5| HER GUTS

VIKTOR

“Out now!” I yelled, reaching Lottie in three strides. I grabbed her arm, just as she muttered,

“But I haven’t peed yet!”

I ignored her. I dragged her out despite her efforts to wriggle out of my hold, then pushed her towards the bed, where Igor was struggling to get up. More gunshots rang out.

“Get under the bed.” I ordered, my voice tight.

She swallowed and shot me a glare, but made no move to do as I said.

Ignoring my father’s presence, I closed the distance between us. My fingers tipped her chin up.

“Did you not hear me? I said get under the bed. Right now.”

Lottie jerked at the sound of another gunshot. Still squared her shoulders afterwards, “I’m doing this for my safety. Not because you asked me to.” She assured me, then whipped around and finally crawled under the bed.

I turned to Igor while tapping my gun against my thigh.

He held a gun in his hand too, his expression lethal.

“Which of your enemies have you brought to the house this time, father?” I asked, annoyance creeping up my skin.

“Stop talking and go out there, find out who it is.” Igor commanded, his hand trembling. I scoffed.

“Sure.”

I stormed out of the room, cocking my gun. Only one security personnel remained at the door. He had two guns in his hands, ready.

I nodded at him as I walked past, stopping in my tracks when the elevator door opened. My brother, Giuseppe stepped out of it, holding a gun in hand. I cussed under my breath.

“Peppe, don’t tell me you’re the one causing all this chaos?”

He smirked, stopping in front of me. “Someone had to do something. I didn’t come here to negotiate with Igor like I’m sure you’re doing. That man is fucking playing with me. I’m going to put a bullet in his wife’s head, and I’m going to do it right now. A clean shot. Now if you’ll excuse me…”

He started to walk past me but I slammed a hand to his chest, stopping him. He raised a brow.

“What’s the problem? Isn’t this all we want? Getting her out of the way? I mean, I’m ready to take on the consequences of my actions for this one.” He spoke recklessly.

I rubbed the bridge of my nose, already fucking exhausted from talking to him.

“We can’t…” I started, then paused and spelt it out slower, “You can’t lay a finger on Igor’s wife. You can’t touch a strand of hair on her head.”

His face twisted into a frown. “And why the fuck is that?”

I thought about saying anything to him. Then I simply shrugged.

“Because she has nothing to do with this.”

Peppe scoffed. “What the… since when do you care about innocence?”

I didn’t answer. He shook his head and brushed past me, slamming into my shoulder. He ran into the room and I followed after him after letting out a sharp breath.

“Peppe!” I barked, freezing when I walked back into the room again. Lottie was no longer where I’d left her. She stood in front of Peppe now, and she was wielding one of Igor’s guns.

Peppe was laughing hysterically, his both hands raised in surrender. He cut me a glance, still laughing like a maniac.

“She wants to shoot me. The girl thinks she’s some cool—ah!”

“Lottie!” I screamed as a bullet lodged into my brother’s shoulder. I cut through them in a flash, standing in the middle. I managed to miss Peppe’s shot by a measly inch. Blood poured out of his wound, dripping onto the floor.

“Get the fuck out of the way! Get out, Vik, I swear I’m going to fucking kill you!”

The door busted open right then, and four security guards surrounded him, grabbing his both hands behind his back. His eyes blazed with fury as he glared and cussed at Lottie behind me.

“Get your hands off me!” He yelled when they kept trying to drag him away. Peppe let them take the gun from him, never for one tearing his gaze off Lottie who’d now come to stand beside me.

After a brief stare down contest between them, he finally whipped around and stormed off, slamming the door hard after him.

I turned to face Lottie, rage simmering in my veins.

“What part of hiding did you not understand?” I snapped at her, covering up the space between us. She shrugged, glaring daggers at me.

“I had a hunch that whoever it was came for me. And I was right. It would only be a matter of time before the person would catch me under the bed. Your father can’t defend me either, so I decided to snoop around for a gun and hold my own. I think I did that good.” She spoke in the most nonchalant manner ever. It made my blood boil, and I tried to convince myself that it wasn’t because I cared for her life.

“It’s the drugs talking.” Igor spoke now. “She needs to run that test. I want to have my evidence before I deal with her father.”

I saw a flicker of fear in her eyes. My lips tipped up in a smirk. I nodded towards the bathroom.

“Go get us that pee.” I whispered against Lottie’s face.

She swallowed hard.

“I can’t get that right now.”

I tilted my head.

“And why is that?” Igor beat me to asking. Lottie waited two seconds before answering with her gaze locked on mine,

“Because I peed on myself while waiting under the bed.” She paused, as if to let the words sink in. I looked down at her clothes, and true to her words, there was a big, wet patch down there.

She continued with a cheeky smile, “It’ll take a few more minutes to an hour to get out some more pee, I’m sorry.”