AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He looked to be around the late 40s or early 50s, and he was tall, like the other men, probably around six feet or so and just as powerfully built. With his buff body, silver hair, styled short at the back and longer on top, and a well-groomed beard, he was what my romance authors would describe as a silver fox!
He oozed power. I could see he was a man who was used to being in charge by the way he quickly assessed his surroundings, taking note of everything and everyone. I suppose the air of absolute authority the man projected was a must for a Mafia boss. Miki projected the same sort of air. In fact, all of the guys did, though to a lesser extent.
Glowacki was dressed in a dark, well-fitted, and incredibly expensive suit, with a white shirt and blue tie to match his icy blue eyes, which I swore could freeze you on the spot if he wanted them to. Thankfully, those same eyes warmed when he was introduced to us ladies, and there was a definite playful twinkle in them that spoke of all sorts of naughty things.
Glowacki’s son Dariusz was a younger and darker version of his father. He was another handsome man, but he had a more open, relaxed air about him. I found I liked him instantly. It was obvious Ash liked him too by the way they embraced in a man hug, clapping each other on the back.
Both Glowacki and his son were charming to all of us ladies when introduced, but I couldn’t help noticing the way Janusz Glowacki looked at Marta or the way he clasped her hand a tad longer than he did anyone else’s. I also didn’t miss her sharp intake of breath or how she blushed when she looked at him.
It looked very much to me like Glowacki and Marta had an instant and mutual attraction. That might be a good thing; he was a widower, and she was a widow, so they already had something in common.
Marta was Ash’s youngest aunt, only thirty-eight years of age. Marta was the daughter of his grandfather with his second wife, and so was his dad’s much younger half-sister. She lived in Russia with her older brother, Maxim.
Apparently, she was married when she was very young and lost both her husband and son in a car crash a few years later. She had never quite gotten over it, Ash said. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how losing your husband and child in such circumstances would affect someone. Glowacki lost his wife to cancer, but his son was murdered as well, so that was something else they had in common.
I was definitely basing one of my characters on Janusz Glowacki. In fact, I decided he’d make the perfect love interest for my female lead’s older sister. Actually, I thought I might base her on Marta. Oh yes, I couldn’t wait to make that a nice side story. They had looked so good together. It would be a tragedy if they didn’t somehow get together, even if it was just in my book.
Although, from the way it looked, they could very well write a story of their own. Perhaps it was my newly loved-up state, but suddenly, I was noticing little hints of attraction between people. Romi and Sonia, Claire and Luca, and now Glowacki and Marta. It could just be me projecting. However, I hoped I was right, and at least some of the people got it together. Being in love was wonderful, and I wanted everyone to feel as good as I felt.
The mere thought of love had me thinking of Ash and wondering how he was coping. None of us women said anything when the guys headed off to attend to business, but we all knew what that meant. Lev Petrov was being released, and that meant the guys would be dealing out some of their brand of revenge.
I couldn’t help feeling nervous and worried for Ash. I knew Miki would have it all under control, but I didn’t know if Ash could keep himself under control.
I looked at the blank page on my laptop and sighed. I badly needed to distract myself from my worries about how Ash was coping, and I really wanted to get some writing done, but my mind wasn’t cooperating. It just wasn’t quite ready to write anything yet.
So, instead, I took a quick run to the kitchen and grabbed a coffee and a cute little cupcake before returning to the library and curling up on the sofa there. Once I was comfy, I sipped my coffee, nibbled my treat and thought about the last time I enjoyed cupcakes. Naturally, this brought my thoughts back to Ash again. He rarely seemed to be out of my thoughts recently.
He would find today difficult, I knew that, because no matter how good it might be for him to finally get revenge on Lev Petrov, he still carried so much guilt inside. Then, of course, the family now knew there had been more people responsible for Krissa’s death than they had initially thought, and that meant the closure Ash had expected to find by killing Petrov wasn’t going to happen.
I wondered how he would deal with it? Even if everyone, including himself, believed he was more in control of his anger recently, he could still easily spiral out of control. I’d been able to soothe him before by distracting him. I decided it might be a good idea to plan a few diversionary tactics for later in case they were needed. Great idea! My inner devil shouted. I smiled, lay back against the sofa, closed my eyes, and let my imagination wander free as I planned exactly what some of those tactics would be.
An hour or so later, I was frantically typing my first sex scene. All that thinking about Ash and planning an evening of intimacy for us inspired me to create another for the characters in my story. Initially, it had been a bit strange and awkward writing that kind of scene, but I soon got into it and quickly lost myself in my writing again for a few hours.
CHAPTER 32
ASH
THURSDAY - FINALLY GETTING PETROV
Once we arrived at the C, we retrieved Petrov’s unconscious form from our vehicle. He was hidden in a body bag, which was how we usually brought our live victims to the C. That way, if anyone saw us, they would believe we were simply staff moving a dead body into the crematorium.
Vlad and Marko took him from us into the main room. They had arrived previously and were already in disposable suits.
We quickly changed ourselves and entered the main room, glad to see Petrov had been woken up. I was excited to finally have this bastard under our control. It was way past time he was made to pay for what he and the Nowack brothers had done to Krissa. I couldn’t wait to get started on my revenge. Unusually, though, I realised that I wanted it over with quickly.
I didn’t want to prolong things. I had always envisioned spending hours over days torturing Petrov and thoroughly enjoying my revenge. Yet, as I saw him strung up before us, I found that I no longer wanted that.
Instead, I wanted to get back to Gracie, get the rest of this shit over, and then focus on spending the rest of our lives together. I no longer took any pleasure from any of this and realised that just killing the fucker was enough. Gracie had given me something more in my life than the revenge that had kept me going these last two years, and although I still needed the revenge for a certain level of closure, I no longer craved it in the same way I once had.
I felt myself wishing to just slit the bastard’s throat and have done with it. However, we needed information from him, so I took out my favourite stiletto knife and got started on making the rapist bastard sorry for ever touching my sister. It didn’t take long, and he had spilt everything he knew.
Once we had all the information we could get, Miki and Marco got in a few hits. Then Glowacki and Dariusz took turns punching and cutting him. He had been planning their downfall and to take over their business, so they had a right to their revenge, too.
Finally, we were done, and he had succumbed to blood loss. It only took a few hours. In the end, I wasn’t the only one who did not want to draw things out.
I was pleased that I handled it all without spiralling out of control. Gracie’s presence in my life made me a calmer person. So much so that I managed to remain in control despite everything we had learned from Petrov.
Even though it had been awful to hear, I was glad we now had the full story about Krissa’s kidnapping and murder.
