“Nik,” Raven calls, “I need to go see Dory. I’m worried about her.” She takes another bite of her toast.
“Niet, it’s too dangerous to go there at the moment,” I state, and she frowns as she places her cutlery down.
“You don’t understand; she has no one else. I need to make sure she’s fine.”
“What if I brought her here to visit? I have a man who has been keeping an eye on her.”
She looks over at Luke and then back at me. “I will call her and ask if she’s up to coming here. Sometimes she’s in pain and doesn’t like to go out,” she states with a sad look in her eyes.
I don’t ever want to see my woman sad or worried, not if I can help it. “What if we place her in a frail care facility?” I ask, and her eyes shoot up from her food to me.
“Do you know how expensive that is? Besides, her son doesn’t want to contribute. He says he doesn’t have the means to help her at the moment.”
“Raven, I didn’t ask about her son or the costs. I asked if you think it’s a good idea that she be placed in a frail care facility. You would be able to visit her anytime you wanted then.” Her eyes widen at my suggestion, and she takes her bottom lip between her teeth before she nods.
“That would be the perfect solution, but how? I’m not working any longer. I had thought when I first moved in that at least that money of my salary I could put towards her, but now I can’t even do that.”
“You are my woman now, Raven; therefore, your concerns are mine. If you want to help this woman, then I will help you help her.”
“But you don’t even know her,” she says.
“I know that she took good care of Luke while you were at work and that you consider her someone special. That is all I need to know, angel.” With that, I place my cutlery on my empty plate and pour myself another cup of coffee. “All you need to do is talk to her. If she’s in agreement, we will bring her here today and then see what she thinks about the care facility.”
“Do you know how long someone waits to get into one of those? They have waiting lists,” she grumbles as she shakes her head.
“Don’t worry about that. Just bring her here and let me sort out the rest.” With those words, I walk towards her. Leaning down, I kiss her forehead and then ruffle Luke’s hair as I start to walk out of the kitchen. “I need to get dressed and go talk to Vlad,” I say as I make my way to the bedroom.
“You know, Luke, you have a really good daddy, and it helps that he’s sexy as hell,” Raven says, which makes me laugh as I continue on my way. I don’t laugh often, if ever, but since bringing them into my life, I have found myself smiling and laughing more times than I have in the last couple years.
I’m busy strapping on my guns, when I hear the door. Leaving my jacket off, I walk to the lounge in time to see Raven nearly at the door. “Don’t even think of opening that door like that,” I growl as I look at her perfect body under my shirt.
She stops and looks down before she looks at me and frowns. “You do know that this shirt is as long as some of my dresses, don’t you?” she grumbles as she shakes her head.
“You’re not wearing a bra, and I don’t want anyone getting ideas,” I state as I reach the door and wait for her to leave.
She shakes her head, shrugs, and then walks back towards the kitchen where Luke is still talking away to himself. “You’re a real caveman.”
Opening the door, I see it’s one of our men. “Da.”
“The boss is asking for you,” he says. I nod and close the door again. We need to plan our next move against Bjorn and the Catalonians. If Alexey is looking for me, it means Vlad has come up with a plan.
RAVEN 16
I don’t know how Nik did it, but we’re on our way to one of the most exclusive frail care facilities in the city. I know that they have a very long waiting list, but somehow he managed to get Dory a place there.
“How are you feeling, Dory?” I ask as I look back at Dory. Nik insisted on driving us to the facility and making sure that everything goes smoothly.
“I’m fine, dear, but I still say this is way too much. You shouldn’t be spending your money on an old lady like me.”
“Nonsense, Dory. You are like family to Raven. Therefore, you will be treated with all the respect of a family member,” Nik responds from the driver’s seat. I place my hand on his leg and squeeze in thankfulness, getting a scorching look from him that makes my cheeks heat in reaction. Nik has taken every opportunity to show me how much he wants and desires me. His look ignites my passion with a vengeance; it feels that the more I’m with him, the more I want to be.
“Thank you. I can see you’re a good man to Raven and will be a good father for Luke,” Dory states as Nik stops the car. After the attack at her house, Dory was a bit shaken, but I tried my best to explain to her what happened without telling her that Nik belongs to the mafia. It wasn’t easy to convince her to move into this facility, but again, I have Nik to thank. I don’t know what he said to her, but she’s as happy as pie to move in now.
After settling Dory in, we make our way back towards home. Nik doesn’t want to stay out too long because apparently, we’re still in danger. I smile as I look in the side mirror and see a car with some of the Bratva men following us. Two cars ahead of us is another car with their men. If anything, Nik is forever protective. He will go out of his way to make sure Luke and I are safe.
Looking at my wristwatch, I see that it’s nearly time for our first Russian lesson to begin. I will get home just in time. “Is your lesson today?” Nik asks as he sees my movement.
“Yes, I’m quite excited.”
He grunts in reply, and I smile. From what Jade said, Alexey wasn’t too happy about these lessons either.
“Silvia has offered to look after Luke for a little while,” I say as I look back and see Luke’s drowsy eyes looking at me.
“Where are the lessons going to be?”
“We thought of doing it at our place, as Alexey might have a meeting or something. Are you going to be there?” I ask curiously, because usually during the day if Jade goes somewhere, Nik is her shadow.
“I will be there for the beginning, but then I will need to leave,” he states with a frown.
“I’m sure he’s quite safe, Nik. You guys would never let anyone in who wasn’t,” I quip with a teasing smile. He just frowns as he manoeuvres the car into the building.
Once we’re inside the apartment and Luke has been placed on his bed for a nap, Nik takes me in his arms. His lips come crashing down on mine, and his hands fondle my ass. We are both breathing heavily when the doorbell rings.
“Fuck,” he mutters as he steps back. I hurriedly pull down my skirt that is halfway up my thighs and take a deep breath. He straightens his jacket, looks me over, and then he walks towards the door. “Da,” he grunts as he opens it.
“Well, aren’t you a ray of sunshine today,” Jade says as she walks past Nik. “Nik, this is Kaz. He’s our tutor.” I see a man of about thirty following Jade, his sandy-brown hair and blue eyes looking more like a surfer than a Russian tutor. Nik frowns and looks Kaz up and down before he pulls out his phone and starts to text.
“Raven,” Jade calls when she spies me out by the entrance to the corridor, walking towards me. “Let me introduce you to Kaz.”
“Nice to meet you,” Kaz says as he stretches out his hand and takes mine in greeting. I see his eyes roam my body before his eyes connect with mine. I hurriedly pull my hand away when I see Nik frown and start to approach.
“Shall we take a seat in the living room?” I say hurriedly as I indicate with my hand towards the couches. Nik stops as we take a seat. Jade and I have sat together on one, and Kaz has sat opposite.
Kaz looks over his shoulder at Nik and frowns. “Will you be joining us?”
“Niet,” Nik states, but doesn’t move.
Kaz tenses and then shrugs as he looks back at us. “Well, ladies, let’s see what you know and where we should begin.”
“I will make it easy for you,” Jade says. “We don’t know any Russian; therefore, you need to start at the beginning.”
After that, time flew by as Kaz started by teaching us the basics. Sometime during our lesson, Andrei came in to call Nik. I could tell he was reluctant to leave, but he did. I nearly laughed at one stage when Jade and I were trying to pronounce certain words in Russian, and Andrei cringed.
“Well, ladies, that’s it for today,” Kaz says as he stands. “Do you still want to do the lessons every day of the week for an hour?”
“I want to learn Russian as soon as possible,” Jade mumbles as she strokes her stomach.
“Well, you ladies did very well today,” he says, and I see Andrei raise his brows as he shakes his head, which makes me burst out laughing.
“That’s kind of you to say, but by Andrei’s pained expression, I think we were far from good.” Andrei winks at me and smiles. Kaz looks over his shoulder and then shakes his head.
“Is this really necessary?” he asks as he inclines his head towards Andrei.
“I’m afraid yes. It’s the only way we are going to be able to keep you,” Jade says as she shrugs. “It’s not too bad. You get used to it.”
“If you say so,” Kaz grunts as he makes his way to the door. When Andrei lets him out, Jade throws back her head and laughs.
“What’s so funny?” I ask, smiling at her merriment.
“Did you see Nik’s face when he saw Kaz? He was not impressed that we got ourselves a hot tutor,” she says in a laugh. “Wait until Alexey sees him.”
“You did this on purpose, didn’t you?” I say when I see the twinkle in her eye.
“Actually, no, but it was a bonus, wasn’t it? I thought Nik was going to break his hand when he took yours in greeting,” she teases.
“You’re so evil,” I say with a quiet laugh so that Andrei doesn’t hear us. “You want to get poor Kaz beat up?”
“No, it won’t come to that,” she says with a shake of her head. Then I see her eyes widen in fright, and she’s screaming for me to get down. Everything after that happens so fast that I have difficulty keeping up. I saw a red light on my chest just before I dived to the floor. Andrei roared in anger as he ran towards the two of us, pulling Jade onto the floor next to me just as there’s a cracking noise.
“Are you okay?” he asks as he looks at me. My hands are over my head, and I’m scrunched into a ball.
“I think so,” I mutter, my heart still racing in fright.
He pulls out his phone and dials. A few seconds later, he is talking angrily into his phone in Russian. When he disconnects, he starts to swear, his anger pulpable as he lifts his head to look out the windows towards where the shot came from. “We’re going to try and move towards the corridor where it’s covered. Do you think you can make it?” Andrei asks as he looks at Jade’s stomach.
“Are you kidding me? Have you seen how big I am?” she grumbles as she looks at him while lying on her side. Suddenly, there is a crash which makes me scream in fright as our front door bursts open.
“What the hell? Why couldn’t you just open the door?” I say angrily when I see Dimitri rush in. Another shot goes off, and the one big window cracks. They must have bulletproof glass here, because there is no way the window wouldn’t have shattered by now if it was normal glass. Luke starts to scream from his room, and I hear Silvia who was sitting with him while he slept soothing him.
My heart tightens when I think that this is going to be his life. Already we have been shot at three times. How long until they manage to get us? Will Nik be able to save us like he says he will, or is this madman going to continue coming after us until he manages to get what he wants?
“Is everyone fine?” Dimitri asks as he slides across the floor to us. No one answers as more men arrive at the door, and he starts to issue out orders. I notice that no one else enters. Looking over my shoulder, I try to see where the shots might be coming from, but lying so low on the ground, it’s difficult to see clearly.
“Keep down,” Dimitri grunts. “We need to get both of you to safety.” He then turns towards Andrei and starts to issue out orders by the tone of his voice. I see Andrei nod before he slides slightly behind Jade and takes her just under her upper arms.
“What the hell?” she mutters.
“I’m going to start pulling you. Just help with your feet,” Andrei mutters as he starts to pull as he slides back.
“This is very annoying, Dimitri. I hope you catch whoever is shooting at us,” Jade grunts as she is pulled back.
As I feel Dimitri’s hands on my upper arms, my head snaps up to him. “I can slide there by myself,” I say as I start to slide my body behind Jade’s.
“Raven!” I hear Nik’s roar before I see three men holding him back by the door, his anger propelling them all forward into the apartment. Dimitri snaps something at him that makes him stop, his breathing rugged, his muscles tense.
“Nik, don’t come in here! You will get shot!” I scream urgently as I see his tense muscles and his wild look, and then he is shrugging the men off him as he stands tensely, looking at me. His hand is on the doorframe, and I can see how white his knuckles are from gripping the frame.
“Are you hurt?” His voice is a gravely growl.
“No, we’re fine,” I state.
“Andrei, I must tell you, this isn’t fun,” Jade grumbles as he pulls her again. I can hear him apologising, but he continues to pull her until they’re both behind the wall of the corridor. A few minutes later, I am sliding behind the wall with Dimitri right behind me. Standing, I look back and see Nik’s eyes boring into me, a muscle ticking near his forehead.
A minute later, Dimitri receives a text. Looking at his phone, he frowns and then glances at Nik. “The shooter seems to be gone,” he snaps. I don’t wait to hear anything else as I quickly rush towards Luke’s room.
Walking in, I see Silvia’s weary eyes as she looks back at me. “Mama.” Luke kicks his way down from Silvia’s lap where she’s reading to him and rushes towards me. “Big noise,” he says as he lifts his arms for me to pick him up.
“I know, baby, but it’s fine now,” I say, and Silvia rubs her forehead. “Thank you, Silvia. There is no way I would have been able to get him if you weren’t here.”
“What happened?” she asks as she stands from the rocking chair she is sitting on.
“Someone in another building was shooting at us,” I say, and she frowns. I feel a presence behind me, and then Nik’s arms come around my waist, pulling my back against his front, his one hand on Luke’s back. I feel his head against my neck as he murmurs, “Are you okay, angel?”
I lean my head back and close my eyes, feeling safe in his arms. “Daddy,” Luke says as he pats Nik’s face. I hear footsteps and know that Silvia is leaving the room, giving us time alone.
“Is it always going to be like this?” I ask instead of answering his question.
Nik pulls back and turns me around until I’m facing him, his hand stroking my cheek as he looks deep into my eyes. “No, I will stop it,” he promises, taking Luke into his arms and then bending down and taking my lips in a gentle kiss.
“Kiss, Mama,” Luke says, which makes Nik and I smile.
“Alexey will be here soon, and then things will be moving fast,” Nik states. “Jade, Luke and you will be taken to a safe location. I want you to stay there until I come to collect you.”
I know that this is for my own protection, but I’m scared that this will be the last time I see Nik. I never would have imagined that my life would turn into this nightmare, but I know that I trust Nik and that he will do everything in his power to keep us safe.
Lifting my arms, I place my hands on either side of my man’s concerned face. “Come back to me, Nik. I can’t lose you again.”
“You won’t lose me, angel. You are stuck with me. Since the day I met you, you became my weakness and my strength. Without you and Luke, I am an empty shell of darkness. You bring
light into my life; I will always come back to you.” Nik isn’t much for words. I know this is his way of telling me that he loves me, that this time, he will stay by my side.
“I love you, Nikolai,” I say. Nik is about to kiss me again, when Vlad walks into the room, his expression dark with rage as he looks me up and down and then at Luke. He snaps something in Russian, which Nik answers just as briskly.
“They will pay. This will not happen again,” he states in heavily accented English to me, showing just how angry he is. “Alexey has taken Jade to collect some stuff. We will be leaving in thirty minutes. Can you be ready then?”
I look over at Nik and then back to Vlad and nod. He inclines his head in answer before he turns and leaves as swiftly as he arrived.
“I will stay with Luke. Get just what you need for the two of you for a few days,” Nik says as he places Luke on the floor and takes his hand. I turn and quickly start to pack the necessary items, my heart pounding when I think about everything that is happening, about the danger we are all in, and I wonder what the future holds.
NIK 17
Alexey has given me the go-ahead. I will hunt and make Bjorn suffer for what he has been doing. Now that Raven and Luke are safe, I can concentrate on getting to Bjorn and finally ending his miserable life. Alexey has spoken to the other families, and they have agreed to the execution.
“Are you ready?” Vlad asks as he approaches me.
“Da.”
“Demitri has men on their way to keep the Spanish busy in case they are called for help,” Vlad states. “Bjorn has five heavily armed men with him. The back gate will be disabled for us.”
At his words, I tense. I work alone. I don’t like or want anyone with me when I kill someone.
“What? You thought you were going to have the fun all by yourself?” Vlad asks with a raised brow when he sees my reaction.
TURMOIL: Bratva Fury (book 2) Page 12