Page 35 of The Bratva’s Monster

“Rikki, someone is in my house,” I repeat, struggling not to raise my voice. “I need help.”

He grunts, and I hear movement. “I’m on the way. Stay hidden. I’ll be there soon.”

He hangs up. Soon. The best he can tell me is soon? Whoever it is could start going through the rooms, ransacking them. And if they find me…

I look around the room for something, anything, to defend myself. Gedeon’s gun safe is in his office. I should try to get to it and hunker down in there. If they find me in here, I’m a sitting duck.

I go to the door and open it as quietly as I can. The bedroom is on the second floor and most of the floors are wood. Only some of the rooms have carpet in them, but places like the hallways are all made from wood that’s probably been here since Gedeon’s grandmother first moved here.

I have to be careful as I walk. Some of these boards creak, and the sound of footsteps tends to travel through the boards and up and down the walls. I used to hear Gedeon walking all over this house when he was alive, even if I was in the bedroom on the other side.

I make it to the stairs with barely a sound and I start walking down them, peering through the darkness for any movement in my living room. There is none, thank heavens. The nighttime street lights cast a yellowish glow through the front window and over my furniture. I don’t see any signs of broken glass.

I hope that I’m imagining things. If the worst thing that happens is Rikki coming over, I think I can deal with that before having to deal with an intruder.

I make it to the ground floor and I move swiftly, using light steps as I make my way to Gedeon’s office. Past the living room and around the staircase and down the hall… and my blood turns cold.

I hear talking. The door to the office is wide open. Light brightens the hall in a single wide shaft with shadows moving within it. The talking is low and whispery. At least three of them, I think.

“Look at all this shit,” one of them says. “Papers and trash… This is going to take us all night.”

“Just pull everything out. Toss whatever looks like trash.”

“It all looks like trash,” the third one says. “Lou had better hurry up in the bathroom. We don’t have all night.”

Lou? Bathroom? So, there are four of them, and I’m in the hallway with three between me and the gun safe. I never should have left my bedroom.

I turn away, doing my best to step as quietly as I just did. My knees are shaking now, though. I don’t want to get caught⁠—

A flashlight hits me from behind. Standing in the doorway of the downstairs bathroom is a man dressed all in black, a black ski mask over his head. Oh, fuck.

Instinct kicks in and I run down the hall, bound for the living room. The moment I start running, I feel the hard thump of his footsteps through the floor as he comes after me. I don’t even get to the end of the hallway before I’m grabbed around my waist and lifted off my feet. I scream and a hand covers my mouth. I grab hold of it, twisting the fingers and wrist away from my mouth with all my might. He resists, holding me tighter and digging his fingers into my cheeks.

But I’m struggling, moving my head around until I can feel flesh against my teeth. The moment I do, I bite down as hard as I can. He yells as the salty and metallic taste of blood fills my mouth.

“Fucking bitch!” he yells as he lets me go. My feet hit the floor and I stumble, but I’m up again. I feel him grab at me in a bold swipe. Once, twice… He catches a handful of my hair and yanks me back.

More footsteps behind us as he yanks me around. In the dim light, I see the other two run out into the hallway. They just stand and stare through their black ski masks while I’m being held by my hair.

“Lou,” one of them says, “What did you fucking do?”

“I didn’t do anything! I⁠—”

I drive my elbow into his midsection. His hold on my hair loosens and I turn around and claw at his face, catching his left eye. He yells and releases me completely, hand going to his face.

I push him as hard as I can and run back down the hall to my freedom. I hear them shouting at one another, then their footfalls as they follow.

I get to the living room just as one of them grabs me around my waist and the other one runs in front of me, standing between me and the front door just ten steps away. He paces for a moment as I twist around in bulky arms around me to try get myself free again.

“This is a mess,” the one in front of me says. “This is why I said we need to be in and out.”

“So, let’s kill her,” the one holding me says.

“That’s not the plan.”

“She’ll tell them what happened. We don’t have a choice.”

My heart is pounding like a drum as the realization comes that these men aren’t ordinary burglars. They’re here for an objective… and since they were in Gedeon’s office⁠—