Russian Roulette (Russkaya Mafiya) (18 page)

Tate’s home is beautiful and he’s so giving, making sure I have what I ask for, but there is nothing quite like using your own stuff. My hair has definitely gotten spoiled though, using his salon shampoo and conditioner. It even smells good, like juniper.

I undress, toss my clothes in a pile on the floor and start the shower. After a few beats, I step into the steamy area. I relax under the hot spray and massage my neck with my fingers. My extracurricular activities with Tate have me a little sore in some spots.
Yum.
Speaking of Tate, I can’t wait to find out what he will do to me later. That man is phenomenal with his hands, mouth and cock. I picture him naked in the shower, rubbing his strong hands all over his soapy body…

Wait, what was that? Oh, I bet it’s just London coming for more laundry. I stand extra still and quiet my thoughts to listen—just to make sure. I’m probably being paranoid. I hear an almost silent click.
Nope, not paranoid.
That was a legit noise.

“London, what are you doing?” I shout, so she can hear me.

I wonder if she’s having issues with the front door lock. I do sometimes, I know it’s cheap. I don’t get a response, so whatever, she must have figured it out. I go back to washing my body with my favorite Bath and Body Works body wash. It smells divine and makes me feel soft everywhere.

The hair on the back of my neck stands up when I feel a little breeze of cold air. The a/c is not on because I would be able to hear it humming. I feel the cool air caress me again and my insides start to jump. You know when you get the feeling that you want to look, but you really don’t want to look? That’s exactly how I feel. I swear if this is London fucking with me, I will wring her neck. The thing is, I know London likes to mess with me, but she’s not cruel.

Deep inside my belly I know it’s not her and it makes me nauseous.
Fuck!
I should have brought my gun in here with me. What an idiot! Have I not learned anything? My fears are confirmed when I hear his dark voice.

“I know you’re finished, time to get out.”

That’s all it takes for me to go into a full-blown panic attack. Oh my god, my chest feels so tight and I can’t breathe. Fuck! I have to make myself take deep breaths—in…out…in…out…one…two…three…four…five…six…seven…eight…nine…in…out…in…out. I’m okay, I can handle this. I need to get to my room so I can get my pistol.

Jeremy rips open the shower curtain with a snarl. I see him for the first time since we were in that court room, two years ago.
He’s gotten thinner.
He was already fairly thin before. Now it looks like every ounce of fat he had has melted off, and in its place is lean muscle. He must have spent his time working out the entire time he was in jail. Jeremy’s hair is longer now, the midnight black locks now graze his shoulders and he has a few days’ worth of scruff covering his face.

His face twists into an angry smirk and his eyes look at me with pure hatred. The little bits of softness I once saw in him are completely gone now. He reaches into the shower lightning quick and snatches my arm harshly, making me call out in fear, yanking me out of the shower so fast I stumble over the built-in bathtub.

“Ow! Please let go, Jeremy, I’ll walk, please!” Fuck, my leg’s killing me. I’m going to have a huge bruise from the damn tub. I hope he didn’t sprain my ankle; it’s on fire right now.

“You think I’m gonna be letting you go this time, bitch, so you can run again? I don’t fucking think so.”

His other hand grabs onto my wet hair to hold me, then he pulls his right leg back and lays into my thigh with a solid kick.
Holy fuck.
The breath is stolen from me and new tears crest in my eyes from the sharp pain. I’m not going to be able to walk. Please let London be okay, there’s no telling what he did to her.

I choke, trembling. “Ouch! I-I’m so sorry. I promise I won’t run, never again, okay? I promise, no running.” I have to placate him with what he wants to hear, so he will calm down some. I have to get to my gun to get away from him.

“Boo, I know you won’t go anywhere; you won’t be leaving this fucking apartment.”

Jeremy has a hold of me by my arm and my hair, dragging me forcefully toward my bedroom. It hurts so insanely bad, my scalp is screaming at me. If he doesn’t let up soon he’ll rip my hair out.

We finally make it to my bedroom, where he tsk, tsk, tsks at me, shaking his head. “You dumb, ignorant bitch, thinking you could leave
me
before I was done with you. Then you come here and start fucking somebody else? You always were a fucking whore, weren’t you? I thought I took care of that issue, when I took care of that fucking thing in your stomach.”

He throws me on my bed and I scramble as fast as I can to my nightstand. I may only have this chance to get to it.

Jeremy lets out a loud, deep belly laugh. “Oh, you thought I wouldn’t search through your shit? You looking for something, boo? Go ahead and see if it’s in there.” He nods towards the little stand; I close my eyes and let the tears slip free.
He got my gun.
I reach into the drawer, under the book where it was hidden and feel it is definitely missing. I don’t know what to do. I can’t overpower him; I’m tiny and he’s even stronger than before. I pray London stays downstairs. He has my gun so it wouldn’t surprise me if he decided to kill her if he knows she’s here; he hates her.

“Now, back to what I have planned. First off, I’m going to take what’s owed to me. I’m glad you washed that fuck off you. Don’t worry, I plan on killing him. He won’t touch you again.” I tightly clinch my eyes closed and put my head down. Please God no, not my Tate. I will do anything to save him. I can’t let him get hurt. I love him too much…please God, I will do anything you want, just don’t let my Tate get hurt.

I clear my throat, attempting to push down the pain that’s radiating throughout my heart and body. “Forget about him, I don’t want him. I will do whatever you want, Jeremy. I promise.” I feel like I’m giving my soul to the devil, but I will sacrifice anything to save Tate.

The bedroom door flies open, crashing into the wall with a loud bang. I glance up quickly, stunned.

London stands in the doorway looking like a pissed off goddess. “Get the fuck away from her, you piece of shit!” she bellows, heatedly.
London! What the fuck—she has my gun?

She waves the gun slightly. “Your stupid ass left this laying on the counter. Never were too smart, huh, J boy? Now get the fuck out,” she grits. “I already called Tate, and he and his boys can’t wait to get a hold of you!” London finishes with an evil looking grin and I can’t help the little flutter of hope that appears in my belly.

Jeremy grabs me up, holding onto my arms and places me in front of him as a shield.

“Not smart huh, you fucking whore? You wanna shoot me; you have to shoot through her first. Now get outta my way, Emily and I are going to take a fun trip.”

He starts to steer me out of the room. I can feel he’s shaky. London backs up, keeping the gun trained on us, the entire trek to the living room. I’m so grateful for Granddaddy teaching us how to use different guns when we were growing up. I know London’s not as good of a shot as I am, but if I can move at least half my body, I know she can clip him somewhere.

London smiles really big at him and my stomach drops. She’s going to end up making him angrier and I’m not going be able to get out of his claw-like grip. This man feels like he has hands of steel with how hard he’s gripping me to him.

I hear a choking sound and his grasp starts to loosen on my arms. A few moments later, Jeremy’s hands fall completely away from me and I drop to the ground, finally free. I crawl to London as quickly as I can and she squats down. She tenderly pulls me into her arms and tightly hugs me to her. I peer over at where Jeremy was just holding me and I gasp.

Nikoli has his arm wrapped like a tight band around Jeremy’s throat, in a choke hold. Jeremy’s face is bright red and he’s gasping, trying to catch any little breath. Good, that’s how I felt when he touched me, like I couldn’t breathe. Jeremy rakes his hands along Nikoli’s strong forearm, but he is no match for the Russian beast’s strength. Jeremy goes limp, his eyes closed and mouth wide open, almost as if he saw a ghost. I feel a semblance of relief inside that Jeremy looks like he’s dead.

Nikoli drops Jeremy to the ground; he lands like a sack of potatoes. Niko grins down at Jeremy, “Oh man, The Boss is going to be so happy I finally caught you, you sneaky, little dude.”

London escorts me to my room, helping me get a large t-shirt and some stretchy shorts on. I can’t believe I was naked during that whole onslaught. I have carpet burn from Jeremy dragging me around, my scalp is extremely sore and I know my body is going to be littered with bruises.

After we finish in my room, Niko fills us in. Tate has had Nikoli show up at the apartment at random times ever since we left to stay with them, trying to catch Jeremy breaking in. Thank god for these men and their sly thinking, they probably just saved mine and London’s lives. Niko has London run to his truck and get some rope out of the back to tie Jeremy up with.

He turns to me, with a sweet expression, “You okay, Tate’s Krasaaveetsa?” Niko asks, while he has the gun now trained on Jeremy.

“You can just call me Emily if you want, Niko. Is he dead?” I gesture towards the lump on the floor. “Why do you have the gun still on him?” He smiles a little smile at me and then focuses back on his task.

“I call you The Boss’ Krasaaveetsa, because that is what you are. You deserve respect, so I give it to you. And this moosar is not dead, just passed out.”

“What is moosar?”

“It is trash, he is moosar.”

“Yeah, definitely agree with you on that. Why do you call me Boss? Is Tate your boss? I thought he was your friend?”

“Yes, I do some work for him. He is my friend; he is moy braat (my brother).”

He glances away as if he is done talking, so I shut up. I really should take a Russian class so I can pick up some of these words they use. Whatever ‘braat’ means, Niko said it with great respect. I need to try to remember to look it up. I feel like a pest always asking them what stuff means.

London walks back in, looking tired and flustered with the rope in hand. Nikoli goes to work, tying Jeremy up in some complicated knot technique. I stand back to watch as London holds the gun for him.

Tate shows up about ten minutes later, appearing relieved when he sees me sitting on the couch.

“Krasaaveetsa, are you okay? Are you hurt? Thank God, Niko was here!” He rushes toward me and pulls me into his arms. Tate touches my arm where it’s sore and I wince.

“Shit, baby! What is it?” He looks me all over, but can’t see anything. Slowly, he runs his hand over the same spot, watching for my reaction to see where it hurts.

“Ouch,” I draw my arm back, slightly, “you touched a spot where he grabbed me.” Tate’s nostrils flare angrily and he flexes his jaw.

I tell Tate everything about what happened and where I’m hurt. When I’m done, Nikoli informs him of the rest of the story from when he showed up. Tate looks furious.

Tate orders, “Load him up, Nikoli, and take him to Gizya’s old storage building. Get my tools and the bleach ready, I’ll be there as soon as I get Emily settled back home.” Niko nods, looking excited. “I want his knees first when he wakes up, then I’m going to take him apart, piece by piece. Also get Viktor for clean-up tonight.”

Nikoli nods, “Boss.” He sets to doing what he’s told; this is a side of Tate I’m not used to seeing. I’ve always known Tate was domineering and people seem to jump when he tells them to do something, but this is Tate in business mode.

TWELVE

EMILY

Dinner is served

Cameron shows up toward the end to check on us. I think he was really there because he wanted to see how London was. He drives us back to the house in Tate’s car, because we are way too much of a wreck right now for either London or I to drive it. I thought Cam was going to blow a gasket when he heard London had pulled a gun on Jeremy instead of waiting for help. There were lots of hushed, serious whispers going on between them.

The ride home is an uncomfortable silence; Cameron is looking angry and London just stares out the passenger window lost deep in her thoughts. I have no idea what’s really going on with them, but I hope she confides in me soon. Tate said he was stopping to talk to his brother really quickly and would be right behind us. I guess Viktor has a house close to Tate’s in a different posh neighborhood.

Once we arrive, we all shuffle into the house and Muffin greets me right away at the door. He brings a smile to my face, knowing he was anxiously waiting for me to return. I scratch his ears for a moment then make my way to the living room. He follows and we sit down on one of the plush couches. A few minutes of petting him relaxes me and gets my breathing back to normal finally. I never knew a dog could help with my anxiety.

A while later, I’m nudged awake. I dozed off once I finally relaxed with Muffin. I think it’s just the dog, wanting me to scratch his ears again but glance up to find Tate, peering down at me with sad, worried eyes.

“Hi, moy Krasaaveetsa, how are you feeling?” he asks, his Russian undertone, thick with emotion. I blink a few times and process his question. I didn’t even realize I fell asleep. This couch is so comfy; I keep sleeping on it every time I sit down. I yawn a huge yawn.

“Geez, I didn’t know I was so sleepy or I would have just laid down in the bed. Umm, I’m okay, just sore all over. What’s wrong handsome?” I don’t like seeing him sad, I wish he would smile.

“Da, that’s normal, it’s from the adrenaline rush earlier. It sucks all your energy out. I brought you a chocolate bar to help get your sugar back up.” He runs his hands through his hair. “What’s wrong? Well, first off, I wasn’t there to protect you. I promised you I would keep you safe.” He shakes his head, annoyed. “I feel like such a damn failure. It breaks me to know you are hurt and I could have been there with you to help you.” This man is the sweetest, most caring man I have ever met. What is he talking about, failing me? He’s the reason I’m okay right now!