“Cara. I need… I don’t know. I’m bleeding, can barely hold my eyes open, and just puked all over my new rug.” I sob, nearing hysteria.
“Aubrey, what the hell are you talking about? Where are you?” Cara frantically questions.
“Cara, please I don’t know–” is all I manage to get out before she cuts me off.
“Timur! Something’s wrong with Aubrey,” Cara shouts from her end of the line before coming back to me. “Aubrey, just tell me what happened? Is someone there with you?”
“No one is here. I tripped and hit my head on my end table,” I whisper to her before letting my eyes close and take a break from life and dismissing the latest bomb my mother dropped on me.
“We’re coming, Aubrey. Just survive until we get there,” Cara chants. Her dramatics are nothing new to me, ever since our kidnapping, we always assume the “worst-case scenario” when something happens to the other.
“I’m just going to lay down. I love you, Cara,” I mumble, allowing my eyes to rest.
Nico
Standingat the sink in the back of the warehouse, I watch as the blood runs down my arms, swirling with the water as the pink mixture is swallowed by the drain. Nights like tonight are why I am the second to the Pakhan of the Russian Bratva. I do all the things that no one can, or is willing to do. I have no morals or standards. I will hurt a person or take a life just because their breathing may cause harm to the family in some way or another. The only bright spot in my life is that of a tiny, dark-haired woman.
My phone vibrates from my suit jacket that’s hanging from a rusty nail that’s been hammered into the wall. I pause for just a moment, soaking up the sharp contrast of my thousand-dollar suit’s jacket hanging in the rundown warehouse with a dead man just a room away.
I reach for my phone readying for a fight. Timur never calls when I am in the middle of an interrogation unless something horrendous has happened.
“Pakhan?” I growl.
“It’s Aubrey.” The monster that was just moments ago satiated and slumbering, is awake, alert, and ready to demolish everything standing between him and her.
“I’m on my way,” I remark, my job here is done so I can head that way without any repercussions.
“She’s at home. We are heading that way now,” Timur says, advising me of his route.
I pull my phone away from my head and activate the app that has her exact location on it. I see she is, in fact, at home.
“She’s at home,” I confirm. “I’m only ten minutes away. I’ll make it in five. See you there.” Not thinking, and without uttering another word, I end up hanging up on the one man that can end my life with a casual flick of his wrist.
Right now, though, I need to get to Aubrey, so that’s something I’ll have to deal with later. At this instance, I need to make sure thatsheis okay.
I leap into my SUV and use every asset of the powerful V8 engine that I paid a fortune on, so that the motor’s horsepower was increased, and I’d have enhanced speed for instances such as this. I make it to her place, and not for the first time, notice that there is a car idling two driveways down with an unidentified person sitting in it. I’ve taken note of the vehicle’s make and model as well as the license plate, finding nothing that stands out of the ordinary. Yet something deep inside me is telling me that them hanging around is not a good thing. I hate the fact that she lives on this side of the fucking city as it is.
Pulling into her driveway, and coming to a stop just shy of hitting her front porch, I throw my SUV into park, and jump out rushing up their stairs, planting a single boot into her door when I make it there. The sight before makes the cold-blooded killer in me demand to be fed. The bloodlust streaming through my veins has me ready to seek vengeance on her behalf.
Aubrey is lying naked on the floor with a bloody towel pressed to her head. There is vomit around her and she’s not moving. Snatching my gun from its sheath, I slowly trek my way to her, being sure to observe my surroundings in case there is still someone lurking in the house. When I reach her side, I kneel down beside her.
Reaching out with a shaky hand, I pray that I’m not about to find the fire and goodness that is this woman snuffed out. Placing two fingers on the side of her neck I sigh when I feel her pulse steady and strong. Not knowing what has happened, and what her injuries might be, I decide moving her right this moment isn’t the best idea. Looking around the room I see a blanket on the couch and I grab it covering her bare body. With a softness that I didn’t know I had in me, I reach out pulling her hand away from the towel, and apply pressure to the wound.
Aubrey moans and tries to yank her head away from me.
“Shhh. It’s okay. We have to stop the bleeding,” I comment, trying to reassure her.
“Nico?” she whimpers.
“Yes. Aubrey, can you tell me what happened?”
“Phone. Shower. Slipped. Head,” she mutters.
I hear shuffling at the front door and raise my gun, ready to shoot whoever is standing there, intruding on her home.
“Woah. Nico! What are you doing?” Timur hisses.
I pull my eyes away from Aubrey to look at him. “Sorry, Pakhan. I didn’t know who was coming through the door,” I explain.
