"I'm getting my pet out of here." I heard Varlam say in his thick accent.

Like hell you're going anywhere with my girl.

Thunderous footsteps began descending the stairs and soon enough, Kristofer came strolling down the hallway with Raffaelo stomping after him. The juxtaposition of their two demeanors was comical. It must have been easy for the blonde to be laid back because he knew he was on the winning side.

"Why did you have to interrupt our meeting with your idiotic problems?" Raffaelo roared. "You should have taken care of this yourself. You're worthless." Spittle was flying from this mouth as he raged.

"I was reporting to my boss." Kristofer's tone was bored, as if Raffaelo wasn't worth his time. "You don't run jack shit around here. You're the one who's worthless." This enraged Raffaelo even more, the red coloring in his face becoming darker. Luckily for us, his anger blinded him to everything but the focus of his rage, and he didn't see us hiding in the shadows.

Michael peered around the bathroom door he was hiding behind and raised his eyebrows at me, gesturing towards Raffaelo with a jerk of his chin. I nodded discretely, signaled to Gino, and we began moving down the hall towards them.

This rat has been walking free long enough.

The sooner we got him out of this house, the better. It would be one less problem I had to worry about and then I could completely focus on protecting Nora. The carpet effectively silenced our footsteps, and the traitor was still bitching about incompetence and how his plans were ruined. He didn't notice us at all.

"You should really think about your blood pressure." Michael commented sarcastically, causing Raffaelo to spin around panicked.

"You!" he glowered, reaching for his gun.

"I don't think so." Gino easily disarmed him and forced him to the ground. He grunted at the impact of his body hitting the floor, grunted loudly.

"Keep him quiet." I hissed, glancing towards the stairs.

Michael grinned darkly, kneeled down and pulled out washcloth he must have stolen from the bathroom. Raffaelo knew where this was going because for the first time since coming down the stairs, he shut his mouth. Michael just pinched his nostrils shut and as soon as he opened his mouth to take a breath, the cloth was shoved in so deep he couldn't push it back out.

Kristofer and Gino, who had been restraining the rat, pulled him to his feet on my command. I took the few steps necessary to stand toe to toe with him.

"You hurt my family, and you're going to pay for it." I vowed.

"We need to get him out of here. We're being too loud." Kristofer whispered urgently.

"Gino, go with Kristofer and take Raffaelo to the others. They can start the fun, but don't kill him before I get there. That would be too much of a kindness." I ordered, never breaking eye contact with the rat, who had the common sense to look scared. He struggled against their hold on him, and his voice was muffled as he tried to shout and plead.

He wasn't going to go quietly, not that any of us really expected him to. What we didn't account for was the surge of adrenalin he would get at the thought of his imminent slow and torturous death. He shoved himself into Kristofer, who lost his grip on him, and fell into the wall, knocking down a hanging picture frame. The sound of shattering glass filled the hallway, and I was sure they heard it upstairs.

A second passed and we heard shouting upstairs. My girl was up there with a man who had hurt her on more than one occasion and I wasn't about to l let it happen again. My heart started racing, but I didn't have any time to panic.

"Get him out of here." I bellowed at my men. The Russian scum already knew something was going on in the house. There was no point in trying to stay quiet now.

I sprinted towards the stairs with Michael on my heels. We drew our guns from the holsters on our belts and moved with a purpose. We followed the sounds of shouting and crying, but before we could wrench the bedroom door open, a gunshot rang out. The silence that followed seemed to be even louder.

Less than an hour had passed before the lock on my door was being clicked open and Varlam stumbled in with a gun in one hand and a duffle bag in the other. He dropped the black bag to lock the door from the inside with the key. That key was the only way to lock or unlock that door. I stored this information away for later. It also made me think it'd been designed that way specifically for me.

His hair was disheveled and plastered to his sweat covered forehead. His hands were shaking and judging by the look in his eyes, his mind was miles away.

"Nora!" he screeched, making me shout out in surprise. He never called me by my first name. I hated the way it sounded coming out of his mouth. "We're leaving. They're here to take you from me. I'll never let them take you from me." This man was unhinged. He was talking with his hands and waving his gun around with no trigger discipline.

It seemed like someone needed another lesson in gun safety.

"W-what are you talking about?" I fake stuttered.

"The Italians you idiotic girl! We need to leave now if we're going to get away. I'm getting you out of the country where I'll never have to worry about losing you again." He fretted, pacing back and forth.

I had to think of something to buy them more time. I knew there was no way I could leave with him now if I was ever going to get back to my life.

"I can't go out there." I began to feign emotion expertly. "They'll take me. You need to go out there and take care of them. Get them out of the way. Wouldn't you rather us have a clear path to move to safety?"

"My dear pet, I'll never let them take you. I'll leave behind my life here to start a new one with you. I don't need the power or the territory anymore if I have you." He cooed. It disgusted me.

In some sad way, I think he really believed he loved me and everything he did to me proved just how much. Every time he hit me or violated me; he must have thought really was for my own good. I almost felt sorry for him, but I shook those thoughts away quickly. This man was sick in head and didn't deserve any of my sympathy.

We heard muffled shouts from the floor below and the clear sound of shattering glass. My heart rate elevated when I heard a voice I would be able to identify any day of the week. He was so close. My Enzo was here for me. I needed to stall for a moment more.

"We won't have anything we need to run!" I cried without tears. "We'll never get far enough!"

"SHUT UP!" he screamed. If I hadn't been scared for my life, this grown man throwing a tantrum like a toddler would have been an amusing sight. "WE'RE LEAVING NOW!"

I put my hands up as if trying to calm a raging animal and I started backing away from him. I shuffled backwards towards the head of the bed, where my 9 mm was stowed away. The sound of multiple footsteps rushing up the stairs drew his attention and gave me the opening to pull my Walther from its hiding spot. When he turned back to me, he was met with the barrel of a gun pointed directly at his heart.

"What are you doing?" his voice quavered, and I found myself feeling sorry for him again. Not only did he really believe he loved me, but he had somehow convinced himself I felt the same way. He must have thought I was the only person on this planet who would never betray him.

"I'm not going anywhere with you." I vowed. Energy thrummed through my body, but my hands had never been steadier.

"We were going to leave all of this behind. We were going to be together in peace." He mourned. His heartbreak was so real he hadn't even thought of raising his own gun on me.

"I'm not going." I asserted.

His shoulders slumped forward, and my words seemed to have defeated him. When he met my eyes again, I knew something in his mind had snapped. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up at the look in his eyes. There was something predatory about him now.

"You've been a bad girl." He growled. He had forgotten the fact that there were intruders in his house that intended to hurt him. All he could focus on was me. "Bad girls need punishments pet."

Flashback of what happened to bad girls filled my mind and instead of becoming that frightened girl I once was, I straightened my spine and met his gaze with a dangerous energy of my own.

With no warning he lunged at me.

It was like everything moved in slow motion. I saw my uncle's basement. I heard all the men who hurt me laughing as I cried in pain. I felt Varlam's unwelcome touch all over my body. Then there was a shift in the air, and all I saw was my Enzo, and I knew what I had to do.

I'm going home today.

I clung to that thought as I exhaled and pulled the trigger.