Page 42 of Angel's Forever

Aleksandr walked over and passed me a gun, and I stood in front of Nikolai, pointing it directly at his head. The two men and Aleksandr had walked around behind me, not wanting to be splattered by this traitor’s blood. I was amazed at the look of defiance on his face as he spoke to me, far more confident than before.

“Fuck you, Viktor. I’ll see you in hell.”

The loud crack of the gun being fired and the bullet piercing through his skull and splatting the contents of his brain on the floor was the last thing he would have heard. He slumped in the chair.

“Not if I see you first.” I turned to the men behind me, adrenaline coursing through my body. “Clean up this mess and dispose of the body. Make sure no one will recognize him. Also, double-check check he had no family. I wouldn’t want them to suffer for this predatel'skiy mistake.”

I turned to Aleksandr, who gave me a knowing nod and walked out of the room and up to my office. I was now even more determined to make Vincent pay for what he had done.

Chapter Twenty-Three

HUDSON

IT HAD BEEN NEARLY four days since Vincent had taken Gaby, and I was starting to lose my mind. I hadn’t slept or eaten properly since we had found out Gino was in hospital and she was missing.

Viktor had tried to keep me up to date with everything, hoping to ease my worries, but nothing he said could stop my panic. Gaby was with Vincent, and pregnant with a child by one of us. She was with a man who had already killed three unborn babies. How could I not panic?

Not having Nico here wasn’t helping. Luca and Antonio tried to keep me as busy as possible and take my mind off the situation, but I really needed Nico with me. I needed my best friend by my side. I hadn’t been to the hospital since Gino had woken up. I wasn’t sure how I felt about him anymore. Part of me knew there wasn’t much he could have done about Vincent. However, another part of me thought he should never have left the clinic building. He should have stayed there with Gaby, no matter what.

All I did was stare at my phone waiting for any kind of news about Gaby. I would have even spoken to Vincent himself if it meant that I could hear my Angel’s voice one more time. I was currently sitting in the living room on my own. Luca and Antonio had decided to wait outside the apartment after I ripped into them both this morning when they had tried to convince me to eat something for breakfast. I didn’t want to eat. I couldn’t eat, worrying about what that monster might be doing to my Gaby.

I just wanted to speak to her one more time. If it meant I had to let her go to keep her and the baby safe, it was a sacrifice I was willing to make. As long as they were both alive and well, that was all that mattered to me. I heard the apartment door open and footsteps walking toward the living room. I knew who would walk in the door before I even saw him. Nico and Gino were due back from the hospital today. Gino was finally well enough to be discharged, although he would still be recovering.

I didn’t really want to see him, but I knew it was too late to get out of the room. I didn’t look up as they walked in, my eyes firmly fixed on the glass in my hand. This was the only thing keeping me sane currently. The amber liquid gave me the courage to go on and forget the horror that was my current life.

“Hud, are you okay?” Nico’s voice was worried and hesitant, which meant the guys had warned him about my mood.

I slowly looked up to find just Nico standing there, which surprised me. I had expected to see Gino with him as well.

“What do you think?”

He walked over and knelt before me, taking the glass from my hand. “Well, that won’t do you any good. It’s only going to make you feel worse. Now, what’s all this about you letting rip on my men this morning?”

What the actual fuck did he think he was doing, telling me what I could and couldn’t say to his men?

“I get to say whatever the fuck I want to your men when they are trying to tell me how to run my life. It’s none of their fucking business, and it’s none of yours either, Dominico.”

I knew it was the alcohol talking now, especially with the amount I had put away on an empty stomach. But he wasn’t the one who had spent four days on his own, with almost complete strangers. He had been in a nice warm hospital with Gino. It was me who had to deal with the loneliness and worry of our situation. Me who had to worry whether we would ever see Gaby again, and if we did, if she would still be pregnant with our child.

I was shocked when there was a crash of smashing glass on the floor. I looked up to find Nico standing in front of me with rage on his face. I had never seen him like this before, and if I was honest, it scared me. He just stared at me without saying a word. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Gino leaning on the doorframe, probably wondering what the hell was going on.

“You have no right to speak to me like that, Hudson. What the actual fuck do you think you are doing? Do you think you are the only one who’s had sleepless nights and hasn’t eaten properly since Gaby was taken? Do you think I don’t give a fuck that she is with that monster who could be doing all kinds of tortuous things to her? Well, newsflash, Hudson. You aren’t! You’re just so swallowed up in your own self-pity that you couldn’t give a fuck how other people feel. It’s all about you, isn’t it? Until you start realizing that other people in this relationship are hurting too, don’t expect anyone to want to spend any time with you.”

I sat there gawping at Nico. He had never spoken to me like that before.

Gino spoke from his position in the doorway. “Nico, don’t be too hard on Hudson. After all, you have spent the past four nights in the hospital with me. He’s been on his own. Just think what state you would have been in if the roles were reversed.”

Nico spun around to face him. “Don’t go defending him, Gino. Probably the next thing to come out of his mouth would be how it was your entire fault. How you don’t deserve to be part of our family.”

I continued to watch as Gino walked toward Nico. The next words that left his mouth completely destroyed me.

“But it was my fault, Nico. You know that. I was the one entrusted with Gaby’s care, and I let everyone down. There is no point in trying to argue the case, because it’s the truth. I should have been more vigilant. I will have to live with the consequences for the rest of my life, Nico. Please don’t lose it any more with Hudson.”

I couldn’t hold back the tears any longer; the dam broke as the past four days of bottling everything up and drowning at the bottom of a whiskey glass took their toll.

Nico was right: we were all hurting. Gino probably the most, and there was me so absolved in self-pity that I was about to throw everything away. I felt a hand take mine and press it up to their lips. I looked around and was shocked to see it was Gino sitting there. Nico still stood in the middle of the floor with his back to me, fuming.

I carefully laid my head against Gino’s chest, knowing he was probably still in a lot of pain, while he placed his arm around me to hold me. The tears were pouring down my face now, so much so that I couldn’t stop. I was starting to lose everything I had wanted in my life, and it was my fault.