Fall (Romanian Mob Chronicles Book 2) (8 page)

S
orin

“
I
want
to
hold her sometime tonight, Sorin,” Esther said.

I smiled and then kissed Maria’s tiny head before I turned and handed the baby back to Fawn.

“You can come back tomorrow,” I said. “Let’s go.”

She pouted and then moved over to Fawn and kissed the baby. Then she said, “Bye, Fawn. Bye, Vasile.”

“See you later, Esther,” Fawn said, and Vasile nodded as we left.

“So that was painless,” she said as we got into the car.

“Yeah,” I replied.

When we’d arrived together, neither had said a word, though I hadn’t missed the look that passed between them. But that brief look had been the only moment of any tension. The rest of the evening had gone by easy, calm, as if there was nothing strange about Esther and me together, not bickering.

We felt like a family.

I grabbed her hand and glanced at her quickly.

“I could get used to that,” she said, squeezing my hand.

“What?” I said.

“That smile.”

I squeezed her hand a little tighter but stayed silent.

“You can’t come home with me today,” she said as we approached her house.

“Why not?”

“I have work tomorrow,” she said.

“I told you to quit.”

“And I told you, multiple times, I won’t.”

“Still don’t trust me,” I said.

“It’s not about trust. This is a record for me. And, I don’t know, it makes me kinda proud of myself,” I said.

“It doesn’t look good, my girl working at a hardware store.”

“I haven’t decided if I like that. ‘My girl.’ Shouldn’t I have something more official-sounding?” she said as I parked.

I glanced at her quickly, feeling a rush of satisfaction at her words.

“That’s as official as it gets,” I said as I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and kissed her. “Now get out of my car before I change my mind.”

She smiled bright. “Night, Sorin.”

I watched her walk up the porch, the warmth in my chest as I watched her still not new but also not unwelcome. She waved at me, and I could see her smile from the porch, and when she finally closed the door, I left, not even caring about how much I was looking forward to seeing her again.

E
sther

I
leaned
against
the door again, thought about how I needed to replace it for a moment before I came in and thought about Sorin, how burying my face in the pillow smelled of him was a poor substitute to having him in my bed.

Today had felt easy, right, like the pieces fit. And in a way, I supposed they did. As crazy as it was, we might just work. I finally pushed myself off the door and moved through the house, noticing how empty it seemed without him. But as I glanced around the familiar room, a shiver of fear went down my spine.

Something wasn’t right here. I couldn’t say what, but I wasn’t going to wait around to find out what. I turned and sped back toward the door, reached to open the chain lock, but a voice stilled my hand.

“Drop your hands. Slowly.”

The voice was low, accented.

The shiver of fear broke out into a full-blow shudder.

S
orin

“
N
ot on your fucking life
,” I said on a laugh as the phone rang.

“Familie,” Nicki, the ancient bartender, said when he answered. He waited and then slammed down the phone.

“Who was it?” I said.

“Didn’t say anything,” he said. “You sticking around?”

The restaurant was mostly empty, and in a second, I made a snap decision. I shook my head. “No,” I said as I left.

She’d sent me on my way, and here I was, headed back just hours after I’d left. And I didn’t even want sex. Or just sex. Seeing her would be enough.

But as I approached her house, I felt a terrible sense of foreboding. I couldn’t place it, but I knew enough not to ignore it. I rushed up the stairs, moving by memory and not by sight. My heart dropped when I saw that the door was slightly open. I wanted to call out, but held my tongue as I stepped through the portal, hoping that I could catch whoever was inside by surprise.

But it was me who was surprised.

“Sorin, we have business to discuss.”

E
sther

I
hadn’t given much thought
to how I would die, but I’d never imagined it would be like this.

I shivered from the cold, fear, and tried to dial the phone yet again. Someone had answered and then hung up. Probably hadn’t heard me, but when that phone had clicked, it had been as though my fate was sealed. I tossed it aside when the low-battery indicator came on.

The person who’d brought me here had left and as the minutes had ticked by with each second, my panic had increased.

I tried to gather all of the bravado I could, but even that was failing me. Every awful thought I could imagine was bombarding me at once, most prominent among them was the fact that the person who’d taken me hadn’t been worried enough to take my phone.

I tried to push that thought away, focus on getting out of here, but the ice-cold ground against my feet—the dick
had
taken my shoes—made it more and more difficult.

I was in some kind of warehouse, and I jumped when I heard something jangle, and I stood when the door opened.

The last ember of hope died when a huge figure entered. So large, he completely blocked the doorway. He walked toward me, his night-dark eyes unblinking, his face set in a grim scowl. I wanted to cower, to turn away from his gaze. Only the determination not to die simpering kept me from looking away.

He looked me from my bare feet to the top of my head, stepping ever closer until he came to stop in front of me. I looked at him, noticed that he was tall, even taller than Sorin. I bit down on the soft flesh inside my cheek and kept my eyes on his.

“Let’s go,” he said in a gravelly voice.

Of all the things I had expected, this was not one of them, so I stood still, shock holding me in place. He tilted his head toward the door, but before I could move, another figure entered, and I immediately recognized him as the man who’d taken me.

“What are you doing?” he asked as he moved toward the other man.

“I’m trying to save my brother’s life,” he said calmly, looking at the other almost scornfully. “Let’s go,” he stated again, this time looking at me.

I was ready to move this time but didn’t make it far.

“Stop!”

My eyes snapped toward at the familiar voice, and I watched as Natasha emerged from the shadows, the gun she held pointed directly at me.

S
orin

“
W
here is she
?”
I said to the man who stood in her living room.

He smiled, looking far more cocky than he had been when I’d kicked him in his ribs or when I’d taken his thumb. I burned with regret that I hadn’t taken his life when I had the chance, vowed that I would correct that error.

“Not so tough now, huh?” he said.

“Where is Esther?” I repeated, managing to keep my voice calm, though rage and fear raced through me.

But my nervousness was not lost on him. “You’ll find out soon enough,” he said.

“I’m going to kill you. And if anything happens to her, I’m going to kill everyone you ever loved,” I said.

The kid laughed again. “We’ll see. Let’s go.”

I hadn’t had time to call Vasile or anyone else, so I waited for my opportunity, kept an eye on my surroundings. We’d headed to the industrial part of the city, and few knew better than me what happened here. The vise on my heart squeezed tighter. But no matter what, I wouldn’t let Esther die here, in a place like this. So I did the thing most unnatural to me. I played it cool.

I followed the kid, certain he was only confident enough to turn his back to me because he knew I wouldn’t make a move until I saw her, got her to safety. After that, I would slice his skin off, but until then…

“What the fuck?” the kid uttered as he stopped in the doorway.

I rushed passed him but pulled up short at the scene that greeted me. I comprehended what I saw, but I didn’t want to believe it.

Esther, feet bare, face drawn tight with fear.

Anton and Petey standing side by side, eyes glued to the final person in the room.

Natasha, her gun trained on Esther, her intent as clear as day.

“You a part of this, Anton?” I asked, not moving my eyes from Natasha.

“No,” he said.

I believed him.

“What’s your angle, Petey? What are you trying to gain?”

“Everything, Sorin,” Natasha said.

“Your father will be disappointed in you, Petey. Yours would have been too, Natasha.”

The gun wavered and her eyes sparked, but she quickly regained control.

“Don’t speak to me of betrayal. Not after all I gave you. Honor, loyalty. They only mean something when you decide they do so you can do whatever you want and then pat us on the head as you toss us away. Not anymore,” she said, pulling her mouth into a tight frown.

“What do you want, Natasha?” I asked.

She laughed. “What if I wanted you to beg for her life, promise me you’ll marry me, that you’ll give me the world if I let her live? Do you love her enough for that?”

I said nothing, and she watched me, eyes glittering. “You would, wouldn’t you? She means that much to you. Can’t believe I didn’t see it. So do it, Sorin. Tell me pretty things, promise me there won’t be consequences, that you’ll spare me pain,” she said, eyes flashing, no trace of the woman I’d known—had thought I’d known anyway—present. I wondered then if I’d ever really known her before deciding it didn’t matter.

“Despite what you’ve done, Natasha, I won’t lie to you. You will die for this. But you don’t have to suffer. I owe your father that much,” I said.

“What about me? What do you owe me!” she screeched.

“Nothing,” I said, my voice cold, low.

She laughed, voice melodic almost, save the high-pitch shrill that was the best clue to her mental state. “Honest. Always so honest. I always liked that about you,” she said.

“This is heartwarming, but can you pop the bitch so we can wrap this up?” Petey said it as casually as if discussing the weather, and the mix of fear and loathing that hit me almost made me puke.

“Shut up, Petey!” she screamed.

“Don’t forget who you’re talking to,” he snapped.

She turned to face him then. “And who am I talking to? A worm who rides his daddy’s coattails? You were useful once, Petey. You aren’t anymore.”

Neither the soft
click
of the trigger or the loud
boom
of the gun going off were new to me, but they’d never sounded quite like this. Nor had Esther ever made a sound like she did then, a wounded shriek that cut my heart in two, hurt me more than any physical blow ever could.

But the sound was drowned out by a low
umph.
I turned, saw Petey as he pressed his hand to his stomach, fell to his knees, and stared up at Natasha, face more shocked than pained.

“Don’t looked so surprised, Petey. I told you people always underestimate dumb, pretty Natasha. You did too.” She smiled a cold little smile.

“We had a deal. I was going to help you,” he said.

“You were going to help yourself. Then bury me in a shallow grave.”

She lifted her eyes from Petey’s prone form to me.

“You see what I was willing to risk for you? Put myself in business with people like him, people who would only cause me harm.”

“You weren’t risking anything for me, Natasha. Only yourself,” I replied.

She scoffed and shook her head. “No. I had it all planned out easy. Stupid Petey here wanted to be his father’s successor but then he realized that Christoph wasn’t that out of his mind. And his clan will never let the bastard be in charge. It was perfect. Petey was going to shoot you, and Vasile would have been left with no choice but to retaliate.”

“And what if Vasile had come after Petey instead, come after both of them? Did you two ever consider that?”

“Vasile wouldn’t waste the time on that moron,” she said with a dismissive sneer. “And so anyway, Petey’s brother would be gone, he’d take over the family, and I would nurse you back to health. Make you finally see what you’d ignored for all those years.”

She turned sharply, pointed her gun at Esther again. “But then she showed up. Caught your eye for God knows what reason, and I was again nothing, still nothing. Tossed aside to be picked up again later. Natasha, always there but never really there,” she said, her voice dripping with sadness.

“Do you want to do this, Natasha? Ruin a lifetime of friendship, the generations-long ties that bind our families. Do you really want to toss that all away?” I asked.

“I told you before, what I want doesn’t matter.”

She turned to Esther again, gun extended, and time slowed down before my eyes. I could see the tautness in her extended arm, the way her long, graceful fingers curved around the trigger.

I could also see that I’d never make it in time.

I didn’t let that stop me, though, and I raced toward her at full speed, not even slowing when the loud
boom
of the gun again rang out.

Not slowing when I reached the spot where Natasha had stood and found only air.

Not slowing as the gun clattered against the ground, the sound followed by Natasha’s sharp scream, one that was cut off with a grunt as she hit the hard ground with Anton atop her.

If she’d hit her head, the impact would have killed her. As it was, I thought I heard the low
snap
of something on her body breaking. But I still moved, grabbed the gun that had fallen to the floor.

“I’m sorry it has to end this way,” I said, weapon trained on her.

When she looked at me, the pain that had clouded her eyes cleared and she smiled almost gleefully.

“Go ahead, do it. Blow my brains out. See if she loves you after that,” she spat.

Almost involuntarily, I looked over at Esther, saw the dawning horror on her face. Knew that if she saw this, it would kill whatever we’d built, knew that no matter what, I couldn’t let that happen.