Her Ravaged Life

Ch. -19-

NIKO

 I hit brakes on everything going on right now when I hear her faint voice seeking help. Something is wrong, very wrong, she hates me and would never ask for my help, unless it is her last resort. That’s why the current situation has me on my feet instantly.

 “Levi, wrap it up, the meeting is over,” I say to Levi, my right-hand man, but the statement was meant for the whole room. These shitheads have been here more than six hours and still no closer to signing the settlement. Six hours of nonstop quarrel and I was stuck here instead of keeping my eye on her as per usual.

 Walking out of the meeting and into my office I turn on all the screens showing every room in her apartment. I freeze when I see her lying motionless in a pool of blood. Her hand still gripping the phone she used a minute ago. She was alive then, but it seems the help might arrive little too late for her.

 For f**k’s sake. I have kept my eye on her for a week and the moment I let my guard down this happens.

 “Jeremiah!” I shout out while dialing to call 911.

 “Sir?”

 I give all the information I have to the emergency dispatcher hoping there is still something they can do. I can’t have another woman dying on my watch. I just can’t.

 “Get the aircraft ready. We’re leaving now,” I tell him while flipping through the cameras placed in her apartment to see if the lowlife who just signed its death sentence is still there, but it’s just her slowly dying.

 Who the f**k dared to lay their hands on something that belongs to me? Anger starts to build up inside of me and I grab my laptop to go trough the surveillance during our flight, the cocksucker won’t live long enough to see the sunrise. 

 “Everything is ready Sir,” Jeremiah informed me after finishing his call, however I can’t make myself move before I see the ambulance arriving, I have to see if she is still alive. 

 Medics arrive within minutes, and they work relentlessly to seal her wounds and save her life. It’s painful to see and even worse that it happened on my watch. If she survives, she will stay with me, with or without her consent. I am not going to lose her like I lost Lilian. 

 She is lifted on the gurney and rolled out of the apartment with monitoring devices connected to her body, so far so good, at least she is not called at the spot.

 “Are you packing?” I ask Jeremiah, I might need backup depending on who or how many dickheads we have to deal with. 

 “Always,” he answers and pats his side where he keeps his holster. Size wise the man is like The Hulk and can do as much damage with his bare hands as with a loaded weapon. Fortunately for me he has a debt to repay and I like to keep him around, for obvious reasons.

 We walk out of the office and head toward the main exit. 

 “Niko! Tell me what happened? Klaus texted me that you ditched the meeting, something happened, I know you,” Callie questioned me while she ran after us trying to catch up. f*****g Klaus can’t keep his business under wraps and now shares confidential organization information with my sister. He is lucky I don’t have time to deal with his yapping mouth.

 I turn around and wait for her to reach us, I take a hold of her shoulders and try to explain as good as I can to her, “We’re flying out. Gianna was attacked and I am not sure if she’ll make it.” 

 “No, c’mon. Not again.” She shakes her head in defeat and looks up at me with watery eyes, “It’ll break you this time,” she says before leaning in for a hug and whispers, “Don’t let them break you.”

 She means well, but I am not the same man I was when Lilian was killed. This time I know what kind of world I was born into and what kind of monsters are after me and my family. I have learned my lessons.

 I move her backward so I can see her eyes. “I’ll be fine. This time it’s just business,” I assure her to calm her down and give her some peace. 

 She was there when Lilian was shot, she was there when I found out and she never left after that. This time it’s my turn to make sure she doesn’t have to go through another trauma. Life can suck but I’ll do whatever it takes to keep her safe, to keep her happy.

 I kiss her cheeks and walk away. 

 “Niko, just leave her, she is not like us. She is not the one,” she yells after me, I turn for a beat to look at her and this one look will tell her I am not going to leave Gianna, not before she served her purpose to me.

 She nods in defeat when she sees the determination in my eyes and that is the end of this subject.

 Drive to airport is filled with phone calls to associates to wrap up few accords so I can have few days to deal with Gianna and all the crap that comes with the assault. Hopefully we can locate the cocksuckers tonight cause this would give us some extra time to make sure they suffer like she did.

 It feels like I am doing everything on autopilot right now. I don’t even remember reaching to the airport or entering the plane, my mind is so occupied with retaliation, and I am not giving myself even a moment to breathe before it’s done. Before she is safe and the ones responsible for the attack are dead. 

 We’re at the cruising altitude finally so I open my laptop and start going through the surveillance videos from today.

 I fast-forward most of the recording since nothing unusual pops up, until she picks up a note and starts dialing but disconnects the call before anyone picked up. I try to zoom in to see the note, but the quality of the video is too low to make out anything. She makes two more calls before settling down on the sofa.

 Again, nothing unusual until she gets up to walk to the door and opens it wide, there he is, that son of b***h. I see her body tense from surprise, so it is safe to say he was not the one she expected.

 I keep watching, my anger building when he lays his hands on her, smashing her head to the floor. I know I have done worse to so many, but never to a woman and never someone who didn’t deserve it. She is lying there battered for hours before gaining conscious again. She looks so fragile, yet she doesn’t give up, she keeps fighting.

 I slam my computer shut after I see him run out leaving her butchered body behind.

 My blood is boiling like never before. This time I might make an exception and smear my own hands with blood to show this cocksucker to never lay a finger on what belongs to me.

 “Call Beetle, he owes me,” I say to Jeremiah who gives me a questioning look. He knows that Beetle is the best in the business, but something about him never sat right with Jeremiah so he is not very keen on him.

 None the less he nods and takes his phone but before making the call he gives me another look to confirm if I really meant what I said.

 “I need him gone, I don’t want the aftermath when someone comes poking,” I say, and it’s true. With people like Dan, you never know what they told or whom they told, so there is always chance there might be a known link between him and I. That link can never see the light of day again.

 “He’ll wait you at the airport,” Jeremiah said after ending the call.

 “Good, let the guys know they need to prep the warehouse.”