by Kay Loren
“And Nikolai?” her heart clenched when she said his name. Her Nikolai.
“He’ll be dead by morning,” he stated arrogantly.
Audrina’s heart began to pound in her chest rapidly and she could feel her pulse beat in her ears like a drum. “And who says you won’t be dead before this night is over?”
Before his hand could connect to her face, a gun shot went off followed by several others through the thick wood front door. Tatiana was the first to dart by and exit the room through a nearby door. Michael stumbled before Audrina’s legs but quickly regained his footing. Without a glance behind him, he pulled Audrina up by the arm and hoisted her up to her feet and dragged her along.
“Stop!” she heard the voice of Steve yell through the gun fire that had killed Bruno. Before Michael pulled her into the door Tatiana disappeared into, she saw Steve with a gun in his hand and Giuseppe on his knees before him.
Was he the one who fired first?
Chapter Thirty - Seven
The three men entered the house with their guns in hand. Vanya was the first to enter followed by Sergei who quickly went over to his brother, kneeling by his body. Sergei’s cursing in their mother tongue vibrated throughout the room.
Nikolai went over to Alek’s other side and crouched down stroking his damp, bloodied forehead with his thumb.
“I’m okay,” Alek rasped and then looked over at a subdued Giuseppe. “That fucker broke my arm.” Then he looked up at Nikolai. “Audrina is okay. The baby too. Michael took her.”
Sergei quickly in a rage stood and was on top of Giuseppe, beating him senseless with the gun in his hand. Steve and Vanya stood by and watched as Sergei unloaded all his rage for his brother onto Giuseppe. Nikolai did not stop him. He was startled by the gunshots and screeching tires that sounded off from the front of the house.
“Stay here with him!” he instructed Vanya before he ran out of the house to see the black Bentley pull out of the garage and Emma in the front seat of her black Camaro, windows shot out, windshield shattered, and passenger side dented in. He ran over to the car and was surprised to see Emma unharmed.
“Get in!” she said, revving up the engine.
Nikolai got into the car -a bit uncomfortable given his size- amazed at how Emma handled the car, speeding off after them. He looked over at her excited expression; the biting of her lower lip and her blue grey eyes, wide as she maneuvered the car to and fro.
She glanced at him with a laugh. “I like adrenaline. The rush. Better than the needle.”
Nikolai was in awe but he had to focus on his task at hand. The Bentley was getting far from view. Emma pressed on the gas and raced on. The car pulled into the field where he and Michael usually conducted business. Emma pulled up a good foot away from the Bentley facing the dark car to its side. No one came out. Nikolai handed the gun in his hand to Emma and pulled out another from the holster inside of his jacket.
“I hope you know to use one,” he said. She nodded and expertly checked the gun to make sure it had a few bullets left in the chamber.
Just then the back door to the Bentley opened.
Chapter Thirty- Eight
Audrina’s heart lurched in her throat when she saw the dark Camaro pull up to the side of them. She couldn’t see who exactly was in the car since the windows were mostly shattered but she knew Nikolai was in there.
“All this trouble for a dumb little whore,” Tatiana looked at Audrina from the dashboard mirror. “I don’t know how Nikolai could be so stupid.”
Audrina let out a shaky breath, her eyes darting everywhere looking for Michael who had gotten out of the car quickly and ran. She didn’t see where he went but her eyes rested on the open field. Anybody could have hidden amongst the tall brown grass.
Audrina looked up at Tatiana who spun the chamber in her gun after loading it. “You gonna kill him? The man who saved you? Why?”
“Shut up,” Tatianna warned through gritted teeth.
But Audrina wanted to know why she betrayed the man she claimed to love. “Why are you doing this Tatiana? He loves you and I know if you help him now he wont harm you. Please!”
Tatiana turned and flashed her dark eyes at Audrina. “You want to know why I am doing this? I will tell you. All my life I have tried to get that man to love me… The way he claims to love you. Now that I know he and I will never be together again, at least I can take away the thing he loves most… You.”
“Michael needs me,” Audrina said hanging on to the idea of life and for the one inside of her.
“No,” she shook her head. “He needs your signature which you just provided. Now you are a useless whore.”
On their drive over, Michael had forced Audrina to sign a marriage certificate stating that they had wed that day and then the next document which signed the fortune over to him. She did so quickly with a gun pointed at her temple and another at her belly. She doubted that Michael had allowed Tatiana to kill her but it made no difference.
“So kill me then,” Audrina challenged.
“Not yet,” Tatiana shook her head and then pointed the gun at Audrina. “Out now. You can die with him.”
The locks to the door clicked and Audrina opened her door slowly. Tatiana exited the car all while keeping her eyes on Audrina. The passenger door to the Camaro opened and Nikolai climbed out, his eyes blazing as Tatiana took hold of Audrina’s arm and held a gun under her chin, coaxing her to walk backwards away from the cars and into the open field.
Nikolai followed closely, gun in hand as he glanced into the open Bentley looking for Michael. He looked around before his eyes rested solely on Audrina who was slightly shaking.
“Let her go Tatiana,” he said with his hands up at his sides, the gun still in his left hand.
Tatiana shook her head. “Come closer my love. That way you can look into her eyes when I pull the trigger.”
Audrina trembled from a mixture of fear and the night’s cold. There was no way she was getting out of this one. She knew something terrifying was lurking in the shadows.
“Please Tati,” he said gently.
She pointed the gun at Nikolai. “Drop your gun! Now!”
When he made no move to lower his gun she shot a warning shot towards the floor near Audrina’s feet that made Audrina cry out as she felt shards hit her legs.
“Okay,” he said out loud and dropped the gun on the floor. “There.”
“Walk a little closer,” she said.
Nikolai walked closer until he stood a few inches away from Audrina. She saw the intensity of his blue eyes more clearly and she whimpered wanting to hold him close as the cold barrel of the gun skimmed her chest and belly.
“You don’t have to do this Tati,” Nikolai said gently. “I don’t know what Michael is paying you but I will double it.”
Tatiana let out a scoff followed by a breathy laugh. She bit her lip to contain the laugh that kept going on. Audrina could feel that she was dead serious, feeling Tatiana’s bosom rattle behind her back.
Has she gone mad?
Then she stopped and pointed the gun at Nikolai. “It has never been about money. Nothing would give me greater joy than to see your face when I take away the one thing you love so much.”
Audrina could feel her chest going up and down to the rapid beat of Tatiana’s heart. Her breath came out in pants but she tried to steady her breathing as she saw movement from tall grass leading to the Bentley.
I have to do something.
“You lied to me Nikolai,” she felt the threat of tears strangling her throat. “You’re father killed my mother and my family ordered your mother’s death. It’s so fucked up between the two us it could never work out. Not anymore. Not after knowing what I know now… I can’t love you… I don’t love you.”
Nikolai’s face dropped seeing her confession. He could not believe his ears. He had killed every single member of the family that had killed his mother. His father and him could never figure out who ordered the murder but it all
made sense… why his father so willingly killed Diana Cathan. It wasn’t just to work with the Mancini crime family. It was because they delivered Diana Cathan on a plate to him to gain his trust as well as theirs.
Tatiana chuckled seeing Nikolai’s expression and pressed a kiss to Audrina’s cheek. “Do you hear that my love? She doesn’t love you.”
Nikolai looked down at the gun on the floor. His face went pale and for the first time Audrina seen him subdued to silence. She could not gouge his reaction. She thought after hearing her confession that he would have wanted to add her on to the list of the people he killed in revenge for her mother’s death. She wouldn’t have blamed him.
“You knew all along did you not?” she waved the gun at Nikolai. “You always knew yet you kept it from this little whore… My, your whole love affair was built on a lie.”
The look in Nikolai’s eyes was the same one he had when he had stayed over at Audrina’s apartment for the first time. Cold and dangerous. Audrina’s heart clenched but she had to do it.
Nikolai!
Just then Audrina could see Michael from the corner of her eye as he crawled near the Bentley and then stood, raising his gun towards the back of Nikolai’s head. Her blood went cold as she saw him stalking behind Nikolai who’s eyes were still locked to the ground.
In one swift motion, she threw her head back and felt it connect with Tatiana’s face. The same as she had done with Gino. The gun dropped to the floor and Audrina picked it up quickly and held the gun up.
Chapter Thirty- Nine
His blood went cold when he saw the gun pointed at him. Audrina was raising a gun to him! He closed his eyes, thinking of all the times he could have told her the truth. Everything he had found out and every thing he wanted to do to make it right.
He had found out the night after he had brought Audrina to his home that his father was the one who hunted down her mother and killed her. After his own wife’s death he had no morals for anyone else’s wife. He had killed Diana Cathan in cold blood after learning of her husband’s orders to kill Katja and Svetlana. He didn’t believe it when he heard it but it seemed like a twisted tale of fate.
There was no escaping the demons of his family’s past as well as Audrina’s… and now it was staring him down in the face. Down in to the darkness awaiting the bullet that should have ended him years ago. He closed his eyes and waited for the shot to come.
One, two, three shots rang out into the air.
Expecting to feel pain, he opened his eyes and saw Audrina still raising the gun up with a shaky hand and trembling. She dropped the gun at her side and looked down behind Nikolai in horror. When Nikolai turned around he saw Michael on the floor, gun in his hand, laying lifeless.
She blinked once and her eyes took on a darker shade of burnt honey. She shot Michael before he could kill him. He could not believe his stupidity that he -for one minute- thought that she was going to kill him. She was protecting him with her words and with her quick actions.
He found his footing and went to her, taking in her shock and pressing it close to his chest. After a few seconds, she pushed him away and took in a deep breath trying to stifle her oncoming sobs. She looked at Nikolai for a moment taking him in before she fell to her knees.
Nikolai grabbed a hold of her and pressed her close to his neck. He saw the gun still in her trembling hand and gently took it from her. He would have given his last breath to know what she was thinking in that moment. He watched as Emma come closer to them to check on Tatiana, who was laying on her side in a pool of her own blood.
Everything from the last three hours rushed into his mind in that moment as he held her closer, feeling her breath tickle his neck and ear. He felt her hand cup his cheek and then her soft lips on his jaw. He looked down at her and saw that she was bawling.
“I love you,” she whispered and kissed the side of his mouth. “I can’t help it… I can’t change what our parents were or what they did to each other. But I don’t care! I love you Nikolai.”
He could not help it either in all the fucked up past that bonded them. He loved her just as much as she loved him.
“Nikolai!”
A shot rang out again and another and another. Nikolai saw Emma twist to the side and fall backward on the floor. Then he felt a shooting pain in his chest.
“No!” Audrina sobbed, pressing her hand close to his chest, the blood seeping through her hand.
He spun around despite the pain and discomfort he felt and held the gun in his hand pointing it towards a bloodied Michael and shot rapidly until the gun clicked signaling the end of his bullets.
Michael fell down to his knees again and face first into the dirt. Nikolai groaned and felt his legs give out underneath him. Darkness was slowing coming into his vision as the blood seeped out of his chest. The dirt ground was going out of focus. This is not the end, he screamed in his mind.
Nikolai! Audrina’s voice echoed.
Darkness enclosed him until he felt the warm embrace of a familiar set of arms wrap around him and pull him away.
Then he heard her voice whisper, “It’s okay solnyshko moyo, my little sun, mommy is here.”
Chapter Forty
Heaviness weighed down his eyes each time he tried to open them. He could hear faint beeping and feel people shuffling around him.
“I’m not leaving his side!” He heard a voice far away.
Audrina?
“There’s nothing we can do now but wait,” a soothing voice said.
“Wait for what? Him to flat line again? I don’t want to chance it.”
“He’s going to be okay Audrina. He’s tough.”
He heard her sob. “I don’t want to lose him Sergei. I can’t lose him!”
Audrina! He tried to open his eyes and reach out for her but darkness took over him again.
He couldn’t see anything but the house he grew up in as a child. That red brick house with the blue door that was too big even with all the people inside of it. The house was burned down…
“You need to go home and rest,” Sergei whispered.
“What if he wakes up and I am not here?” she said. “No. I’m staying right here.”
Audrina is here! At my childhood home! In Russia!
He looked for her, running to the house but it was so far away. He ran and ran until he raced up the pavement and up the steps to the front door. No one answered as he pounded on the door.
Their voices seemed so close yet so far…
“He just got out of surgery,” Sergei said. “He’s going to be out for a long while. Just go home, rest, take a bath, eat something and I will have you brought back here in the morning.”
Audrina!
“Go,” he said. “Think of the baby.”
The baby!
Nikolai waited for her to speak again but he heard nothing as his mother appeared in the doorway of the house.
“Go play solnyshko moyo,” she waved her white apron at him with a sweet smile on her face. The curls from her dark, pinned up hair rested on her damp forehead and her blue eyes shined with the utmost love and adoration. She was wearing that yellow dress again. The one with the long row of white buttons that reached her chest and made her look like the dazzling sunshine that he was so fond of playing under.
“Go play! Svetlana is waiting for you!” she smiled and ruffled up his hair and sent him off.
The sun bore into the slits of his eyes causing him to open them fully. His head throbbed from the constant beeping sound nearby and his torso felt as if someone cleaned him out and carved him up. His chest ached and burned as he tried to stretch his tired limbs.
One glance around the room -from where his head laid on the pillow- told him he was in the hospital. He wished everything had been a blur but the images from that night where he shot Michael came flooding into his mind. The cars, the gunfire, Tatiana, Emma and Audrina.
“Audrina!” he rasped.
A head shot up from his side instantly. Honeyed eyes met
his and his heart beat fast. She was by him.
“You’re up!” she smiled through the tears in her eyes. She stood up and pressed a kiss to his forehead. She was in a bright yellow dress with white buttons. She looked like the sun. Dazzling. “You must be thirsty,” she exclaimed and reached over to the plastic cup on the side.
God, was he thirsty. He felt as if he had ate sandpaper and walked through the desert. She held his neck up with her hand and brought the cup to his lips. The cool water hit his tongue and then back of his throat filling him with life.
“There,” she bit her lip and gently laid his head back down. “Let me call the doctor.”
When she stood to place the cup back on the table and press a button for the doctor to come, Nikolai could see how round her belly was. Her belly had grown since the last time he had laid eyes on her.
Then it occurred to him.
“How long have I been here for?”
“A few weeks,” she whispered, stroking the stubble of beard that had grown on his face. Then she leaned over and placed a sweet kiss on his cheek. “You don’t know how good it feels to see those eyes again.”
He smiled and reached out for her hand just as Dr. Jones walked into the room with a relieved smile on her face. “My husband once said you were a tough son of a bitch but I did not think you would survive this ordeal.”
Audrina went off to the side with the phone to her ear as Dr. Jones went on about how he was lucky to be alive after being shot twice resulting in the removal of his spleen. She continued on but all he could do was watch Audrina as she smiled happily into the phone as she whispered, ‘yes, he’s up’. He wanted to get up and rush over to her as he watched her stroke her belly and smile.
After Dr. Jones evaluated him and gave him morphine for the pain, Audrina sat by his side and took his hand in hers.
“Let him rest,” she eyed Audrina with a playful gleam in her eye. “And you need to rest too. That little one is strong, like his papa.” And she left.