by Bethany-Kris
“Now,” he said with a nod. “Do it again.”
She did.
Strangely, the memory of Roman helped to settle Viviana momentarily. It wasn’t that she never thought of him, because she did, but most times it brought on more grief than it did happiness.
As Rory predicted, his cell phone rang less than a minute after he’d hung it up. Once more, he allowed it to ring several times before finally answering the call.
“What, Joe? I’m busy here,” Rory said.
Viviana had to give her younger bull some credit. He didn’t break his character while speaking to Joe. Rory kept his tone the same as he always would, pretending his frustration was rising like usual, and didn’t give any hint that he knew what was really going on.
Whether or not it was working on Joe was another story.
Viviana couldn’t help but feel her fear flare up again. Her breathing turned shallow and her heart was beating out of control. Clammy, her hands were useless extremities laying lifeless in her lap. She didn’t know what, if anything, there was she could do.
She wished she could be more like Rory, capable of pretending everything was fine.
Even though it so clearly wasn’t.
“Take the lead, then,” she heard Rory say. “If I’m going to slow for you, just take it. I’m going the goddamn speed limit, man. Precious cargo and all that jazz.” Silence was a brief passing in the car before Rory snorted. “Sure, whatever. Did you call—no? Well don’t complain, Joe. If he wanted …”
Rory trailed off as the phone sitting in Viviana’s lap started to ring with that loud, unfamiliar chime. Her wide eyes met his in the rear view mirror, panicked and unsure. Viviana couldn’t not answer Anton’s call, but she also knew Joe thought she was sleeping, too.
“Nothing, man. That’s not her phone,” Rory said quickly. Viviana hid the phone in her hand and bunched it up inside her fur coat. The ringing’s sound was muffled slightly, but given the way her bull’s lips were drawn thin and tight, his hand grasping tighter to the steering wheel, she knew Joe didn’t believe him. “Do you hear anything? I sure don’t … Nah, I told you that she’s fucking sleeping. Why would she call him? What are you so concerned about, anyway? Fuck this, Joe, I’m calling—”
“No!”
The shout was so loud Viviana flinched inwardly. Rory held the phone away from his ear, shock and anger flitting over his features. They could still hear Joe’s irate voice buzzing in the phone’s speaker.
Viviana swallowed the lump forming in her throat. The phone in her own hand had stopped ringing.
Please call back, she begged hopelessly.
Now, more than ever, she needed to talk to her husband. Even if it was useless conversation and mundane words. Even if they ignored the obvious and pretended like what was happening didn’t exist. Viviana needed that, she didn’t care.
Like Joe hadn’t just roared at him, Rory kept calm as he placed the phone back to his ear and began speaking. “Listen, I don’t know what the hell is wrong with you, but if you shout at me like that again, I’ll pistol whip your fucking ass.” Rolling his eyes, Rory huffed and said, “Sure you would, asshole. Thanks for waking Vine up with your nonsense. I have to go.”
Again, the phone was turned off and tossed uncaringly to the seat.
Viviana tried like heck not to notice, but she couldn’t help it: Rory’s hands were trembling.
“Can you call Boss back?” Rory asked quietly. Worry had pitched his tone a little higher than normal. “Be fast about it, Vine.”
Apparently Rory had reason to worry. Viviana turned to look over her shoulder just in time to see the SUV behind them speed up at an alarming rate. The vehicle loomed close enough to the back of theirs that she could make out the shape of the man driving. Tailgating was one thing, but what Joe was doing was just downright dangerous.
If they had to stop suddenly, where would Joe be?
Right inside their trunk. That’s where.
“Holy crap he’s close,” Viviana said.
“He’s being an idiot,” Rory muttered lowly. “Trying to make a point.”
He hit the gas and the force of their SUV lurching forward sent Viviana falling back into the seat with wide eyes. It was only then that she noticed her seatbelt was unbuckled, so she made quick work of fixing that issue.
Viviana pulled out the phone to call Anton, but she didn’t have to. He was already calling her back. Pressing the on button, she didn’t even need to put the phone up to her ear to hear his fear. Anton was calling her name loud and clear through the speaker, over and over. Her heart clenched at the thought of him worrying about why she hadn’t picked up his first call.
But hadn’t he said he wouldn’t call until he could see Joe?
“Anton?” Silence covered the phone. “Hey, it’s okay. I’m here.”
“Damn it, baby. Why didn’t you answer me?” he asked sharply.
“Rory was on the phone with Joe.”
“Oh.” All of the fight left his voice with the one word.
“How close is he?” Rory asked.
“Close enough to see his taillights,” Anton said. Viviana relayed the information. “Far enough with my lights turned off so he won’t notice me.”
Viviana glanced out at the pitch-black darkness surrounding their vehicle. There weren’t any streetlights and the area they were driving through was dense with forest. How could he even see where he was driving?
“Is that safe?” she dared to ask.
“Safer than him noticing me,” Anton replied. “How are you doing?”
Viviana bit the inside of her cheek, willing the unannounced tears to stop welling. “Good.”
“Really? Because it’s been a rough day.”
“Okay, so I’m a little tired. Terrified, too.”
Anton took her confession in stride, or he seemed to. “I promise a hot bath, a warm bed, and me as soon as we get home.”
Clearing her throat, she smiled at his offerings. “We might have to put that off, though.”
“No way. Rest and relax, that’s what you need to do.”
And birth a baby, she thought. Maybe.
“There’s a turn off for a private access into Columbus Park coming up. I’m taking it,” Rory stated from the front seat.
Viviana’s heart lurched into her throat as her stomach dropped. “Why?”
“Because I need to get closer,” Anton said. “Somehow. That’ll probably help.”
As Rory turned on his blinker to signal he was making a turn, the stress and tension in the SUV turned up a notch or two. Anton went quiet on his end of the phone and Viviana forced herself not to turn around and look out the back window. She didn’t want to know how close Joe was to their vehicle.
As the car started to turn into the dark, dirt road, Rory’s phone began ringing again. Rory tossed the phone a glance, but didn’t move to pick it up.
“Just a little detour,” he said under his breath. “Keep following, asshole.”
Soon enough, Joe’s call stopped ringing through.
The road was bumpy, jostling Viviana with every pothole the tires hit. She tried to see beyond the rows and rows of trees lining either side of their SUV. She couldn’t make out much, but she did notice there was a slight ditch on the left side. The embankment wasn’t overly deep, and was more than likely just a water runoff for a lake or something.
The darkness and unknown area didn’t bother Viviana, though. What did bother her was the silence on the other end of her phone. “Anton?”
“I’m just turning in the road, too,” he said quietly.
Viviana took a deep breath, willing it to calm her raging emotions. “Okay, should I—”
She didn’t get to ask if she should hang up her phone. She did manage to hear Rory’s low cuss before something slammed into the back of their SUV with a force that sent their vehicle swerving off to the side. Viviana’s shoulder rammed into the door and the sharp sting of agony ricocheted through her side. Her cry o
f pain and surprise fell on deaf ears as the phone slipped from her grasp and hit the floor with a dull thud.
Shocked, she realized Joe had driven his vehicle into the back of theirs.
Totally terrified and unsure what Joe was trying to do, Viviana only wanted to get the phone off the floor and back into her hands. She needed Anton. Their SUV sped up as a slight bump knocked their vehicle from behind again. The second hit wasn’t nearly as hard as the first one, but it was still enough to send the terror skyrocketing. Dread crawled over Viviana’s skin as she tried to catch her breath and calm down enough to think.
Rory still hadn’t spoken a word from the front.
Viviana wrangled with her belt to try and grab the fallen phone. She couldn’t reach it from her spot without unbuckling the seatbelt but that didn’t stop her from trying. Anton’s shouts from the phone echoed up from the floor. When she couldn’t grab it, a sob escaped her chest.
“Don’t unbuckle, Vine! You might need it.”
Sitting back and knowing Anton must have been in a terrible panic, Viviana dug her hands into the soft leather of the seat and closed her eyes. That gun on her thigh burned a little more. Viviana didn’t want to think about using it, or needing to.
Tears fell over her cheeks, gathering on her trembling lips.
Good God, Anton could not see her like this.
Rory seemed to notice her state as his quiet, calm voice brought her out of a meltdown. “Hey, what’s the name of that boy of yours, huh?”
Somehow, Viviana managed a short laugh. Was this really the right time to be discussing her son’s name? She knew her bull was only attempting to cool her fear, and surprisingly, it worked.
“What?”
“The baby’s name,” he said again. “Jen won’t leave me alone about it. You’re close enough, so what’s his name going to be? My bet was on Daniil or Anton.”
Viviana licked her lips. “Wrong, well, sort of. Can’t tell you anyway, Anton would have a fit.”
Rory scoffed, but the sound didn’t ring true. The car was going dangerously fast, hitting the bumps and divots in the road with more force than before. The pain in her shoulder was dulled, but it still hurt something fierce.
“Sure you can,” Rory said, lifting his gaze to meet hers in the mirror. “Come on, Vine, what if I never find out? I’m kind of like his guard, too, right, so I should know. Boss will get over it. It’s not like I’ll tell anyone, promise.”
Sure, Rory finished up his statement with an offhanded comment about Anton, but Viviana hadn’t missed his words right before that.
What if I never find out?
Was that how he thought this situation was going to end?
“Rory …”
The hard profile of the man in the front seat turned just enough for her to see the softness he always held in his gaze. “I meant to thank you, by the way.”
“For what?”
Rory chuckled, his grip on the steering wheel tightening as their SUV sped up impossibly faster. “For Jen, I guess. Boss never would have let me date the girl because she works at one of his joints. You’ve been good for him, more than he knows. Good for a lot of people. So, thanks.”
Viviana didn’t know what to say.
Rory didn’t give her the chance to figure it out. “His name?”
She could still hear Anton calling for her from the forgotten phone on the floor.
Faith, Viviana reminded herself.
It would be all right. It had to be.
As Joe’s vehicle bumped into theirs again, she closed her eyes.
“You’ll find out when he’s born just like everybody else.”
It was the last thing Viviana said before she felt their vehicle drop off the side of the embankment.
Chapter Seventeen
“No …”
Anton felt something painful expand and burst in his chest as he caught the faint outline of the SUV his wife was in drop out of sight. The lights of the SUV dimmed before blinking out completely as the taillights disappeared.
The phone at his ear crackled with static as Viviana’s piercing scream echoed through the receiver. He could hear glass shattering and the metal of the car crunching under whatever weight it slammed into.
His heart beat a staccato rhythm. Anton couldn’t even manage to breathe. The embankment wasn’t large, maybe only fifteen or twenty feet deep. Even so, it was more than big and deep enough to roll a vehicle. Enough to hurt a passenger, or knock them out. Enough to kill a person if they weren’t buckled in, or God forbid if a tree went through a window. Anton wasn’t even trying to think about the speed Rory had been traveling when Joe knocked them over the ditch. An accident at that rate of speed was more than enough to do serious damage.
Joe’s SUV stopped at the same time Anton’s car did. The bull was getting out of the car, a gun firmly seated in his palm as his form strode along the dirt road.
Unfortunately, Anton was quite a ways behind and he had a bit of a run to catch up. He didn’t dare take the chance of going further and having Joe draw his gun out on him. Sure, Anton had a weapon of his own, but it wouldn’t make a difference if the bull shot him dead while he was still behind the wheel of a moving vehicle.
Besides that, Anton still wasn’t sure if Joe had seen him or if he didn’t know that he was following behind at all. It was more likely that Joe assumed this would be the best place and time to make his move on Viviana when Rory chose to drive into the dirt road. Anton had been hoping to get a little closer to the man’s vehicle before Rory stopped, but Joe hadn’t given him the chance.
Anton was stuck frozen. Lightheaded with blurred vision, he was suddenly dizzy and lost. There was no noise on the phone he held to his ear. No crying, no words. The sounds of the car crashing into ground had all but stopped, too. There was just … nothing. Dead silence, but the phone hadn’t cut out the call.
“Vine,” he whispered, knowing his wife wasn’t going to answer him back.
Dread clawed through his cold veins. As Anton blinked at the headlights flooding over the shadow of Joe who was still staring down the embankment, he couldn’t help but let his mind run wild. His wife and unborn son had just been in an accident. A man with a gun and thoughts intent on killing them was less than maybe thirty feet away.
Anton was much farther than that.
Watching in a horror induced haze as Joe came to the edge of the embankment and looked over, Anton didn’t know what to do. The lights from SUV Joe had been driving lit up the road, trees, and the bull enough to give Anton a decent view of what he was dealing with. When Joe lurched forward, slipping off the edge of the ditch to jump down the embankment, Anton finally sprung back to life. Adrenaline pumped through his blood as he slammed his car into park and flung open the driver’s side door.
The warm air felt like a slap in the face as he hit the ground running.
Anton was an athlete. There wasn’t much he couldn’t do in the physical sense. But his physicality didn’t matter a single bit in the situation he found himself in because he was much too far away. Anton simply wasn’t fast enough, he couldn’t be. He knew he wouldn’t make it to his wife in nearly enough time to save her from Joe’s wrath or his gun. The only thing he could hope for was Rory being awake and capable of using his own weapon, or Viviana being able to use hers.
“Oh God, Viviana! Vine!”
He shouted into the phone again and again, but still, nothing answered him back.
Anton didn’t falter in his run when the first gunshot rang out in the darkness.
*
Viviana jerked awake at the loud bang. Glass shattered around her face, littering shards into her hair. She struggled to remember what had happened and why her shoulder hurt so goddamned badly. Groaning, she didn’t focus too long on the muffled noise that sounded just out of reach.
Oddly, she felt slightly off balance.
Viviana turned her head to the side, wiping off the glass fragments from her face. Something warm and wet smeared
on her cheeks from the touch. The coppery taste of blood lingered on her mouth. Sparing a glance out the broken window beside her, Viviana realized the vehicle she was in had slammed into the trunk of a tree.
But hadn’t a window just broken? Wasn’t there a bang?
A bang that reminded her of something … something frightening.
Like a gun, maybe.
Was it a gunshot?
What was that bang?
What was that noise?
Who was yelling?
With a thick throat and no voice, Viviana looked to her right. That window was broken, too, and her eyes blurred as she attempted to see through the darkness. A shape was there—someone was out there, shouting.
The person reached through the window, trying to grab her, but she was too far away for them to reach. By the shape of his form, she knew he was a man.
“Anton?”
Ouch. Talking hurt worse than breathing. Viviana’s throat felt scratchy and raw.
“Fucking door!”
No, it couldn’t be her husband. Anton’s voice was deeper, with silken tenors and a deep baritone bass. This was nothing like the soothing, familiar voice of her husband. This person was angry. Viviana’s whole body flinched as she heard something slam into the car door. The man’s foot, likely.
Had the door been crushed shut when they wrecked?
At the memory of the SUV rolling off the embankment, Viviana was flooded with the rest of her forgotten mind. No, it certainly wasn’t Anton outside of the vehicle.
It was Joe.
Had he shot into the car already?
That would certainly explain the bang that brought her back into consciousness.
“Rory,” Viviana said hoarsely as Joe once again struggled to open the door.
Why wasn’t he just shooting her? Why was he trying to get inside the car?
Where was Anton? He hadn’t been far behind, or so she thought.
“Rory,” she said again, louder the second time. The bull in the front seat didn’t answer Viviana back. In the darkness, she couldn’t see a thing but the glow of the dashboard’s clock, anyway.