Page 60 of Hers to Command

“And what if I don’t want it?”

I can feel Riccardo tense behind me. “Then say the word and we’ll leave.”

We? I don’t turn around to check who else came with him. I’m not even sure if I would have asked Riccardo about it had the other door to the room not been yanked open at that exact moment.

With my time up, I do the only thing I can.

I pull the trigger.

Dmitri’s head explodes, spraying the far wall of the room in blood and brain. This time Katja doesn’t hold back her screams, which I can hardly blame her for, since she is standing in the far corner, pressed against the wall and gets covered in that shit.

All of that only registers in my peripheral vision since I’m already aiming at the guys entering the room. I recognize one of them. The other must be one of the men who came with Dmitri from Russia.

Guess they must have wondered where Dmitri’s guards disappeared off to.

Riccardo is no longer at my back. He’s beside me, his gun also trained at the newly arrived Brotherhood men.

Before things can go downhill from there, more men appear behind the newcomers, and I hear Sergei’s voice. “Put down your weapon, Maxim, you idiot. That is Anya Tspeov, and you better not fucking shoot the owner of this club or we’ll have a serious issue, you and I. As for you, I don’t know you.” With that, he shoots the guy from Russia in the head, adding more gore to the floor of the room.

Fortunately, everyone else stays calm. The second guy who’d stormed into the room, the one who looked familiar and whose name must be Maxim, lowers his gun. “Shit, Sergei. I’m cool. Don’t shoot, man.”

Riccardo lowers his gun part-way and takes a step back. I take a step forward, ignoring the fact that I’m now in the puddle of blood leaking from the head of the first man I shot today.

The first man I shotever.

“Sergei, I’m glad you’re here. We have a bit of a clean-up job on our hands.”

Sergei chuckles. “No shit, my girl.”

Maxim looks between us, wide-eyed. “She shot Dmitri. I saw it.”

I give him a hard stare. “He was trespassing in my club.”

Maxim looks at Sergei as if expecting him to make sense of the situation, but Sergei shakes his head at him. “Just do what you’re told and don’t embarrass yourself in front of the boss.” Then he looks at me. “Just these three bodies, Mrs. Tsepov?”

I nod, as if I’ve dealt with situations like this a hundred times. “These three, and I have another one of Dmitri’s men tied up in the parking lot.”

This time someone from behind me speaks up. “I can take care of that for you, Mrs. Angelo, if you’d like?”

Turning around to look at Toni, I catch Maxim’s eyes going even wider. “That would be great, Toni. Please make it a permanent solution.” I manage to keep my voice perfectly calm. The kind of calm I practiced during business meetings in grad school and police interviews throughout my childhood when things went to shit, but I had to bluff my way through them. That latter experience had never made it onto my resume, though right now it was probably the life experience that was getting me through this looking like I had my shit together.

Sergei waves two men into the room and I’m surprised Viktor is one of them. The other one is Vlad, who used to be part of my father’s ever present security, sour expression and all. Both of the men give me respectful nods, though Viktor gives a brief scowl in Riccardo’s direction.

“I assume you can handle things from here?” I ask, doing my best to sound empirical.

Sergei gives a firm nod. “Certainly.”

“Good. In that case, I will meet you and the relevant people in my office at Downsview Park tomorrow morning at seven to deal with the... follow-up from tonight.” With Dmitri taken care of, it was high time for me to claim my father’s office in our biggest club.

“Shall I pick you up at the Angelo Estate, Mrs. Tsepov?” Vlad asks, and I meet his eyes. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he’s actually looking pleased.

“Yes, please. Pick me up at six.”

When I turn around, I realize Riccardo left with Toni. I take a few steps into the parking lot before my legs start to feel a bit shaky. At that same moment, Riccardo shows up between two cars.

“Let’s ride home together.” It’s not so much a question as an order, but I don’t give a fuck about him being bossy right now. I’m too damn high on adrenaline and the fact that I think it actually worked.

I’m also not sure I can walk the two blocks to retrieve my father’s car. But mostly I’m feeling high.

---