by T. L Smith
“I’ve changed,” he says laughing.
Pollie grabs her walking cane and her case containing her violin and stands. I walk around to her and lean in for a kiss, whispering so softly that only she can hear. Her hearing is the best, I can whisper something to her, and even if there is noise all around us, she will still hear me.
“I’m sorry, I think you should go now. I’ll call you later.”
She nods her head and turns to walk out. My brother tries to stand and I block his path.
“Why do you hide them?” he asks sitting back down and picking up a bagel that I didn’t finish. He starts eating then takes a sip of my drink.
“Are you joking? You talk like I have a whole squad of friends I keep hidden.” I shake my head at him. The things that leave his mouth sometimes make me wonder if he is all there.
“You don’t?” he says. “Damn, my last one didn’t quite cut it for me. But that one…” he says glimpsing over his shoulder and pointing to where Pollie just left, “…was mighty fine,” he says nodding his head.
Pollie is beautiful, her hair is a natural strawberry color, her skin has light freckles that brush over her nose. Her figure is petite, yet fit. I can see why he’d be attracted to her. Hell, if I swung that way I would even try. Pity I like my men fucked up. Stupid me.
“I’m leaving, don’t tell father.”
He drops his mouth open and stares at me. “What? Why? Don’t tell me that shit until you’re going, woman.” He shakes his head. “Where are you going to go?”
“Just away from him.”
“Away from who? Our father, or him?”
He can’t even say his name, he just says him like it leaves a bad taste in his mouth.
“Father.”
“So you still want him? Even after everything?”
“You can’t just turn shit off like that, Maso. Two years is a long time to just ‘forget.’” I use air quotes around the word forget.
“He fucking hurt you, Elina. What’s so hard about that to get through your head?”
“I hurt him, too. Not in the same physical way, but I still hurt him. And I don’t excuse what he did, but we aren’t normal. Fuck, our families are the furthest from normal there is. What he did, that was his normal for my betrayal. And you know what? He couldn’t even finish his threat, and we all know that’s not him. If he says he will kill someone, you know as much as I do that he carries out that action. He isn’t a good man. Hell, I want to cut him ten times worse than what he did to me. But what is our normal? It definitely isn’t the kind of normal, average people have.” I would never condone abuse, I was brought up surrounded by it. I know it well, I’ve lived it. Even my father used to beat me when I didn’t listen. Kazier didn’t abuse me, that was just his normal. And I knew the moment I stepped into his den, that what I would receive from him from that day forward was only going to be one type of normal, and that was all his. Though he didn’t prove to be the darkest devil that I thought he was, I was expecting much worse—way, way worse.
Chapter 27
Kazier
When you get news of a meeting with the Bartalotti’s, there are two things that cross your mind. One, it may be a set-up, and two, I wonder if tonight I can kill them all. The second is running through my mind right now as we stand in front of my father’s house waiting for him to greet us so we can leave.
We plan to meet on neutral ground in one of their restaurants that’s situated right near one of ours. I don’t want any more meetings at their house where they have the manpower over us. That won’t happen again.
My father emerges and I see that he’s carrying. No one would recognize that he is, except those that know him. Ever since he’s been in the political arena, he has chosen not to carry. But tonight, he’s expecting the unexpected and I see it straight away. My eyes hone in on it, his eyes follow me because he knows I know.
He hasn’t asked me about Elina nor about Freya. He knows where I stand with Freya, I won’t marry her. He also knows he can’t instruct me to do something I don’t want. I haven’t seen him since the day I told him otherwise. I climb into the driver seat, my father climbing in next to me. Anton, Viktor and Death in the car behind us. The drive is quiet on the way there, but when we stop, I know he’s itching to say something.
“Don’t kill anyone,” he instructs as he jerks on the handle of the car door. He doesn’t wait for us as he walks straight up to the front of the restaurant and pulls the door open. As soon as the others leave the car, I wait for them to join me before I follow him in. When we enter most lights are off, the staff aren’t here. It’s just the Bartalotti family sitting at a long table, all three of them with a few hired help around them all carrying.
My father takes the seat opposite them, and I do the same with our men standing behind us. Maso doesn’t look at me when I take a seat. Actually, he hardly stares at anyone but the table. Bartollo is the one staring, at me in particular, and if his stare could kill I’d be dead. Pity he doesn’t have those powers. I try to look closer at them, to see if I can make out how Elina is even closely related. I know she is, it’s just hard to believe. The dark hair is the only indicator to me, as far as I can tell. And possibly the attitude.
“Elina,” Bartollo says, focusing on me when he speaks her name. I feel my hands clenching, my face tightening. He can’t have her back, it won’t happen. Never. “I see your reaction to her. Is it possible that you do love her?” He’s smirking as he talks, and all eyes turn to me, even my father’s.
Should I lie? Or should I tell him the truth?
“What does this matter?”
He smirks again like he’s gotten his answer. Hell, maybe he did get something from those four words.
“You can’t have her! You do realize this?”
I think he’s trying to provoke me, but what he doesn’t understand is that I don’t take orders from him.
“And you are who… to tell me so?” A throaty laugh leaves my throat, it’s dry and fake, and he knows it. “You think you…” I say pointing my finger at him, “…can tell me…” I ask pointing to myself, “…what I can and can’t have? Tell me you’re joking?” I drop both hands on the table and lean in closer. “Because if I remember correctly, you don’t run this town, I do.” My lip twitches and his face reddens in anger. Just as I’m about to open my mouth, I hear a gasp, and when I turn, all my men have a gun to their heads and my father has a gun to his head. I reach for my phone under the table in my pocket.
Bartollo smiles at me like he has everything under his control. “You see, Kazier, you’ve made many enemies. Those enemies would pay good money to have you taken care of. You, and your wretched family,” he says looking around at my family, pinning my father with a steely stare.
“You think it will be that easy to kill me?”
He nods his head.
I press a button on my phone and place it back in my pocket. With my hands still under the table, I reach for my gun, pulling it out once I have my phone in my pocket. “You do know I have one on you now, right? My father has his on your son? So before you even think of touching someone, killing someone, make sure you know who you’re dealing with.” I smirk at him. He doesn’t believe the words that left my mouth, he gazes to my hands that are hidden, then to my father’s, then he gleams.
“But that’s the thing, I do.” He clicks his fingers and the front door opens.
When I turn to see who’s there, I’m pushing my chair back, my gun still aimed at Bartollo.
Elina gasps, Stephon has a hold of her by her neck. She looks at me and then to her father, I notice Maso move to stand to my side. That surprises me. Maybe he does care for her? Maybe it’s just the father that doesn’t.
“You see, she was never yours. She was paid, contracted by Stephon and me to make you love her. She did well wouldn’t you say?”
I keep my eyes on her. The hand firm around her neck is the first thing I plan to shoot. Her eyes go wide when her father blurts out that
news. She looks to me, then to him.
“Stephon saw the way you looked at her. It was just a matter of paying her right to do it. She is now your weakness. Didn’t think we knew that did you?”
“You have five seconds to remove your hand.” I ignore Bartollo.
Stephon’s hand squeezes tighter. She tries to claw at him, but he doesn’t move or seem affected by it one little bit.
I hear Bartollo laugh.
“One…” I say to start the count.
“Two…”
“Three…”
“Elina, back pocket.” I turn to Maso then quickly back to Elina. I watch in fascination at what she does next. One hand leaves the arm that’s holding her, it sneaks around between them, into her pocket moving so fast that no one has time to react to what she’s about to do. The knife comes up quickly, and she jams it straight into Stephon’s hand, making him scream and release her.
It doesn’t take me a second to reach over and grab her. She falls into my chest, her breathing hard. Then just as I’m about to pick her up and carry her out a shot is fired, missing Elina and me by inches. Then I hear a clunk, and when I turn, Maso is on the floor in front of us. How did he get there so fast? And why is he on the floor.
Just as I’m about to speak the door bursts open and five of my men charge in with loaded guns pointed straight at Bartollo. I watch in fascination as Death is the first to kill someone. The man that has a gun to his head is now trying to hold his stomach together. Death has split him in half, with a very sharp fucking knife. Viktor is next, Anton stands there smiling like he doesn’t have a care in the world.
“You fucking idiot,” Bartollo screams as he stands chastizing Stephon. Stephon shakes his head, then looks to me and then back to Maso on the ground. I don’t even know if he’s breathing.
“He jumped in the fucking way,” he says.
Maso takes a deep breath, Elina lets go of me and drops to the floor next to her brother. Her father rushes over, and when he bends down, I place a gun to his head. He stiffens automatically.
“You think you can beat me now?”
He doesn’t say a word, he knows he can’t win.
“You ever look at her, touch her in any way again, it won’t be just you I kill. I’ll kill everyone close to you, and I’ll make you watch.”
Elina whispers something into her brother’s ear, she smiles when she knows he’s breathing and he can hear her. She stands and grabs hold of my hand. When I look to Stephon, he’s gone—the chicken shit.
Death, Viktor, and Anton all have the men that had a gun to their heads, dead on the floor. Anton is kicking his with his foot. Maybe to make sure he’s still dead? Who the fuck knows.
When I turn to my father, his eyes are on me, and the person attached to me. He isn’t happy. Just as he’s about to speak, a loud ringing noise goes off, like someone just blew something up. Smoke starts to fill the restaurant, and without thinking twice I grab Elina by the legs and throw her over my shoulder. She yelps when I run with her out to the car, then she screams at me when I shut the door and lock her in to get to her brother. I look back, unsure if it’s something I want to do. As the boys walks out, with my father close behind them, I tap Viktor’s shoulder and he follows me back inside.
Bartollo is on the ground trying to pick his son up, he can’t, he’s huge, the same as Viktor. Viktor leans down at the same time as I do and we grab an arm each pulling him out and then throwing him inside the car. My father stands there and watches us, his mouth falling open, nostrils flaring, the anger taking over his face.
“You chose them?” He spits to the ground.
I shake my head, because really, there’s no way to answer that question. I don’t choose them, I chose her. Major difference.
I jump straight into the car. Elina gives me directions to her doctor and phones through that we are coming. When he pulls up, a man with a wheelchair comes out, and we pull Maso out of the car. She goes to follow him, but I grab her arm pulling her back. A single tear leaves her face, I wipe it away and lean in placing my lips on hers, savoring every taste, everything that is her. Because I know she won’t escape me now. I won’t allow her to. No matter how hard she tries, she’s stuck with me. She’s never to escape again. Especially to those monsters she calls family.
I’m the biggest, meanest, monster out of the lot of them, but I also protect what’s mine.
Chapter 28
Elina
His lips slam into mine, his body pulls me close. We stay connected mirroring each other, body to body, lips to lips, tongue to tongue. He grabs me tight, his hands squeezing through my jeans, which he seems to like me wearing. Who would have guessed that? Not me, that’s for sure. I don’t push him away, I don’t even stop the kiss. I kiss him back because no matter what, he would choose me every time and that says a lot because I’ve never been chosen first, not by anyone.
Yet, here is a man who’s bound to be my soul’s enemy, protecting me from those that should have. Here before me is a man that should have killed me the minute he found out who I was just because of my name. Yet, he couldn’t, even if he knew he should have. He didn’t care about anyone else in that restaurant. When he saw that knife to my throat, then those hands on me, I noticed the look that crossed over his face, it was pure darkness. He didn’t observe anything else, all he saw was me, even in a deathly situation. And he was going to do anything to rectify that situation as soon as possible.
He even got Maso out of that restaurant. A man I know he detests, a man I know he would like to kill. All because I asked him to because he knows that neither one of us would be standing here if it wasn’t for my brother. He went against his family—his father—just for me. And I’m betting he would do it all again to have this outcome. Though is it right? Is it something that we both can live with? Always wondering who’s in line to kill us because of who we are, what our families are. I don’t think he cares. He’s the most powerful man in our city. Yet, he’s also human, and it wouldn’t be hard to kill him. The human body is beautiful, yet oh so fragile in its makeup. A single bullet, a small slit with a knife, and a person’s very existence can be eliminated in a blink of an eye.
I pull away first because I need to visit the family doctor that is with Maso now. His grip tightens, his lips lift, and he just breathes me in before he lets me pull away. Taking hold of my hand, he squeezes it then releases. I walk away, and as I reach the door of the doctor’s residence I turn around and he’s standing there, in the same position, just watching me.
Maso is on the table when I enter, the doctor stitching him up. Maso’s drinking copious amounts of alcohol to ease the pain. He smirks when he notices me standing there.
“You’re in so much shit.” He laughs. He’s drunk. Always been a shit drinker. Never could hold his liquor.
“So are you,” I snap back at him. He laughs again knowing how very accurate that statement is.
“You had to fall in love with a Smirnov, didn’t you? You couldn’t have loved, perhaps… another dangerous man?”
The doctor places a bandage over his stitches, and he sits up almost falling off the table as he does.
“You didn’t have to defend me.”
His head shakes. “Like I could watch as he hurt you. I may be a monster, but to you I could never be.” I know he’d never hurt me. Plus, he knows I would give it right back. He’s shown me his loyalty and love, time and time again, and for this I’m truly grateful. “You will have to see him soon, though.”
“I know, but not tonight.” I walk over, lean up and kiss his cheek. He doesn’t say anything else as I walk out the door. I immediately notice Kazier standing in the same position as I left him, waiting for me. When I walk up to him, I leave just enough distance between us so we’re not connected in any way—we don’t think correctly when we are.
“Where to now?” he asks, his fingers tapping on his leg.
“Yours?” I ask, and he smiles. I’m sure I can see his soul through that smil
e. All my walls disintegrate, and it’s like love is winking at me. I adore him for that smile alone. It’s not often that it happens, but when it does, it brings joy to my heart. He takes the remaining steps and closes in on me, then grabs my hand, his fingers wrapping around mine. He leans in and kisses me softly before he pulls away and opens the car door for me.
“You would have let them kill everyone, wouldn’t you? Just to get to me,” I ask as soon as he starts driving. I know the answer, I don’t know why I’m asking, I think I want the confirmation. That he would have killed everyone in that restaurant, starting with the man that held a knife to my throat.
He doesn’t hesitate when he answers me. “All of them.” His hand grips the wheel harder as he pulls out onto the street.
We drive for a while and then he stops the car pulling into his driveway. Basically, he runs around to my side of the car, opens the door and drags me out then picks me up and carries up the stairs. The urgency in his movements makes me laugh, I can’t help it. I’ve never seen him so excited, so happy, considering everything we’ve just been through.
He takes me straight to his bedroom, lays me back on the bed and stands there watching me. He begins to undo the buttons on his shirt, revealing his abs. I see the glint of red where he has my name inked on him, and I know within the second, I would choose him every time, the same way he would choose me.
I stand to copy his actions, removing my shirt, pulling it up and over my head, then undoing my pants buttons and letting them drop to the floor. Soon we’re both standing there completely naked, me with scars and all. His hand lifts slowly to the one on my belly, his fingers brush over it, then he leans down and kisses it. But he doesn’t stop there he continues his path, a small whisper leaving his mouth each time he passes a scar. “Sorry,” then he continues, and I stand as still as a statue, unsure of what to do. We’re both usually so in the moment, tearing clothes, breaking buttons, then fucking hard. Not this time, this time he’s touching me, really touching me with those calloused hands, sliding them all over my body.