“I find it very hard to believe that my father would just let you slide after disobeying a direct order, Viktor.”
“If you would just stop and listen to me, I can explain.” He stops himself as his anger starts to rise. He pinches the bridge of his nose and takes a breath. “He assigned me to a hit, but he didn’t tell me who it was. He just gave me a description, a time, and a location. That’s all.”
“And when he told you a woman with rainbow hair, that didn’t trigger any alarms?”
“That’s not how he described her. Tati, I promise you, I did not know it was her until I saw her there. And when I did, I tried to warn her, but someone else got to her first.”
I just shake my head. That’s got to be the weakest story I’ve ever heard in my life. I walk back into the bathroom and grab the journal.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m leaving,” I tell him when I come back out. I throw the key at him and he catches it, yanking it out of the air like it’s nothing. “I’m not going to stay here and wait for you to turn me in to my father.”
He reaches out for me and I yank my arm away. “Leave me alone.”
“Tati, your father is looking for you,” he says as he follows me to the door. “You can’t leave.”
“Fuck off—” I open the door and take a step out. Sparks and dust from the walls suddenly shower me as a sound like firecrackers goes off around me. I’m yanked back inside before I know what’s happening.
Viktor’s standing with the door closed, pulling out his gun. “Stay back,” is all he says to me as he opens the door a crack and looks out.
I stand there shaking in the hallway as my mind wraps itself around what just happened. Those… those were gunshots.Someone just tried to kill me.
I hear a voice echoing through the hallway, calm and almost soothing with a hint of a Russian accent.
“This isn’t your problem, Viktor,” Yanov says. “Stand down.”
“Not a chance,” he says through the door.
“I realize you have an affection for the girl, but she is a traitor to the brotherhood. We both know it. If you hand her over now, Nikolai has promised to show you mercy. After all, you have always been like a son to him.”
“That doesn’t mean shit to me coming from a man who’s sent you to kill his daughter.” With that, he opens the door wider and sticks his arm out, shooting his gun three times. Sparks answer him back and he ducks back behind the door.
“So, you’ll probably get what’s coming for you,” he says. “And as for his daughter, a bullet to the head is a more dignified end for her than what I would have proposed. If I were Pakhan, I would have her die as she lived and thrown her naked into a pit and let our brothers have their way with her until she was dead.” Then a little louder, he adds, “Maybe you’d prefer that end instead, Tati? To have all your orifices filled as you choke to death on the cocks of my brothers. Once a whore, always?—”
Viktor pulls the door open again and fires again. The sparks light up the hallway. When he stops, I hear Yanov again, this time, grunting in pain. “I’ll kill you before I let you touch her, Yanov,” Viktor says. “You looking to die tonight?”
Another yelp of pain in response. After a few seconds, footsteps moving away from us echo through the hallway. Viktor closes the door and looks back at me.
“He’ll be back,” he says. “And next time, he won’t be alone. We need to leave now.”
I stand gaping at him, shellshocked. He walks up to me, wraps his arms around my waist, and kisses me. I fall against him, the taste of his lips and feel of his tongue against mine waking me up.
“I’ll die before I let them hurt you,” he says, his breath in my face. “You understand me? I will never let anyone get away with hurting you.”
If I weren’t so frightened, I’d cry. But for now, all I can do is nod.
“Give me a minute to grab a few things, then we’re out of here.”
