Serafin: Social Rejects Syndicate (Kings of Krakow Trilogy Book 1)

by Deja Voss

  I’m not that person anymore, and Serafin is the key.

  He’s my freedom.

  He’s the only person who ever let me be myself.

  I stand up from the bushes and dust of my clothes, picking a few stray branches out of my hair as I walk out into the driveway before the headlights can pass me.

  I stand off to the side on a rock, waving my arms.

  As the car approaches, it’s obvious it’s not him. The green dented up VW sends a chill down my spine. That was my car. A husband and a lifetime ago, that’s what I drove.

  I lost that car in the divorce.

  The only reason why it would be here is because…

  The sound of rubber squealing on the pavement sends me back into the bushes.

  The car door slams and I crouch down as low as I possibly can, planting my hands and feet into the ground so I can crawl away if I need to.

  “I saw you, you fucking slut,” Bartek’s voice echoes in my ears. “Come out of there right now. Your little boyfriend isn’t gonna come and save you now.”

  I swallow the lump in my throat. What did he do to him? How long has he been here waiting outside? If he laid a hand on Serafin, I’ll fucking kill him myself. I don’t care what the consequences are.

  “Come on, Mia, it’s time for you to come home. No more stupid games. You had your fun.”

  I never asked Serafin what he did to Bartek to get my paintings back. I guess in the back of my mind I was okay with him doing whatever it took to get rid of him once and for all. I just assumed he made him disappear.

  Assumptions. Those nasty things are what got me in this place to begin with.

  “Come on, Mia, I need you baby,” he pleads, and I realize he’s drunk. He never calls me baby unless he’s a bottle of vodka deep. The pleading and the crying were his way of making me pity him, but after that, he would get even more violent than usual. When he’s blacked out drunk he has no concept of consequences. He’d beat me within an inch of my life without even batting an eye and then deal with the aftermath when he sobered up. Drunk Bartek scares me, even now.

  “I have nothing without you, Mia. I got fired from my job because of Serafin. I lost the house. Nobody will even look me in the eye anymore. I need you to come back. I need you to tell everyone what he said wasn’t true. You know I love you. You know the only reason why I ever hurt you is because I love you so fucking much.”

  He begins to sob loudly, but I don’t feel an ounce of pity for him.

  Instead, I swell with pride, knowing that Serafin didn’t just beat Bartek into a pulp and leave him for dead.

  He handled Bartek by telling the truth.

  He’s not a monster like this parents, he’s a man of honor, and he put himself at risk for me.

  I peek through the bushes, but I can’t see him anywhere. I can hear his cries, but they grow muffled. All of a sudden, a flashlight shines right in my eyes. A hand reaches out and grabs me right by the neck. I reach my fingers underneath his grip, trying to loosen them up before I start to choke.

  The hard metal of the flashlight comes crushing down over the back of my head before I can get away. “Bartek stop!” I shout. “I’ll help you get your life back, but I can’t do that if you kill me. Come on sweetie.”

  I don’t know if it’s the blood coming from my head or the words coming out of my mouth but I feel woozy. I struggle to keep my eyes open, struggle to find any sort of footing at all.

  His grip loosens, and I think for a second that maybe I’m getting through to him. I breathe out a huge sigh of relief, but I’m instantly jarred from my delusional fantasy as the rough grip of his hand grabs me by the hair and starts pulling me from the bushes.

  I kick. I scream. I plead. Bartek has never been the kind of man who spoke the language of reason. The only way I could ever get through to him was dragging him down as low as he made me feel.

  It was never in my nature before, but now, he’s fucking with the wrong woman.

  “What are you going to do Bartek? Tie me up and force me in the car? You think that makes you a big strong man? Forcing me to go along with you?”

  “Shut up, bitch. You earned this, and you know it,” he says, yanking me up off the ground. The smell of stale vodka and old garlic on his breath almost makes me vomit. The sight of his face definitely makes me sick to my stomach.

  “A real man doesn’t need to knock a woman around to make her submit,” I say. He slaps me across the face, and blood runs down my nose, but I just smile. It feels so fucking good to speak the truth. It feels so good to finally come out of hiding. “And trust me Bartek… I submitted. Many times. On the desk, in the pool, in his car, in the bed we sleep in together every night…”

  He takes a step back, and I know I should run away before he can calculate his next move, but adrenaline courses through my veins.

  “He made me realize you don’t need to wear a badge or have some fancy rank to command respect. I mean, unless you’re a pathetic, small dick, wife beater like you, Bartek. Then I guess you need as much help as you can get.”

  He lands a blow directly in my stomach, doubling me over. I land on the ground and curl up into a ball. My body is telling me to do whatever it takes to get away, to flee, but my heart is telling me this fight is what I’ve been waiting my whole life for. I’ll defend Serafin’s honor until the day I die. Bartek might take my life away, but at least he’ll have to live with the truth. I have never been more alive than in this instant, standing up for myself and standing up for the love of my life.

  “I’ve always loved him, Bartek. Every time you and I fucked, the only thing I thought about was him. The only time I ever got off was when I was thinking about him. You disgust me, asshole.” I take all the energy I have left in me and kick him as hard as I can between the legs.

  I know it’s dumb. He’s so big and I’m not. I’m injured, and he’s drunk and violent. I’m on the ground, and he’s towering over me. I don’t care. I kick and punch and scream and bite, and I love every fucking second of it. I’m vindicated. I don’t care about the consequences, I’m just not going down without a fight.

  “You know, you’re cute when you’re mad,” he says with a laugh, dabbing at the scrape on his face. His eyes look calm and clear but maniacal at the same time. I crawl away as quickly as I can, but he grabs me by the back of the shirt and I dangle in the air, helpless. He pulls my face right to his. “I like you like this, Mia. Maybe I’ll have to push your buttons more often.”

  I struggle with all my might, screaming my lungs out until my throat is raw as he drags me to the car. He swings open the back door and shoves me inside, slamming it behind me. I fight with the handle, but the safety lock is on, and I can’t get out.

  He’s already in the driver’s side, staring back over his shoulder at me.

  “What did you do with Serafin?” I ask as he starts to back down the driveway and peels out onto the road.

  He turns up the radio, and one of Onyxs’ hard rock ballads blares through the speakers. It’s fitting that one asshole loves that other asshole’s music so much.

  Out the window, I see Serafin’s Jaguar, smashed into a tree. There’s smoke coming out of the engine, and the car looks like a wrinkled piece of tinfoil. My heart sinks down into my stomach, and I start to wail.

  “This is all my fault,” I cry.

  “Well, at least you learned your lesson, sweetie,” Bartek says, shooting me a wink.

  All of a sudden, I feel a thump coming from the back of the car. You can’t really hear it over the loud music, but I can feel it. In that instant I know it. And in that instant, I pray that Bartek forgot the latch on my trunk was broken, and would sometimes just pop open on its own when you got over 20 kilos per hour.

  Maybe I’m losing my mind.

  Maybe I’m hallucinating.

  Police cars and ambulances whip by us in a fury to get to the accident scene, while Bartek flips them off and laughs maniacally. The only thing I have going for me is the hope
that my ex husband didn’t just want to kill Serafin, he wanted to torture him first.

  26

  Serafin:

  When I pulled out of the driveway, I had no idea where I was going. All I knew was that I needed some air, some space, some time to sort out how the fuck I was going to fix the mess going on under my roof.

  I didn’t even know what hit me when Bartek jumped over the backseat of the car and steered my Jaguar right into a tree. I think I blacked out as soon as the airbags deployed.

  I woke up in the darkest tightest place I’ve ever been in, and I couldn’t help but think for a minute I’d been buried alive. As I felt the tires move underneath me, I realized that dumb fucker threw me in a trunk. I had no idea how long I’d been out for or how far he’d taken me, but when I heard Mia’s screams, I realized I was home.

  I should’ve taken care of this asshole when I had the chance, but I was trying to turn over a new leaf. I played it cool and fair. I pulled all the strings I had to to get the rights to her paintings back. It might’ve been petty of me to stop by the police station and pull a couple favors so he lost his job, but I wanted him to know how bad it felt to lose everything. I could’ve taken his life quite easily, but taking his livelihood and any possible power he had over Mia in the future was so much more delicious. I wanted him to live the hell on earth that I’d been living the last twelve years. I wanted him to live to see her happy and thriving.

  I should’ve known better than to let him out of my sight.

  I feel my way all around the inside of the trunk as soon as I hear the music start to play. It drowns out her muffled sobs, but every time she cries out, I pound a little harder. There’s gotta be an escape latch somewhere, but fuck if I know where it is. I’m usually the one doing the trunk stuffing, not being the stuff-ee.

  My body aches from the car accident, and I’m covered in dry sticky stuff. I don’t know where the source of the bleeding is coming from, or if it’s stopped, but I do know I need to get the hell out of here and get her as far away from him as possible before things get worse.

  As the car accelerates faster, to my shock, the trunk just flies open on its own. I grab on as tight as I can so as not to go flying as Bartek slams on the brakes. As soon as I hear the sound of his door slam, I’m ready to attack.

  “Don’t move!” he shouts, just like a police officer would. “I’ll fucking kill her, man. Don’t fucking move.”

  “You already killed her once, you piece of shit,” I mutter, jumping out of the trunk of the car and putting my fists up. “You killed her every time you made her feel small. You killed her every time you made her feel afraid. You killed her every time you laid your hands on her.”

  He is swaying back and forth, like the liquor he chugged earlier all caught up with him at once, and I realize he looks like complete shit. His eyes are black and blue, his body is all scraped up, and he has bruises all over every inch of skin that’s exposed. I chuckle and feel myself warm with pride, knowing Mia did all that.

  “What the fuck, Bartek? I thought we had an agreement!” I say with a laugh, inching closer to him. The man is tall, but that’s about all he has going for him. “I even got you a job as a security guard at the local mall. You just couldn’t stay away, could ya?”

  The car door slams again and Mia comes charging at him from behind, knocking him down in the middle of the road. She reaches into the waistband of his pants and grabs a pistol pointing it at him as he lays there on the ground on his stomach.

  “I’m sorry,” I say. “I should’ve never put you in this position.”

  She digs her combat boot into the small of his back and blows a kiss at me. “Honestly, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be right now. Was this a surprise engagement present?”

  “You’re not right, woman.” I shake my head and laugh. “He could’ve killed us both.”

  “I’m glad you’re okay, Serafin. I don’t know how I could possibly live another day of my life without you. So many people tried to take you away from me, it would’ve absolutely killed me if he was the one who actually did it.”

  I walk over and plant a kiss on her lips. Bartek stirs beneath her foot, but I just kick him in the face.

  It isn’t long before we’re joined by a bunch of police cars. She explains every sordid detail of the attack to the officers, dating back to a time long before her and I crossed paths again. I don’t mind standing there with my arm around her, only chiming in to fill in the details about what actually happened tonight when he attacked me in my car.

  This is her story to tell.

  I was only here to make sure she got the happy ending she wanted.

  Fabian picks us up, and I crawl in the backseat with her. She rests her head on my lap and I feel like everything is right in the world again. All it takes is her touch to remind me the meaning of life, to bring me back to my true purpose. She’s my heart, my soul, my reason to breathe.

  “No more running off without telling me what you’re up to?” she asks, batting her eyelashes at me.

  “No more keeping me in the dark, either, mouse,” I say, pressing my lips to hers.

  “You two fucking deserve each other,” Fabian laughs as he turns down the driveway to the house. “It’s not every day two stubborn, crazy, con artists end up together.”

  “It took almost a whole lifetime,” Mia says, smiling up at me. “I don’t think I would’ve had it any other way, though.”

  I’m happy to put our twisted path behind us in the rearview mirror. The only thing that matters going forward is this woman I’ve always held in my heart. I pick her up and carry her into our house, slamming the door behind me.

  27

  Epilogue:

  Mia:

  I don’t think I was this nervous on my first wedding day. Probably because when I married Bartek I took a handful of pills I’d been saving for a rainy day and washed it down with enough vodka to tranquilize a horse.

  Not this time around, though.

  This time around, I don’t want anything to numb the feelings I have for Serafin. I don’t want to miss out on a single second of this day. We opted to have a very small wedding, just him, me, and Fabian and Rafal as witnesses. The whole idea of a huge wedding just didn’t seem like us. It’s probably what his family would have wanted. It’s what is expected from a King, but the only thing I care about is knowing I’ll get to spend the rest of my life with him.

  I step into my beige lace covered fitted dress, dust my cheeks with blush, and stuff some more bobby pins in my hair, spraying it all over one last time for good measure. Before I walk out of the bedroom door, I make sure I spray myself in a mist of perfume. That bottle from twelve years ago can be my something old.

  It’s all old, him and I, but it’s all new, too.

  Every day I’m learning more about the man he is - how he’s always wanted a dog but was afraid he wouldn’t know how to care for it. When we brought Bentley home from the pound, I don’t know who was more excited, Serafin, or our fluffy little kundel who sleeps on top of him every night.

  That crazy mutt is waiting at the foot of the stairs for me, his eyes begging me not to go.

  “I promise Tymon will make you an extra special dinner tonight, buddy,” I say, squatting down next to him and petting him on the head. “Mommy and daddy will be home soon.”

  Every day I’m learning more and more about how deep down Serafin always wanted to have a lot of children, but he was afraid he’d be absent like his father or overbearing like his mother.

  Now I’m wondering if I’m so emotional because the day has finally come that I get to read my wedding vows to him, or if it’s the pregnancy hormones making me burst into tears of joy. I give thanks to God for waterproof mascara as Maria helps me with my coat.

  I guess when we’re together, anything is possible. Everything we don’t know, we can figure out. Everything we fear, we can tackle together. Every promise that was ever broken to one of us, we can make sure our kids will never ex
perience that pain. We can be better for them.

  Maria and Tymon walk me out into the driveway where there’s a limousine waiting for me. The driver opens the door, and I can’t help but blush when I see Serafin waiting for me inside. He looks straight up hot in his dark gray tuxedo.

  “You’re not supposed to be in here!” I say. “You’re not supposed to see me in my dress until the ceremony.”

  “Fuck the ceremonial shit,” he says, pulling me into the limo next to him. He kisses my neck and I melt in his arms. “I didn’t want you to have to travel alone.”

  “Because you think someone’s going to try and attack us on our wedding day?” I ask.

  He takes my face in his hand ever so gently, turning me to look in his eyes. “Because I know you don’t like going places by yourself. Besides, it’s nearly an hour drive to the church. I don’t want you getting cold feet and running away.”

  “It’s a little late for that,” I say with a laugh, taking his hand and putting it on my stomach.

  He presses his lips to mine, and I swear, every time this man kisses me it feels like the very first time all over again. I feel like a teenager lost in love, so overwhelmed with my feelings for him, I turn into mush. Only now, I don’t have to run away. I can lean into it with everything I have because there really is nothing else in this world that’s more right for me.

  The hourlong drive feels like an eternity, and I clench his hand the whole way. The excitement bubbles inside me, and I don’t know if I want to laugh, cry, or scream. I just want to be his bride. I fidget with my ring and try and focus on the scenery, but I’d much rather stare at this hot stud who will officially be mine forever in a few short hours.