Mafia Boss’s Arranged Bride by Bella King

Chapter 34

Annika

Iimagined confronting Michail after all this would be easy. At one point, I thought I’d be relieved to see him again, that I’d run into his arms and cry about the horrible things that were done to us, telling him with tears in my eyes that I was just glad that he was alive.

But now Nikolai and I both want him dead. What’s more, I have a sneaking suspicion that once he is dead, this game isn’t over. In the mafia, there are two things that are guaranteed. First, that violence is always close by, and second, that when you think the work done, it isn’t.

Nikolai was hinting at something before Yana barged into the room and stole the words from his mouth, but I won’t know what it was until we’ve taken care of what’s immediately at hand. I don’t even have time to consider it before Nikolai grabs me by the wrist and yanks me out of my chair.

“Stay in here with Yana,” he growls. “I don’t want you to see this.”

“Nikolai, no,” I reply. “I’m not letting you go out there alone.

Yana crosses her arms, tapping her long nails against her forearms impatiently. “And what do you expect me to do? Miss out on my clients? There’s cash to be made tonight, my dear, and I don’t wish to squander it.”

“Please shut the fuck up,” Nikolai snaps. “Stay here with Annika, or I’m going to blow the makeup right off your ugly face.”

Yana’s mouth forms a perfect O of shock, and I can’t hide a snicker, but my attention is pulled back to Nikolai quickly as he attempts to step out of the dressing room, pistol in hand.

“Oh, at least give me a gun,” I say, stepping past Yana.

Nikolai sighs, pulling another from his pocket and handing it to me. “Don’t leave this room until I come back. Do you understand?”

I nod, but I’m not planning to follow through with my promise. Michail is just as much of an enemy to me as he is to Nikolai, and as powerful a man as Nikolai is, I don’t want to risk losing him like I lost my family. A quick blaze of gunfire can change the universe in an instant, but if I can have some influence of that change, even just a little, perhaps it can be in my favor.

I grip the gun in my hand, feeling the weight of the dense wood grain and metal. I consider slamming it over Yana’s head to teach her a lesson about what happens when she puts her filthy hands on my man, but I hold back. We have a bigger target.

Nikolai disappears outside, moving past the thick red curtain and into the unknown. He may or may not come back, but I refuse to leave that up to fate. I’m coming after him. I’m going to help him kill Michail, but first, I need to deal with Yana so she doesn’t cause problems.

I turn to her, flashing her a quick smile as her face fades into an irritable pout. “He won’t be long, I’m sure,” I say, waving my gun around in the air while speaking in a more casual tone than my current heartrate implies. “You’ll be back out there, making dirty money in no time.”

“The only thing that’s dirty here is your disgusting attitude, slut,” Yana snarls. She points a claw-like finger at me. “And I can tell you’re not an Ivanov. You have no spine.”

“I’m closer to one than you are,” I reply, trying not to take her words personally. I don’t know what she has against me. Maybe I’m competition. Maybe she thinks that she once had a chance with Nikolai, but I’ve blown that far out of the water, obliterating any woman’s hope of taking him.

He’s mine, and I’m keeping him.

“Where are you from, anyway? Certainly not Russia, that’s for damn sure,” she says, planting her hands on her hips and cocking her head to the side.

“I am from Russia,” I say. “I just haven’t lived there since –”

“Ah, more lies, you little skank. I ought to slap some sense into you for coming here.”

I hold my pistol up, keeping my finger off the trigger should I lose control and squeeze it in her face. “I don’t think I need to remind you who is in power here,” I say.

“Me,” she says with a smirk. “Not Nikolai, and certainly not you.”

“Clearly, Nikolai is in charge, but I’m second in command, and I have just as much authority to put a bullet in your head as he does.”

“Unlikely.”

“Don’t test me,” I warn, feeling the urge to do something highly illegal. What’s the worst that can happen? We already killed a cop, for god’s sake. I’ll never be redeemed in the eyes of the law.

“Michail will always be the one in charge. He’s more than Nikolai will ever be,” Yana continues, shaking her head with a pitying gaze.

“What are you talking about?” I’m confused because she was just praising Nikolai, warming up to him, and acting as though Michail was nothing more than a rich nuisance whose money she was eager to have stuffed in her bra.

Yana moves to the velvet chair that I received head in, sitting down and crossing her tan legs and bouncing her foot playfully. She moves a strand of blonde hair from her face and smiles at me, her blue eyes cold and psychotic. “It’s only a matter of time before we hear it,” she says.

“Hear what?” I ask, my heart beating faster. Something’s not right.

She holds up a finger. “Wait for it.”

A muffled pop from outside the changing room causes dread to float up from the pit of my stomach into my throat. It squeezes my lungs, making it difficult for me to breathe.

Leaving Yana, I dash out of the dressing room, nearly tearing the red curtain from the doorway as I stumble through into the club. I imagined this would go a lot smoother, that I wouldn’t be seeing the one thing I’ve dreaded since this nightmare began.

But I am.

Nikolai, on his knees, his white shirt soaked in crimson, has a look of shock on his face. In front of him, Michail stands with a gun, the same one that Nikolai brought out with him to kill his own brother.

The tables have turned.

I’ve never had good aim, but my gun holds fifteen rounds, and that means one of them is bound to hit Michail once I start firing. Every step merits a new bullet as I march forward, like a slow, violent parade through the strip club.

With the same glassy-eyed disbelief that I exhibited during the wedding shooting, I’m now the actress on the other side of the screen, blowing dirty champagne flutes to glittering bits and nailing patrons to the floor as they duck to avoid my haphazard shooting spree. I don’t feel anything but targeted rage, a righteous anger toward Michail for shooting the only man who ever showed me respect.

I hit Michail with the third or fourth shot, penetrating his shoulder and causing him to stumble back. Nikolai turns his head to witness me fire three more shots, all hitting Michail as he falls backward. I see blood, but I don’t know if he’s dead.

I stride past Nikolai, pointing the gun at Michail’s head as the room falls into an unearthly silence. The only thing that I can hear is ringing in my ears from the controlled explosions, but I don’t let the state of misery my ears are in prevent me from taking further action.

I squeeze the trigger four more times, tearing open Michail’s head on the glossy black floor of the strip club. Screams erupt at the sight of my cold-blooded killing, and I find myself unable to move anymore. I collapse to the ground beside Michail’s corpse. The job is finished, but so am I.

I don’t know what’s become of Nikolai until I feel his large hands around my waist, hoisting me up in the air and carrying me away from the body. Like before, I don’t know where we’re going or what is happening around us, only that Nikolai has taken control.

I allow myself to fade out mentally as he takes me away, white light searing across my vision until I have to close my eyes to block it out. When I do that, my consciousness is quickly surrendered.