Dimitri

by April Zyon

  Chapter Twelve

  Scarlett

  I hurt. Every inch of my body felt like it was on fire, and I couldn’t figure out why the man that I now knew was named Sebastian demanded to take tea with me. Tea, like I was his guest and not his prisoner. He had taken me from the lake, and once he had me inside the warehouse, the beatings had begun. It was the first time I had ever truly been hit and was a hell of a lot different than the tosses and hits on the mat that I had taken when I learned self-defense. My only hope was that someone from the house would realize I was gone and Daddy would send the troops for me. I was thankful for the chip that Daddy had all of us implanted with. When he’d first done it, I’d been pissed, of course, but now I was grateful because he would know exactly where to send help.

  So that’s what had me sitting across from a maniac as he spoke softly to me. He talked to me like he was a friend and not my abuser. “So tell me, Scarlett. Did you really think there would be anything between you and Dimitri? Long term, that is. He’s not the commitment type, so what makes you think that he will commit to you?”

  Was this man serious? I hadn’t seen Dimitri in two months and here he was asking me about commitment? He really was insane, and like Granny used to say, don’t poke the crazy. “I honestly hadn’t given him much thought since seeing him that one time at the Gala.” Yes, I was still sticking to that story because I refused to let anything touch that one moment of perfection I had shared with the man I had been dreaming of for months. No, I wasn’t going to let anything touch that.

  “And still you deny. Oh, sweet Scarlett, am I going to have to hurt you again? I’ve told you just how much your lies displease me, so why do you continue to do it?” The man stopped his drink mid-way to his lips to lecture me. He was unbelievable.

  “I just want to go home. My parents will begin to look for me, if they haven’t started to already,” I told him and shook my head. I had a headache from hell, and my stomach was still rolling like I was going to puke again.

  “I can assure you that they are looking for you, but where I have you they won’t find you.” Oh, if only he knew. Thankfully no one knew of the chip that I had, other than my family and the doctor who’d put it in.

  “Then you should let me go. You know how powerful they are. Let me go and you will never know any blow back from this. I will never speak a word of who had me.”

  “Your family doesn’t scare me. No one does. You are here to lure a very specific target, sweet one, and he will come for you. His flight landed half an hour ago, and I know that he’s looking for you now. If the boy is smart, he’s made it to the lake where you were last seen and has found my note. If so, he will be here soon. You can claim that you mean nothing to him and he to you, but, my darling girl, I know better. I know everything and see everything and I know that you are his Achilles’ heel. I know that he was going to start to court you after the last time you saw him, which was why I had him kicked out of the country for a time. When my informant told me that he came home smelling of pussy and making long-term plans after ordering additional guards on you, I knew that he had finally found his heart, his one true love. You see, Scarlett.” The maniac leaned back in his seat and looked at me as if he were imparting some sort of weird wisdom. I just wanted out of there and for him to stop talking, but he wouldn’t shut up. “Men like me, men like Dimitri, we are very hard men. We are killers and we will never deny that. At the heart of all things we are cold men, but we are men. We are unique. We know the one woman that was born to rule at our side the moment that we see her. It only takes a look. A glance, a chance encounter, and we know. You see, it’s a soul deep connection, and when that happens, we will do anything to have them in our lives. Why?”

  Now that he mentioned it, I had felt something when Dimitri looked at me that first time at the Gala. I didn’t believe in love at first sight, but then again I had been obsessing over the man and I had given him everything I was at the next meeting. In fact, I’d practically searched him out. Jesus, was this man right?

  “I see you thinking.” The bastard laughed. “We would do anything to have them in our lives because they are our polar opposites. They are the light where we are the absolute darkness. They are good where we are evil. You balance us, Scarlett, and we need that. You see, the universe is all about balance, and even men like us need balance.” Okay, so this man was definitely a few fries short of a Happy Meal. “And I had to take you from him once I knew that he had found you because you see, he took my light from me.”

  Right, so this man was insane and had some kind of vendetta against the man that I was pretty sure I was in love with. Great. “Excuse me?” I couldn’t stop those two words from tumbling from my lips even though I really should have. I should have known to keep my mouth closed and simply let the crazy keep on talking.

  When he reached across and slapped me, I fell out of the seat I had been placed in for tea and lay on the concrete floor, panting. I spit the blood out of my mouth. One of his men came over and jerked me up by my arm and planted my ass back in my seat. “Don’t question me,” Sebastian said angrily. I saw the red in his face and knew that I had pissed him off. Wonderful. Once I was back and settled across from him, he continued. “My Camilla was a countess. When I met her, she was perfection personified and I knew that I would never have another. She was everything to me. She and I loved for a very long time. She gave me a son. I was so proud until he betrayed me at a young age. I put him into the Gulag that I was in control of, him and his young friends. I ensured that they all knew my wrath each moment of each day. I tortured the little bastards, and then one day he fought back and won. That’s when I let him go. That’s when the son that I knew was back. He had gotten stronger in there. However, when he got out, he went to see my Camilla and told her it was me that had him placed inside of the prison and she questioned me. You see, I told her that he had died. We had a funeral for him because to me he was a dead man. Loyalty means everything to me, and he broke that trust with trying to run his own side lines, but that’s beside the point.” The man paused. I simply looked at him. Holy fuck! He wasn’t saying what I thought he was saying, was he? Please sweet baby Jesus tell me that he isn’t. Then again, with the looks of the man, his age, Dimitri’s age. Holy hells bells. “She couldn’t face the truth, so I killed her. I didn’t mean to, of course. She attacked me in her anger and I backhanded her. She was so fragile and so easily broken that when she fell, she hit the marble fireplace she loved so much.” He sighed, as if he was truly sorry, but a monster couldn’t be sorry if he didn’t accept the blame for his own actions. “So it is his fault. Dimitri did this. He took my beloved Camilla from me the day he went to her and told her those lies. He told her I had done these things when in reality it had been his own actions that had landed him where he had landed. His actions against me, his father. No one should ever go behind their parents’ backs. Don’t you agree?”

  Sweet mother, he was Dimitri’s father. He wanted to kill his own son after killing his wife. He also, if the man was to be believed, wanted to kill his unborn grandchild as well? I placed my hand on my belly and asked, “And what about me and the child you are telling me that I carry, which I don’t believe you, by the way. I would know if I was pregnant.” Now that I thought about it, though, I hadn’t had a period in more than two months, since before the masked ball. I had been sick, I was overly emotional, and my breasts hurt like crazy all the damn time. This put a whole new light on living. I had to live because of the life growing inside of me. Dear God, I was going to be someone’s mother! What the hell?

  “I see that you have figured it out,” Sebastian said with a smile. “Yes, Dimitri is my child. Camilla was eighteen when she birthed him and I was twenty-five. I had already been active in many businesses for seven years and had attained the level of boss by the time I saw her. She, like you, got pregnant the first time I loved her. Yes, you carry my grandchild, but you are both inconsequential to my revenge. If you live, I will keep you ali
ve until you give birth to the child. After that you are meaningless to me, and I will return you to your family, but the child that you carry is mine, forever. And yes, Scarlett, you are very pregnant. I had one of the men collect your piss on one of those sticks while you were unconscious and it read pregnant so congratulations.”

  Holy fuck this man was insane! There was no fucking way I was giving up my child, and my family would come for me. “You can’t have my child,” I whispered in horror. I’d seen insanity before and this man was straight up, past the point of no return, Arkham Asylum escapee sort of crazy!

  “Boss,” one of the men said from behind me. “Incoming.” With that, Sebastian stood and bowed to me.

  “Your baby-daddy is coming. That is the term, isn’t it?” He then began to laugh, a laugh that had me throwing up because it scared me so badly. Holy hell I was in a place with insanity running rampant.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Dimitri

  After picking up Vince Jr., I knew that Scarlett had been in Sebastian’s hands for nearly five hours. I knew just what the asshole could do in five hours. I bore the scars of his treatment in less time than that. I looked to the man beside me, my woman’s brother, and said, “You are to get her out of there and to a hospital as quickly as possible. You leave everything else to us. Don’t look back, don’t hesitate. We will clear the path for you, but you use your skills to sneak her out.”

  “I know what I’m doing,” the man said as he slid another weapon onto his body. I had to appreciate the fact that he came prepared. He was dressed head to toe in black and carried many weapons on him, several that I would like to have, if I admitted it to myself. “You all go in your way and I will go in mine. Since we are doing this your way, I don’t have to worry about leaving anyone alive to question.” I could feel the anger rolling off of Vince Jr. and could understand it. His sister had been taken, a gentle soul and a woman that didn’t deserve the treatment I was certain she was receiving currently.

  “No, no one lives,” I assured him. “Only ours. Everyone else dies. Every single one of those sons of bitches will die because they took her. I don’t give a flying fuck if they were operating under orders. They will die for that. They all should be thankful that I don’t go through and wipe out their entire fucking families for this.” I was just that angry.

  “Good, deal with your shit and get it straight before you even come close to my sister again.” Vince Jr. thought to order me? That was rich, but he had a point. I needed to get my shit together and straight and I could do that and would do that. I watched the man slide out of the SUV when we arrived and blend into the shadows. I swear the fucker disappeared, but that was impossible. Creepy bastard, but at least we were on the same side, so I was good with him right now.

  I knew that Sebastian knew I was there with my men. Hell, it would be hard for anyone to miss the dozen SUVs that rolled up on the place, much less the six men that moved from each of the SUVs. Giving the signal, my men moved with purpose toward the warehouse, weapons drawn and ready.

  It took us barely two minutes before we were in the center of the warehouse, and what I saw made my blood run cold. Sebastian stood there with Scarlett in front of him, a Glock to her temple. “Not another step, son.”

  I wanted to growl. How fucking dare he call me anything when he held my woman and had obviously beaten her as he had? “Pap,” I said with a bow of my head. I was hopeful that the old asshole would let her go, just ease the weapon long enough that Junior could slip in and get his sister. Once he had her in his arms, she would be safe. He would put his body between hers and flying bullets just like I would if I could, but right now I needed to deal with my father, with Sebastian. “You need to let her go. This is between you and me. The girl is innocent. Her family is up in arms with her missing, and they aren’t ones you want pissed at you. No amount of money can buy them off, and God only fucking knows that they are too damn goody two-shoes to have anything on them.” I knew, I had tried.

  “See, Scarlett, I told you that Dimitri would come for you.” My father caressed Scarlett’s cheek, and it was hard for me to bite back the growl. He was pointing out the damage he had done to her and it angered me all the more, but I couldn’t allow that out. I needed to remain in control of myself. I had to take him out before I could see to Scarlett.

  “So you did, but you forgot to mention how many men he would bring with him.” That was my girl, sassy even when hurting. God, I fucking loved her.

  And I had. I had shown up in force, but not with all of the men I had at my disposal, just the ones I trusted the most. “I couldn’t resist the invitation to come party,” I told her and winked. “Father, you will notice that your men have mostly fallen and you are standing on your own. You need to let Scarlett go. This is between you and me. It always has been.”

  “It always has been, that much is true.” I saw my father looking at my men. Then a sudden smile lit his face. “Ah, I see that you brought the traitor with you. Gregori, I’m surprised that you were brave enough to remain close to Dimitri.”

  I moved fast. Gregori was at my back left side, and if my father had him keeping tabs on me and called him friend, he would strike. I had no idea what kind of agenda the man had if he had been working with my father. I was almost too slow. I felt the burn of a bullet at my side as it grazed along the skin. It didn’t hit me. It skimmed over the edge of my jacket, shirt, then skin, but that was it. Balling my hand in a fist, I slammed it into his face, breaking the man’s nose and putting him on his back there on the ground. I turned back to my father and saw that he had loosened his hold on Scarlett so that he could advance slightly. I gave her the slightest of nods and was not disappointed when she smashed her heel into the top of his foot, then her elbow into his stomach. She whirled to run and was grabbed by her brother, who picked her up and ran her out of the warehouse and away from danger, thank God. Now I could focus on my father and taking him out.

  I smiled at my father and watched my men move so that they were all a loose circle around us. All of his men were now down, and it was just Sebastian and me. “You screwed up by taking her,” I told him.

  The old man laughed. I realized that he had lost his mind. It was something in his laugh. “Oh, son, yes I did. I have followed you for years, waiting for you to find that one woman that brought you down, waiting for you to find your soul mate. And when you did, I had you deported so that I could watch her for a time. I wanted to get to know her habits and see if she was seeing someone. If she was, I would have left her alone. I would have allowed her to go untouched, but when I was told that she had been calling you daily by Gregori and that she had been drawing you with a near compulsion by one of the maids in her home, then I knew she felt for you the same that you felt for her, so of course I had to take her. I wanted you to know the same sorrow and pain that I felt when you took my Camilla away from me. You tore my life away from me that day, you little bastard.”

  “I am not a bastard. You married my mother, if you will recall,” I reminded the man. “And you killed Mom, not me.” Another thing I would never forgive him for. He had killed my mother because she was going to leave him for having me tossed in the Gulag along with Ivan and Dafid. No, this fucker didn’t deserve to act like he was the injured party in anything.

  “Oh shut the fuck up already, you posturing little prick. Just die.” I was shocked when my father lifted a gun and aimed it at me.

  When he pulled the trigger back, I shook my head and sighed at the clicking sound his weapon made. “Jesus, you still rely too heavily on your memory. Always, always check your gun before you fire.” I lifted my weapon, chambered a round, and put it between my father’s eyes. Very anti-climactic, but it ended the terror that this man held over so many people. I looked at Stefan, one of my top enforcers, and said, “Take as many men as you need and take over my father’s enterprises in Russia for me. I know you have family still there. We will use this as a way to get them back here if that is what you want.�
�� Stefan had come back with me from Russia, so I knew he was more than happy to get back.

  “I won’t fail you, boss,” he told me, then kicked rocks to get the hell out of the warehouse and took six men with him.

  I looked to Ivan and asked, “Can you handle the clean-up on this?” I wanted to go find Scarlett. If her brother had a brain, he had her in a hospital right now. Dammit.

  “Yeah, boss, you get out of here and go find your woman. Take guards. We will clean this up.” He looked down at Gregori and asked, “And him?”

  “Take him to the house, put him in the basement, and I will deal with him later. You know as well as I do how we deal with traitors.”

  “Yes, I do.” Ivan approached me and put his hand on my shoulder. “She is a strong woman. She was still standing after nearly five hours in your father’s tender care. She’s going to make you a good bride. Just remember not to shoot her family, because I think that might break the deal.” Ivan was laughing at me. Damn him, he was making fun of me. It was as if he knew I wanted to either kick in Vince Jr.’s teeth or shoot him one.

  “Smart ass,” I said with a smile to my friend and walked away from him, motioning for Dafid and several others to come with me. I took twelve men with me. I wasn’t going to chance Scarlett’s safety, never again.

  I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw a small white plastic stick. I nearly fell to my knees because I saw one word, pregnant. “Oh fuck.” I had thought she was, hoped she was, but seeing the proof shocked me. Damn. Scarlett was going to have my child. I was going to be a father!

  Chapter Fourteen

  Scarlett

  The fuss at the hospital was nearly immediate, and it only intensified when I whispered to a nurse who was putting an IV line in my hand, “I’m pregnant.” I didn’t want them to give me anything that would hurt my child or do anything that would hurt it.