The knife was in my hand, fingers closing around the smooth wooden handle. I fell a half step behind him, still keeping up with his clipped pace. I stared at his back, my eyes moving over the folds of his jacket, trying to make out where the gun holster would be strapped around his shoulders. Just my luck, and I’d hit that, then it would be over before it began.
What if I killed him?
So what if I did? If I wasn’t going to dig deep and be ruthless, I may as well get used to a life of imprisonment, available for Gavril’s every whim.
Shutting off the arguments swirling in my mind, knocking away all my trepidation, I flung myself at him and drove the knife deep into his side. It didn’t hit tough leather but slid into flesh. Blood gushed over my fingers as I gave it a final twist and then took off running in the opposite direction.
There was no time to spare a glance to see if he went down, but I didn’t hear feet pounding after me. At the same time, I wanted to puke, my spirits soared. Swerving off the sidewalk, I cut through the wildflower field, dodging some cacti and heading downhill toward freedom. My feet barely seemed to touch the ground as I ran like my life depended on it, which it did.
Freedom was in sight. I was going to get away.
Chapter 24 - Gavril
A stony silence descended on the meeting. The fight was about to get serious if I opened my mouth and let them know how I really felt about the way they were speaking about my wife.
Most of these men I had known for years. Benedikt and I grew up together. I would have as soon turned the gun on myself as ever harmed them. But if they had turned and were working with Luigi? If they made a move to forcibly take my wife away? The rage that built up within me was like nothing I had ever felt before.
I could still taste Lilia on my tongue, her hot skin still left traces of warmth against my fingertips. She was mine, and that meant to do with as I chose. No one was taking her from me. I recognized that I was very close to coming unhinged, and I think my old friends and advisors did, too. They maintained the silence as we all stared at one another.
My phone began ringing, but I couldn’t exactly answer when I was staring down my true enemies as well as men I once believed would never betray my trust. Now I wasn’t so sure. If they weren’t with me, they were against me, simple as that. Was I willing to let go of lifelong bonds for a brand new wife who currently wanted my blood?
It seemed so.
My personal guard burst in from where he’d been waiting in the other room, his phone pressed to his ear.
“There’s trouble, Boss.”
I jumped up so fast that my chair toppled over behind me. Luigi’s eyes danced with glee and malice, eager for my demise to start as soon as possible. I barely noticed. Panicalmost overwhelmed me. Was Lilia sick? Or hurt? Did her family somehow find out where I was hiding her? A couple of Luigi’s men smirked as they lounged on my leather couch.
“Better run,” Luigi said.
Was this all a setup to try to follow me? Paranoia welled up but was instantly doused by worry for Lilia. Reaching across the table, I grabbed his fat neck and squeezed until his eyes bulged. His men jumped up, reaching inside their jackets, but my men were quicker, guns out and pointed at them to sit the hell down.
I continued to squeeze until Luigi’s face took on a blue cast, a gurgle rising from his constricted throat. Everything else around me froze in place as I glared into his bulging, fading eyes.
“Do not cross me ever again. Whatever the fuck is going on in Mexico, call it off. If you want to survive this day, you and your men will stay here for an hour after I’m gone. No phones. One single whiff of a tail on me when I leave, and the only way you get out of here is in a body bag.”
I wanted to keep squeezing. Let him defy me, let him test how serious I was. He finally nodded, grunting and falling off the chair when I let go.
I stormed out without a backward glance, my guard running after me. Once we were in the private elevator, I turned to him for answers, trying not to show how desperate I was to know that Lilia was safe, unharmed, and still mine.
“What’s happening?” I asked.
“Well, er, she was out walking with—”
“Yes, yes, get on with it.”
One of the guards had called me on my way to the apartment, asking on Lilia’s behalf if she could take a walkaround the neighborhood. I didn’t think anything could go wrong, but now a hundred different scenarios sped through my mind.
There had been plenty of coyotes around my property, but they normally never attacked humans. What if that changed, and she was lying bleeding, her flesh torn from bites? Worse, what if a pack dragged her off? A wildfire started raging, and she was currently trapped behind a wall of flames. She fell down a ravine and lay unconscious at the bottom.
“Hurry up and tell me,” I boomed as the elevator doors slid open into the parking garage. I was halfway to the car as the guard ran after me, for some reason beating around the bush. “Is she that badly hurt?”
He stopped at the car, looking stunned. “She’s not hurt at all. She stabbed her guard and took off into the hills. We already have a search team after her, but ...”
“Fuck,” I muttered, relief washing over me like cool water after a trek through the desert.
I slid into the back, letting the driver find the quickest way through traffic while I recovered from the fear that had nearly taken me out of the game for good.
