Page 169 of The Umarova Crime Family

He’s a rabid dog backed into a corner, and he knows that I’m the man who will put him out of his misery. He rears one arm back and balls his fist before my eyes. He tries to punch me, but I catch his fist with one hand and still overpower him. Whatever he’s trying to do, he won’t succeed.

I’m a man on a mission, and he fucked with my woman.

He betrayed her in the worst way possible, and she trusted him.

I already know how I’m going to kill him. The first thing I need to do is get him to the point where he passes out. I’m going to get him strapped down to a chair in nothing but his boxers and wrap a metal tie wire around his limbs. Every five inches of his body, I’m going to tie as tightly as I can until the wire is pressing against his skin. It’ll cause the areas tied up to be extra sensitive.

Once I have his arms, legs, thighs, and even his throat wrapped with wire, I’m going to slowly cut him. He’ll already be hurting from the extra pressure on his body, but the blade slicing his skin open is only going to make him feel miserable.

Sean might think he knows what pain is, but he has no idea.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Mona

It’s been a couple of weeks since Nazyr returned to Grozny, and things are going well. It’s like ever since we got the girls and he went to London, there’s been a dark cloud lifted away from us. I can’t speak as to how he was feeling, but I can say that there was a lot of anxiety and stress hanging over me. Now, it’s like we’re living a stress-free life. I don’t have to worry about Duarte or what he’s doing to my daughters. I don’t even have to worry about him coming after us because when Nazyr came home, he told me he ended Duarte’s life.

To say I was relieved is a drastic understatement. The man made my life living hell. He got off on the fact he could hurt and do whatever he deemed necessary whenever he damn well felt like it. I don’t even want to call Duarte a monster because he was worse than that. I view Nazyr as a monster, but he’s the kind of monster who will constantly stay in my corner. Nazyr is the kind of man who will literally kill for my daughters or for me. That’s the type of lover I’ve always needed—someone who has no problem doing what’s necessary to keep us safe.

I’m in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on dinner tonight. I’ve been doing a lot of cooking since my time here with Nazyr, but only over the last couple of weeks have I started preparing Chechen meals. Tonight, I made zhizhig galnash, a meat and dumpling dish with garlic sauce.

The dish itself is made up of roasted lamb and a variety of other ingredients. It was fairly simple to cook, and I wish every other Chechen dish was this easy. To start it off, I had to put the lamb inside the pan with a lot of water, eventually bringing it to a boil. Once there was foam on the surface of the pan, I had to exchange the water I cooked the lamb in for clean water. Then the recipe stated I needed to remove the foam if it appeared again, and once the water boils, add onion, carrots, salt, and a few bay leaves. I don’t understand why we don’t eat the onion or carrot, but apparently, it’s just to add extra flavor. I could’ve easily thrown in some onion powder, but whatever. I’ve just been trusting the process. After all, I’m not an expert in Chechen dishes. One day I will be, but that day is not today.

I left the lamb simmering in the pot with a lid on for about an hour and a half, checking on it occasionally. The boring part was creating the dough for the galnash. It wasn’t anything too tricky, though. All I had to do was throw some flour, egg, and water in a bowl and knead it with my hands until it came to the right consistency. While the dough was settling in its bowl, I was peeling and cutting up potatoes for the dish. After that, I had to roll the dough out with a rolling pin and cut the dough up into equal parts, about one-half inch thick.

After I cut up the dough, I had to shape it into the galnash, and that part wasn’t too bad at all. This dish is very tedious since there are a lot of elements, but I really think Nazyr is going to appreciate all of the work I’ve put into our dinner this evening. Once I was finished with that, I took the lamb out of the pot and let it sit for a few minutes, then cut it up into chunks. I put the galnash in the pot the lamb came out of, making sure that the same meaty taste was going to be in the galnash. It should only take about seven or eight minutes for that to be ready, so I started on the garlic sauce.

Now I’m plating the food, and the front door of the house opens and closes. I glance to the left, wondering if I’m going to see who just came in. It’s either Nazyr or someone from the security team.

Sure enough, Nazyr walks in and inhales deeply. “That smells fucking amazing. Is it what I think it is?” He’s peering over my shoulder, looking at what I’m doing, and I snicker lightly.

“It might be. It totally depends on what you think it is.”

“Well, I think it’s zhizhig galnash.”

“Then you’d be correct,” I point out, making my own plate. The girls are already in bed, and it’s quite late, so I’m not going to wake them up and disrupt their sleep. Nazyr is usually home by now, but his day ran a little bit later than usual. Family business and all that.

“Man, Med. You’re really getting good at this cooking thing. I don’t think I’ve told you this yet, but I can’t wait to come home every day. I’m always curious about what we’ll be eating for dinner. I always know it’s going to be great, but you just keep blowing my mind with how amazing these dishes are.”

Warmth fills my chest at his heartfelt compliment. “Awe, thank you, Nazyr.” I’m really trying my hardest with these dishes, and I’m so glad he sees that.

“Are the girls already in bed?”

I nod. “Yeah, they went down about two hours ago. They played so hard today, so I knew as soon as they could, they were going to end up passing out for the night. I tried to keep them up, but I didn’t want them to be up too late past their bedtime.”

Nazyr reads the girls a bedtime story every night. It’s kind of become a habit, and the girls absolutely love it. Since he wasn’t able to tonight, I read them a story, and they both seemed happy with that.

“It’s okay. I should’ve called and let you know I was going to be later than normal. I guess it’s just the two of us eating dinner, then?”

“Yeah, it sure is,” I answer him and hand him his plate with a fork while I have my own in my hand.

We both go over and sit at the table across from each other, digging into the meal. Holy crap, this is delicious. I wasn’t too sure what to expect because it was my first time making this dish, but the lamb with the onion flavor and the garlic sauce is delicious. Goodness, this is a comfort meal at its finest.

“There is something I need to tell you, Mona, and I’ve been struggling with how to do it,” Nazyr says out of nowhere.

I pull my eyes from my food and look at him. His tone is serious, and he’s sort of making me nervous. “Okay… what’s going on?”

Is he about to tell me he doesn’t think that this is working out anymore? Is he going to tell me that the girls and I need to find another place to live? I’m trying not to think the worst, but when he talks to me in a tone like that, what am I supposed to believe?

---