With This Ring

“What are you doing?” I whispered.

“Move!” he ordered. “Move away from the door right now.”

I looked towards the madman and saw that he didn’t seem to have any problems with Maxim’s request. So I took one step to the side, and when I saw that he didn’t react, I hurried over to Britney’s side.

Maxim moved away too, and to my surprise, stood as a shield in front of me and Britney. I cradled poor blameless Britney and prayed for this nightmare to quickly come to an end.

The madman began to move, slowly and carefully and soon he was at the door.

“You can leave. I won’t do anything to you,” Maxim said.

The man stood there uncertainly. Then he lifted his gun and pointed it directly at Maxim.

Suddenly, I knew then that things were going to go sour.

“Move out of the way!” the man yelled. “I didn’t come for you, Ivankov. I have my orders.”

So he did know who Maxim was.

“Well you’re not getting to her unless you go through me.”

“I will shoot you!” he roared.

“Do it. You know the consequences,” Maxim replied. I had never seen anyone look as torn as the gunman. With a heartbreaking look at us, at his failure, he turned and ran for his life. Maxim picked up his gun and was out of the apartment in a flash, after him.

The life was nearly squeezed out of me. “Come back!” I yelled to him. “Why the fuck are you going after him?”

I ran to the door but before I could leave Britney cried for my return.

“Please don’t leave me,” she begged and I instantly went back to her. I sat by her side and rocked the both of us. I was terrified for Maxim. I felt as if I would die if anything happened to him.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Maxim

“You’re not staying here,” I declared, the moment I returned. “Pack what you need, you’re coming to my house.”

I thought she would argue against the idea, but hoped she would have been scared enough not to. I was grateful when all she said was, “I’m not going without Britney.”

“You can bring her,” I said, relieved.

They grabbed the things they needed and in a short trip later we were back at my home. They were shown different rooms by our housekeeper Mariah, but Mariah said both girls decided to stay in the same room. I realized they were both gravely shaken and it made me even more furious at the attack. I was about to enter the meeting with my head of security when Levan called me.

“I just heard,” he said, his voice muted, probably so as not to alert Bianca.

“Everyone’s alright,” I quickly established.

“Fuck,” he swore. “It must have been so hard on them. It was just a few months ago that I was in deep shit, and now this? Why does this stuff keep happening?”

“The common variable is women,” I pointed out sarcastically.

He laughed. “I don’t even know what to say to that.”

His laughter unwound me a little bit and I began to look at the situation with a little less heat. “I’ve got to go, but I’ll give you the details tomorrow.”

“Sure, but why did you go over to Freya’s place? I was told that you were already there. Did you know something was going to go down?”

“Goodnight,” I responded, and put an end to the call.

Then I walked into the study and listened to my men brief me about how they let the gunman disappear into thin air. As for the driver, he had apparently crashed his car during their pursuit of him and been injured and knocked unconscious. My men couldn’t do anything but drive on as a police car arrived almost immediately on the scene.

“We took his photo. Through that we should be able to find out more.”

I felt irritated, angry and disappointed. What would have happened tonight if I had not been there? Was this what I was paying top dollar for? And what about Igor’s men? Were they asleep on the job as well, or had they relaxed because my men were on the job? Were both teams slacking off because they assumed the other team was on it? I decided then to tell Igor to pull his men off. I knew my men were better. They just needed a damn good kick in the ass.

Then I let my team see my extreme displeasure. Roman was white-faced by the time I was finished. More security devices were put in place and the meeting came to an end.

Restless and disturbed I went upstairs. I stopped outside the room Freya and Britney were sleeping. There were no sounds coming from inside and no strip of light under the door so it was safe to assume they were sleeping. I didn’t want to knock in case I woke them up, but I needed to see that everything was okay. Quietly I pushed the door open, no more than a crack, and in the darkened interior saw the shapes of their still bodies on the bed.