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“Oh but aren’t you busy?”
“Later I have to head out for a couple of hours but right now I am yours to command, my queen. How can your humble servant serve you?” Her responding giggle was everything I needed to hear. How I loved this woman.
Chapter 7
Gianna
I just finished showering when my phone rang somewhere. I tensed. No one called me, ever. I ran out of the bathroom, rushed to the living room, and looked for my phone. Just as I found it under the throw pillow on the couch, it stopped ringing so I checked the missed calls and saw Patrina’s number.
Something must have happened if she was calling me. I returned the call as I walked back into the bedroom to put some clothes on. “Gianna,” she says the moment the call connects. “I need you to come here right away. Hurry. It’s Momma.”
The line went dead, and a feeling of dread collected in my stomach. What happened to Momma? Why didn’t Patrina tell me anything more? I tried calling her again, but she didn’t answer, so I threw on the first clothes I found. I tried to call Kostya but it simply rang.
So I took my phone and purse and ran out of the apartment.
It never dawned on me that the guards weren’t guarding the door. It should have. When I got to the street, I started looking around for a taxi, too distracted by all the possibilities of what could have happened to Momma to notice the car that was stopped right in front of me. “Gianna!” I hear my father’s voice coming from the car. “Let’s go.” He opened the passenger’s door, and without thinking it over, I got inside the car.
The sound of doors locking makes my head snap up to glare at my father, who is regarding me with malice in his eyes. “Gianna,” he sneered and backhanded me with such force that I blacked out.
~~~*~~~
Konstantin
I was just parking my car when my phone pinged with an incoming message. Thinking it must be Gianna, I opened the message and my blood turned ice cold. It was an image of Gianna sitting in a metal chair, hands tied behind her back. She was looking up, probably at the person who took the photo, her face a mask of anger and fear.
A big red bruise covered most of her cheek, her lip was split, and a thin line of blood trailed down from the corner of her mouth. The phone in my hand rang, showing Aldo Zima’s number. “I’m going to kill you, Aldo,” I growled the moment I took the call. “I’ll make sure it’s slow and painful.”
“I’ll send you the address. You come alone or I’m going to hurt her.” The message with an address somewhere in the suburbs arrived after he cut the call.
I put the car into reverse and floored the gas pedal. I immediately called my brother and ordered, “Meet me at the address I’m sending. Aldo has taken Gianna.” I hung up as fast as I called and quickly sent the address. Aldo wanted me to come alone but I was stupid. My brother would bring our best men and surround the place as I dealt with Aldo. Even if he killed me, he would never escape alive.
It took me far too long to reach the run-down house on the outskirts of town. It was a crumbling structure surrounded by overgrown grass and weeds. Two cars are parked off to the side. The door hung open barely hanging on its hinges. Two men stood on either side of the door, and another beside one of the cars.
I sent a quick message to Nikandr, providing him with intel and instructing him to get here right away. I took my gun fromunder my seat and headed toward the house. It was time to get my wife back.
~~~*~~~
Gianna
I watched my father as he leaned back on the boxes across from me, holding a gun in his hand. He wouldn’t kill me, I knew that much. Aldo might be a bastard, but he wouldn’t kill his daughter, would he? It suddenly hit me that I wasn’t sure what he might do.
I had no idea what was going on, but it was evident that something happened. Something big because I had never seen my father in this state. The suit he wore was in shambles. His carefully slicked-back hair was in disarray, and even though his posture was relaxed, the hand on his knee was trembling slightly as his thumb tapped his leg in a fast pattern.
I knew his tells. He was angry, but based on the look in his eyes, he was also scared. Not good. “I had everything planned. It was perfect,” he said, looking at the wall behind me. “Every single detail. It was brilliant! Pull the Bratva into a war, and then take over everything. A wedding shooter was supposed to take out Leonardo as well as Konstantin. He ran scared of the Russians. Stupid idiot.”
I just stared at him in shock. Our whole family was at that wedding! They could have killed us. Did he even care?
“I was so confident that everything would go as planned until your husband blew up my warehouse last night. A hundred million. Gone. Leonardo probably knows already. I’m fucked.” He looks down at me, and a crazy smile spreads across his face.“But I’m not going down alone. I’m going to kill that son of a bitch husband of yours if that’s the last thing I do.”
The sound of a car approaching reached my ears, and my blood ran ice cold. No. Please God, no. I tugged harder on the restraints I’d been trying to untie for the past thirty minutes. My right wrist was already raw. I just needed to loosen the rope a little bit more and I’ll be able to pull out my hand. A shot rings out in front of the house. Two more follow in quick succession.
“That bastard.” My father stood up and walked towards me. I leaned back in the chair to hide my hands from his view. He stopped on my right and raised his gun to my temple just as Konstantin burst in through the door. Our gazes collided, and for a moment, all I could do was watch him frozen there, seemingly in perfect control on the outside. His eyes focused on the gun at my temple. “Did you kill my men?” my father sneered.
“Yes. Let Gianna go. This is between the two of us, Aldo.”
“I don’t think so. I think I’d prefer to have her watch. It’s all her fault anyway. Isn’t it, Gianna?” He looked down at me with such hatred that my breath caught in my lungs. “You just couldn’t do as I said. I was so thrilled when I heard you would be marrying the Pakhan himself. Oh, the plans I had. You know, I wonder . . . do you know why they call him Konstantin the Monster?”
“Aldo, don’t,” Kostya said, his eyes never leaving me or the gun at my temple.
