“Are you hungry?”
She didn’t even have to answer that as her stomach started to rumble.
“I guess, I’m just not used to ...well, you know, being able to eat at a time like this.”
He chuckled.“It’s another thing you’ve got to learn.”
“How can you be so calm?”
“There’s no way I cannotbe.If our theory is correct, Gnesin needs us alive.We don’t know if they have him drugged, if he’s even alive.”He shrugged.
“And you don’t care?”she asked.
Dmitriy looked down into the pot of chili.It was not going to be the greatest chili ever made, but it would fill a gap.
“You do realize if Gnesin is trapped, killed, or whatever the outcome, it could mean I killed a lot of people on the instructions of our enemies.Including your parents,” he said, and then he turned to look at her.He watched as she took a deep breath.
“I can live with that.Bad shit happens all the time.I was following orders, but I have to ask you, Anastasia, can you?”
She didn’t look away.“I don’t ...yes, I can.”
This made him frown and Anastasia went to him.She went to reach out for him, but then hesitated.She went again, and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him in close.
“Yes, I can handle that.”
At first, Dmitriy didn’t know what to do.His woman was holding him, comforting him, and in all his life, he had never been granted such affection.He had never experienced hugs in his life.Certainly not by his parents.
Seconds passed, and it could have been minutes, or even a lifetime, then he grabbed her, and pulled her in against him, and didn’t want to let her go.Not ever again.He pressed his face against her neck, breathing her in.She was his heaven.He couldn’t let anything happen to her.
And then, he heard her stomach rumble.He pulled away and looked into her blue eyes, and she offered him a smile.“Are you okay?”she asked.
“I’m fine.”He reached out and touched her chin.“More than fine.”
The chili had been bubbling for a good five minutes, and it was starting to smell like it was about to catch.He didn’t want to eat crap food that was scorched, and he quickly pulled it off the stove.He gave it a stir, missing the bottom, and then dolloped it into the bowls.
Anastasia hadn’t left his side, and she reached for her bowl and followed him as they walked toward the table.The table itself was scratched.
“What is this place?”
“It’s an old abandoned house.For a long time, no one would come here because they thought it was haunted.”
“Was it?”Anastasia asked.
“No, a couple of people died, that was all.”
He saw her eyes had gotten wide.“Of old age.No paranormal activity.They had lived a long life together.Fallen in love when they were teenagers, no kids, no family, nothing to hand this down to.For a long time, it was left derelict and stuff.I purchased the land, which included the house, and I’ve been intending to fix it up, but it’s one of those projects I haven’t gotten around to.”
“Fixing it up?Like you did with the cabin?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, Dmitriy Fedulov, you’re a real mystery to me.How did you become one of the most feared men in the Gnesin Bratva, with the title of Ghost Devil, and yet you’re able to rebuild cabins and have house décor plans?”she asked.
Dmitriy took a spoonful of his food, biting it but not really tasting it.
“After I took care of my parents, I trained.That is all I did, and I worked hard.Killing people doesn’t bother me, Anastasia.I don’t care.I have no feelings about it.People can scream, and it doesn’t affect me.”He shrugged.“Working one job to another, Gnesin realized I had a gift—the ability to kill without it affecting me.So, he rewarded me.One reward after another, I learned what I needed.With the cabin, I knew I had to make it the way I wanted it, so I practiced, I learned.I never stop learning, and that is why I’m able to build what I need.”It was all trial and error.
His parents had taught him to withstand pain.They didn’t have a clue that they were creating a monster.One that was going to destroy them, which is exactly what he did.
