Ivan’s thick brow furrows, “I thought you’d want to get rid of her as soon as possible. You said so yourself. And you aren’t exactly in the right mindset to be watching over her. You can barely take care of yourself nowadays.”
His disapproval of me doesn’t matter, all that matters is Sophie’s safety.
“I don’t really give a fuck what you think Ivan. All I care about is Sophie and if you try and take her from me…I’ll…” I don’t want to say it, because I’m not one hundred percent sure what I’ll do but it won’t end well for anyone, especially not him. Sophie’s my new drug…the most potent drug of all. The only thing that matters to me now is keeping her close so I can keep her safe. I don’t give a fuck if she makes my heart beat out of my chest, or my stomach twist into knots.
There’s no point in protecting my heart, not when she already owns it.
“Okay…okay, she can stay with you, but only if she wants to that is. I can’t make her stay with you Roman, and I won’t.”
As we roll up to the compound, I turn to him, “You won’t have to make her. She already knows I’m the best man for the job.”
Two hours and many broken bones later Andi finally starts talking. I think up until now he still believed that I would let him go. He thought that I would spare his life because we have been friends for so long… except he stopped being my friend the moment he put his hands on Sophie.
“Please, man, they’re gonna kill me if I tell you.” Andi’s pathetic plea rings in my ears.
“You’re going to die either way…whether it’s painful and slow or pain free and fast is up to you.” Those are the only two options he has. I will not allow him to walk out of here alive.
“Okay,” he says, defeated. “Some guys walked up to me at the club the other night. Asked me if I wanted to earn an easy hundred grand. They asked me if I knew you, then told me all I had to do was get you drunk and disable your alarm system. I was told they just wanted the girl back. They said you stole her from them, you and your brother. They just wanted the girl. I didn’t think you would give a shit about her…you’ve never gotten involved with anyone.” With every word that comes out of his mouth, my need to kill him mounts.
“Who are they?”
“I don’t know, man, I swear. They didn’t give me a name, and I didn’t ask—” I cut him off with a fist to the face. His head bobs to the side, and he spits out some blood and along with a tooth.
“Don’t worry, you won’t need your teeth where you’re going,” I snarl, pulling my fist back once more for another punch. Right as I’m about to land another blow, the door opens, and Ivan walks in.
Blood is splattered across his white, button-up shirt, and sweat beads against his forehead. He looks just as hungry for blood as I am.
“I’m done with the other fucker, and I got all the information I need to know who’s behind this.” Ivan’s tone is emotionless, about how I feel. His gaze moves to Andi, then back to me.
“Kill him so we can go home.”
“I guess we don’t need you anymore.” I shrug my shoulders as I speak to Andi.
He stares up at me from the chair he’s tied to, his eyes scared and desperate. I don’t feel the least bit bad for him. Ivan passes me his gun, and I point it at Andi’s head. I don’t even think as I pull the trigger. Just another dead body—another threat taken care of.
His head snaps back unnaturally far. The sound of his labored breathing is replaced with the dripping of blood to the concrete floor. He should be thankful that his death was quick, because if I didn’t have Sophie at home waiting for me, I would have taken my sweet time killing him.
Out in the hallway we strip out of our blood-stained clothing and dress in something Ivan brought down from his room. We have Ivan’s men deal with the clean-up and head home as fast as we can. By the time we get back to the house the sun is just coming up over the horizon.
Ivan takes Violet home right away and the guys leave shortly after that, leaving Sophie and I standing in the living room.
“I’m going to reset the alarm system,” I tell her with my arms wrapped around her tightly.
She tilts up her face so I get a full view of her big blue eyes. “Okay, I was thinking about making some breakfast if you are hungry.”