Perfectly Normal

by Jaden Wilkes

  Good sense took over and she stepped back until she could assess where the rest of the intruders were. She moved across the open space towards the kitchen, dining room and front entrance. She didn’t want to alert the man guarding Nico to her presence, but she wanted to catch Nico’s eye with her movement. She was successful but the only indication he noticed her was the slightest nod in her direction and the look of relief that flashed across his face.

  She raised her brows to query the whereabouts of Dimitri. Her stomach lurched when he shrugged, indicating he wasn’t sure where Dimitri was, and how many men there were total.

  She lifted her finger to her lips and he nodded, knowing to keep quiet. She continued along to the dining room and made it to the front foyer. Dimitri’s guard on duty was laying on the floor, his body twisted and his own pool of dark blood spreading lazily out around him. She turned him over and saw his throat was slashed. They obviously didn’t shoot him; they probably didn’t want to risk the noise.

  She ducked back to the living room and Nico was in the same spot, still cuffed. There was a second man standing above him now, yelling at him about Dimitri’s location. Nico was stubborn though, refused to answer and looked defiantly at him. The interrogator punched him on the side of the head. Nico fell to the side, but sat right back up and continued to star the other man down. She was proud of him, and wished she could help, but had to find Dimitri before she lost her mind.

  She crept towards the kitchen, found it empty and through the dining room to the back hallway. She moved towards the gym and finally heard something coming from the open, hollow room. Two men arguing, but she didn’t recognize either voice or the language. Greek again perhaps…this could be where the original attacker ended up.

  She moved slowly, careful, not wanting to alert the intruders, but desperate to know where Dimitri was located. She was willing to risk being detected if it meant knowing he was alive.

  She reached the door, it was wide and thick glass so she could see through. The only people inside were two men arguing about something. The original attacker was indeed one of them, the other looked vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t place him.

  She slipped past and searched the first guest bedroom, but it was empty. As she came through the door, she heard the argument get even more heated in the gym. She turned and backed towards the second guest room, wanting to clear it before heading upstairs to find Dimi.

  She was swept off her feet and a hand covered her mouth, stifling her startled cry. She twisted and gripped her knife, prepared to stab whoever had taken her.

  “Quiet, little dove, don’t alert them,” Dimitri said in her ear and she collapsed back in his arms. He lifted her up and carried her into the second guest room, set her on the bed and fell to his knees in front of her. “My god, I thought you were dead, I came to your room and found the body…” his voice trailed off and he laid his head in her lap.

  She was shaking with joy, her tension and fears left behind the moment she heard his voice, his deep, sexy voice whisper the two words that melted her heart every time he said them…little dove.

  “I was so scared, I didn’t know where you were,” she said and soaked him in, his scent, the feel of his hands on her thighs, the weight of his presence, anchoring her to the surface of the planet.

  “I was looking for you,” he said, “I was preparing for…our night when I heard Nico call out. I found him overcome. I needed to find you before I could do a thing. I killed one of them on the way to our bedroom…when I found the body, and all the blood. I couldn’t think straight.”

  “I know,” she said, “I thought the first guy was one of yours, but the second guy was so terrifying, I know there was no way you could possibly have hired him”

  “There were two? You killed two?” he asked and ran his hands up and down her legs, looking for wounds.

  “I only killed the one you saw, the other fled when I fought back,” she replied.

  He laughed and came up to fold his arms around her. She could feel the anger coursing through his body, and he said, “I want you to stay here. Lock yourself in the bathroom until I come for you.”

  “No fucking way,” she said, “these people invaded our home, I will not stand by and do nothing. Besides, I have a gun too.” She reached down and pulled it out, realizing how foreign it seemed to her.

  “I cannot fight with you by my side, I will be too focused on your safety. It will put us both at risk,” he said and took the weapon from her, “besides, you do know you have the safety on, don’t you?”

  “Um, no in fact I did not. I think it’s obvious I need some training in firearms if we are going to be attacked,” she replied and felt her face grow red. “And I suggest you get used to fighting with me nearby, you decided to hook up with a mean little bitch. If you can’t handle me standing up to them and driving my knife into their hearts, then you are with the wrong woman.”

  He looked at her, as if to argue, but realized it was futile. “You’re right,” he said, “I did hook up with a mean little bitch.” He smiled briefly, cupped her face in his great, powerful hands, and kissed her with a passion that almost left her breathless.

  He pulled back and she said, “Ok, let’s go kill them so we can get to bed. I have plans for you tonight.”

  He stood and pulled her to stand next to him. He took his knife from the belt around his chest, held it up and looked at her smaller one. “You do remember where to pierce his heart, don’t you?” he asked.

  “Yes, I do,” she replied and held her knife out in front of her. “I’m ready.”

  He walked to the door, but turned before he opened it, gave her back the gun and said, “The safety’s off, so don’t put it in your pants. I need to get back into your cunt, little dove, and it won’t do me a damn bit of good if you shoot yourself in it.” He winked and flashed a smile at her as he exited.

  She flushed redder, nodded her head and followed him out the room.

  She walked behind Dimitri and felt rather proud that her footsteps were as quiet as his. They walked back the way she came, towards the gym and found the two men had left. It was unclear which way they had gone.

  They continued back through the kitchen area to the living room where Nico was being kept. Dimitri held his hand up to stop as they hit the end of the hall. He moved slowly and looked around the corner to assess the situation. He motioned for her to follow him and they moved into the open space.

  They were spotted immediately. The man she’d seen interrogating Nico broke out into Russian the moment he recognized Dimitri. She understood none of it, but picked up Dimitri and Sergei’s names amidst the spattering conversation. She felt helpless knowing only English, another language might be on her ever growing list of things to master.

  Dimitri moved slowly towards the man, his arms held out as if to embrace him. The second intruder spotted Columbia and moved quickly towards her. Nico called to her a warning, but she was prepared.

  He wasn’t a large man, but he was fast which threw Columbia off at first. He stepped to the side and she missed him when she jumped at him, but she twirled and struck his back with her foot. He turned back towards her and said, “You stupid cunt. Just let me kill you and make this so much easier. If you force me, I will play with you before I give you the mercy of death.” He was North American, which surprised her. This group seemed to be made up of hired killers from all corners of the globe.

  “Fuck you,” Columbia said, all out of movie villain lines to offer back. She saw Dimitri fighting with the other man out of the corner of her eye. She held up the gun and pointed it at her attacker and pulled the trigger. The shot went wild and struck the wall some distance away. Dimitri turned to see if she was ok, and was hit hard while doing so.

  “You missed,” he responded with a laugh and darted towards her. She heard Dimitri’s attacker grunt and thought he dropped to the floor, but had to turn back to be certain. Her attacker kicked out at the gun and struck it from her hand. It clattered
across the floor to where it landed near Nico. He tried to reach for it, but his bindings wouldn’t let him.

  She lashed out with her knife and struck the intruder’s arm as he reached for her. She escaped his grasp, but fell back when he surprised her with a kick to the thigh. She landed on her ass and tried to get back up again, but he kicked her arm before she could find her balance and get off the floor.

  She slashed at him, this time catching his calf, tearing his thick combat pants and hitting flesh underneath. He howled at her, more rage than pain, and dropped on top of her. She fought him as he pushed her back, stabbing blindly with her knife but hitting nothing of consequence. He pinned her to the floor and pulled his fist back to pummel her face. She gave one last heave upwards and unbalanced him as he swung. He straddled her but leaned back to find stability on the floor.

  He never saw Dimitri coming. Dimitri was silent as he approached the intruder from behind, reached around, hooked his hand under the chin and slashed with his knife. Columbia screamed as the intruder’s throat started gushing blood down the front of him and all over her. She was more surprised than terrified, but the blood lust on Dimitri’s face was the most unsettling of all.

  He was no longer her Dimi, her gentle beast with the powerful body and careful hands. He was in full on battle mode, his rage making him cool, calm and deadly. It was as though he didn’t register his little dove under the body of the man he was killing.

  He dragged the intruder off her and twisted the head for emphasis, as though the slashed throat wouldn’t have killed the man. Dimitri seemed lost to her when she called his name, he didn’t focus on anything but the attacker when he let fly a flurry of punches to the man’s face.

  By the time Columbia got to her feet and yelled his name loud enough that he looked at her and saw her, the attackers face was a mess of flesh, bone and blood.

  Dimitri’s hands had destroyed the man beyond recognition. Columbia was horrified by the sight, the wreck of a face like a parody of what a human should look like. He was a Picasso sketch done by a child, his nose in the wrong place and teeth hanging everywhere.

  Columbia felt like throwing up, but she fought to keep herself together and approached her Dimi, her love, her savage warrior.

  “Dimi,” she said and he looked up again, “it’s ok, he’s dead. I’m ok.”

  “I only wanted to protect you,” he replied and reached for her. She was coated in blood and felt like she was made of glass, as though she’d shatter at the slightest touch, but she went to him anyways. She couldn’t stay away.

  “You did well, you protected me,” she assured him and let him come down off his killing frenzy with her in his arms. “We need to get Nico and kill the others,” she said when she felt his arms loosen and his teeth unclench.

  “Yes,” he agreed, “look for a key on this one, and I’ll search the other one.”

  She dropped beside the man, what remained of a man, and dug through his pockets. She found nothing and was about to stand up when she noticed a chain around his neck. She saw two keys on it; they looked as though they would match up with the handcuffs.

  “Dimi?” she called to him, “are these what we’re looking for?” She couldn’t stomach the thought of sliding them over the man’s ruined head or unclasping the chain behind his neck.

  Dimitri came to her side and grunted yes. He reached down and gave a hard yank, breaking the chain and pulling the keys off.

  They went to Nico who was still conscious, but horribly beaten. Columbia’s heart sank when she saw how badly they had damaged his face. His eyes were already black and starting to close, his nose looked broken and his lip was split and swollen.

  The first thing he said was, “Oh thank god Columbia, I thought you were dead.”

  Dimitri unlocked the handcuffs and helped his friend stand. “Let’s get you safe, then we’ll tend to you later. I’m sorry we can’t help you immediately,” he said.

  Nico waved him off and told him, “You do what you need to do. I saw five all together, so there are three more to kill. They were here looking for you, boss. I think they’re Sergei’s men. They knew what they were doing, but they didn’t seem to know anything about Columbia.”

  “You mean two, Columbia already killed one by herself,” Dimitri told him with pride. Nico smiled the best he could and attempted a half-hearted high five. Columbia’s heart broke seeing him so weakened.

  They helped him to his room and set him on the bathroom floor with a knife. Dimitri asked Columbia, “Are you sure I can’t persuade you to stay here with Nico? To tend to him?”

  “I need to come with you,” she insisted and followed him out.

  Before they closed the locked door, Nico said, “Keep her safe. Protect her from these animals.”

  Dimitri replied, “I always will,” and clicked the door shut.

  They heard voices from the stairwell leading to the rooftop deck the moment they left Nico’s room. The last two men had gone up there after exhausting all other places to search. It was a large penthouse though, they must not have known about all the rooms or the back hallway or else they might have discovered them already.

  “Wait, I dropped the gun,” Columbia whispered to him.

  “You won’t need it, you just need yourself…and maybe your knife.”

  “What are we going to do?” Columbia asked.

  “We are going to go up there, surprise them, and kill them,” he answered.

  “That seems too easy,” she replied.

  “Killing isn’t complicated,” he said and moved towards the stairs, “it’s the thinking about it that makes it complicated, not the doing it.”

  She fell silent and followed him up to the deck.

  The intruders were on the far side, looking over the edge at the city. It was impossible to not admire the view from up here, especially on a clear night such as this.

  They moved quietly towards the men, in matching poses, knives out and crouched to attack. The men turned in unison when Dimitri and Columbia were a couple of feet away.

  “There you are,” the taller, more attractive of the two said. He spoke in perfect, unaccented English. “We have been looking for you for many years now, you slippery fucking bastard.” He held a gun out, pointed at Dimitri.

  “Dalton,” Dimitri spoke, “I haven’t thought of you at all, except to think about how good it felt to kill your brother, Mace.”

  “Oh, he’s not dead, why would you think that?” Dalton replied, “did you think he died in the same little fire that burned you to a crisp? Oh, no, he survived…although he doesn’t look half as good as you do, Enforcer. Or should I call you Beast now?”

  “I’m so happy to hear that he survived,” Dimitri said, “I will take great pleasure in killing him all over again. The screams he made the first time around were almost as satisfying as the screams of his wife while I was fucking her.” Columbia winced at this, but understood he was saying it to get a rise out of Dalton. It worked.

  “You have to get through me first,” Dalton spat and lunged towards Dimitri, seeming to forget about his gun. Dimitri swept it out of his had immediately though, and Columbia was starting to realize how much of a detriment a firearm could be. The men wielding them seemed weakened at their loss.

  “Not a problem,” Dimitri replied and moved his knife from one hand to the other, then back again.

  “I’m going to kill you and fuck your whore,” Dalton said and let his eyes flit to Columbia. “I’m going to gut her and fuck her steaming insides. I’m going to make sure my face is the last thing she sees in this world, while she screams your name wondering why you failed her.”

  Columbia knew this was also just talk; at least she hoped it was, but it had the desired effect on Dimitri. He roared and lunged at Dalton, knife out and ready to kill. Dalton was ready for him though; he reached for Dimitri’s arm as they collided, twisting it to force the knife from his hand.

  Columbia lost the train of their fight at this moment though; th
e other man rushed her and aimed a punch towards her abdomen. She was caught off guard and did her best to absorb the impact, but her breath was forced out of her with a single grunt. She doubled over and took the time to tighten the grip on her knife. As he grabbed for her hair to bring a knee up to her face, she struck. She hit his upper thigh and jerked the blade upwards as it entered.

  He howled in pain and pushed her to the ground, blood streaming from his leg. She slashed at his calf and hit the opposite leg, grazing his shinbone with the blade. He screamed a series of what she could only imagine were expletives in his language. Definitely Greek, she’d heard Nico say similar things when frustrated.

  Columbia sprung to her feet and glanced at Dimitri. The men were locked in each other’s grip, wrestling and swearing at each other. It seemed they had too much to say to end this encounter and administer the killing blow. Dimitri’s knife was several feet away; it must have been knocked out of his hand during the scuffle. She could see Dalton’s knife strapped to his mid section and easily within his reach.

  She would have worried more if she didn’t have big problems of her own. In spite of his injuries, the intruder was coming after her, moving fast and pushing through his pain.

  She darted around a lounge chair and headed towards the pool area. She thought if she could trap him between the edge of the deck and the pool, she might have a better chance. His speed seemed to be his main asset, if she could cut that off, then she could fight him in close quarters and kill him faster.

  He followed and wound up in the exact spot she wanted him. She was amazed at how easy it was and how well this seemed to be going. Dimitri had been right again, killing wasn’t the difficult part, it was thinking about killing that seemed to muddle her up.

  The intruder walked slowly around her, seemingly to size her up after the damage she had done. She had a sneaking suspicion she was a better fighter than this man, but knew to not let this get to her head. She simply wanted to use it to her advantage in order to survive.