by Amaya Black
We approached a waiting SUV and I took in my surroundings. The snow from last night was starting to disappear. Briefly, I wondered if Lexie had gotten the chance to play in it. I just wanted to be home again, back in the guest house with Lexie and Val arguing over watching yet another Disney princess movie.
“Valentin please don’t leave me?”
He kissed my forehead once I was tucked inside the SUV and sitting on the slick leather seats. The new car smell surrounded me. His green eyes shined.
“I have to finish this,” he said.
“Don’t make me do this alone…not now. Not when we’ve found each other…”
“Little Star, I’m doing this for us,” he kissed my lips softly.
Before I could think another thought, or register that he was already walking away, Liam was inside of the vehicle.
“Buckle up, Astrid,” he said and drove away.
Chapter 29
Valentin
Searching every room in the upper part of the mansion that I could find, led me to a staircase. That staircase led me to the cellar the spilled out into the back of the house. Air from outside wafted over my body. Crisp, and clean, it filled my lungs as I took the deepest breath.
Flashes of Astrid’s brown eyes pleading with me as she sat there in pain. From where I’d been, I’d seen her get thrown by my father.
Worry wanted to wrap itself around me like a pair of waiting arms.
I just couldn’t give into the feeling.
My mind was demanding order. Viktor, for to long had been out of control and now I was going to find him, and I was going to end him.
Directing my aim as I stepped out, I checked both ways before noting a path that had been carved through the trees. There was no doubt in my mind that Viktor believed he would get away to live another day.
He had a good head start on me, but I was sure I’d hit him.
Looking around, I spotted blood droplets that let me know I was going in the right direction. The color of his blood popped against last night’s melting snow and I was enraged at the thought that I could have been drinking hot cocoa with my daughter and playing in snow but instead I was trying to commit patricide.
Finally, the path dumped out into a huge clearing and I spotted him. He had no where to go, no where to run. This was the end for one of us and I had no plan on leaving Lexie or my unborn child without a father.
“Viktor!”
He turned and instantly drew his weapon on me. He face looked pale and ashen and the white shirt he wore was completely covered in blood.
I didn’t’ hesitate and began to squeeze the trigger as I had so many times before. Viktor fired back too. I tried to count how many rounds we both might have had left, but Astrid’s brown eyes popped into my head again and I realized I really needed to tell her at some point that I was in love with her. That I had never stopped being in love with her even after five years.
My bullets decided to miss their intended target.
“You are a pathetic disgrace,” Viktor began to laugh.
I hated this man. I hated the fact that I shared DNA with him, that I had came from his balls instead of anyone else’s.
“No that would be you. But its over now. You’ll never terrorize another person ever again.”
“Is that what your therapist told you to say. That if you killed the thing that haunted you in your dreams…that you’d be free. You’ll never be free of me boy. Never!”
My mind ran the numbers. I had another five bullets.
Squeezing off another round, I aimed at his feet.
“Surrender father,” I edged in closer.
“Ahhh, that’s it. That therapist did tell you that, didn’t’ she?”
I was close enough now and wondered why he hadn’t fired. Realization hit me when I knew he had run out of bullets already.
“Father…”
“Do it, boy. For once in you goddamn life be a man.”
My gut twisted.
“For all the shit you did, turning on your own family. Raping Katia, kidnapping Astrid. Trying to kill me and Liam, you deserve this.”
He went to speak again but he said nothing. He body went rigid and he closed his eyes prepared to meet his death head on. Even moments before his death, he was a motherfucker. Viktor wouldn’t even beg for his life; he had too much pride. He was true to his Bratva roots. He would die the same way he had lived, ruthlessly.
I held up the gun directly to the center of his head and squeezed.
Blood flew every where, and covered my face.
The shot made my ears rang.
It was finally done.
Pulling out my cellphone from my back pocket, I called Lucien. I gave him directions on where to find Viktor’s body and then I left the clearing.
Astrid needed me.
Tucking my phone back to where it had been, I stalked out of the clearing. A wind had come up and almost seemed to tear into my skin. Thoughts of a coat hadn’t even been on my mind this morning.
Just this.
Just walking away from the battle that I had known would come.
It wasn’t until I was in my car, that I realized my hands were shaking. My whole body was shaking. The only thing I could do to help myself was turn on the heat and count down from a hundred.
Chapter 30
Valentin
I never liked hospitals. They always smelled the same to me. Like some sort of disgusting hand sanitizer and cold. How did cold even have a smell. I couldn’t exactly explain it.
Nova had called to tell me that she had Lexie with her and so was Kit and they were just a few minutes away. I took that as my cue to walk out to the front of the hospital and just wait.
They weren’t’ exactly giving me much information as I wasn’t Astrid next of kin. While I waited, I walked around the parking lot and let my mind wander. The last forty-eight hours had been completely insane.
I even talked to God for just a moment, lifting my eyes to the heavens and watching the stars twinkle in the inky black sky. I demanded that He allow my child to live and its mother too because they were innocent.
I stopped talking when the headlights of Nova’s car shined on me and parked. The doors flung open and my princess hopped out and ran to me before Nova could call her back. Reaching down, I scooped her up and breath in her scent.
Lexie always smelled like cookies and cream; it was something Astrid had developed specifically for her hair.
“Thanks for bringing her Nov,” I said before letting Lexie get down to walk.
An older black woman was behind them and I instantly saw Astrid within her features. She wore glasses and she had a fierce proudness about herself.
“You must be the one whose caused all this trouble,” she spoke.
I had no words but then she cracked a smile.
“Yes ma’am I guess I am,” I said.
She came in and hugged me.
“Astrid always did tell me that you were the most good-looking boy she’d ever laid eyes on and it was the reason she got in trouble with this one,” Kit said.
Rubbing at the back of my neck, I began to get flushed.
Damn, she had a complete way with words.
“I plan on making an honest woman out of Astrid, ma’am” I said.
Nova shook her head then rolled her eyes. “Two kids later? Does A know all of this?”
“You’re here now with them both,” Kit stated.
We started to walk into the hospital.
Cars were zigzagging to find open spots and ambulances with twirling red and white lights were taking up space in front of the emergency doors. Lexie held my hand all the way up to Astrid’s floor. Kit gave the nurses stern looks and berated them for not giving me enough information. Finally, they let me in to see Astrid with Lexie by my side.
“Mommy?”
Astrid was in a bed, and the shades were drawn tightly. The only light in the room was coming from the lamp nearby. She looked a little paler than u
sual and her blonde hair seemed to be messy. This woman had never looked more beautiful to me than she did at that exact moment.
She stirred for just a moment, opening her eyes and taking us in.
“Hi guys,” she smiled tightly.
I picked Lexie up to sit on the hospital bed beside her.
“Hey there,” I leaned over and kissed her.
“Mommy are you okay? Why are you in the hospital?”
Astrid continued to smile tightly.
“Well Lexie Girl…remember when you asked about if you could get a brother or a sister. I have one in my tummy now…and I’m trying to keep them in there till they’re big enough to come out.”
Lexie’s green eyes, that mirrored my own so much went wide. She began to rattle off all the things she couldn’t wait to do; Astrid just kept on smiling and only spared a glance to me for a moment.
Nova and Kit made their way in and talked with her for just a moment while I went back outside. I’d spent a few hours trying to get into see her and just hadn’t been ready for the image of her laying there looking extremely frail.
We should have been planning to take Lexie trick or treating…
God, I had dropped the ball.
Moving to an area where I could make a phone call, my fingers hovered over The Therapist but instead chose Liam’s name.
He answered on the second ring; I hadn’t expected him to come back to the hospital. He’d spent enough time with Uncle Albert in and out of the hospital for chemo treatments. That was a enough of hospitals for a lifetime.
“How is Astrid?”
“She looks so fucking weak, and I’m still unsure of the baby,” I replied.
“It’s a Safaryan…we’re kind of hard to …”
He stopped and finished the sentence.
“Kill…”
“That was dark as fuck,” Liam muttered.
“Extremely.”
“I’m not always good in an emergency.”
“I know but, you’re the only one who would get it.”
“Of course, cousin,” he replied.
“I’ve been thinking…”
“Please tell me you haven’t strained yourself. You forget your role in all this…I’m the brains you’re the brawn.”
“Fuck you,” I laughed.
“But do go on.”
“I’ve been thinking that I need a vacation…”
We chatted for a few more minutes before I ended the call. As I was coming back to the room, I spotted Kit and Nova along with Lexie. They all hugged me goodbye and Nova promised to see me first thing in the morning after he own doctor’s appointment.
“I love you, Poppa,” Lexi gave me a kiss on my cheek before departing.
A doctor was inside waiting for me and Astrid seemed to be more awake now. The doctor’s face seemed to be stern and I was awaiting to hear the most extreme news. I came over to Astrid and held her hand.
And waited for the worst.
Epilogue
Astrid
Two Months Later
“Holy shit this sand is hot!”
Why was I even surprised that sand was hot was beyond my scope of thinking? Looking behind me, I found Valentin bringing down a beach chair and toys for Lexie. Turning back, I survey the ocean in front of me.
Hawaii.
He had really brought me to Hawaii for a Christmas vacation.
There were hundreds of people out here, playing in the water. The weather was a perfect eighty five degrees and I’d never felt warmer than I did right now.
I’d never even been outside of Chicago and finally made it to another state that just happened to be paradise. I never wanted to leave.
“I can see why you moved here,” I said to my soon to be mother-in-law, Elena. She was standing nearby waiting for Lexie.
“Ha, even this was to close to the son of a bitch, Viktor,” her Russian accent caused me to laugh.
I grabbed my belly a sudden little feeling. Elena became alarmed.
“What tis wrong?” she asked.
“Astrid…?” Val asked.
“I think…it was a flutter,” I smiled so widely.
“Flutter?” Valentin asked, dropping all of the beach crap nearby and coming over.
His eyes were still filled with alarm; for a moment he looked past me to watch Lexie pull Elena towards the sandcastle they’d started the day before. Elena’s house was directly on the beach and no one had bothered their sand.
“Yes, a flutter…”
“You’re okay though?”
His hand hovered above my stomach and I became annoyed. Pulling it firmly down, we waited but the sensation never came again.
“Don’t worry, it was the same way with Lexie. She would get excited about me laughing and these little flutters would come.”
He nodded, looking completely unsure.
For a Bratva enforcer, Valentin sure did seem to be frightened of pregnancy. The thought caused me to laugh out loud again; and, again I felt those slight little movements but decided to keep them to myself.
Watching Valentin fix up the chairs and umbrella for me, the I found myself wondering how long it’d be before he exacted some sort of punishments. Lately, he’d been trying to be gentle but at three months pregnant and growing another Safaryan in my womb, my flesh seemed to be yearning for the harsh taps of a riding crop.
Sitting down in the chair beside Val, I watched Elena and Lexie continue to play. She finally had a grandparent involved in her life.
“What are you thinking about, Little Star?” Valentin asked picking up my hand.
“About how your mother cussed you out for not telling her she had a granddaughter…”
He grinned. “We take those things personally…”
“I noticed,” I smacked at his arm. “What time is it?”
“Just a little after one,” he replied. “Don’t worry…I’ll be there in time to get him.”
My brother Michael was flying in from California to visit us. This would be his first time meeting Val. I was nervous as hell, but I knew everything would work itself out.
“You know I’m excited to meet your brother,” Valentin replied.
“Oh yeah?”
“Yes…I want to ask him for his permission to marry you.”
Surprise clouded my face as I looked over. “Is romance dead with you? You’re supposed to make this shit a surprise.”
Val shrugged. “I’ve had enough of surprises with you for a lifetime. The only surprises we need in the future are more positive pregnancy tests.”
“Huh?”
“Yes…after you start your salon when we get back,” he gave a slight smile and leaned his head back.
I had already started getting paperwork together, even though Earlina was begging me to stay now that I was fully licensed. That had happened by the grace of God once my life had gotten back to semi normal.
“Hey, Astrid?”
“You are going to say yes right?”
Laughter. It was the only thing that I could do. Everything stood right with the world for now. The flutters moved through my body again. My hand rubbed the slight bump that was growing there. I wondered would they be more like me or more like their father.
“Maybe,” I shrugged.
Valentin turned his gaze on me.
It was dark and penetrating.
I knew that look and I knew that I would be seeing that look for a lifetime, especially when getting punished. In my mind, I had already started planning what color my heels would be for my wedding and what color dress I was going to put Nova in. Lexie would have a crown of roses decorating her hair. I was already planning the wedding gift for Valentin.
Brand new riding crops…he was going to be my captive.
I was already planning for now and forever.
~
The author’s next project, is Shattered. We hope to see there. To keep up with news join her Facebook group.
> AMAYA BLACK, CAPTIVE: A DARK MAFIA ROMANCE