Page 22 of Captivated By Him

“You said you didn’t know this bitch,” the guy behind us accuses Jakub. Hiding behind his buddy and me seems to have given him enough courage to stop cowering in my shower.

Jakub shrugs. “I lied.”

“Look. We don’t want any problems. We’re just gonna take her back home. Henry wants her. Piotr gave the go ahead, so you can’t stop us. I mean it would be dumb—”

“Piotr Kaczmarek gave you the okay to come into my club and try to snatch a woman who works for me? He said you should come to her apartment and grab her? This is being done on his word?” Jakub’s words have them more afraid. If they aren’t working on the orders of Piotr but have said they are, they’re in for a world of hurt. And not from Jakub. Using the family’s name in vain ranks right up there with the second commandment.

“We have to bring her home.” The gun grates against my temple again. He’s getting shaky. Henry obviously didn’t send his best men after me. It’s good to know I mean so much to him.

“She’s not going anywhere.” Jakub drops his casual facade and raises his gun, aiming it in my direction. I tense up beneath the hand over my mouth. It doesn’t matter that his hand is stopping so much air; my lungs don’t want to work right now anyway. When a gun is pointed at you, apparently the internal workings of your body take a vacation.

“And if you don’t let her go right now, you’re not going anywhere either.”

The guy holding me wraps his arm tighter around me. If he runs back to Henry with his tail between his legs without me, there will be trouble.

“Let her go.”

“You don’t know who you’re fucking with. She’s coming with us.” My captor cocks his gun. A near deafening sound when it happens right next to your ear and the bullet is meant for you.

I’m shoved forward. A gunshot fires, and a body drops to the floor. Everything happens in a swirl of time, sweeping me up into a twisted storm. One second, I’m crushed against his chest, the next I’m on the floor.

When I finally turn around and look, I see the coward standing in the doorway to the kitchen, his hands in the air. The guy who was holding me is on the floor with me, a bullet hole in his forehead. Blood spills onto the thin fraying gray carpet beneath him.

“You should leave now,” Jakub says to the lone man. “Tell Piotr if he has a problem with this, to call me directly.”

A stammer of nonsense falls from the goon’s lips before he turns and runs from the apartment.

“Are you okay?” Jakub steps over the body and gets in my line of sight. “Nicole.” He squats down in front of me, grabbing my chin and roughly dragging my attention to him.

It’s not the first time I’ve seen a guy drop from a bullet. As much as my dad tried to protect me from his ‘work,’ he couldn’t stop me from seeing a few things. But none of those men died because of me.

“Yeah. Yeah. I’m fine.” I tug my chin from his grip and scramble to my feet. “You didn’t have to do that.” I rake both my hands through my hair. I have a dead body in my apartment. His blood is soaking into the cheap carpeting.

“He touched you,” Jakub says, casually propping his boot up on my couch and tucking the Glock back in the holster.

A nervous laugh explodes from my chest. “He touched me? Are you going to kill every man that touches me?”

He levels me with a hard glare. “You can’t stay here.” He drops his foot back to the floor and straightens up.

“There’s bound to be a few questions about this, Jakub.” I point at the body. The guy’s eyes are wide open, staring blankly across the room. Surprise has frozen on his face.

“I’ll take care of this. You go pack some stuff. Clothes, essentials, anything you can’t live without for a while.” He motions to the laptop sitting on the coffee table. “Like your computer.”

“Why? Where am I supposed to go?” I suppose I can go ahead and use my ATM card since Henry already knows where I am. Better to get the cash out and dash at this point. I shouldn’t have assumed Henry would be reasonable; I should have just emptied the accounts right away.

“You’re coming to my place,” he says then puts his cell to his ear and turns away. “Hey. Yeah. I need a cleanup crew.”

I stare at the back of his head while he talks, giving my address to whoever’s on the other side of the line and directions for what he wants done. It’s all said in code. But I’m fluent. This guy is going to disappear. He never happened, that’s what’s about to take place. My apartment will be scrubbed clean and unless the FBI brings in their best forensics team, they won’t find a trace of this sorry prick.

“Nicole. Go,” Jakub says to me when he’s done with the call and I’m still standing there in the middle of my apartment. Why aren’t there sirens? Didn’t anyone hear the gunshot?

“I can’t stay with you, Jakub,” I say finally.

“And why is that?” He folds his arms over this chest. He’s gotten more stubborn over the years.

So have I.

“Because they’ll know I’m with you now. Which means they’ll come looking for me, or Piotr will come calling on you. You can’t get involved in this; it will cause trouble for your entire family. I won’t do that.” I shake my head.

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