“I don’t recall ever doing such a thing,” Gabriel answered.
“Not even your father?” Anatoly asked amused.
“No,” Gabriel answered, turning his gaze from his uncle to his cousin.
Dmitry smiled. “Interesting. And would you give it to me? To make it to the next level of your life, would you blindly abide by my will?”
“I understand that my little New York organization is small.”
“Moot,” Anatoly corrected. “Miniscule.”
“Both,” Gabriel said, holding back his growing irritation. He looked at Dmitry. “But if you were willing to take me under your wing and teach me what I needed to know to grow to be a man like yourself, then yes, I would pledge you my blind obedience.”
Dmitry shook his head. His look was grave. “Prove it to me then, nephew.” He pushed the gun over to Gabriel’s plate.
“How?” Gabriel asked, picking up the gun.
“Kill her,” Dmitry said, pointing at Victoria.
Victoria looked over at the gun. Her breaths were even, her eyes still narrowed.
“Why would I kill her?” Gabriel asked, shaking his head. “She has done nothing to me.”
“It is not about what she has don to you. It does not matter if she is the mother of your children. I have asked you one simple thing. To prove your allegiance to this organization, all I have asked is that you shoot her with the gun that I have placed in your hands.”
“But I’m not auditioning to be one of your hit men,” Gabriel countered. “I have men to do this type of thing for me.”
“But what happens when those men aren’t there? What happens when it’s a personal matter? What happens when the point has to be made by you and you alone?”
“Then, I’ll do it,” Gabriel answered in a low voice.
“Now is one of those times,” Dmitry answered. “She knows what she has done. Now, I have asked you to complete my wishes.” He tilted his head. “Is this too much to ask for a man who claims to have murdered five people? Regardless of what people say, it does get easier with each kill. Trust me,” he grunted. “I know.” He touched his chest. “But I question your commitment. In fact, I question every part of you, so until you prove to me that you are worthy, there is nothing more to say.”
Gabriel held the gun in his hand. He tried not to shake, to hold it steady with authority. The woman still had not flinched. That is when it hit him that this must be a test. It was her demeanor that gave them away. Shaking his head, he took a deep breath and pointed the gun at her.
“It’s such a pity. She’s a beautiful woman,” Gabriel said, pulling the trigger.
The gun clicked, indicating that it was out of ammunition. He held his relief. Instead, he pulled the magazine out and checked it.
“I need ammo to kill her,” Gabriel said wickedly. “You took my weapons. So, I don’t have a gun myself.”
“Here use mine,” Anatoly said, reaching behind him.
Dmitry raised his hand. With a smile, he waved off Anatoly. “No, no. He did what I asked him to do. And that is all that mattered to me. I just wanted to see if he would do it. I wanted to see if he would risk the possibility that one was still in the chamber.”
“You told him to kill her, but she still looks alive to me,” Anatoly said, rolling his eyes.
Victoria shot him a deadly look then picked up her plate. “I’ll be inside if you need me.”
“No,” Dmitry said, touching her arm. “You have done well. Thank you. Don’t pay attention to Anatoly. He just has indigestion. It makes him irritable.”
Gabriel sat back in his seat, ready to throw up but hid his shaky disposition.
“I wanted to take you out before it gets too late to see my latest creation. It’s called Lilith – the family’s newest brand of Merlot. There are special grapn the other side of the estate. Victoria has been working very hard on the project. I’m very proud of her.” He looked up at Victoria and smiled.
“Are you sure it’s not too late,” she asked, setting her plate down.
“No, dear. Tonight, you have our undivided attention. The men need to see something other than guns and the like. Let’s take them out to see Lilith,” Dmitry said standing. “Are we all finished here?”
“Da,” Anatoly said standing.
“Sure,” Gabriel said following.
Chapter Fifteen
The sun had nearly set by the time that everyone made it out to the other side of the farm. Walking through the rich soil with their pants rolled up past their ankles, they talked about what a great investment the winery had been and how marvelous Victoria’s work had been.
Anatoly was silent. With a growl, he followed his father and Victoria and watched Gabriel carefully. He had told his father, but he didn’t know if it had registered. He did not trust the man. What was blind obedience if a man questioned authority down to the very minute? When his father had ordered him to kill someone, he had done it without hesitation or reason. Plus, he had hoped the damned gun was loaded. He would have liked nothing more than to see Victoria’s brains splattered against the concrete.
A small smile tugged at the side of his lip as he looked at the back of her head. She went on talking and pointing, like the queen of the Nile, showing them all what the farmers had done, taking credit for their work. All she had done was what she was supposed to do. What was great in that?
“What are you brooding over?” Dmitry asked, falling back from the crowd. He motioned for his and Anatoly’s bodyguards to walk in front of them.
“I don’t see why I have to stomach her much longer,” Anatoly answered his father under his breath. “She irritates me.”
Dmitry shook his head. “It’s hard to whisper when I’m this tall.” He looked over the vines of the vast farm and breathed in the fresh air. “We’ll talk about this later, da. I’m sure you’ll feel better then.”
“I don’t see how,” Anatoly said, feeling his phone vibrate. He checked it. It wasn’t Renee.
When they arrived at the vine patch named Lilith, Dmitry stepped up to the grapes and pulled one from the vine. Tasting it, he shook his head in approval.
iv>
“This is Lilith?” Gabriel asked, pulling a grape from the vine as well. “What’s the meaning?”
“I was waiting for that question,” Dmitry said with a smile. “I’m not Jewish, obliviously, but a man I met in Moscow a while back told me an interesting story from the Midrash, which is a collection of books that hold their ancient folklore. Now according to the Midrash, Lilith was the first wife of Adam. She was made from the same dirt as he was and considered herself his equal.” Dmitry kneeled down and grabbed a handful of dirt in his hands. “Legend has it that she was very beautiful with fiery red hair. Now, Lilith didn’t want to lay with Adam. So she called out God’s name, was damned for her disobedience, sprouted wings and flew away.”
Anatoly looked up at Dmitry with a what-in-the-hell expression on his face. He shifted from one foot to the other and looked around. All eyes were on his father. The bodyguards stood behind them, bewildered by the man’s intriguing tale.
Dmitry continued, noting his son’s confusion. “Anyway, she was turned into a demon that supposedly ate children. And she enticed men in their dreams to lure them away even though in reality she was a frigid, cold-hearted spawn.”
Gabriel shook his head. “And you want to name a bottle of wine out of a child-eating demon? You might not want to tell them what the real meaning behind it is. It’s not very marketable.”
“I am naming the line of wine after her because of what she stands for. She is an enticer. She cannot be trusted not around men, not around their children.” Dmitry looked at Victoria.
“You never told me why you gave the wine that name,” Victoria said quietly.
“I named it for you,” Dmitry said, pulling another grape from the vine. “You are after all an enticer. You cannot be trusted. And for all purposes of this conversation, you have always bitten every hand
that has ever fed you.” Dmitry sucked his teeth.
“We know about the call you made to Agosto,” Anatoly said, happy to have finally arrived at the moment when he could get to his real purpose for being there. “We know that you told him about me.”
She turned slowly to Anatoly. Her eyes spoke volumes, full of fire, shooting daggers. Clenching her jaw, she narrowed her eyes at him.
“Lilith,” Anatoly said, lifting his palms to the air.
“Care to sprout your wings one last time for us?” Dmitry asked, pulling his gun into sight.
Gabriel was slow to grasp what was happening. He went from trying to understand the story to witnessing a murder.
Dmitry was less theatrical than his story. Ready to get the entire situation past him, he looked at his watch before he continued. Gun pointed, he sighed. “Do you need a moment to ask God for forgiveness? Need to make any last requests?”
“You’re a monster,” Victoria said with tears in her eyes. “And I hope that you burn in hell, but first I hope that you live long enough to see your entire legacy die before you.” She spat at Anatoly’s feet.
The rest was in slow motion for her. She glanced down the path toward the fleeting sun and took a deep breath. The dirt crunched under her feet as she pushed down against it, running as hard as she could, as far away as she could. She ran towards the sunset, towards the beauty she had found in Tuscany, towards the end.
Dmitry always hated harming women, but he couldn’t bring himself to have his men do it. This had been his mistake. He had brought her here. He had introduced her to his son. He had put his son, his wife, his daughter in danger. In truth, this was his problem to fix.
It only took one bullet. Her graceful run had halted as the bullet hit her in the back of her head. Blood shot from the wound. Her long arms extended up and out as she fell forward into the dirt. The wind blew through Dmitry’s hair as he turned, ignoring Gabriel’s telling eyes. He turned his gun on her bodyguard.
“You were responsible for watching her every move, da?”
The man stepped back into the bushes.
Dmitry’s restraint was less resistant for men. With the pull of his trigger, he shot him twice in the chest. The muscular man fell backwards into the vines.
Anatoly looked over at the dead man curiously.
“He was sleeping with her,” Dmitry answered his son’s gaze. “He got so wrapped up in his own will, he forgot mine. I told him to watch her phone records, listen to her calls, watch her every move to ensure that she didn’t get out of hand. If he had only done his job, he wouldn’t be joining her.” He turned to Vasily. “Get rid of this,” he said, giving the gun to Anatoly’s bodyguard.
Gabriel could not believe what he had just witnessed. A woman and her bodyguard had been brutally murdered in front of him, and he was incapable of doing anything about it. Swallowing his fear, he fought hard to keep his control. Dmitry walked up to him, looked into his eyes and spoke softly into his ear.
“Are you sure that you’re ready for this?” Dmitry asked as he walked past Gabriel.
“What about the body? Are you just going to leave her...it here?” Gabriel asked, watching the men walk off.
“I’m not an undertaker,” Dmitry said, rolling his eyes.
Anatoly smirked as he looked up at him. He was happy, truly, genuinely euphoric. The bitch who had stood in his way was finally gone. He felt better than the moment he had found out that she was still alive many months ago. He felt better than the first time that he had held her in his arms. Without giving her a second thought, he followed his father back towards the house with Vasily in tow.
iv>
Gabriel stood in the path as the sun set behind him. The wind blew past his body taking with it the soul of a woman he’d barely known. Defeated, he finally followed. If he turned to her now, he might just meet her end. I’ll get you all, he thought to himself, for her, for my father, for my mother...
Chapter Sixteen
Prague, Czech Republic
As they arrived at the Medlov Chateau amid the blue skies and warm sun, Anatoly finally felt the ease of life. Home. He looked out of the window and sighed, anxious to smell the fresh air and the smell of the house that brought him certain peace.
As the doors opened to the truck, Anatoly stepped out and felt his feet crunch the rocks below. He looked up at the sun and smiled. Finally in a place where he was accepted just as he was, he reveled in his existence. This is where the Medlov’s resided, away from everyone in the country side of Prague.
The doors to the chateau flung open, and Anya came running in her pink lace dress, baby doll in hand. Her eyes were focused on the men whom she had dearly missed. Daddy. Brother. Screaming their names and grinning from ear to ear, she headed down the steps with her arms wide open.
Instinctively, she ran to her father first. He grabbed her up in his embrace, kissing her rosy cheeks with grateful enthusiasm. He whispered words into her ear, brushing her long, black hair with his large hands, while her brother waited for his turn to cuddle the angel whom he affectionately referred to as the princess.
Dmitry could feel the pull from his son, the desire to hold her. Handing her off to Anatoly, he headed up the stairs to see the other woman in his life, Royal, who stood at the door with her hands cupping her growing bump.
But Anatoly stood still, hugging his Anya with all his might. She smelled of candy and roses, her own unique fragrance of purity and promise. Bright blue eyes flashed at him, nonjudgmental and delighted by his presence.
“I missed you so much, Anatoly,” she said with a tinkle in her voice. “What took you so long to come home?”
“I was busy,” Anatoly explained. “But I missed you too.” He walked with her in his arms as Vasily followed with his luggage.
“Did you bring me presents?” she asked, holding on to him tightly.
“Don’t I always,” Anatoly answered as he climbed the steps.
“You brought the stranger,” Anya said, looking behind her brother.
Gabriel looked on with a smile. Still intrigued by the complex relationship between the girl and the men, he suddenly wanted dearly to be a part of their priceless transaction.
“We did,” Anatoly said, arriving at the door. He didn’t bother to look back and be irritated again by Gabriel’s presence. He found it revolting that the man had been invited into their home. It should have been omen enough with the extermination of Victoria that strangers should never be allowed into the most intimate place of their lives.
“How are you?” Gabriel asked, lifting his finger to touch her out-stretched hand.
“I’m well. And you?” Anya asked politely.
“I’m doing great,” he answered.
Royal unwrapped her arms from her husband long enough to greet her stepson with an endearing kiss on the cheek. With a curious and untrusting smile, she also greeted Gabriel.
“We meet again,” Royal said, extending her hand.
“Welcome to our home.”
“Thank you for having me,” Gabriel said, taking her hand gratefully. He wasn’t sure how in the least she would receive him this time, considering the last time that they met, she made it painfully clear that he was a threat.
Royal made Gabriel dreadfully nervous. It wasn’t anything that he had read in the file. It was her knowing glare, and the knowledge that they both shared of who his father was. In truth, he carried guilt for what had been done to her. Raped. Beaten. Nearly murdered. It had all been done at the hand of his father, yet she welcomed him in her home as a guest. Truly a noble woman, he thought to himself as he entered their luxurious home.
Anatoly had to get some room in between him and Gabriel. After setting Anya down, he excused himself up to his room to prepare for dinner. The one thing that he could count on at home was dinner by six. Certain that a hot shower and quick drink would at least ground him for the evening, he jetted up the long, red-carpeted steps and headed straight for his bedroom.
Royal
and Dmitry watched him disappear quietly and gave each other a glance. Then in their normal gentle manner they turned their attention to Gabriel.
“Gabriel will be here with us for a few days to a week,” Dmitry explained to his wife as they all walked. “There is a great deal to discuss.”
“Well, I hope that you make yourself at home,” Royal said, looking back to make sure that the staff carried off the luggage. “Dinner will be at six. I’ve arranged for Briggy to show you to your quarters and make sure that you have everything that you need. And there is more than enough transportation just in case you’d like to visit the city.”
“I can’t thank you enough,” Gabriel said, walking beside Dmitry.
Just then, Briggy, the maid for the family quarters on the second floor, emerged from one of the closed doors. She looked up at Gabriel and smiled.
“Briggy, we were just talking about you,” Royal said, touching her shoulder as she walked up. “This is Gabriel, Dmitry’s nephew.”
“Very nice to meet you, sir,” she said with a nod.
“Why don’t you show him up to his room,” Dmitry said, picking up on the instant vibe. He turned to Gabriel. “I’ll call for you later, and all three of us can have a chat, eh. For now, there are a couple of people that I need to reacquaint myself with.” He put his large hand on his wife’s arm and bent to kiss the top of her head.
“Yes, sir,” Gabriel said, following Briggy as she led him away.
***
Gabriel tried to stay focused. He walked slowly behind her, watching her hips sway in her dark denim jeans. Whoever decided the maid should dress casually deserved a raise.
Briggy was beautiful. It felt like a stab in his heart when he first saw her. A burst of adrenaline pumped through his body, stinging the very tips of his fingers. Her smile muted any clever words that might have saved him.
With the turn of a key in the lock to the guest bedroom, she pushed the door open and stepped aside for him to enter. He went inside, hoping that she would follow. If she would just stay, just a moment, maybe he could pull himself together enough to say something that might convey his mounting attraction.
Anatoly Medlov: Complete Reign Page 15