His Father

I look down the barrel of the gun, wishing this would all just be over.

Sargent doesn’t reply, of course he doesn’t, it’s Maddox. I’d never expect him to choose his son over me and Maddox is my life. I’ll never give him up either.

Yaroslava lowers the gun and an evil smirk creeps across his lips and flashes in his brown eyes that are just as soulless as his daughter’s. “Perhaps he needs a little more incentive?”

Nastya claps her hands and nods to Stone. “Have him fuck her.”

My teary eyes go to Sargent who looks at me, panicked and likely as terrified as I am.

“I don’t rape women, not my style,” Stone states, raising a hand as his eyes too come to me. “Doesn’t get me off.”

“No matter,” Yaroslava says with a shrug and I feel the bald-headed bastard’s hand in my hair again. “Sergei loves to take women.”

“No,” I yell when he clamps an arm around my waist and brings my back to his body. I struggle, clawing at his arm as he holds me tight. “Let me go.”

“The couch will do, Sergei.”

Sergei turns me and grins in my face. My body hits the couch with a jarring thud that sends pains shooting through my neck, burning the muscles that protect it.

“Let me go,” I beg. “Please… stop!” I kick out as he grips my jeans and rips open the button without so much as a yank. The little metal circle hits the wood floor and rolls away.

“If you don’t take your hands off her…” Sargent yells as my jeans are tugged down. I feel the air hit my rear as I try to crawl away.

This is humiliating, terrifying, I don’t want to be here anymore. Just end it. It needs to be over.

“That’s enough,” Stone bellows and I feel his hands under my arms, yanking me off the couch and away from the guy that smells of petrol.

He glares at us both as Stone pulls my shaking form into his side, bending to slide my jeans back up to hide my modesty.

“I won’t be a party to this, Yaroslava,” he snarls. “This is not how we do shit. Not in my fucking city.”

“Such sensitive little creatures in the States,” Nastya says while rolling her eyes.

I heave when I see Sergei palming himself over his trousers. My hand grips the back of Stone’s shirt. I’m going to faint.

“You already have the name, you already know who has done this so why fucking toy with an innocent woman?” Stone yells.

“Innocent?” Nastya laughs loudly, her tone a screech against my humming eardrums. “She’s as innocent as us. Did you know she killed her father and brother when she was only fourteen years old? Murdered them in cold blood. Hardly innocent.”

When eyes come to me at that revelation I shrink away. It wasn’t my fault. I didn’t mean to kill them.

I concentrate on Stone’s aftershave and how it smells sweet, but also spicy. It’s helping me breathe. I just focus on that and nothing else.

“It was self-defense, Nastya,” Sargent replies, glancing at me but I look away before we connect. I don’t know how he knows but I suspected he might look into my past. It’s not like it’s a hidden record. “She paid her dues.”

“Whatever.” Nastya waves him off and looks around, bored.

Stone shifts secretly and I feel his hand under my ribs, he presses something on his side, something hidden by his clothes. “Yaroslava, you had to know the drug thing is a bust, you made millions out of shipping shit out of the country. It’s time to find a new way. We got cocky. Greedy, even, and it was our downfall.”

Yaroslava glares at Stone as he spits, “Are you forgetting who you’re talking to, boy? I’ve been running this operation since you were in diapers! My loyalty to your club is the only reason I’m not putting a fucking bullet in your skull right now!”

“It’s true, Yaroslava, you might think I’m speaking out of turn but I told you to stop at the drugs, then you brought weapons into it, even missiles. It got too much. Somebody was gonna find out at the rate you were shifting shit, doesn’t matter who anymore. It’s done. It’s over.”

“That’s all we need,” Sargent says, and it sounds completely out of context.

The sound of glass shattering and bullets flying echoes through the next few moments, distorting reality as Stone pins me under his body. I don’t scream, I can’t even breathe. I want to vomit and faint as men storm the room, the feds.

Bodies drop, bullets fly, people grunt and cry but then it all goes silent.

“Oh shit,” I hear Stone murmur and I look up again, just as Yaroslava cries, “NASTYA!” He starts sobbing in Russian as he cradles her to his chest. Blood flows from her throat and even I find the moment emotional.