AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Now, despite her speed and agility, she had nowhere to go and nothing to do. I outweighed her substantially enough that she couldn’t move as I wrapped a hand around her throat and slammed her head into the wall. I leaned in close. “You’ve seen what I do to the people who betray me,” I snarled. She opened her mouth, gasping as if she’d somehow get enough air. I crushed her windpipe beneath my hand, feeling the familiar spark of satisfaction as she clawed at my hand. “You’ve never seen what I am truly capable of. You tried taking the one thing I love from me, and you’re going to pay for it.”
She gurgled, and I squeezed tighter, feeling something pop beneath my hands.
“How does it feel knowing that you took your last breath without savoring it?” I asked. “Is your vision getting dark? I’d bet your lungs are burning.”
I released her throat for just long enough for her to take a long breath, and then I latched back on again. Tears streamed from her eyes, and I savored every second of it.
“Viktor,” Ciara cried, and I looked over my shoulder at where she shook her head. “Don’t kill her.”
“She had no problem killing you,” I snarled. Her nails on my wrists felt like a reward—a future battle scar from saving my woman when she most needed me. “She deserves it.”
“We’re not like her.”
Ciara was only partially correct in that assumption. She was nothing like Nadia. She was decent and cared about the people around her, even when they wronged her. I, on the other hand, wanted to watch this bitch suffer.
Her scratches grew less structured as her limbs slowly fell and raised as if she was fighting to stay conscious. I pushed her away and allowed her to topple to the floor as I turned and rushed toward Ciara. I gathered her in my arms, sucking in a deep inhale. Her scent clung to her hair, and every part of her called to me.
“Are you hurt?” I asked.
She shook her head, clinging to me just as roughly as I did to her. We were the only ones who existed at the moment. It was only Ciara and I. Feeling her in my arms was enough of a reassurance that I’d succeeded in keeping her safe. I’d tried to do this the technical way to start. I’d requested meetings and been diplomatic about my requests, but that was over. I was a feared mob boss for a reason, and I wouldn’t let my wife go through something like this again.
“Viktor,” Ciara said, pure terror in her voice.
Instinctively, I shielded her body with mine as I turned, finding that Nadia had moved. She’d crawled toward her gun and pointed it at me with vicious eyes. “You’re both going to fucking die then.”
A gun exploded, and I expected to feel the bite of a bullet. It didn’t matter when I knew that Ciara was safe behind me, but rather than flinching backward, I watched as Nadia screamed and blood exploded from her hand.
She pulled it to her chest with a scream as Damien strode into the room.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Ciara Gilroy
I couldn’t bring myself to react to anything that had just happened as my eyes veered between the gun on the floor, Nadia’s bloody hand, and the gun that Damien held as he snarled down at his sister. I tried to listen to the words spoken, but I was hopeless to catch anything as my mind roared from the adrenaline and fear that had consumed every ounce of me.
At some point, Andrei came into the building, too, but I didn’t know when it happened. I only knew I sat on the ground, curled inward into myself as Viktor held me and Nadia screamed. Damien said something down to her, but I couldn’t focus on it as I closed my eyes and waited for all the noise—all of the fear and dread to fade.
I’d thought I was going to die.
But just as Viktor had promised me, I hadn’t. He’d kept me safe.
I felt as Viktor scooped me in his arms, and I buried my face in his chest. Rather than taking me out the front door of the unfinished house, he brought me onto the mezzanine, tucked back into one of the few rooms with drywall hung. And then, rather than sitting me on the floor, he sat and allowed me to remain on his lap. I leaned into him.
“Tell me what you’re thinking, Solnishko,” he said into my ear, gently running one of those strong hands through my hair.
The same hand that had been wrapped around Nadia’s throat and prepared to take her life.
The same hand that had held a gun and shot her in the thigh.
The same hand that had killed countless people.
Somehow, despite it all, I couldn’t bring myself to fear that hand as I allowed him to run it through my hair.
“I didn’t think I’d survive this.”
“Do you not trust me?” he asked.
“More than anything,” I assured him, shaking my head. “But… she had a gun. She was ready to use it, and you weren’t here. I thought you’d be too late. God, I hate guns.”
