Chapter Twelve
1045 Words
Nikolai~
I threw back a shot of vodka as I remembered how soft Valentina felt against me. How stunned I felt when she saw the time lapse in the footage that I didn't see.
Damn. And I thought she was just a pretty face.
Nothing is hotter than seeing a woman with brains.
And when I pulled her to me and she squirrned in my lap... f**k.
I took another shot. The burn of the vodka down my throat was needed. Deserved.
My bar was mostly filled with wine. The best wine money could buy. But alcohol...
I hated alcohol. Yet I always kept a bottle of vodka around. To remember.
It reminded me of Igor Vetrovski. My sperm donor and former Pakhan.
A vile man and a chronic alcoholic.
Taking his life meant there was one less devil roaming this earth.
I took another shot.
To remind myself. To have the sensory overload that always dragged me back to one of the worst moments of my life.
To remember what I have lost, why I have lost it and why I must enact my revenge.
If having a beautiful, intelligent wife was the torture I had to endure to achieve that, then so be it.
The door to my bar flew open before I could have my moment of suffering.
"Nikolai", Viktor called frantically as he strud into the bar.
I glared at him. I was only a few glasses in and could barely feel the effect of the toxic drink. I wasn't ready for anything he had to say right now.
"Valentina...", he rushed out and my attention was immediately his.
I shot up from the bar stool.
"What about Valentina?!", I asked, almost yelling when he didn't give more information.
"Let's go", he said, when he saw he had my attention and he started walking out of the office.
I strud up to him and grabbed his shirt, pulling him to a stop.
"What the f**k is going on?", I seethed, "You can't just come to my space and say 'Valentina' like that then you proceed to start walking away".
His movements were stiff and I knew something was wrong.
"We caught an assassin with a sniper outside your room's window. He already made the shot before we got to him—", he continued explaining as he walked and I followed after him, but his words nearly had me tripping over my feet.
"What?!", I yelled.
" —she dodged in time so he missed", he finished but stopped on his way and turned to me.
"Why do you sound like you care?", he asked, his brow raised at me, "You said she was only a means to an end".
My features hardened at what he was implying.
"We both know that it would look bad on me if my wife died in the first week of our marriage", I said briskly.
He had always supported me in all I did, but he didn't exactly like the idea of me marrying Valentina for my revenge scheme.
I continued walking but turned back when he wasn't following.
"Let's get going", I said and he finally began walking.
He didn't say another word to me as we made our way to my room.
I didn't realize that my heart was beating erratically, until I found Valentina sitting on the edge of our bed, and it slowed.
She was in her towel and looked really pale as if she had just looked death in the eye. I'm sure she did. She didn't bother to look at me and Viktor as we walked in. She just stared blankly as Rita cleaned up the mess.
My eyes finally took in the room and I realized that the glass of her vanity mirror lay in pieces.
I pictured the scenerior and I could only image what we would have been saying now if she hadn't seen the sniper's red dot.
Her eyes found mine but not for long.
Great, she was angry with me. No surprise there.
I sighed and turned to Viktor.
"Where's the son of a b***h", I asked him, pleasure filling me at the thought of rendering torture.
"He's in the basement", He answered and I nodded.
As we made our way to leave, I looked back at Valentina.
She was already looking at me. Her brown eyed gaze piercing. I couldn't decide what she was thinking.
It was like she was expecting something from me. Comfort maybe.
I'm the one who looks away this time, not wanting see the disappointment in am her gaze when she realized I couldn''t give her what she wanted.
♣♣♣
The basement was at the opposite wing of the house. I tried not think about how angry I was at the incompetence of my security system.
If I didn't calm the f**k down, I would kill the fucker before I could even get answers.
I opened the door to the basement and walked into the room.
The man in question had both his hands bound on either sides of the wall. Same with legs.
His head was hung low, a typical position people in this condition usually took.
Blood was already dripping from his face.
I turned to Viktor who had a puzzled look on his face as he stared at the man.
"Did you have someone beat him up?", I asked. Although, that's not how these kind of things usually went.
I should have given an order before our prisoner was touched.
He shook him head and answered, "No, I didn't".
I tried not to put too much thought to the fact that someone went on without orders to touch a prisoner. Maybe there was struggle while bringing him here, since he was now unconscious.
I walked over to the wall that held our torture equipment and pulled out gloves. I took my time putting them on, not wanting to rush the fun.
Our unconscious prisoner was in for a rude awakening.
I made my way over to the man and held up his chin to raise his face.
When I rose his face, anger simmered in my veins.
"f**k", Viktor cursed behind me.
Fuck indeed because our very assassin here had a bullet between his eyes.
- Writer
