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They didn’t see the headlights coming toward them until it was too late. A car smashed into ours, sending my mom partially through the windshield. My dad’s head smacked into the steering wheel. The doctors later told me they’d both died instantly.
I stared at my parents in shock. Everything got quiet around me, and the only thing I could hear was my breathing. I was fine. Not a scratch on my body.
And just like that, I was an orphan.
After the ambulances and the police came, after I was told my parents were dead, after I ran away from the cops who wanted to take me into protective child services, I showed up on the doorstep of Grigor Smirnoff.
It didn’t take me long to find him. I just asked around in an area of the city that was full of criminals. He was a tall, rigid man, who looked down at me from his upturned nose before asking me who I was.
I told him who my parents were, and he nodded and motioned me inside. Since then, the mob has been my life. My family in a twisted way. Then Smirnoff died, and I took over.
A lone wolf again, making my own way in life.
* * *
That was,until I met Gemma. Now, I know what it’s like to experience love, and I never want to lose it again. But the cold reality is settling over me. Gemma can’t stay here, not now that I love her. I can’t see her get hurt or, worse, killed because of me.
When Gemma blinks her eyes open, I feel like I can breathe again. “Gemma?” I rush to her side.
She looks around for a moment before trying to push herself up. She winces.
“Hey, don’t move.” I help her lie back down on the bed. “You hit your head hard, but you’ll be ok. Trust me.”
A rough breath escapes her. “That’s good because this thing hurts like a son-of-a-bitch.”
I chuckle. Even in pain, Gemma can still say something snarky and make me smile.
“Wait. Viktor.” She clutches my hand, her eyes wide. “My family? I remember Franco coming after us, and then I fell, and everything hurt. Are they ok?”
“That I know of, yes.” I pause. “Gemma, there’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”
She pauses, a wary look, before she responds, “What?”
This is it. I’m about to do something I never thought I would do.
Be the good guy.
“I think you should return to your family.”
She blinks before a worried smile tugs at her lips. “Ok. Funny. Where’s the punch line?”
“There’s no punchline, Gemma.”
She frowns and pushes herself into a seated position, even though I can tell it pains her. “What are you talking about?”
“I know how much you miss them.” I run my finger down her cheek. “So, maybe it’s time you return to them.”
“Wha—Why the change of heart? Something tells me you’re not doing this out of the goodness of your heart.”
I sigh deeply before looking at her head on. “You could have gotten seriously hurt today. Today of all days. You’ve been in shootouts with me and never gotten hurt, but the one day we decide to go to Coney Island to have normal fun is the day you get hurt.”
“I don’t understand …”
“You weren’t waking up, Gemma,” I snap. She frowns. “I thought for a moment that you might never wake up again. And it would be because of me.”
“But it was Franco who came after us.”
“Because I took you, and he wants to kill me, and you got caught in the crosshairs. I’ve never feared for my own life. And up until today, I never did for you, either.”
