Gavriil (Stepanov Mafia)

After we had sex, Samantha went to her bathroom to shower, and I crawled into bed. A few minutes later, she pulled back the covers and slipped in next to me. I wrapped my arm around her middle. I ran my hand down her stomach, expecting there to be a bump even though she was only a few weeks along. She probably wouldn’t begin to show for a few more months.

We fell asleep that way, my arm wrapped around her, and her body curled back against mine. But at some point in the night, I woke up to the sound of my security alarm. The noise wasn’t obnoxious, just a low humming, almost like the vibration of a cell phone, but I was a light sleeper, and it woke me up immediately.

Sam was still sleeping next to me, her chest rising and falling in slow, even movements. Being pregnant had made her much more tired than normal, so I didn’t want to wake her for what was probably a false alarm. I slowly slid my arm off of her and got out from beneath the covers. As soon as I stepped into the hallway, I saw two members of my security standing in the first-floor entrance hall below, one of them punching in the code to disarm the alarm system. I padded down the carpeted stairs.

“What’s going on?”

They both turned around. “Sorry the alarm woke you, sir. There was no time to turn it off.”

“Did someone try to break in?”

Nikolai nodded. “There were two men in dark clothes. Based on the weapons they were carrying, I don’t think they were common thieves.”

“Were they hired killers?”

“They couldn’t have been professionals,” Nikolai said. “We were able to confront and shoot both of them before they even got over the gate. They didn’t even fire back.”

“Good work. Where are they?”

Eric blanched slightly, looking nervous. “Well, they must have had a getaway car nearby because they ran and escaped before we could reach them. However, there was blood splatter on the back of the fence, so I know we hit them. I doubt they’ll try coming here again.”

“I want to see the tape.”

I turned and walked to the security room at the back of the house. It had been a large linen closet when I’d first moved in, but all it took was ripping the cabinets out and installing a wall of monitors to turn it into my security station.

I found the monitor dedicated to the backyard and the outside gate and rewound. The two black shapes moved quickly in reverse until I hit play. I watched as the two men walked up the grassy embankment behind my house and approached the gate. One of the men tried to scale the eight-foot fence first, falling down in the process. Nikolai snickered when the man fell on his ass, but I was too busy trying to identify them. I didn’t like the idea that someone was attacking me, and I didn’t know who.

“Do either of you recognize these men?” I asked.

Nikolai and Eric shook their heads, Eric adding, “It is too dark to see anything useful. And they never made it over the fence, so we didn’t get a good look at them in person.”

One of the hooded men pulled out a small saw and began cutting the lock off the fence so the door would swing open even without the combination. However, he was only halfway through the job when Nikolai and Eric charged into the backyard, guns aimed at the back gate. I saw the muzzle blast from Eric’s gun, and then Nikolai’s followed. The two men stumbled back, clutching at their torsos, and then stumbled back down the embankment the way they had originally come.

“You were right about one thing, they were certainly amateurs,” I said. “So, the question is, why would they want to kill me? Or, why would someone who wanted to kill me hire such buffoons to do the job?”

Nikolai and Eric looked at one another and then back at me, not sure if they should respond or not. I sighed and dismissed them.

“Keep an eye on the monitors tonight and wake me up as soon as anything happens. I want to be part of the next fight should there be another one.”

“Yes, sir,” Nikolai said.

When I got back to my room, I slipped out of my sweatpants, so I was just in my boxers again, slid beneath the covers, and sidled up against Samantha again, her warm body against my front.

She sighed in her sleep. “Is everything okay?”

I ran a hand down her side, loving the slope of her hip beneath my fingers. “Perfectly fine, baby. Go back to sleep.”

Her breathing quickly grew heavy and regular. I listened to her inhales and exhales until, soon, we were both asleep again.