Distrust (Smirnov Bratva Book 1) (18 page)

She notices, smiles and leans into my ear. “I bought these dresses just for you, I know how much you love them,” she says as we continue to walk. I watch her, but I’m also eyeing the room for Stephon. I doubt he’s still even in the country, especially since he knows I will be hunting for him. He can’t possibly think he could set me up, and I wouldn’t retaliate. It won’t happen. I spot the guys and Freya in the same place we were sitting last time. Bottles of vodka surround their table, and Freya and Anton are having a drink off. Cackling at each other as they slam the glass to the table once they finish it.

Before we sit down Elina pulls away from me. I have to control myself, I have to remember that I can let her walk a few feet away without getting killed, or leaving me. She doesn’t wander far, and as soon as I sit down I recognize the person she’s with. Her friend. She takes hold of her arm and walks over to us. Her hand is tight in Pollie’s; I can see how protective she is of her. She whispers to her, while she looks around at us. None of us can hear any words that leave her mouth, though I have no doubt her friend can by the way she nods her head in confirmation.

“Guys, this is Pollie.” Elina pulls her friend down to sit next to her. Elina takes the seat next to me, my hand goes directly to her thigh, and I inch it up as far as I can without showing much, she squeezes them together but doesn’t stop me.

Pollie starts to say hello to everyone, and everyone pretty much says hello back, except Death, he sits there and stares at her. I know she can’t see it, though, but at a guess I’m sure she can feel it.

We sit there and chat, Anton trying to get us to agree with him that his muscles are bigger than Viktor’s. They aren’t, and he’s getting shitty that no one agrees with him. Freya is almost drunk, her eyes are glassing over, and she actually smiles and speaks normally to Elina.

A song comes on and Elina starts rocking back and forth to the music. I stand and pull her up, taking her to the dance floor. She doesn’t complain as she dances behind me, shaking her hips. As soon as we stop my hands go to her waist and I pull her in close. Her sexy little waist starts shaking super close, and soon I’m trying to push my cock near her pussy. She knows what she’s doing. She teases me for the entire dance, leaning in extra close, biting my ear harder than expected, then she pulls away and turns around moving her ass and grinding it on me. Just as I’m about to take her mouth, a gunshot rings out. The lights are switched on and everyone starts rushing for the nearest door. We stand there until the dance floor is clear, and look up to see Viktor with a gun in his hand, pointed across the room at Stephon. Anton has his wife by the hair, as she tries to claw at him to let her go.

“Oh my God, Pollie,” Elina says and runs away from me. By the time I look around the club is empty and all that’s left is Stephon’s goons plus all of us.

Elina is trying to calm Pollie down as she cries. Death looks back to her and raises his eyebrows as if to say shut the fuck up.

I make my way back to them slowly, and when I reach them another shot rings out. Stephon has the gun in his hands and a smug look on his face. Anton calls his name, gaining his attention, then he wraps both hands around his wife’s head and snaps.

Pollie screams loudly and I tap Death to give him the sign to remove her. He picks her up and starts toward the door, two bouncers block his way. Just as I’m about to make my way over to him to help, he shuffles Pollie so she clings around him, holding onto him like a monkey, then he raises his gun shooting both men and stepping over their bodies as he walks out the door with Pollie strapped to him.

“I wouldn’t move,” Anton says to Stephon as he looks behind him. Viktor still has the gun trained on him, and Anton takes the drink that Freya hands him and chugs it back. Elina comes over to my side, I position her behind my back, her hands cling on tight. Freya, well, she sits in the same spot with a bottle of vodka not caring or moving.

Maybe she’s right for Anton, not so much Viktor after all.

“Shoot him already,” Freya calls out to Viktor. He lapses his attention when he turns to look at her, and it gives Stephon the perfect opportunity to run away. Shots start firing aiming for him. None hit, they all hit his bodyguards. Soon, it’s just us standing there with sirens coming closer.

“We have to leave,” Elina says pulling away and grabbing Freya by the hand to pull her up. She laughs at her and hits her hand away. Viktor steps in, grabs her and throws her over his shoulder. She giggles like a school girl.

“Hands up!” We all stop moving.
Maybe they were closer than we thought?
Each and every one of our hands raise as we turn to see at least twenty guns pointed at our heads.

Chapter 30

Elina

We were arrested, that’s no surprise. Not at all.

But what did surprise me the most is when I made bail, I didn’t expect to see my father standing out the front waiting for me. I don’t walk to him, too afraid of what will leave his mouth. He stands where he is, two men flanking either side of him. And he just stares at me. I turn trying to see if I can find Kazier, but I can’t.

“He’s gone,” my father says now from behind me. He grabs my arm and starts to pull me out the door. I don’t make a scene, I learned long ago that is not something we should do. So I follow as he grips me hard on my arm, walking to his car. One of his men opens the back door and he pushes me in, climbing in after me. He doesn’t speak till we are almost home.

“Such a disappointment you turned out to be,” he says shaking his head. “I can’t even marry you off! No one in our family will want you now that you have chosen
him,
” he huffs.

We make our way home, and he pulls the door open and climbs out of the car. I sit in there unable to move. I don’t want to get out. I don’t want to walk back into that house ever again. Except, I know, he won’t let me just walk away now he has me again. He thinks of me as his property. I’m his puppet to do with as he pleases.

One of his men opens my door while my father stands at the front of the house waiting for me. His foot taps on the ground, so I know his patience is wearing thin with me. He wants me out. As soon as my high heel hits the concrete ground, he opens the front door and walks inside. I pause, wondering if I could run fast enough. Wondering if one of his men would pick me up before I got to the road.

He isn’t in the hallway when I enter and I bolt straight for my room. As soon as I’m in there I ring Kazier, hoping his phone answers. It rings, then rings some more. Then I ring Pollie, wanting to make sure she is okay, hoping she won’t hate me.

“Elina,” she says into the phone.

“Oh thank God, I’m so sorry, Pollie,” I say laying back onto my bed.

“I don’t know where I am Elina,” she whispers into the phone.

I sit up worried. I remember that guy that took her. What did they call him? Death. He wasn’t pleasant that’s for sure.

“What do you mean? Are you by yourself?”

“No, I can feel him staring at me. He just isn’t speaking.”

“Has he said anything?” I ask confused.

“He told me not to move. I haven’t moved, Elina. I’ve been in the same spot with my phone clutched in my hand. I’m not sure if he scares me or not. Is that weird? I should be very scared, right?”

I want to tell her yes because just by looking at him you know you don’t want to be around him.

“No, don’t be scared. He hasn’t hurt you, right?”

“That’s the weird thing, he’s been feeding me. Making me eat. The weirdness of it calmed me down, but something smells really bad here.”

“I’m going to try to call Kazier again. Ask him if you can leave while I’m on the phone.”

She goes silent for a second before she speaks again, “Ummm, excuse me, Mister, would I be able to leave now?”

I hear his reply automatically. “No.” He’s close to her. I wonder if he’s listening to everything she says. Probably.

“Argghh. Elina your friends are very odd, and I don’t think I want to go out with you all ever again. Sorry.”

“It’s fine, Pollie. I tried to tell you this. Don’t worry, I’ll reach Kazier and he will come get you.”

I hang up the phone and try his cell phone again, but there’s no answer. A knock comes on my door, I sit there with my phone to my ear trying to call again, then again. Hoping he picks up before whoever is on the other side of that door kicks it in.

“Elina, you have five seconds,” my father’s voice booms through the closed door. I try one more time, standing and walking to the door as the phone rings out. I pull the door open to his angry stare and his hands clenched to his sides. He looks down to my phone then reaches for it and snatches it from my hands. He drops it to the floor, cracking it under the heel of his foot.

“You trying to call that boy.” He laughs. “You’re not going back to him. I am still
your
father,
and you
are
my daughter.” I remember that day, the day I knew I’d never trust my father ever again.

He used me. I remember when Stephon came to my door. I’d never had a problem with Stephon, but I also never liked the man. He was conniving and all kinds of wrong. So when he knocked on the front door and I was the only one home it surprised me. He smiled and asked if he could come in to talk. He never wanted to talk. He looked down at the floor as he took three steps inside, then just as I was shutting the door he was behind me with his hands around my neck. He whispered in my ear that he was going to kill everyone, and he was starting with me. Then his men opened the door, and he walked me to the car. He informed me that my father suggested that he used me, as I was Kazier’s only weakness. It didn’t shock me that I was being used, I knew that. But Kazier was also being used to begin with. What I didn’t think was that I would be the leverage used, and possibly killed, because my father thought the only way to destroy him was to use and possibly kill me.

“I fucking quit this family,” I say attempting to shut the door in my father’s face. He places his foot in the doorway and pushes it open, knocking me back as he does.

“You can’t quit. You can never quit. You are my blood. So you are my property.” He grins while he walks in.

“Get the fuck out,” I say walking to the other side of the bed and grabbing a bag. I start with the clothes on my bed and begin to shove them in.

He watches me before he speaks. “You aren’t leaving,” he says just as two of his men appear behind him.

“You can’t make me stay, I’m a fucking adult.” I’ve never moved out of my childhood home, never not lived under his roof. I was only meant to move out when I was married. He clicks his fingers in the air, and the men start to walk to me. One grabs my arm as I back away, the other comes around and reaches for the other arm, I bring my hand down and slam my fist straight into his balls.

My father steps over and slaps me hard, splitting my lip when his hand connects with my face. My head snaps to the side, and I start screaming. As his hand comes up again, it’s stopped. I look with wide eyes, the taste of blood coating my mouth, and see Maso holding my father’s fist. He turns and pulls his hand free.

“You want to protect her again?” He laughs at Maso.

Maso looks to me then to the man holding me, he pulls out his gun and points it at him. “Remove your hands.” He does so automatically.

I grab my bag, not worrying about anything else and move away. Maso is standing in between our father and me, I kiss his cheek then I run.

The front is open and no one is standing there. I don’t have shoes on my feet, so the pebbles scrape into them as I run down the long driveway. I look back over my shoulder when I reach the end, and see my father standing at the door with a gun pointed at me.

He wouldn’t actually shoot me, would he?

I don’t stop any longer than necessary as I run through the gates and hope to God I don’t get shot in the back.

My feet are hurting with the cuts. I can no longer see the front of my house, and I have no phone. It’s a long walk to anywhere. We live in solitude for a reason, so no one knows what goes on. I chuck my bag on the ground as I reach the edge of the road, having put enough distance between me and
that house
and look through my bag. I start to curse out loud when I see all I have is two pair of panties and two dresses, plus what I have on. I should have had a bag packed way ahead of time. I thought about it on numerous occasions, I just never did it. My ass plonks to the ground. I throw my bag in front of me, wondering what the hell I’m going to do when a car pulls up.

“Elina…” a voice I know well says as I hear the car door slam. Hands go around me and lift me in the air grabbing my bag as he walks to the car. I’ve never felt safer than I do in this moment, in the arms of my sworn enemy.

Chapter 31

Kazier

You can tell just by looking at her she is on the verge of a breakdown. Her arms clinging to me like never before, her head tucks into my shoulder. I didn’t expect to see her. I didn’t expect to actually find her, least of all on the side of the road with no shoes and a bag. Her head down.

When I pulled the car up I noticed her lip is split, and blood coats her shirt. She doesn’t say anything when I place her in my car, she just let’s go and places her head back on the headrest.