Mafia Boss’s Arranged Bride by Bella King
Chapter 30
Annika
Agasp escapes my lips as Nikolai smashes the window of the police car with the butt of his gun. Glass crumbles like it was made of sugar, coating the grass at the root of the tree with glittering chunks of teal. I take a step back as Nikolai reaches into the car and pulls Corey halfway out, holding him by his black tactical vest.
“You’d better fucking tell me what you know, motherfucker, or I’m going to put this bullet through your goddamn head,” Nikolai growls, jamming the barrel of his gun into Corey’s bloody temple.
Corey looks toward me, his grey eyes wide with fright and then with shock as he realizes who I am. I’ve never seen him before in my life, but he knows who I am. He must know.
“You won’t get far,” Corey says, a smug look on his face even as he begins to grow pale.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Nikolai asks, shaking Corey so hard that I fear his bottom half, which is pinned inside the crumpled car, will detach from the top, and he’ll tear him in two.
“Nikolai, stop,” I exclaim, putting my hand firmly on his forearm. I turn my attention back to Corey. “Tell us what’s going on. What is Dimitri doing?”
“Dimitri?” Corey asks, blood frothing against his guns as he smiles. “You’re mistaken, Annika. Dimitri isn’t the one looking for you. It’s Michail. He told me to look for you.”
“Michail,” Nikolai mutters, letting go of Corey and allowing him to drop back into his seat.
I step up to the window, placing my hands on the edge and feeling the remaining glass crumble against my palms. It’s safety glass, made to shatter completely when it breaks without leaving sharp pieces. Otherwise, people would be sliced to pieces when they tried to crawl out of their cars after an accident.
Something tells me that Corey isn’t crawling anywhere, but there are still questions I need to ask him before Nikolai puts a bullet in his head.
“What happened to Michail? To my family?” I ask, my voice tightening with each word. I can’t stand to hear the answer, but I need to know anyway.
“Call the fucking ambulance, bitch. I’m not telling you shit until they get here.”
“You’re not getting an ambulance, Corey,” Nikolai growls from behind me. “You’re talking, or I’ll finish what I started on the road and turn you into swiss cheese.”
“How poetic.”
“Fuck you.”
I wave my hand back at Nikolai to get him to stop talking. I need answers, even if they make me sick to my stomach. I can deal with puking on the pavement again. I can’t deal with not knowing the truth. This might be my only chance to speak to someone who knows.
“We’ll help you, Corey, I promise, but you need to tell me what happened. Why is Michail looking for us?”
“You’re dead meat, girl,” Corey replies, shaking his head. “Michail is going to have you strung up like a pinata once he finds you.”
I recoil, shocked by his words. I was supposed to marry that man, and now I find out that he wants to kill me. “Why?” I ask, leaning in again. “Tell me why, goddammit.”
Corey shrugs weakly. “Power, perhaps. I was just following orders, you know, making a little extra cash. Your life doesn’t concern me.”
Even in his vulnerable state, Corey has no respect for anyone but the ones giving him money. He’s as corrupt as they come, the perfect example of how fucked up the world has become. Even as the light fades from his eyes, he chooses to patronize and insult the only people that can save him.
“And what of Dimitri? What of my family, too?” I ask.
“Dead, like you’ll be pretty soon.”
“Enough!” Nikolai barks, shoving me aside and leaning into the window. “I’m going to gouge your fucking eyes out of your fucking head, motherfucker.”
I’ve never witnessed such anger in a man, such unbridled rage. I feel that Nikolai will go through with his words, that he’ll wear Corey’s splattered eyes on the end of his thumbs and stop him from telling me anything further.
“Nikolai, don’t!” I shout, leaping toward him and clawing at his back. I try to pull him away, but he’s so heavy that I wouldn’t be able to move him unless he wanted me to.
He shakes me off with ease, pulling Corey halfway out of the window again and rattling him so hard that his neck nearly snaps. “What happened to my father? You fucking tell me right now!”
Corey erupts into a fit of coughs, blood dribbling down his chin and soaking his blue shirt under his vest. “Michail calls the shots now,” he replies. “Word is that Michail had Dimitri killed.”
“What?” Nikolai drops Corey again, stepping back and pointing his gun at his forehead. “You better not be lying to me.”
“Would I?”
“You tell me,” Nikolai says through gritted teeth.
“I’ve told you enough. Call me an ambulance,” Corey replies.
Nikolai raises his gun.
I leap toward him, trying to push his arm to the side, but I’m not quick enough. Nikolai fires his gun, tapping the trigger twice and splattering Corey’s brains against the windshield.
I fall to the pavement, heavy sobs shaking me to the core as I cry. I don’t cry for Corey, but for the truth that has been revealed to me. All this time, the monster was Michail, the glassy-eyed freak that my parents found it appropriate for me to marry, the brother of the man I’ve fallen in love with.
Michail is the singular cause of all my trauma, and he’s still out there, walking the streets, calling the shots, and securing more power than anyone was ever supposed to have. Even though nothing has changed since we left the safehouse, this feels like defeat.
“Get up and get in the car,” Nikolai orders, grabbing the back of my dress and yanking me to my feet. His words are cold and crass, but I know his intentions are virtuous. If he left me out here to bawl my eyes out, sooner or later, someone else would come along and report this disaster.
I refuse to look at Corey’s slumped body in the front seat of the crumpled police cruiser. I don’t want to see the red again, the vivid color of blood that I already had to witness. How much more blood will need to be spilled until this is over? How many more people must die?
My question is answered when Nikolai tosses me into the car and slams the door shut. His fingers grip the wheel of the car like he’s attempting to wring the oils out of the leather, and his scowl is so deep and menacing that for a moment, I think he’s angry at me.
“I’m going to kill that sonofabitch,” he says as he starts the car. “I’m going to rip his pathetic head off his shoulder and stick it on a pike. I’ll raise it high for the world to see what happens to people who betray their own blood.”
I have to assume he’s talking about his brother. It shocks me that Michail could betray us all this way. Dimitri, I can understand. I’ve come to terms with the fact that he runs a demented and power-hungry conglomerate. He’s the head of it, the snarling beast that hangs over the building like a gargoyle.
But Michail? I didn’t think such a blank face could hide such powerful demons. It only dawns on me now that his face is that of a true psychopath – emotionless, thoughtful, even fearless. If he truly is the man behind the massacre, then I’d like to kill him just as much as Nikolai does.
Rain splashed against the windshield in heavy droplets, coming down in sheets as the clouds crack and spill their guts. The wipers are unable to keep up with the speed of the rain, but Nikolai doesn’t appear fazed by it. He leans back in his seat, both hands firmly on the wheel as he speeds down the long-forgotten roads.
We don’t pass anyone else. Nobody would want to be out here during such inclement weather. Even though it’s daytime, the only light we have to illuminate the road ahead of us comes from two feeble yellow headlights, barely visible in the blanket of rain. It feels like we’re driving underwater.
I don’t dare ask where we’re going. Nikolai seems to know that already, and I’ll just have to trust that he isn’t going to drive us into the side of a building. I pull a cigarette from the dry pack and slip it into my mouth, offering one to Nikolai.
He doesn’t acknowledge me, so I return the pack to the glovebox and light mine for a smoke. The smell reminds me of Nikolai, of home, and of the safety that I once had. I never liked smoking until my life was snatched out from my meager hands, but now it thaws parts of my soul that badly needs it.
