Russian Boss’s Secret Baby by Bella King

Ch 38

SLATE

Ifelt Mia leave the bed around twenty minutes ago. I figured she’d just gotten up to pee, but she’s been gone a while, and I know that sometimes she gets sick late at night if it’s been too long since she’s eaten. The pregnancy has been hell on her.

I’m about to go check on her when I hear a crash coming from the downstairs. I’m immediately ready to fight, even though I’m so tired that my eyes are begging me to sleep. The adrenaline wills me to stay awake as I make my way out of bed and grab the pistol that I keep under my side of the mattress. I hold it as though I’m going to fire it at any second. “Mia! Stay where you are, I’m going downstairs to check out the noise!” I shout, hoping that Mia can hear me from wherever she is.

When I step quietly down the stairs, I can hear what sounds like screaming coming from Luke’s bedroom. I’m wide awake now, completely on guard and ready to attack. As I get closer, I flip on a light nearby and see a familiar man holding a gun to Mia’s head.

I fire at him twice immediately, and he falls to the floor without a struggle. Mia is holding my AK-47, standing outside of Luke’s room as well.

What the fuck is she doing?

There’s too much going on to ask questions. “Mia, what the hell are you doing? Go upstairs,” I whisper to her harshly. “Lock yourself in and don’t come out until I tell you to,” I continue, motioning up the stairs.

She turns completely to me, and I can see the familiar, pointed glare of revenge in her eyes. A lot has happened tonight, but this is starting to feel like a fever dream.

Completely defying me, she turns the doorknob and throws the door open, immediately pointing it at the window across from her. The room is dark, and I can’t see a goddamn thing. Before I’m able to shove her out of the way, she fires a round into the window and shatters it.

As soon as she shoots, she flips on a light switch on the wall nearest to her. On top of Luke, strangling him, is another man who is vaguely familiar but not memorable.

Definitely one of Katya’s, though.

Mia must have shot the window to distract the man, and it’s worked. The sudden noise and bright light from total darkness has rendered him temporarily unable to fight back. Mia takes the initiative and shoots him directly in the forehead, knocking him straight off the bed and onto the floor.

Luke is nearly asphyxiated and starts to gasp for air as soon as the dead man’s hands leave his throat.

Mia and I just stare at each other for a moment.

Where is Katya, and how did she find us?

Our unspoken question is answered almost immediately as I hear a shot fired, a split second later feeling a bullet lodged into my back. The pain is incredible, the entry wound burns hotter and hotter for what feels like an eternity before I’m able to remember that I’m in danger and I need to save Mia.

When I turn around, Katya is standing right behind me with a gun pointed haphazardly toward the floor as if she had no intention of using it in the first place. “What the fuck are you doing here? How did you find us?” I groan through the searing pain.

Katya just laughs, continuing to do so as both Mia and I aim our weapons at her.

“How fucking stupid are you, Slate? Or, how stupid do you think I am?” she asks, still laughing that insipid, shrill laugh of hers. “You think I couldn’t see your replacement lackey following me around all week? Didn’t take me long to find you,” she says as she smiles obnoxiously.

The way she’s toying with us makes me want to crush her fucking skull with my hands. Fuck the plan. I need her to be dead.

Before I’m able to retaliate, Mia shoots Katya in the arm holding her gun, and she drops it to the floor as she screams, grasping at her wrist where the bullet landed. As hyper-focused and stressed as I am, I can’t believe Mia is making such good shots. I’m confused, but I’m proud of her.

Without missing a beat, Mia starts walking toward Katya, holding her weapon like a bat. She’s not going to shoot Katya to death. “Shut the fuck up, you goddamn bitch. I’ve heard enough from you for three lifetimes over,” Mia growls as she lifts the base of the gun over her head and bashes Katya over the head with it.

Katya howls in pain, her forehead split open and bleeding profusely, but Mia isn’t done with her. I’m almost scared to see how far Mia will go before she’s satisfied.

Mia swings the rifle over her head again, bringing it down even harder on Katya’s head and neck, this time hitting her right in the face. Her nose is broken instantly, and her left eye fills with blood.

“You almost killed me!” Mia shouts as she brings the gun down once more, smashing Katya’s face even further. It seems like she’s almost holding back just to draw out the torture.

“You almost killed my baby!” she screams as she brings down the gun again, twice in a row this time as Katya relents and slumps to the floor, still alive but quickly losing the will to live.

Within the brief moments before Mia hit her again, Katya used the last of her remaining strength to gaze up at me with that false sense of hurt in her eyes. “You… you gave her a baby? We always wanted a baby…” she manages to whine, resting her head on the floor in defeat. “Just kill me, he’ll never give me what he gave you,” she says, trying desperately to pull any amount of empathy from Mia as she starts to fade.

Mia isn’t having it. Without another word, she smashes Katya’s face in multiple times with the butt of her rifle, beating her relentlessly until she is no longer recognizable as a human. She’s become as hideous superficially as her soul. It’s a fitting end for her, however gruesome it may be.

Eventually, I start to fear that Mia is no longer experiencing a catharsis and that she has carried on with the beating purely out of hatred. As much as I understand her, I know I can’t let her continue. If she gets too much satisfaction from beating another person to death, I’m afraid it will corrupt her completely. She needs that drive in her, that spirited anger that will help keep her alive, but with too much of it, she’ll become just another angry criminal who kills indiscriminately just to get that same high.

Mia drops the rifle and falls to her knees, shaking and holding back tears. I can’t tell whether or not the tears are relief, anger, or both. She needs to calm down or she’ll harm the baby.

Carefully, I approach her, touching her shoulder to signal my presence.

She immediately recoils, tensing her shoulders as I touch her.

“Hey, it’s just me,” I say softly, reaching out to touch her again. This time, she leans into my hand, indicating that she wants me closer.

I kneel down to her, and she just falls into me and cries. Not loudly, not hysterically, but in the most honest, exhausted way possible. After all she’s been through, I can’t imagine the weight on her shoulders as she’s tried to keep it all together.

When I look down at her, I notice that she’s not looking at me, but right into what used to be Katya’s eyes, now nothing but mangled flesh and blonde hair stuck to her face with blood. I’ve seen more dead bodies than I can count, but this one will stay with me.

Slowly, I ease her up from the floor, practically picking her up. The tears have stopped now, and the body in front of her has stopped distressing her. Now, all she does is stare at it, reveling in what she has taken from its former owner.

“She tried to kill me twice,” she says, her voice steady now. “It only took me one try to kill her, what does that make me?” she asks.

“A hero, Mia.”