Chapter Five
“I’ll be right by your side, Gavriil.”
Abigail whispered so only he could hear her, and slid her hand into his. He needed her touch in that moment. When they left his place earlier, he’d felt like a weight had settled in his stomach.
The problem was, he’d frozen as he reached for the door handle of John’s suite, knowing that this was the point of no return. Once they entered into this room, they would all know what she meant to him, and once the conversation began she would see into his world. A view he would not be able to alter.
With her words in his heart and her hand in his, he found the strength to reach out and open the door. Conversation stopped as he stepped into the suite, pulling Abigail’s hand up to the crook of his arm. He led her directly past the eight large men standing around the room and over to the reclining chair where John was currently sitting, watching him and Abigail with interest.
Gavriil squeezed Abigail’s hand when he felt it shake slightly in his hold. “John, let me introduce you to Abigail Hartman. Angil, this is John Carlisi. My boss, and the closest thing I have to a father.”
Gavriil turned to Sofia who sat on the arm of John’s chair. “And this beautiful woman at his side is his wife, Sofia.”
“Hello,” Abigail said gently, and Gavriil felt her move a little closer to him. “It’s nice to meet you both.”
“Piccolo,” John said in a warm tone, holding his hand out to her. “Come here to me. I have much to thank you for.” Abigail looked up at him questioningly and he nodded.
She moved closer, but wouldn’t relinquish Gavriil’s hand, so he simply held it out to give her the necessary room to get to John’s side and take his hand. John lifted her hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it, a move Gavriil had only ever seen him do with his wife.
“You saved my life, piccolo.” John pulled back, smiling up at Abigail with moisture in his eyes. “I had given up. No energy to run, no place to hide. But then an angel came for me. You risked your life to save me, and faced a great fear to do so. Anything you need, anything, and it is yours.”
Abigail blushed, and shook her head. “No, please. It was nothing. Anyone would have helped. You were hurt and—”
“No, Abigail,” Sofia interrupted. “Not many people would have come to my husband’s aid. He was hurt, shot, holding a gun that I know he pointed in your direction, and yet you stayed and you helped him. You have my deepest thanks.” Sofia’s voice shook as she turned to her husband. “John is all I have in the world. We were not blessed with children of our own. We have only Gavriil, and our nephews here. If I had lost him, I do not know what I would have done. So yes, anything you need, it is yours.”
Abigail moved to stand by his side again, and Gavriil wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her tight against him.
“Thank you,” Abigail whispered, but said no more.
“Thank you all for coming in,” John spoke. looking all around the room before his gaze met Gavriil’s. “We are here tonight to talk about what we are going to do about the Battaglias. Gavriil?”
Gavriil stepped back so that he could see all of those in the room. “We knew that something like this would happen. The Battaglias want us out of Fulton River. It’s a territory play pure and simple. It’s not the first time they’ve tried to take us out of Fulton. They’ve fucked with our distribution channels, messed with our council permits, and even tried to get the fucking commerce commission onto us about the casino. Marissa has had that bastard Angelo tailing some of her girls, threatening them with violence and the police if they don’t change factions. But this? This is next fucking level and tomorrow we put a stop to this shit.”
“Why tomorrow?” Tony asked, his need for vengeance clear. “He took my father from me. They owe me a blood debt and I will fulfill this vendetta. I say we move on them tonight. Strike at them hard and fast.”
Gavriil held the younger man’s pain-filled gaze. “Anthony meant a lot to all of us, Tony. Although that vendetta is yours, we all feel the same. They were smart. Everything points to Angelo at this moment. He was in the alley when Anthony and Roberto were killed. He sure as fuck terrorized my woman trying to get to John, and Gino has proof he’s responsible for her place burning down. Angelo is the one we need to target, and tomorrow night he’ll be at the casino from eight.”
Tony frowned. “How do you know that?”
“Because like I said, it was only a matter of time before those fucks came at this family. I figured it was best to have eyes on the inside. Angelo is their weakest link. He’s strong and mean, but thick as shit. I’m willing to bet he doesn’t even know that his own family is setting him up to take the fall if all of this went to hell, and it did because John’s still alive. Angelo’s been seeing Leona, one of our girls. One of Marissa’s best. They are heading to the casino tomorrow night for dinner. We’ll take him then. Minimum risk.”
“When did you set that up?” John asked admiration in his tone.
“Three months ago,” Gavriil said. “Leona let me know that Angelo was asking after her. He’d tried to get her to work for him, as an insider supplying information. To be honest, that was a move I never thought he had the smarts for. Leona and I set it up so that he began to trust her, a relationship of sorts formed, and we fed him bits of information that he could easily prove or act on. Now he trusts Leona completely.”
“Sounds like you have it all in hand, son,” John said and Gavriil felt a burst of emotion through him he had never felt before. Pride.
****
Abigail watched Gavriil out of the corner of her eye, wondering what she could do to pull him from his quiet introspection. They had left John’s and were on their way back across town to Gavriil’s apartment, ironically near the Fulton River district. They were in a dark SUV being driven by one of his crew.
She was no expert on the whole organized crime meeting thing, but this one had seemed to go well. They had identified the threat, one Gavriil had suspected for a while, and because of him they had a plan to seek retribution. All in all, it seemed like a fairly simple operation. Know where your target is, take him, and then do whatever it was you were planning to do to him. She suspected she knew exactly what that was, but didn’t want to think too much about that. It was strange enough for her to even know these people, let alone have a clear understanding of any criminal activity they may or may not be about to undertake.
“Abigail, who was the person close to you who was murdered?” Gavriil’s sudden question caught her off guard and she exhaled sharply. She pressed a hand to her stomach as pain broke with her.
Vaguely she heard Gavriil curse, then she was released from her seat belt, plucked from her seat and placed on his lap, his arms wrapped firmly around her. “Forgive me. Christ, why am I always fucking up with you? Fuck. Forgive me, angil, I didn’t know it would hurt you like that. I was thinking you handled that meeting so well, hearing all the details about a man we plan to kill. I figured you understood our need for vengeance, damn it. I should have seen that you weren’t as okay with it as I thought.”
Abigail shook her head, wrapping her arms around his head, pressing her face into his neck. “Maybe I thought I was, too. It’s okay. Honestly. I just wasn’t expecting to have to talk to you about this so soon.”
“You don’t have—” Abigail quieted him with a finger pressed to his lips.
“Shh, it’s okay, I want to tell you,” she whispered, taking strength from the look in his eyes. “My father was abusive. He beat on me, he beat on my mom, and he beat on my nonna. I spent a lot of years in that house being protected by the women in my family from the one man I should have been able to trust above all others. One night when I was fourteen, he came into my room.” Gavriil tensed beneath her, and she stroked a hand down his face trying to smooth away the tension that had settled in his jaw. “He hurt me. I tried to fight him, but I couldn’t. He-he used his dog against me so many times, and if I fought him, he called his dog closer. I have s-scars on my side from where the dog bit me.
“When he finally finished, my mother came in, screaming and carrying a knife. She was yelling that she’d kill him. My nonna came in and the three of them fought. The dog took my Nonna down.” She shuddered as her mind filled with the memory of it. “It-it killed her in that room. My parents fought with the knife while I lay there and screamed. Oh, God, I was so helpless, I couldn’t do anything. He stabbed my mom in the stomach eight times, then dropped her to the ground like she was nothing, the blade buried to the hilt within her. He was shouting, pulling the dog off my Nonna and pushing it out into the hall. He was muttering about how he was going to have to clean this mess up, and how he’d have to kill the dog now that it had a taste for blood.
“He wasn’t looking or paying any attention to my mom. She was still alive. She was looking at me, pain etched on her face. She whispered that she loved me. Then, somehow, she found the strength to get up, pull that blade from her stomach, and used it on my father. She slid the knife across his throat as he was still facing away from me. I can still see the blood as it arced through the air onto the wall. Then the two of them fell to the ground. I don’t remember what happened then. Just sirens and lights.”
She fell silent then, listening to Gavriil as he whispered her name, calling her his angel over and over, and rocking her into calm in the back seat of the truck. When she was able to pull back, feeling calmer and lighter than she had in a long time, she was startled to see that they were sitting in the garage of Gavriil’s house. She had no recollection of the vehicle stopping or the driver getting out.
“Are you okay, angil?” Gavriil asked, his voice gruff.
“Strangely, yes,” Abigail leaned forward and pressed her forehead to his. “I’ve never told that story to anyone. Not even the police. Telling you was my way of owning what happened. Thank you.”
Gavriil shook his head, his piercing gaze locked to hers. “No, angil, thank you. For trusting me with who you are.”
When Gavriil leaned to kiss her, it was sweet, and soft, everything she had come to expect from her man. But not what she needed right now. Taking the bull by the horns so to speak, she pressed her mouth harder to his, opening her mouth to slide her tongue over his lips. When he opened his mouth on a groan, she swept in, licking into his mouth to show him exactly what she wanted. For a few sweet seconds, he allowed her to control the kiss. It was a heady feeling. Then his hand ran up her back, and he gripped the back of her neck, holding her still as he took control.
Then he consumed her. Or at least that was how it felt. He took her mouth and claimed it for his own, licking into her mouth and sucking on her bottom lip. She groaned, submitting to his strength and going completely compliant in his arms. When he eventually pulled back, they were both breathing heavily.
“Tell me you want me as much as I want you,” Gavriil asked, sweeping her hair from her face with a hand that shook slightly. “Tell me and let me take you upstairs and make love to you.”
No question had ever been easier to answer for Abigail. “Yes.”