“No,” Colin groans when Vasily pulls the knife out and Volodya and Valeri bend down to open Colin’s mouth. They keep it open as Vasily reaches in and grabs his tongue. Before he does anything, he gives Ruslan another command. The dog immediately runs over to me and sits at my feet, leaning his weight against my leg in a comforting show of support. Vasily knows me better than I know myself, because as soon as I see him swipe the blade over Colin’s tongue, my knees give out and I fall to the floor beside Ruslan, wrapping my arms around him and burying my head in his fur. Vasily says something in Russian and soon Ilya is bending down next to me.
“Do you want me to get you out of here?”
“I’m okay,” I say, keeping my face pressed against the dark fur. “Thanks, though.”
Ilya laughs and gives my shoulder a soft squeeze. Before he stands back up, he whispers in my ear, “Don’t worry, Nina. The first time I saw him cut out a tongue, I almost threw up, too.”
I laugh before I can stop it and then wonder if I’m losing my mind. I’m sitting in my beautiful sunroom library, hugging a bloody dog who just saved me, while listening to my husband slowly kill the man who raped me. When I’m feeling brave enough, I peek around Ruslan’s head and watch Vasily stab Colin, pulling another muffled scream from the man’s mangled mouth. He stabs him repeatedly, but it’s not a frenzy. It’s methodical. He’s hitting every spot he can that’s guaranteed to cause pain but not immediate death. My eyes run over his bare upper body, watching the muscles move with each thrust of the knife. He looks like an angry god, exacting punishment on some lowly human who dared to cross him. No, I think to myself, not a god, but a devil. A beautiful devil who’s making damn sure this man can never hurt me again. Part of me knows I should be appalled, disgusted even, but I’m not. With each stab of the knife, I feel my body relax as the heavy weight of worry and terror that I’ve been carrying around finally leaves me.
Colin will never hurt me again. It’s not some empty, hopeful promise. It’s a goddamn fact. My husband just made damn sure of that. After what feels like an eternity, Colin stops screaming, and the meaty sound of a knife sinking into flesh no longer fills the air.
“Is it just me, or did that take an insanely long time?” Valeri asks, breaking the silence.
“That was done on purpose, little brother,” Vasily says.
Valeri laughs. “Yeah, but I’ve never seen anyone make it last so damn long.”
I lift my head from Ruslan’s fur and look at the bloody scene before me. Vasily starts barking out orders. I look over and see all the men lined up along the edge of the room, so many that they spill out into the hall. They’d all watched their boss end Colin’s life, and I see nothing but respect in their eyes when they look at him. Vasily says one last thing to them in Russian before finally turning to face me. He’s sweaty and bloody, and his blue eyes still have a wild look in them, but they soften as soon as they lock on mine.
He steps closer, and I get the feeling he’s giving me a chance to run in the opposite direction. He’s unsure of how I’m going to view him after seeing him kill a man, but he only gave me what I asked for, and I don’t have to think twice about my reaction. I run to him, throwing my arms around him, squeezing him as tightly as I can.
“Zolotse,” he murmurs, and I hear the relief in his voice. He picks me up, keeping his arms tightly around me. He holds me, whispering in my ear that I’m safe and that he loves me while his men roll Colin’s body up in the rug that is completely ruined and haul his body outside. Others sweep up the glass from the busted window Ruslan ran through. During all of it, Vasily holds me, neither one of us wanting to let the other go.
“I need to get a doctor over here, baby,” he finally says. “You need stitches, and I want to make sure you don’t have a concussion. I can’t have them show up while I’m covered in another man’s blood, though. Will you be okay if I take a quick shower?”
“Take me with you,” I whisper. “Don’t put me down.”
“I don’t think I’m ever going to put you down again,” he says, carrying me out of the room and up the stairs.
“That’s fine with me.” I rest my chin on his shoulder and play with the back of his hair. “How’d it go at Ruby’s?”
“All the women are out, baby. I gave Mindy some money and made sure she would be taken immediately to the airport. She wanted me to thank you. She has a cousin in Florida she’s going to go to.”
“Thank you, Vasya,” I say, hugging him tighter.
“You don’t have to worry about any of this ever again. Ruby’s is burning to the ground as we speak. It’s all over, baby.”
I let out a relieved sigh and kiss his neck. Before he carries me into our bathroom, he stops and digs the list out of his front pocket, setting it down on the nightstand. Grabbing a pen, he crosses ski mask off the list, making it official.
I think about how lucky I am as he sets me on the counter and tilts my face up to get a better look at the damage. He lets out a pained sigh as his eyes run over me.
“I’m fine, Vasya. I promise.”
“You’re not. He came into our home and put his hands on you again. He hurt you and would have raped you had Ruslan not busted through the window.”
I arch a brow at him. “I had managed to stab him before Ruslan came in, thank you very much.”
He smiles and runs his thumb over my cheek. “I’m so proud of you,zolotse. You fought like the wild thing you are and gave him hell.”
“I thought about you, and it gave me the courage to fight him.”
He smiles and kisses me gently. “You won’t ever have to fight anyone ever again, and I’m sorry you had to see me like that. I hope you don’t think differently of me now.”
“I do, but not in a bad way.” I run my hand over the bear on his chest, the one that’s now splattered with dried blood. “You were like a beautiful, lethal weapon when you were killing him. I expected a frenzied bloodbath, but you were so damn methodical and in control.”
“I didn’t want to be,” he admits. “It took everything I had to not go into a frenzy. The only thing that kept me together was knowing how badly I wanted him to hurt, and I was also very aware that you were right behind me watching the whole thing. I didn’t want to scare you more than you already were.”
“I wasn’t scared of you, Vasya. I know you’d never direct any of that anger at me.”
