Page 99 of The Bratva's Christmas Bump
“Not this time, bitch,” Vinnie snarls, jerking me so hard that my entire scalp burns and I lose my footing again. This time, I fall at his feet, landing awkwardly on my knees as his fist in my hair keeps my body raised like some kind of leash.
“Hollie, what’s— hey! What the fuck are you doing?”
“Dad, no!” The words don’t escape in time as Dad rushes toward us both, but Vinnie snatches the gun from his hip and swings his arm out like a whip. His fist and the butt of the gun crash into Dad’s face, and he grunts, collapsing back into the side table. He, the bowl of keys, and Mom’s ornaments all tumble to the floor.
“Dad!”
“Outside, I don’t have time for this!” Vinnie wrenches me backward and throws me out into the yard. Landing face-first in the snow, I have no time to get up before Vinnie’s on me again. He hauls me up by the scruff of the neck and the bloody sight before me turns my stomach immediately.
Toto’s car sits parked where I left it but the doors are open. Two dead men paint red angels across the snow and Toto lies near the Christmas tree, silent and motionless. Blood splatters the snow all around, as if someone had passed by with a hose,and as Vinnie drags me down the path, I can’t get a long enough glimpse to see if Toto’s even breathing.
“Stop,” I gasp. “Let me go, let me the fuck go!” I lunge forward, trying to knock Vinnie off balance with my sudden movement, but he’s ready for me and he drags me back with a growl.
He wrenches my head back painfully, and the barrel of the gun presses hard against the soft flesh under my chin.
“Walk,” he barks down at me. “Get in my fucking truck or I’ll walk back up that path and see how many bullets I need to put in your old man to stop him from following us, got it?”
Stale cigarette breath washes over me as he presents the ultimatum. Before I can reply, he throws me forward with all his strength and I land on my hands and knees in the street. My heart pounds, my head throbs, and the sight of the dead bodies littering the lawn draws a mouthful of bile up my throat. I spew onto the snow-covered ground, which pisses Vinnie off more, but as he kicks out at my stomach, I scramble out of the way and climb to my feet with a gasp.
“Alright!” Tears threaten at the corner of my eyes. “Alright. I’ll come with you, just please… Please don’t hurt my family!”
37
MAXIM
“He’s one man!” My fist collides with the wall, sending pain lancing up my arm. “One fucking man and he’s a ghost. Tell me how this makes any fucking sense?”
“That anger you feel?” My father stands behind me, a glass of Bourbon in his hand. “I understand it.”
“No, you don’t.” That fucker was at the club, likely scouting out his next victim until he ran into us. Losing him in the blizzard weighs on me like the worst mistake of my life, and despite how we searched, he vanished into the city with another victory under his belt. “It’s failure after fucking failure on a man I know more about than my own friends. I’ve scoured every property he’s ever owned, questioned anyone he’s ever associated with, tore apart that flash performance troupe looking for him, only to find out that he crashed it. He’s constantly one step ahead of me and I can’t catch up!”
Turning, my father’s face remains passive with only a flicker of understanding in his eyes.
“I felt the same when your mother died.”
“What?” Despite the fury licking at my heart, my mind stalls briefly. “How is that the same?”
“Having someone ten years younger than me telling me there was nothing they could do for her now, that her death was unavoidable… I blamed him. And I hunted him to the ends of the earth, but he kept slipping away from me because I forgot one important detail.”
“What detail? The fact that he was just her doctor?”
“Exactly. He was a normal, regular person. They don’t think like us. They don’t plan like us. When they’re running, they react. You’ve been chasing this Vinnie because he’s from this world, but he’s hardly deeply ingrained. He’s a worthless cunt on the outskirts and thus, he doesn’t have the same calculated mind we have. You can’t catch up to someone who doesn’t know where they’re going.”
My fists tighten and pain bleeds across my bruised knuckles. “So, what do I do?”
“He’s lashing out. He’s furious at you and us, which is why he and the other one attacked the girls at your club, right?”
“Yeah.”
“He prolonged their pain and torture because hecould. He wanted to show that he’s in no rush, but it reveals that he doesn’t fully know what he’s doing. He’s trying to hurt you, to fuck things up enough that someone else will take notice and think he’s the key to your downfall. He’s like a mosquito dancing on the edge of our web.”
“So how the fuck do I ensnare him?”
“You have to act like you don’t care.”
“And risk more lives? Not a chance.”
“Think about it, Maxim. He’s returning to the scene of the first crime by coming back to the club. He’s looking for his next victim and all our people are on high alert. At worst, you have to sacrifice one or two more to get him.”
