“I don’t know—”
I shoved my gun into his mouth. I was inches away from pulling the trigger and blowing his brains out the back of his head when I stopped myself. I didn’t want to be this guy anymore. I didn’t want to be a monster. But this was a case of kill or be killed. I started squeezing the trigger, but Angela popped into my mind. What if she saw this? What if she was watching? She’d been shocked when I’d killed a fucking deer. What about a human?
Maksim sent this piece of shit to kill me, I rationalized. Or to scope out the place so Maksim could do it himself. If I let him go, he would run to my old boss and tell him where I am
I glanced up through the trees. My cabin was a short distance from here, not easily found. Had he known where he was headed?
“You shouldn’t come back here,” I growled. “If you do, I’ll fucking kill you. Do you hear me? Tell Maksim you found nothing.”
Fear in his eyes, he only stared at me. My gun was still in his mouth, and he looked like he was going to wet himself. Pussy.
“If I catch you within five miles of these woods, you’re dead.”
The man made a muffled mmm sound in agreement. I pulled the gun out of his mouth and hit him in the face with it, busting his nose. For good measure, I shot him in the foot.
“What the fuck?” he screamed. “How am I supposed to get out of here now?” He fell to the ground, grimacing with pain.
“That’s a warning,” I snarled. “Next time, the gun stays in your mouth when I pull the trigger.”
“How do you know I won’t tell Maksim?” he asked, holding his ankle in an effort to keep his foot still.
“Because you value your life. And you know that if you do and I find you, I’m not going to just kill you. I’ll take my time with it. You know what I’m capable of, don’t you?”
He nodded. All Maksim’s men knew who I was and what I could do.
“Don’t think I’ve changed,” I warned. I shoved him and he lost his footing, falling down the steep slope he’d chosen to come up.
I hoped to God I hadn’t made a mistake letting him go. I didn’t want to be a killer, but I had a feeling I’d been a fool. So much for fucking date night, now. There was no way in hell.
Fuck this ridiculous life and the back and forth between my morals. It was all for Angela.
But if I couldn’t keep her or me safe, it wouldn’t matter.
Angela
I woke up from a delicious dream, but I couldn’t quite remember it. All I knew was that Viktor had been in it. And that made it perfect.
Viktor wasn’t in bed with me. I frowned and rolled onto my side. I woke up often with the sheets cold. But he liked to get out in the mornings, and I wasn’t worried that he would disappear anymore.
I got up and showered, taking as long as the bit of hot water allowed. When I stepped out of the shower, Viktor’s robe wrapped around my body like an extension of himself, he still wasn’t back. I combed my wet hair and tried to towel dry it enough that it would stop me from getting cold. It didn’t.
The rain had stopped for a while, a bit of sun was out, and I decided to get dressed and sit in the sun to dry my hair. The simplicity of life out here was attractive. Grizzly Falls wasn’t very big, but it held the concept of running around, making deadlines, making ends meet. Out here, reality completely melted away, and I could breathe.
The sun was warm. I sat on a rock close to the fireplace where Viktor cooked, and I closed my eyes, turning my face to the sun and drinking in its rays. My hair would dry faster this way.
I was supposed to leave, too. Only three more days. Going back home seemed surreal. And leaving Grizzly Falls to live in a big city, where the rush, the fight for survival, would be more…it was difficult to imagine while I sat out here in the forest, listening to the birds chirp in the trees, feeling the sun on my face and the light breeze ruffling my hair.
How was I going to bring the two worlds together? How could I go back and still have Viktor in my life? Or would it mean goodbye when I left?
I couldn’t stay in this fairy tale forever. I needed to see my mom. I needed to make sure she would be okay without me. I worried about her, that she wouldn’t be able to take care of herself when I was gone. What if something happened to her? Or what if she went through an emotional dip again and I wasn’t there to be pick her back up?
I didn’t know how to do this. My mom had been through so much. Even though she was the one who had suggested I go, I was still worried that she couldn’t be without me.
“What the fuck are you doing out here?” Viktor barked, suddenly next to me, and I jumped.
“I’m drying my hair. Why the fuck are you being an asshole?” I countered furiously.
“What?” he asked, surprise lifting the strange look on his face.
“Don’t speak to me like that,” I told him.
He stared at me for a second, understanding dawning in his eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“Thank you.”
He looked around, eyes darting through the trees. His mouth was set in a thin line, the skin around his eyes tight. He looked tense. He held a pile of wood in his arms. He must have been out chopping.
“Get inside, Malen kiy,” he said in a voice that trembled with the effort to stay calm.
“The sun is so nice and warm, Viktor,” I told him, smiling a small smile, his tone forgiven with the sincere apology. “Don’t you want to sit with me for a while?”
An expression I couldn’t read flickered across his face. “No, Angel,” he said. “We need to go inside.”
“The weather is nice for the first time in days,” I countered, a pleading tone in my voice.
He clenched his jaw. “Just come, please.”
His please wasn’t as polite as I would have liked it, but he was serious about getting me inside. I looked up at the sky. Was the rain coming again? Why was he so worked up? He wasn’t very good at communicating. I didn’t know if it was because English wasn’t his first language, or if he was just unpracticed in the art of expressing himself. Either way, his vehemence put me on edge. I stood and humored him and walked toward the cabin, He followed me, opening the door with a long arm reaching around me and following in behind me.
He walked to the little fireplace and dumped the logs he’d been carrying in the basket next to it.
“You left early this morning,” I commented, watching him.
“We needed wood.”
Maybe we did, but something was up. We were back inside – God knows why – and he hadn’t relaxed in the slightest. He was nervous about something.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Why would something be wrong?”
“You’re worked up about something.”
He cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders. “It’s nothing.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Why won’t you tell me?”
He looked at me, thinking. Finally, he covered the distance between us with two long steps and pulled me against him. “There’s nothing to tell, Angel,” he said. “You have nothing to worry about.”
He dipped his head and kissed me. His tongue slid into my mouth, he rolled his hips against mine, and his thick cock pushed against my crotch. I moaned, immediately turned on. Viktor had a way of making me forget about everything and just focus on him. I ran my hands up his biceps and onto his thick shoulders, feeling the muscle underneath the skin move as he wrapped his arms around me.