“I…” She took a deep breath. “I want you to help me take my brothers down.”
I lifted my eyebrows at her. “Really?”
She nodded and then set the phone she had in her hand on my desk. “This is Anton’s phone, I took it. I’m sure if we can break into it that there’s good information. Whatever I know about my brothers and father, and of that knowledge, is yours. I may notlikemy father a whole lot, but he’s still my dad, and I’m not going to let my brothers kill him.”
“Look, Avion, this world is dangerous. It’s not something you just walk blindly into,” I replied.
Avion crossed her arms. “It’s something I’ve already been blindly dragged into from the looks of it.”
She wasn’t wrong there. I still didn’t know how much she knew about her brothers’ involvement in the underground world, but I assumed that would come up at some point in the future. I didn’t need to bring that up right now when she was already so inundated with all the other bad things she had learned about her family.
“Do you know what it means to tell a mobster you want to take someone down?” I asked. “We’re not just going to stop at getting them publicly ridiculed or arrested. If we’re going to take down your brothers, we’re putting them in a grave. They disrespected my home, attempted to kill you, and are trying to frame me. I can’t let that stuff slide.”
“I understand,” she replied. “Vincent made an attempt on my life last night, actually he made several. It seemed like at least some part of Anton didn’t want to kill me, but that didn’t stop him from chasing me regardless. He didn’t throw himself in front of any bullets in any case. He told me to stop running so that I wouldn’t die. He tried to put the onus on me to not get shot as opposed to Vincent not shooting me. Maybe at some point in time, they were my brothers, but they’re not anymore. If they want me dead, then they’ll see that two can play at that game.”
I had to crack a smile at that. “Avion Narzand has a mean streak, I see?”
She shrugged. “I’m a Narzand after all. Ninety-five percent my mom, five percent my crooked father.”
“What of your father?” I asked. “Once we’ve dealt with your brothers and he’s safe, he’ll still owe me a half-million-dollar debt. How exactly do you plan on dealing with that?”
Avion stood up from her chair and leaned a little over the desk. “I want to work it off.”
I twisted my head to the side. “Work it off?”
“Yeah. I don’t just want to be a helpless damsel in distress sitting around here while you do all the work. I want you to train me in combat and how to use a gun. I want to be able to defend myself, and defend you or this house if I need to. I’ve been this victim all my life. I don’t want to do that anymore.” She stared into me with this look of determination that gave me chills. “Let me work for you and work off my father’s debt.”
“With a debt that large, you’ll be working for me for the next fifty years.”
She smiled. “Fine by me. Fifty years around here doesn’t sound so bad. Besides.” She leaned a little further over. “I’m not done being your sub… am I?”
A shiver ran directly to my groin. “I certainly hope not. I still have quite a bit to teach you. In fact…” I stood up and walked over to my office door, feeling Avion’s hungry gaze on me as I moved. I locked the door and then turned around to face her. “No time like the present for your next lesson.”
She started sauntering towards me. “Milli’s gonna be mad.”
I shook my head. “Nah, he’ll be fine.”
She reached her hands out and pressed her palms to my chest. “What should I do, Gio?”
I dragged my fingers through my beard, trying to decide what I should introduce Avion to next. She’d knocked everything I’d thrown at her out of the park, so maybe now it was time to up the ante a little bit.
“No going back after this,” I said.
She shook her head. “Who says I want to go back?”
I wrapped my arms around her back and started to pull up her dress to pull it off when something caught my eye. I thought maybe my watch caught the sun from outside, but the light danced back across my vision again and it made me pause. Staring forward, I squinted at my window, just barely noticing the thin, red laser line pointing in. I looked down and saw it focused directly on Avion’s back.
“Move!” I bellowed, trying to shove her out of the way, but it was too late. A quick hiss broke the silence as a bullet shattered through the glass of my office window and sunk through Avion’s back. “No!” She collapsed against me, her blood already drenching my hand in an unwelcome warmth. I fell to the ground with her in my arms. My white shirt was turning red with her blood and I was panicking so much that I could barely think straight. “Milli!”
There was a pound on the door, and I reached up to unlock it, pulling Avion aside enough that the door could be open. Milli took one step in and stopped. “Avion! What happened?!”
“Someone sniped through my window! Get a doctor, now!”
“Fuck!” Milli barked as he ran out.
I cradled Avion close to me, realizing at that moment just how badly I didn’t want to lose her. In a very short period of time, she’d become so important to me, and after everything we’d survived together, I didn’t want her to slip through my fingers. I brushed her silken red hair away from her face with the back of my hand and looked down at her, putting faith in any force of fate that would listen not to take her from me again.
“Hang on Avion…” I whimpered. “Please, don’t leave me.”
