The Mafia and His Obsession, Part 2 by Lylah James

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 29

 

 

Viktor

 

I burst into Valerie’s room, only to stop dead at the sight in front of me. Motherfucker.

The room was trashed, but that wasn’t what caught my attention.

Luka. Valentin’s most trusted man. I might have been the second in command, but Luka had always been Valentin’s right hand.

Fucking Luka had my Valerie.

She struggled against his grasp, the fear on her face equivalent to a stab wound in my chest. The side of her face appeared to be bruising already, and blood seeped from the wound on the side of her head. A painful whimper escaped past her throat, and I could feel the murderous fury burning inside of me. I was high and bursting with adrenaline, my thirst to watch my enemies bleed to dead still not quenched.

Luka had a hand over her mouth, stifling her cries. He kept his knife at the base of her throat. I could see the welts of blood forming on her porcelain skin where the sharp blade rested.

“What did you do to Valentin?” he hissed.

“You are too late, Luka,” I drawled, watching his every movement like a goddamn hawk.

The situation was tricky, and I wasn’t going to risk hurting Valerie.

“Where is he?” Luka roared. The blade pressed harder into her skin, and Valerie’s eyes widened further. “Fuck with me and she is dead. Trust me, it would cost me nothing to kill her. She is disposable, and I’ll dispose of her fucking body right in front of your eyes. I’m going to ask you one more time, where the fuck is Valentin?”

“Dead.”

Luka seemed shocked for a second, so I taunted him some more. “His body is currently burning to ashes right now.”

He realized I was a traitor. He already gathered that I tortured Valentin.

But he probably never thought I’d kill Solonik.

I took his momentary surprise as my chance. I advanced forward, but my myshka was a fighter.

She was smaller and quicker. Valerie took advantage of Luka’s shock and twisted from his arm. She brought her leg up and then slammed her feet over his, knocking him off balance. The knife fell from Luka’s grasp and into Valerie’s. The fear of death and the unknown had her reacting without a thought.

I stayed rooted to where I was and watched my woman drive the thick blade into Luka’s neck. She stumbled away and into my arms. Her tiny body was trembling, and I held her to me.

Luka gurgled, blood pouring from his mouth. I walked forward and gripped the handle of the knife and dragged it out from his flesh. His mouth fell open with a silent scream. Blood sprayed out, and then I drove the knife back in, hitting his main artery.

One swift movement. He slumped to the ground, his body convulsing. One breath. Two heartbeats.

Dead. Fucking. Man.

I felt Valerie’s cold hand in mine, and I laced our fingers together. From the corner of my eyes, I noticed Irina cowering in the corner of the room. She cradled her arm to her chest.

“I think it might be fractured. I heard the crack when he threw me against the wall,” she whispered.

“We don’t have time to fix it. Can you run, Irina?” I asked quickly. She appeared a bit disoriented. When Luka threw her into the wall, she must have hit her head.

The noises grew louder in the estate, and I knew the fire was spreading fast. It was already chaos, and we only had a few minutes left to make our escape.

Irina nodded weakly.

I grabbed her good arm and pulled her to her feet. “Then let’s go. Follow closely behind me. Understood?”

She nodded again.

“I need your words, Irina.”

“Understood,” she murmured, her eyes meeting mine boldly. I saw unwavering strength in them, and I felt renewed hope that we were going to make it out of here. All of us.

Valerie and Irina, the two caged birds. I was getting them the fuck out of here.

Gripping Valerie’s hand in mine, I looked down at her bruised face. Our gazes met, her hazel eyes speaking a thousand unsaid words. I tucked a lock of her blonde hair behind her ear and gave her the smallest smile. She trusted me. She believed in me.

“We are going to be okay, myshka.”

And then I was pulling both women out of the room. The path was clear for me, the men I had taken care of before coming here, their dead bodies were laid out in front of me. Useless and lifeless.

I wasn’t sure if it was Valerie or Irina who gasped at the bloody scene, but none of them said a word as we ran. Valerie’s room was in the far west end of the estate. We moved from one corridor to another, the little labyrinth slowing us down. I had planned well beforehand. It should take us exactly seven minutes to escape through the back door, starting from Valerie’s bedroom.

Erik said he had me covered up. He was the one I went to when I needed help to take down Valentin. He was in for the game—said it’d been too boring lately and he needed some fun. I knew he was an expert when it came to bombs and all kinds of explosives. He’d handle everything in the background, and he promised to lend me some of his men as back-up.

I could see the stairs looming closer to us. Get down, get past the chaos there, and walk out.

There were several more screams. More gunshots sounded, some far, some closer. Too close for my liking.

I had cleared most of my path before coming to Valerie. With a quick look over my shoulder, I confirmed that Irina was at my heels.

And it was exactly when I noticed—I fucked up.

Time slowed.

The world faded away, creating an illusion of darkness. Shit. Shit. SHIT.

I could feel the beats of my heart drumming against my ribcage. Blood roared and pounded in my ears and through my veins.

Valerie screamed. Irina stalled, her eyes widening.

A loud, deafening gunshot sounded through the chaos.

Irina stumbled forward and sank to her knees.

My gaze met the man behind her, the one holding the gun—the one with a scar over his eyes. He was bloodied, enraged…alive. I killed him before…or so I thought.

It took me two seconds to react. Two seconds too late.

I drew my armed Glock up, my fingers wrapping around the handle, and I pointed the barrel at the fucker.

Too. Fucking. Late.

Everything happened in slow motion. Two gunshots roared through.

One from mine.

One from his.

My knees buckled, and I almost went down if it weren’t for Valerie holding me up. Her sobbing reached my ears, her fingers dug into the flesh of my arms, and she was screaming something incoherent.

Pain spread through my right leg, the burning sensation almost felt like a hole had been torn right through the flesh of my thigh and little fucking worms were eating the inside of me. It burned like a motherfucker, and I looked down to see blood seeping through my black slacks.

I had been shot before. But it sure as hell wasn’t something to get used to. Nah, this shit hurt like hell.

“Irina!” Valerie bellowed. She let go of my arm and went to her friend. Irina had been shot in her legs too. Twice.

The fucker had been trying to cripple us.

She was bleeding profusely, shaking and whimpering. Irina grasped Valerie’s hand in hers, and I stumbled forward to where both women were kneeling on the floor.

Irina’s gaze met mine, her eyes dark and shining, but she wasn’t crying. I knew she must have been in agony; her body was trembling and shaking with tremors and the aftershock of being shot. But she wasn’t crying.

No. Irina lifted her chin up, she stared at me—hard and determined.

“Do you remember what you promised me?” she croaked out through dry, cracked lips.

Valerie was muttering something to both of us, but Irina focused on me.

“Do you remember, Viktor?” she asked again.

Valerie started pulling on Irina’s arm, trying to pull her up. She urged her friend to stand up, to run.

But Irina couldn’t run.

Not with her legs. Not with her broken arm. I could see the weakness of her body, life slowly fading away.

“Yes, I remember.”

Irina nodded. “Good. Then keep your promise.”

Fuck no.

“Forget that shit. I’ll carry you.”

I limped forward and bent down, but she weakly pushed my hands away. She sent me a tiny smile, sadness seeping through it. “No, you can’t. We both know it. Your leg is injured too. Your shoulder is bleeding and you need your right hand free so you can use your gun. You can’t carry me.”

“Don’t tell me what to do or what I can do. Let me handle that,” I growled, bending forward to wrap my arms around her. She gripped my hand and squeezed.

“You can’t, Viktor. You can’t.”

She was right. It would slow us down, and we were already wasting precious time.

Irina was fucking right, but I couldn’t accept it. Failure tasted bitter on my tongue, and I refused to succumb to it.

“You might be a hero but you are no superhero. Stop trying so hard to protect everyone.”

“Irina—”

“You promised, Viktor,” she whispered, her voice hauntingly soft.

My chest clenched, and sorrow turned my heart into a barren field of nothingness.

“Irina,” I said through clenched teeth. My stomach churned and I fought the urge to retch at the mere thought…

My eyes snapped up when I heard loud swearing. Two, very big, very bulky men were running toward us. Trained assassins. The Goddamn devils. They were still far enough we could escape, make a run for it. But not in this state.

Irina looked over her shoulders, a silent whimper escaping past her lips. She let out a shuddering breath and then she swallowed, hard. She fought back her tears.

“Please.” Her quiet begging was almost my undoing. Her voice would haunt me forever. All the bad fucking shit I’d done in my life—I was paying for it right now.

My decision was wrong or right…I didn’t fucking know.

Was it evil or was it my only option…I. Didn’t. Fucking. Know.

But in this moment, it was my only choice.

I bristled with anger, disgust…hate…self-loathing.

“Go,” she mouthed.

I did.

Fuck me, but I did.

Straightening up, I grasped Valerie by the arm and pulled her up. She looked at me in confusion first, and she must have seen the final decision flashing in my eyes because she started to struggle.

“No,” she roared, pounding her tiny fist against the wall of my chest. “You can’t!”

Irina gave me a final nod.

I backtracked, pulling Valerie away. My myshka screamed, swore, slapped me, and cried. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She tried to reach for Irina, but I kept pulling. My legs threatened to buckle, aching and sore. I continued to bleed. But we had to go.

Or none of us would make it out alive.

Valerie begged.

And for the first time, I didn’t listen.

“Go,” Irina mouthed again.

The last thing I saw before dragging Valerie away was Irina kneeling on the floor, her palms on her knees.

A prized possession.

A sacrifice.

A successful distraction.

She was exactly what they needed and wanted.

“I’ll let you save me on one condition. Promise me, Viktor—whatever happens tomorrow, if you need to choose…choose Valerie. If something happens to me, make sure Valerie gets out of here. Safely. They want Valerie and me. We are the prized possessions of Solonik. I have been a sex slave for almost all my life. Do you know how much they can sell us for? Too much. If something goes bad tomorrow, I will be the distraction. If they can’t have Valerie, they can at least have me.”

“It won’t come to that.”

“I said if…then promise me.”

“Irina…”

“Promise me.”

“I promise.”

Valerie struggled all the way. We were slower, my legs making it harder to run. The world was full of pain, noise, and too much confusion. I only had four bullets left, and they pierced through anyone who came into my path with a sickening crunch of metal meeting flesh. No question and without a second thought.

As the door grew closer, time slowed to a shocking crawl. I could see Erik’s men coming forward and covering for me. Never-ending sounds of gunshots and there were fucking dead bodies all over.

Fire continued to spread through the estate, and the smell of burning flesh was pungent. We only had minutes left before the flames took over the whole mansion.

Somewhere in my pain-stricken brain, I registered Erik calling my name. He was standing by the door, only several feet away. I pulled Valerie forward and then pushed her into his waiting arms.

I turned around, just in time to slam my fist into the shithead at my heel. “Piece of shit!” I roared, cold rage pumping through me. Taking out my knife from my pocket, I dug it into his eyes and watched as he screamed like a little girl. With my fingers wrapped around the handle, I twisted the blade and blood sprayed out, covering my face with it. His mouth opened and he gurgled some incorrigible words. His body spasmed out and then he fell from my grasp. I left my favourite knife in his eyes. A fucking souvenir.

He was going to burn, anyway.

“See you in hell.”

A loud boom came through the walls of the estate. I looked back at the stairs one final time.

Irina.

With my heart in my throat and my chest feeling too tight to breathe normally, I turned around and walked away.

I stepped through the back door and was met with the sweet rays of the morning sunlight.

Erik and some of his men were waiting by a van and a black car. I limped forward, and at the sight of me, Valerie escaped through Erik’s grasp and ran into my arms.

Her fists pounded on my chest. “You have to save her!”

“Viktor!” In her fit of rage, her nails dragged over the skin of my face, almost cruelly. “You…can’t leave her…there,” she sobbed into my chest. “You can’t! You can’t! Please…please, you have to save her. Go back! You have to go back.”

“I can’t.”

“NO!” she thundered. Her hazel eyes were crazed to the point of madness. “Oh God…please, Viktor…Viktor, please. I beg you. You have to go back and save her.”

Each word slapped me like a whip. Agony spread through my body.

“I’m sorry.”

I wasn’t sure who I was apologizing to, Valerie or Irina.

“What happened?” Erik came forward.

“He left her,” she whispered brokenly.

His brows curled together, tensed and curious. “Viktor?”

“The other girl didn’t make it.”

“NO! You. Left. Her! You left her. You left her. She is alive and you left her.”

Erik waited for my answer, and I shook my head. He nodded in understanding before touching Valerie’s shoulders gently.

“What does she look like?”

Valerie lifted her grief-stricken eyes to stare at Erik. “Brunette. Olive skin. Black eyes. Small girl… Irina…her name is Irina.” She gripped his arm urgently and in sheer desperation. “Are you going to get her? You will save her?”

“Erik—” I warned.

He raised a hand and silenced me. “How much longer?”

I looked down at my watch. “Four minutes and twenty-four seconds. Not enough time. They have Irina, and there’s no way you can reach her.”

Less than five minutes and this whole fucking place was about to blow up. One final explosive. There was no fucking escape from that one.

He nodded, patted me on the shoulders, and started to walk away—back toward the estate and the door I just came through.

What the fuck?

“Erik!” I bellowed. Every hair on my body stood up and cold shivers ran down the length of my spine and through the rest of my body.

He waved a hand in the air and then took off running.

Fuck no! Motherfucker!

What was he thinking?

“He’s going to save her?” Valerie’s voice was laced with hope.

I didn’t dare to look into her eyes and tell her the truth. He wouldn’t be able to save her. Erik was going back into that fucking building knowing full well it was suicide. Why?

He had given Valerie false hope, but it was enough to calm her down. I entwined our fingers together and pulled her toward the car.

The clock ticked. Time didn’t stop but it did seem to slow.

Valerie kept looking over her shoulder, waiting for Erik and Irina.

Her hand clenched mine, and I could tell she was once again growing anxious. Her breathing changed. Second after second crawled by.

Tick tock.

We finally stopped by the black, sleek car. My watch beeped once.

My eyes closed, my breath caught in my throat.

Valerie stilled.

One final boom.

So goddamn loud, it was almost deafening. The heat of the explosion reached us, but we were far enough not to be affected as the flames engulfed the mansion.

Valerie let out a cry and her knees buckled underneath her. I wrapped my good arm around her hips before she could fall. Her fingers clenched my shirt and her nails dug into my chest. Her wide eyes took in the flames, covering every inch of the mansion now.

She let out a tortured scream.

Her voice cracked; her throat fought against her thundering roars, but she wouldn’t stop. Tears spilled down her cheeks, and she sobbed with Irina’s name on her lips.

My eyes went to the estate or what was left of it…

My ribcage seemed to be caving inward, around the fragile organ beating in my chest. I looked at the engulfing flames and almost expected Erik and Irina to walk out.

The fire continued to spread and the building started to crumble—but no one walked out.

No Erik.

No Irina.

Valerie sunk into my arms as her throat grew parched with screaming. She could only let out tiny whimpers now. Her eyes grew hazy, life fading from them, and they slowly drifted close as she went limp into my embrace.

The morning sun breached over the horizon, and the sunlight glided over her face. New day. New beginning.

Except…it all felt wrong.