A Fated Night

by Kay Loren

  Audrina shook her head nervously. “No. I want to go to the hospital,” she stated in panic.

  “Okay,” Alek said as calmly as he could. “Let’s get you into the car and I’ll take you.”

  “I’ll come too,” Tatiana said.

  “No,” Alek said as he helped Audrina by the elbow as she clutched onto her stomach in pain.

  Tatiana did not listen and she quickly joined Audrina’s side and helped Alek lead her out of the room and out in front of the house where a car was parked out front. Alek helped Audrina inside and quickly climbed in the driver’s seat.

  “Stay here Tatiana!” Alek shouted when Tatiana slid in beside Audrina.

  “I’m coming,” she said. “Now you either go now or have her lose the baby.”

  Audrina gripped onto her stomach. She did not want to lose the baby. She could not lose this child. It was the only thing keeping her going.

  Alek growled and fired up the engine. He drove quickly and when the guards who were patrolling the front gates stopped him, he quickly spewed out for them to open the gates which they quickly obeyed when they saw Audrina in the backseat, her face ashen. He sped out of the gates as fast as he could.

  When they were driving down the long, desolate, dirt road back into town, Alek reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone.

  “What are you doing?” Tatiana asked.

  “Calling Nikolai,” he said. “He has to know what’s going on so he can meet us at the hospital.”

  What happened next, Audrina could not believe… Tatiana slammed the butt of her gun into the side of Alek’s temple, sending the car spiraling out of control on the open road. Audrina screamed as Alek slumped over the wheel and Tatiana quickly climbed over the backseat and on top of Alek, pulling the car to a stop.

  “What are you doing!” Audrina screamed when Tatiana climbed out of the car.

  For Tatiana to be thin and lanky she was quite strong, pulling Alek’s limp body from the driver’s seat and dumping him on the side of the road. Audrina tried to get out of the car to be by Alek but Tatiana raised the gun to Audrina.

  “Get in the fucking car!” she cried out.

  “Why are you doing this?” Audrina asked.

  “Do what I say now,” Tatiana said with a blank look and then pointed the tip of the gun at Audrina’s stomach. “Or I will shoot you in the belly.”

  The wild look in Tatiana’s eyes frightened Audrina. She quickly got into the backseat of the car and closed the door. Before Tatiana started the car up again, Audrina looked out the window, seeing the faint movement of Alek’s stomach go up and down. He’s alive! She shuddered when she thought of Konstantin and how he would feel if Alek did not come home.

  Tatiana reached for her cell and dialed a number. “Done,” she said and hung up the phone a few moments later.

  Done?

  Audrina instantly saw red and lunged forward, clawing her nails over Tatiana’s face, scratching and pulling her hair as hard as she could. Tatiana roared in anger and in the struggle between the two women, pulled the car to another stop. She turned and punched Audrina repeatedly with a closed fist and Audrina punched her back but Tatiana got the best of her when she hit her hard in the chest, igniting a pain in her.

  Next thing she knew, Tatiana opened the back door, pulling her out by her hair and slamming the gun to the side of her face. She muttered a curse in her native tongue close to Audrina’s ear just as multi colored dots came into her vision and she passed out cold.

  Her heavy eyes fluttered open seeing a bright light above her. When her eyes came into focus, she realized she was in a hospital room with an IV attached to her arm. She groaned trying to sit upright.

  “You are up,” a doctor with kind eyes smiled at her. She reached for the clipboard to her left and raised it up. “I’m Dr. Cruz. Do you know where you are dear?”

  “Hospital?”

  “Good,” the doctor checked off her clipboard. “Do you know why you were brought in?”

  “No,” Audrina said, feeling her head pound and pulse. All she remembered was riding in the backseat of a car and a man lying on the side of the road. I know him, she whispered to herself trying hard to remember. Then the doctor spoke cutting off her thinking.

  “The man who brought you in said that you were experiencing a bleeding and cramping sensation?” she stated with compassion. “He said he thinks you tried to drive yourself to the hospital but he found you on the side of the road. Do you remember any of this dear?”

  Her head was a cloud of mystery as she tried hard to piece together what had happened…

  Alek!

  Then she remembered. Audrina gasped and put her hand to her belly. “My baby? ”

  “The baby is fine dear,” Dr. Cruz soothed. “It’s normal to experience cramping and bleeding in early pregnancy but the tests we ran on you that have indicated what we call a ‘threatened miscarriage’. Now, the amount you bled was alarming I’m sure, however your cervix is closed and your ultrasound came out fine.”

  Audrina let out a shaky breath and stroked her belly.

  “And Alek?” she asked.

  The doctor ignored her question and continued.

  “I advise you to not use anything in your vaginal area and no sexual intercourse until cleared by a doctor,” she stated. “As long as you don’t fall or do any of the things I advise against, you should be fine. Your baby is strong. I have no doubt you will carry it to full term.”

  Audrina thanked the doctor gratefully.

  “What about Alek?” she pressed. “He was on the side of the road. Tatiana! Tatiana hit him in the head and she hit me too!”

  The doctor looked at her with furrowed brows and pressed lips as if she did not understand her.

  “Now I briefed your husband on your situation so he knows what’s going on,” she smiled soothingly. “I’ll come back to give you one final examination before I release you.”

  “No! Wait!” she tried to grab the doctors arm to get her attention. She had to know what happened to Alek! Before Audrina could correct the doctor’s mistake, she went pale seeing the familiar figure walk into the room.

  Michael…

  Chapter Thirty- Five

  “He’s not answering his phone!” Nikolai growled slamming his phone onto the dashboard.

  “I know my brother,” Sergei swore. “It’s not like him to not answer. Something happened. I feel it.”

  Nikolai wanted to tell Sergei to shut it but he too felt something was wrong. Alek always answered his phone day or night. Something happened.

  It had been hours since Alek had taken off with Tatiana and Audrina in tow. When he arrived through the front gates of his home, his guards told him that Alek had taken off with Audrina and Tatiana in a frenzy, nearly crashing through the gates to leave.

  They informed him that Alek was taking Audrina to the hospital, something regarding the baby but when they went looking for them, the staff told him no one by that name came into the hospital. He did not know what was going on. No one answered his calls. He was worried and furious all rolled into one.

  Not to mention the file that held Audrina’s documents and the whole reason he was in the D’Amuri and Cathan mess was missing. Everything he had and located before anyone else was gone. Sergei and him tore through his office trying to find the file but it was nowhere to be found.

  He was stressed and ready to blow up if things did not start adding up.

  “Is that?” Sergei said and trailed off, pulling the car to the side of the road.

  Vanya was already there with his headlights on but he was crouched down by the car. Nikolai quickly exited the car and went over to him.

  “What is going on?” Nikolai asked but then let out a breath when he saw a pool of blood on the side of the road.

  Vanya stood with a shake of his head. “I don’t know. But look at the tire marks,” he said pointing the flashlight in his hand to the road. “It looks like a car drove off the side of the road.”<
br />
  Nikolai tensed up. He put the tips of his fingers to his throbbing forehead and tried to piece together what could have happened.

  “Has anyone tried calling Tatiana?” he asked.

  “She’s not answering either,” Sergei stated.

  Nikolai noticed something thrown into the rubble on the side of the road close by the pool of blood. He walked over and crouched, picking up the shattered phone. He pressed the side button to see if it worked. The screensaver of Konstantin’s smiling face flashed through the various cracks on the screen.

  They were here.

  “Alek’s phone,” he said standing up.

  Sergei rushed over and took the phone out of Nikolai’s hand and let out a shaky breath.

  “My brother,” he muttered in Russian before his eyes took a hard glare. He gripped the phone tightly in his hand and shook his head. “Michael! I know he’s behind this!”

  The look in Sergei’s eyes was wild. His breathing was harsh and ragged as he let the thoughts in his mind consume him. Finally he looked at Nikolai. “I need to get to my brother! Before Michael kills him!”

  “And how are we going to do that?” Vanya asked. “We don’t even know where he is at!”

  The idea that sprang into Nikolai’s mind pained him to even believe it true for a second. He closed his eyes, reigning in his temper.

  “Tatiana,” he said to himself.

  Sergei and Vanya looked at Nikolai beckoning him to go on but he couldn’t believe how stupid he was. He thought back to the conversation he had with Tatiana when she first arrived to his home the day before.

  After they had talked over the possibility of him giving her a child and then her asking for a divorce, they turned to a different topic.

  “I hear you’re at war with the East crime families,” she said after they had sat down in his office.

  “And how do you know that?” he asked.

  “Word gets around in my bar,” she smirked. “I can’t believe you sided with that D’Amuri man.” She stayed quiet and looked at him with a frown. “Everyone thinks you’re stupid for doing that.”

  Nikolai shook his head and exhaled a cloud of smoke. “I have made a lot of stupid choices Tatiana, but this was not one of them.”

  “Tell me then,” she pressed, placing a hand on his leg. “I don’t understand. You have made an enemy of that Michael man and he’s not one to cross my love.”

  Even though Tatiana grew up around the men from his lifestyle she never learned how to not ask questions. He was only too glad that Audrina didn’t want to know anything beyond his involvement in organized crime.

  “Everyone who is not me is an enemy,” he stated.

  Tatiana pressed her lips together. “And those at your table out there? Are they your enemy too?”

  “They are like family,” he said.

  “And the girls? I have never seen them before.”

  Nikolai knew she was speaking of Nikki and Audrina. “The girl with the red hair is Nikki, she is Sergei’s woman… and the brunette is my…” he could not think of the word to call her. He wanted her to be so many things yet they never even discussed what she was to him. “Lover.”

  Tatiana’s eyes widened. “Your lover?”

  “Lover, girlfriend,” he shrugged. “Either way she is mine.”

  Nikolai knew that was a blow to Tatiana’s ego. He leaned over and placed his hand on hers. “I’m sorry to be so blunt with you. But yes, I’ve been with her for some time now.”

  “How long?”

  “A while,” he shrugged again not wanting to get into the details of their relationship. “I love her a lot.”

  Tatiana looked down at her hands. “Is she the reason why you will not give me a child?”

  “No,” he shook his head. “I told you. I want you to find a good man and have his children. You deserve to be happy Tati. You will make a good wife and I have no doubt you will have many children.”

  “But you are my husband.”

  He sighed and pressed his fingers to his eyes, rubbing out the tension. “You know what it is between us. You just asked me for a divorce and I agree. I love Audrina now. I want to start a life with her.”

  Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Audrina? That is her name?”

  “Yes,” he nodded and then leaned in close to Tatiana, trying to be as honest as possible with her. He could hear her whisper Audrina’s name over and over again as if she heard the name before. A look crossed her face that Nikolai could not place. “We became an item while she was engaged to someone else. I have never done such a thing but I had met her a year ago and when I saw her again she was with someone else.”

  “And that didn’t keep you away?”

  “Not in the slightest. I wanted her,” he said putting out the cigarette in his hand. “I know it is wrong but it felt so right to me and now I have her and I am completely happy.”

  “Nikolai,” she whispered in horror. “Is that why you are going up against Michael? For her?”

  He let out an exasperated sigh. “I knew from the very beginning even before my relationship with Audrina that I was going to come head to head with him. It would have happened no matter if she was involved or not.”

  “He doesn’t know she is here with you now.” She stated as if she already knew the answer. “Or that you two were going behind his back? You’re putting your entire life, your organization, what you and your father built for so many years to shit for her!”

  Nikolai gritted his teeth. “I’m not going to argue with you Tatiana. I have already told you much more than I wanted. Now please, let me worry about whatever consequences come out and you worry about whatever is troubling you.”

  “The only thing I am worried about is you,” she said and put her hand over his. “I always worry about you.”

  He placed a hand to her cold cheek and she leaned into his warm palm. “I know Tati, but you don’t have to. I can take care of myself,” he kissed the top of her head just before the phone rang. He stood up and dismissed her with a gentle smile.

  She had looked over at an open file on the desk that caught her eye but she tore her gaze away from it when he beckoned her to leave quickly. The last thing he saw before she closed the door was her jaw harden and her eyes darken. He had not seen that look in years. That blank look that told of her inner conflict.

  Then he remembered as he stood near the car by Vanya and Sergei, that had never told her who Audrina was in fact with. She had already knew when he mentioned Audrina’s name, that she was with Michael. So if he did not tell her then, Michael had to have gotten ahold of her beforehand.

  It all made sense. There was no point in attacking Svetlana’s bar unless Michael wanted her inside his home closer to Audrina and closer to the file that no one had but him. After speaking with Carlo D’Amuri, the only thing Michael had knowledge of was Audrina’s real name, the fortune and the fact that she was pregnant. But the original file, he had himself thanks to an insider that was close to Diana Cathan’s lawyer. That file that everyone was after -but no one had- was gone and he had no doubts now who took it.

  “Michael got ahold of Tatiana,” Nikolai gritted his teeth. “She is working for him.”

  “But Audrina,” Sergei whispered. “Alek would not have taken her off the property if it wasn’t serious. How could Tatiana have known?”

  The idea of Audrina losing the baby pained Nikolai. “Tatiana must have acted quickly. She might have saw that as an opportunity and took it first chance she had. But why would she do it is my question…”

  “Michael attacked her bar,” Sergei stated. “I knew it! He wouldn’t have done it unless it got him closer to what he wanted! And he wants Audrina.”

  Vanya sighed and looked down at his boots. “When I took Tatiana to her place she asked me if I knew anything about Audrina and I said no but she kept on insisting that I knew something. And then she asked me about some file and I told her I didn’t even know what the fuck she was taking about and she st
opped after that.”

  “After dinner last night,” Sergei began. “She came into the office and she must have not known I was in there but when she saw me she giggled and said she thought you were in there. It was strange.”

  Nikolai was seething. He was trying to think of all the possible scenarios for Tatiana’s betrayal but each time he did he thought about Audrina losing the baby.

  My baby…

  Sergei picked up the phone in his hand and quickly answered. He blanched after hanging up and then said, “Carlo D’Amuri is dead.”

  Nikolai was in shock. “Dead?”

  “Johnny Puzo was killed too,” he added. “They were having dinner together upstate when someone came into the restaurant and shot them point blank. Someone said it was Michael’s driver Bruno.”

  Just then Vanya got off his phone too and yelled in frustration. “Vladimir was killed. Right outside his daughter’s house. They tried to kill her too but she got out in time.”

  This was all a distraction, Nikolai knew. The killing of Vladimir was a blow to his organization but he could not lose his temper now. He had to think straight. Where could Michael be hiding? He knew for a fact he had Audrina with him and it angered him more.

  “Vanya, make sure security around the house is on high alert. No one gets in or out of those gates,” he fired off. Then his phone rang. Who could have died now? Without glancing at the screen he answered.

  “Nikolai!” the hushed voice of Emma whispered on the other end.

  Nikolai had not heard much from the young girl after he secured an apartment and a job for her as a receptionist in one of the local hospitals. He asked her boss weekly how she was fairing and the boss always had only wonderful things to say about Emma. The last time he had actually spoken to her was the day he had given her one of the apartments in his building and told her if she ever needed anything to just call him and ask.

  Now was not the time.

  “It’s not a good time,” he said.

  “Listen to me!” she whispered quickly. “I heard you were looking for Michael! He was in the hospital! I’m following him right now!”