other.
I still blamed myself for that night. Everything happened because I didn't keep a close enough eye out. If I'd noticed the ambush against the main group, then I wouldn't have been so distracted with my slight panic, and I would've noticed the group of men approaching me from behind; I didn't even notice the shooter right under me from my perch in the tree until he shot the first bullet into me which knocked me out of the tree.
"Bratik, take a break, go out to the cabin with Hanna for a few days or weeks, just get away from all of this." Lev's suggestion sounded more like a command, which irked me slightly in my current state.
Widening his stance and crossing his arms, Nikolai gave me an authoritative look. "Lev's onto something, you just need to remove yourself from any kind of work with the company and bratva business. We'll be more than fine with you taking a little vacation, and Lev can handle the company just fine with the rest of us as backup in your absence. You're going to be no good to anyone like this, so go reset yourself." With the stern tone he used, it meant 'go, or I'll make you' with no room for debate.
"Styosha?" Hanna's voice snapped me out of my budding anger.
"Hon." My body broke out in shivers at her touch on my bare arm. "We're just all worried about you. I know you're frustrated, I understand, but you can't keep doing this, you're only going to make things worse and draw out the recovery period if you keep pushing yourself like this. I understand you want to get back to normal, but this isn't the way to go about it."
Letting out a heavy exhale, I place my hand over Hanna's and stroke the back of it with my thumb as I let my eyes settle on her worried face.
Well, this would be the best forced vacation ever or the worst. Either way, I was going whether I wanted to or not.
Fuck it.
Chapter 47
Hanna
"Hanna! This isn't fair!"
Humming cheerfully to myself, I pretended to ignore Stepan's protests from the bedroom where I had him tied to the bed frame. I might be the brat, but sometimes he needed a kick in the ass as well.
"Unless the next few words are 'I'm sorry' or 'please forgive me' or something along those lines, I ain't listening." I reminded him from the kitchen as I busied myself making breakfast for us.
I couldn't help but chuckle to myself when Stepan let out a long groan. "Are you seriously going to leave me tied in here if I don't?" Two could play the stubborn game, and I always won when push came to shove.
"What do you think? You left me tied to the bench for nearly the whole day until I became delirious from orgasming as a punishment." Leaving him tied would be child's play compared to the punishments he doled on me.
Stubbornly, Stepan held out for longer than I credited him for; I finished with breakfast and got in a quick workout before he finally caved. I expected him to last until about halfway through my breakfast, but I guess I underestimated him.
"Malenkaya, I'm sorry, okay?" He groaned with a deflated huff.
With a triumphant smirk on my face, I made my way to the bedroom up on the second floor of the cabin from the living area and leaned against the doorframe with my arms crossed. "For?"
"For disobeying doctor's orders and trying to push myself when I shouldn't, now please let me go, please." Stepan weakly tugged at his bindings while looking at me with pleading eyes. "Tigress, please."
My smirk widened into a devious smile when I noticed a shiver run down his body when I stalked up to him with my head held high. "Something tells me you don't want me to untie you quite yet." As if pointing out the obvious, I snapped my eyes to the tent in his sweatpants. "What were you thinking about?"
Slowly, I trailed a finger up his leg, stopping right at the base of his hardened member to draw lazy circles up and down his covered length. "You know it was supposed to be a punishment, so why are you hard, hm?" Laying down on the bed next to him, I propped my chin up on an elbow while keeping my other hand occupied with teasing his throbbing length.
