Chapter Seven
“Baby, I need you to wake up.”
Abigail groaned at the voice, swiping her hand at whatever was pressed against her ear, making contact with a warm face. A soft breath lifted the hair around her ear, tickling her in the process. She mumbled her displeasure and tried to roll to her other side.
“No, moy angil, I really need for you to wake up.”
Abigail heard the strain in Gavriil’s voice this time and came awake instantly. “What? What’s going on?”
The room was lit only by the light the half-moon cast through the sliding door that led to the balcony. Gavriil was crouched beside the bed wearing only a pair of jeans and carrying two pistols she knew from movies were equipped with silencers.
“It would appear that our friend Angelo might not be the moron I’ve always believed him to be,” Gavriil spoke quietly as he helped her from the bed and handing her one of his t-shirts.
“He’s here?” She tugged on the t-shirt, scrambling to follow Gavriil across the room.
“Yeah, the perimeter alarms were triggered a couple of minutes ago,” Gavriil said in a voice that sounded remarkably calm. “He’s got Falcone with him. He was one of ours and close to John which means he knows the emergency code to get into the house.”
“They’re in the house?” Abigail scream-whispered.
“Yeah.”
“What should we do?” Abigail felt as if her heart were about to beat right out of her chest. “Do we call the police in a situation like this?” Gavriil gave her a look over his shoulder.
“Angelo comes to my home in the dead of night with a paltry team of four assholes, he’ll deal with me.”
Abigail frowned when Gavriil stepped up to a panel she hadn’t even noticed on the wall and when he placed his thumb against it, an entire section of the wall slid silently to the side. Behind it was what she assumed was the perfect example of a panic room. As soon as the door opened, lights came on, there were a bank of computer monitors that lit up to show various parts of Gavriil’s house and grounds, and there was even a bed. A glance at the wall behind the bed showed a few guns on the wall, too.
“In you go, moy angil,” Gavriil handed her into the room like he was helping her onto a dance floor and she must have still been half asleep because she let him.
“Wait!” she spun to face him. “Why can’t I go with you? Be your, what is it, wingman? Just give me a gun, I’m pretty sure I can work it out.”
Gavriil gave her a look that said he thought she was cute and she would have stamped her foot but figured that would have played directly into that thought.
“Baby, I’m going downstairs to take care of some unwanted pests,” Gavriil made it sound like he was just going to set a couple of mouse traps. “I need to know that you are completely safe in order for me to do that. And you will be, in here.”
Abigail went to step forward, but Gavriil stepped into her, wrapping an arm around her to pull her to him and slamming his mouth to hers, licking into her mouth and driving all intelligent thought from her mind. Her head was actually spinning when he finally let her go.
“Back in a minute,” Gavriil stepped back his arm reaching out to the side. “Ya tyebya lyublu, moy angil.”
Then the wall slid back into place. For a moment Abigail was too shocked to do anything but stand there like a moron staring at the wall.
“Damn you, Gavriil,” Abigail shouted, slamming her hand on the wall. “You had better not have just told me that you love me, you asshole! As soon as I can Google that shit I will, and if that’s what you said, I’m going to kick your ass.” Shocked for a moment, breathing heavily, she stepped back from the wall. “And you’ve got me swearing like a sailor on shore leave.”
Frustrated with herself, angry at him, but most of all scared shitless for both of them, she turned to the wall of monitors. She went to the desk and pulled out the chair. There were six monitors in front of her and she got a pretty good perspective of the entire house from those monitors. She spotted that douchebag Angelo in the living area downstairs. He was talking with two other men, all carrying weapons, indicating with his arm. She got the feeling he was directing them to look through the entire house.
She gasped when she saw Gavriil slide into the frame on another monitor, but the hall he was in was too dark for her to make out exactly where he was. “These screens are getting labels on them so I know where everyone is.”
As she watched, she marveled at how fluidly Gavriil moved. He crept along the wall then stopped just beside a turn in the hallway and waited. She frowned, wondering why he was just standing there, then her heart stopped when she saw another man step out into the hall just ahead of him. She cried out when Gavriil reached out to the man and pulled him closer. He did this crazy move she’d only ever seen in movies where he wrapped both hands around the man’s head, putting one hand on his shoulders and one on his forehead, and then dropped the now dead man to the ground.
Her heart began to beat again and she pressed the palm of her hand against her chest in an effort to keep the thing inside. “Oh, sweet Jesus. It’s hard being in love with a mafia man and isn’t that a sentence I never thought I’d say.” Abigail reached out her other hand and placed it over Gavriil’s image on the monitor, who was now stalking further down the hallway. “I do love you, Gavriil, you big oaf.”
Movement in another monitor, this one just inside the entryway to the house, caught her eye and what she saw had her heart racing once more. Another three men stepped into the house, all of them heavily armed. Two of them were dragging a female who looked to only just be conscious. There was blood dripping from various wounds on her clearly swollen face and the front of her white dress was bright red. She had an awful feeling this was Leona, and an aspect of the attack Gavriil had not anticipated.
“Oh, God, Gavriil,” Abigail whispered before leaping off the chair and running back to the wall.
Apparently, Angelo had fooled them all.
****
“Volkov! I have the woman!”
Gavriil froze, his heart stopping within his chest. Had Angelo found a way into the panic room?
This was what he had feared from the moment he met his woman. She was his Achilles heel. He would do anything for her. He would kill for her, he would die for her, and if that bastard had her, he was prepared to do both in order to keep her safe. He turned back to his bedroom to check for himself.
“You think I didn’t know you and this puttana were playing me!”
Gavriil stopped. It spoke to how panicked he was that he didn’t immediately understand what Angelo was saying, or what that meant. When it did he was struck with a wave of relief and rage. It was the latter that had ice settling in his veins. Moving swiftly, needing to put himself in a better position, he ran on silent feet down the hallway, passed Falcone who he’d dispatched with no mercy or remorse and stopped at a wall panel with a hidden release. Pressing his thumb to it to activate it, he stepped inside when it slid open, and then triggered it to close.
Now, Gavriil was in a small nook he’d had built at the top of the stairs specifically for this reason. He was able to get a full view of the foyer from the mirror on the wall above the stairs, but no one would be able to see him. Three more of Angelo’s crew were standing in the foyer, holding a clearly wounded Leona between them.
“You have until I count to five to come out and face me, Volkov, or I will shoot Leona here.” Angelo reached out and pulled Leona’s head up sharply, and even from that distance Gavriil heard her whimper of fear and pain. “She’s already going to be scarred for life from this because of you. Don’t leave her crippled, too.” He dropped her head and stepped away from her with a look of disgust. “If she survives. Pity. The bitch was beautiful. One!”
Gavriil clenched his hands into fists as he stepped out of the shadows. “Don’t fucking hurt yourself, Angelo. You try to go any higher and your crew will know exactly how thick you truly are.”
Angelo glared up at him from the foyer. “I gotta give you credit. I didn’t think you would come out and make this so easy. Especially not for this bitch.” Angelo’s expression turned calculating. “But for the little bakery bitch? She shows fear so sweetly, doesn’t she? I figured any man would walk over hot coals for that one.”
Gavriil had to fight to keep his face neutral. “You called me out, so tell me how this is going to go. You gonna be the bitch the families all think you are and shoot me from there? Or are you gonna take a more honorable approach to this?”
Angelo grinned as he lifted his weapon and fired a shot into Gavriil’s shoulder. He grunted as white-hot pain slammed through him.
Angelo laughed. “I thought I’d do both.” Gavriil breathed through the pain. He felt the hot wet slide of blood down his back so knew it was a through and through. Which meant he was losing blood faster than if it had lodged in his shoulder.
“Gavriil Volkov, this is the end of your life,” Angelo said gleefully. “Come on down!”
Gritting his teeth, he made his way down the stairwell. He shot a glance up to the corner of the room where he knew the camera that linked to the monitors in the panic room was. He was about to be killed in front of his woman. Because of him she was about to witness another person she cared about slaughtered in front of her. Why the hell hadn’t he disconnected the monitors?
When he reached the foyer he faced Angelo, head high. “You know there’s a camera up in that corner,” he indicated with his head. “My murder will be recorded on that for all to see.”
Angelo frowned, looking up at the corner. He raised his weapon and fired a couple of shots. “Not anymore, dumbass.”
At least he could save her from seeing what was to come.
“So I’m here, how you want this to go,” Gavriil asked, looking around at the four men in the foyer. When he noticed that two of the men, the ones who were sweeping the grounds outside weren’t there he felt a wave of hope. They should have returned long ago. When the perimeter alarms had his watch vibrating, it would have send a simultaneous alert to his crew. If they were here, then the odds in his favor just increased dramatically.
Angelo stepped right into him, putting his face close to Gavriil’s. “I know John’s grooming you to take over. I figure take you out now and save my family stress in the future. So, I’m just gonna put a bullet in your head and watch you die.”
Movement at the side of the room caught his eye. “Then you should have done it already instead of just talk about it.” Gavriil reared back then slammed his forehead into Angelo’s face, breaking his nose right across the bridge. When Angelo went to drop to the floor, Gavriil pulled him around and in front of him, using him as a shield as his crew came in and dispatched the other four men in a calculated and practiced manner. Tony even managed to catch Leona before she made painful contact with the ground.
“We’ve got you, Lee,” Tony murmured as he lowered her to the ground.
Gavriil relieved Angelo of his weapons then pushed him to his knees. “You think to fucking come to my house, you threaten my woman and my family, you beat one of ours and use her against me? You piece of shit with no honor.”
Gavriil reached down with both hands intent on wrapping them around Angelo’s neck and snapping it when he heard Tony say his name. When he looked over he read the look on the younger man’s face, nodded and stepped out of the way.
Tony immediately stepped behind the now begging Angelo, leaning down to place his arms exactly where Gavriil was going to place his. “This is for my father.”
The snap that accompanied the killing move echoed off the walls and Gavriil felt a sense of justice settle within him. You fuck with the Carlisi family, this is how you end up. It was really quite simple.