Oh, I know... lingerie. I’ve got just enough room in my closet for a nice selection of lacey, frilly things that my men can slowly take off me. That's about it. That sounds like the perfect investment of that money.
I hear the front door close. Alek must be home and I practically skip out of the bedroom. I want to know what he thinks. Maybe we can go shopping right now. A nice trip to Michigan Avenue to pick out some panties? That sounds like an excellent plan.
“Alek? Hey, can you drive me to the —”
I stop, my heart freezes in my chest. I'm not sure exactly what I'm seeing.
“Go back upstairs, Marie!” Alek growls with his back to me. His arms are out slightly from his sides, his hands balled into fists. His shoulders heave with every slow, purposeful breath as he stands there, taut and coiled and ready to spring.
“No, no, you stay where you are,” says the man by the door. He's got his hand at hip level, pointing some kind of long nosed handgun at my Alek, my love. The man next to him snorts like this is funny and raises one arm, jerking his fingers in my direction to indicate that I should come down the stairs. I don't know what to do.
“Go back upstairs, Marie!”
I spin on my heel, ready to bolt back to my room. I'm already imagining snapping the chain on my door. I'm ready to do it, but I feel a hand around my ankle before I leave the top stair and come down hard, barking my forehead against the wood as someone drags me back down three steps.
A hand snakes around my middle and I'm hoisted into the air as I kick my feet hard, trying to make contact with anything. All I manage to do is bang my heels against the plaster walls before I'm dumped rudely on the floor at Alek’s feet.
His eyes flicker toward me with concern but I just shake my head. I think I'm fine.
“You're both dead men,” Alek growls.
The man with the gun laughs and rolls his eyes. “You know, they told us you were the smart one. Invisible man and the brain, they said. But you don't look so smart, huh?”
I can hear Alek’s teeth grinding together and I just cower at his feet, trying to figure out what to do.
“Do the girl first,” the other one chuckles. He pulls another handgun out of the back of his trousers and aims it high, at Alek’s head. The first guy lowers his piece to point straight at me. I've never seen anything as black as the barrel of a gun. Never.
“Nah, Stosh said to leave her. He wants to break her in before he’s done with her, since these two never had the balls to fuck her.”
I cough like I've just been punched. How would he even know that? How would he know there were two? How would he know that we've never… Oh my God. The cameras. There are more cameras?
Alek knows it too. He steps over my body to stand in front of me, shielding me.
“Stand back, Alek,” the first one says. “Don't make me shoot through you.”
“You're done,” Alek growls.
“No way, I'm just getting —” but he doesn't finish. He twists over sideways so quickly I don't have time to figure out how it happened. His hand goes limp as a sickening crack echoes through the room and his face twists with surprise.
“Close your eyes!”
It's Roman. He's here.
I jam my face against the floor, covering my ears with the palms of my hands, but I can still hear it when it happens. Four muffled pops, right in a row. Then the heavy thud of bodies. I lay there for a long time, my body wracked with shudders. It feels like forever before someone lifts me up.
Two someones. Both of them. Pressing me between them, keeping me safe.
“Hush now, shhh,” Roman growls. He strokes my hair but all I can do is whimper against his chest. Or Alek’s chest, I can't really be sure. The world is threatening to go white and snowy or blink out completely.
“You're fine, Marie. Safe now,” Alek says. He presses a hard kiss against my forehead.
I nod quickly. I'm fine. I know I'm fine. They saved me.
“Those were not Daddy’s men —” I start.
“I know, Princess,” Roman growls, barely controlling the rage in his voice, “those were our men.”
I feel Alek stiffen. “No.”
“Stosh is… Was … not what he seemed. A liar.”
“What?” I say, my voice small and weak. “It doesn't make any sense. Stosh was what?”
I open my eyes finally and see Roman and Alek staring intently at each other, passing some kind of silent communication between them. Strangely, I can almost sense it too. Stosh was behind this. Stosh was behind everything.
“He brought us here to trap us,” Alek says finally, without any question in his voice.
“It was probably his only way to get the Pakhan.”
“There were more cameras,” I whisper. “They know everything, Roman. They saw us… They've been watching us…”