Page 6 of Goodnight, Sinners

She’d loved Jozef’s parents.

Gregor Koba had been just like Krystoff. Big, bearded, jovial, but also chillingly brutal. Annalise Koba had been beautiful. Like Jozef, she’d been tall, slim, graceful. And like the rest of the family, she had also been brutal.

Dasha hadn’t known if they were plotting against the Koba patriarch, but she wasn’t willing to wait and find out. She’d preemptively done what her husband hadn’t been able to do. She’d eliminated the potential threat to their organization.

All for nothing. The organization had fallen into the hands of the son, despite all of Dasha’s machinations. She should’ve eliminated the child when she’d had the chance, but when she stood over him, gripping the knife that should have ended his life, she’d been unable to bring herself to do more than destroy his voice. He’d retaliated by pulling the knife out and stabbing the man who’d been holding him, killing her accomplice.

“You should have been stronger,” she sobbed to her dead husband. “You should have taken care of the boy for me. You were weak, and you allowed your heart to get in the way of what you knew you had to do. Now we’re all dead.”

Chapter Three

Shaun hated everything about the mansion. It had never been her favourite place, but today, the heavy opulence made her want to scream. Then again, everything made her want to scream. She was barely keeping her shit together, and the only reason she appeared to be calm was because she knew Jozef needed her to project a united front for the guests.

She understood the importance of the occasion, the funeral and the reception. They were living in a volatile and dangerous situation. Until Jozef brought his uncle’s organization completely under his control, the threat of enemies could and would haunt them.

When he’d told her of the importance of the funeral, Shaun had decided she could pull her shit together until they got home. She could do it for Jozef. He was the one who’d experienced the loss of his family, not her. Yet, it hit her like a ton of bricks and settled on her shoulders as a colossal weight.

Jozef had moved them into the Koba estate the day following Krystoff’s death. She’d balked, but he’d insisted it was the only thing they could do. He had to project a front of complete control. He was expected to take the seat of power along with all the Koba assets.

He’d stripped the master suite and had their bed brought in. It turned Shaun’s stomach that she was sleeping in the same room where Krystoff and Dasha had slept only days earlier. Nightmares plagued Shaun, keeping her awake at night and turning her into a zombie during the day.

It wasn’t like when she worked an extra-long shift at the hospital. She understood long hours. She hated them, but she was prepared to put them in when she was working.

But the nightmares… they sapped her strength and stole her ability to concentrate. She wanted to be strong, to engage, to be there for Jozef when he needed her most.

Instead, she watched helplessly as her topsy-turvy life became even more unrecognizable. She might have broken down completely, if not for Jozef’s constant vigilance. Despite having an enormous weight dropped on him, he spent nearly every waking moment with Shaun, his beautiful eyes concerned as they searched her for answers. He kept her close at all times, including during business meetings. She sat with him in Krystoff’s study while a procession of men came and went, reporting, begging for a job, begging for their lives.

It was a rare glimpse into Jozef’s mafia dealings, and it both fascinated and frightened her. At first, she’d listen closely, waiting for Jozef’s contacts to leave before asking Jozef the questions that piled up in her head. She’d always imagined mafia to be so sinister and had seen a lot to confirm these thoughts over the past few years. Yet, the inner day-to-day workings were very much like a business and Jozef was proving himself, at least in her eyes, to be a master businessman.

After a few days, the conversations became repetitive. She’d stopped listening, instead choosing to pick up a book and curl into a chair by the fire.

When he finished his meetings, Jozef would take her hand and lead her to the private dining room to eat. She hadn’t known that room existed until Jozef showed her. She’d always eaten with the family in the formal dining room.

The smaller room was set off the kitchen, making it easier for the staff to bring their meals. It had become Jozef’s habit to eat off Shaun’s plate before allowing her to eat. He said until they found his aunt, there was still a risk for Shaun.

Shaun couldn’t move without a contingent of armed men shadowing her steps. After Dasha’s attack in the restaurant, Shaun appreciated the vigilance. She couldn’t close her eyes without reliving those moments, both in the bathroom and in the car, when Karl, her bodyguard, had died. Then, later, the apartment, the bodies, her inability to save them all, knowing that her fiancé had been responsible for killing some of them.

Shaun went daily to visit her mother, who’d decided not to move to the mansion. Shaun wanted her mother close but understood why Fatima would want her own space. As much as she loved her daughter, she was an independent woman.

Fatima had taken Karl’s death particularly badly. She’d insisted on handling all funeral arrangements, which Jozef had been happy to give up, after handing off a list of guests who would want to attend the wake. It was a pitifully short list; Karl’s sister, a few friends and Jozef’s men. Karl was well-liked, but his entire life had revolved around the Koba family. He had lived and breathed their security until the day he died in the line of duty.

The painful memory of Karl’s small but warm funeral brought fresh tears to Shaun’s eyes. She hadn’t known him well, but he’d been kind to her and she respected him.

“You okay?”

Shaun looked over as Havel stopped next to her.

Havel had warmed to her considerably after she’d patched his wound on the floor of the Guard Dog Securities office. He’d woken up minutes before Jozef had come back to collect Shaun. Havel had taken the gun from her and taken over protecting both of them. Neither had told Jozef about those few moments when Havel had been unconscious. Shaun didn’t think Jozef would blame his second-in-command, but it seemed important to Havel to be in control of himself at all times.

After Jozef had come back, he’d asked her to go with him to the club where more of his men were injured. Jozef shadowed her every step as she worked on those in need. Two more of Jozef’s men had been shot, one wound serious, the other superficial. She worked on the seriously wounded man first, then moved on to the wounded who weren’t Jozef’s men. Jozef stood over her with a gun trained on the men as she worked to patch them up.

It was like being in a war zone again, and many of the images she saw that day were seared into her memory. They featured heavily in her nightmares.

She shook the memories away and turned to Havel, who was looking down at her with concern. He was wearing a black suit and tie, his arm sitting in a sling. He hadn’t been wearing it earlier when they’d been in the graveyard. He’d said he didn’t want his movement obstructed if he had to act quickly.

“I’m okay,” she told him.

It was a lie, and they both knew it. Havel didn’t call her out for it, though. He nodded and continued to stand sentinel next to her until Jozef could make his way back to her. Havel wasn’t okay either. He hovered around her and Jozef and looked haunted, even though he tried to suppress the emotions.

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