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Five years later…
“Mudak!”
“Come on, kitten. Don’t be mad at me. You were the one who said you didn’t want any drugs.”
“You gave me a baby with a giant head and now I have to push it out!” She lays her head back on the pillow, exhausted after three hours of pushing. “I can’t do it anymore.” I see tears form at the corner of her eye, and my heart breaks.
“You’re almost there, kitten. A couple more good pushes and the baby will be here.”
The doctor is encouraging and has been an amazing coach. She’s talked Nika through the worst of the pain because she knew her plan was to tough it out. I’m thankful she’s here because I feel powerless.
I need to help Nika see through the pain and to focus. Leaning over, I get close to her face, wiping away the sweaty hair that’s stuck to her forehead. “Zhena.” She looks me in the eyes after I say the Russian word for ‘wife.’ “You can do this. You’re the strongest woman I know.”
“I’m scared, Samuel.” My heart clenches, but I have to be her rock now. I can’t let her feel afraid.
“Is my wife afraid? Because the Nika who took down those two wrestlers in Mexico by herself because she refused to wait for my backup wasn’t scared. The Nika who jumped from the top of a building to the next because her husband was ‘slowing her down’ wasn’t scared. The Nika who took a stray bullet outside a gator farm in Florida but still managed to carry that skip kicking and screaming out of a swamp wasn’t scared. And the Nika I met in the bar of the Blue Diamond casino, that Nika who stole my wallet, watch, and then my heart sure as hell wasn’t scared.” She smiles at my words, a tear falling down her cheek. I hold her face with both hands and try to give her all of my strength. “Now you tell me, kitten. You gonna toughen up and bring our baby into this world, or you gonna sit here scared?”
She grits her teeth and nods her head, letting me know she’s focused. When the pain gets to be too much, fear can take over and that’s why I’m here. To remind her that she’s a badass and can do anything she damn well feels like.
I let go of her face and she turns her attention back to the doctor. “Let’s do this.” She grips the sides of the bed and takes a few short breaths before bearing down and pushing hard.
“That’s it, Nika. Push, push, push!”
I knead her lower back with my fist, helping with the contraction and mentally cheering her on. She can do it, she’s got it.
She lets out a cry at the same time the baby does, and we all breathe a sigh of relief. Leaning down, I take her face in my hands and kiss her hard. Our tears mix together as we both hear the sound of our baby crying for the first time. Quickly, we break apart, anxious to see him or her. We didn’t find out beforehand. We wanted a surprise.
“Congratulations, Mom and Dad. It’s a boy.”
The doctor passes our baby boy over to Nika, and she wraps her arms around him, and I wrap my arms around them both.
We decided after last year when Nika got shot it was time to hang up the cuffs. Luckily for both of us, it just grazed her leg, but the thought of something worse sat hard with us. We’d been talking about wanting a baby for a long time, and this was just the sign we needed. Our families had pushed for us to stop long ago, but we wanted it to be on our own terms. After that it wasn’t a hard decision.
Nika and I moved back to my home because we wanted to be close to family when we had kids. Nika’s mom and dad followed, settling down a few hours away from us, wanting to be close to their grandkids when we got around to having them. It didn’t take me long to put my baby in her, and Nika says I’m too proud of that fact. I just keep telling her my seed is strong, and she rolls her eyes.
Now after the doctor has left and the nurses have taken care of everything, we’re left alone with our son. I’m laid on the hospital bed beside Nika, cradling her and our baby next to me. I couldn’t possibly be more happy and in love than I am right now.
“Samuel Viktor,” Nika says, gently touching his cheek.
“It’s a strong name. I think it will suit him if he’s anything like his mama.”
Nika looks at me and smiles. Seeing how happy she is makes everything worthwhile.
I kiss her forehead and tuck her under my chin, looking down on my little family. I know the rest of our families will be in here in a few minutes, so I’m just enjoying the quiet time with just us.
I couldn’t be more thankful for meeting Nika and having her as my wife and partner. She’s my rock, my world, and my reason for living. I give her another kiss on her forehead and entwine our fingers. One day I hope to find the words to tell her all of this, but until then I’ll just keep showing her.
THE END
The Final Fall
Viktor and London
The Final Fall
It's been two and half years since we released Taking the Fall and it's finally time! After all the begging and pleading... Viktor is finally getting his story.
We hope he's worth the wait!
Chapter One
London
“I thought he’d be here by now,” I mutter to myself, looking down at my paper. I stare at the sketch of the man who holds my thoughts and makes my heart flutter.
Letting out a breath, I close my pad, dropping it down onto the bed. The more days tick by, the more I think he’s not going to come. I know three days doesn’t seem like much time, but over the last year he’s watched me every day. From the moment I first noticed him, he’s never missed one.
He’s always in solid black, which includes his buzzed hair and his eyes, so brown they’re black. But I can never get close enough to be sure. Everything about him is dark and mysterious, but somehow it pulls me in. His face never shows emotion, and I have a need inside me to draw it out of him. The need grows every day and now it’s become a deep ache.
I watched him as he watched me and wondered where he was going and what he was doing. I knew it couldn’t be something good. One look at my mystery man and you’d know he was up to something dark.
The first time I saw him I thought maybe I was seeing things. Why would a man like him be following me? But he watched me constantly, and though it was strange, I grew to love it. I looked forward to spotting him each day.
Sometimes he would watch me all day. Once I even tested it by going to the park with my lunch and drawing pad. I lay out on a blanket and he stood off by a far wall, never moving. I swear he was utterly still. It should have scared me, but the more he watched me, the more I wanted him.
Maybe the old saying is true. Good girls really do want bad boys. But my mystery watcher is all man. Either way, to the people who know me I’m the “goodest” of them all. The girl who volunteers at the hospital. The girl who helps when anyone asks. The girl who works at the biggest church in town as the secretary to the preacher—my father.
I walk over to the window and look out at the lake. I’m also a little shocked my father hasn’t shown up here. He has to know I‘m here. I reach up and touch my cheek where he’d slapped me when he found out I was taking off for a little. He even called me a little whore and asked about my drawings of the man. I had no idea he’d seen them. I don’t know why I was shocked he’d done it.
My father rules with an iron fist, which I assume is why my mom ran off when I was little, too early for me to even remember her. I saw a picture of us once when I was digging in my father’s desk for a pen. She was holding me close, kissing my chubby cheeks. I was about three in the picture, if I had to guess. I look just like her. Blonde hair and bright green eyes. It’s clear as day we’re moth
er and daughter. She looked happy holding me, so I wondered why she left me behind with him.
After my mom left, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents from my father’s side. I loved it there. I would spend whole summers with them while my grandma and I cooked and Grandpa took me fishing.
As I got older my father’s church started to grow. He thought it was time I came home full time. I thought he just wanted to use me as a prop, and he did at first. Then he had me take over the church accounting.
It was bittersweet at times. I love a lot of people at the church, and getting to help those in need filled a place in my heart. But that was during the daylight. Behind closed doors, my father’s real personality came out.
He’s cold and puts me down for the smallest things. I think it’s because he’s taking more money from the church than he’s supposed to be. And he knows I know. I’d thought about saying something once, thinking maybe he’d get in trouble and I could go back to Grandma and Grandpa’s. That dream was short-lived, though, when my grandparents passed away nearly days apart. I’d been sixteen at the time.
Grandma had a heart attack one day, and Grandpa died the next. They never could ascertain the cause of his death, but I think he couldn’t live without her. They were always so in love. I looked up to that. Wanted that. I’d never felt more alone than when they passed.
What made me finally hate my father was the funeral. He spoke about how much he loved them and would miss them. He was a liar. He hated Grandpa for a reason I would never know. To me and Grandma, he was wonderful. Nothing about my father ever seemed to add up.
That’s the reason I came out here to my grandparents’ place. I needed some space. I hadn’t been here since they died and I missed it. It could be why I haven’t seen my mystery man in days. I assumed he would find his way here, just like he always finds me, but apparently, I was wrong.
