Total pages in book: 33
Estimated words: 30437 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 152(@200wpm)___ 122(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30437 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 152(@200wpm)___ 122(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
“What is the Gambino family doing in my old home? Are they working for Gnesin?”
He finished washing off the blood. “I don’t know.”
“Why would Gnesin work with one of his enemies?”
“I don’t have a feeling he is. Come on, we’ve got to torch this place.”
“What?” she asked.
“I don’t know if they sent out a distress signal. That last guy I didn’t see, and there could be dozens of men making their way here. There are only so many I can take care of. We need to torch this place.”
Anastasia nodded, and he grabbed her hand, leading her out of her parents’ old room, down the stairs, and toward the main front door.
“My dad kept extra barrels of gas in the basement. He didn’t like the constant price wars, and when it was at a low price, he would stock up,” Anastasia said.
He made his way to the basement, and sure enough, there were a couple of barrels.
“Go and spread this all over the house.”
The moment he set fire, they were going to have a limited amount of time to get away. While Anastasia poured gasoline all over the main floor of the house, Dmitriy went upstairs and took a great deal of delight in spreading it over the bodies.
He made his way into Anastasia’s room last, and as he stepped inside, he saw a picture of her, along with her family by her bedside. The fact her parents had left the room like this was a testament to how much they had loved their little girl. It was sweet. He poured gasoline all over the bed, and he took the picture with him. He didn’t know if Anastasia had many pictures of her family, but she could at least have this one.
With the top floor covered in gasoline, he met Anastasia on the ground floor. She hadn’t taken off, and she waited for him.
Stepping out of the house, he pulled out his zip lighter and flicked it open, lighting the end. He tossed it inside, watching for a second as the flame caught to a puddle of gasoline Anastasia had created in the main hallway.
“Let’s move.”
He didn’t wait around to see the damage.
With the gasoline tanks in the basement, along with a trail of it all over the house, before they had left the street, he saw the dark smoke pluming up into the sky.
“I can’t believe we just did that,” Anastasia said.
Nowhere was safe. Not his safe house. He didn’t know what information the Gambino family had. He didn’t know what Gnesin had. The only way to survive right now would be to always be one step ahead of the game. He couldn’t go back to the safe house.
They were far enough away that they weren’t affected by the explosion. However, it was not far enough away to hear it. Anastasia jumped.
“Wow, my family home gone,” she said.
He reached out and took her hand.
For several minutes, he joined her in silence.
The order had come to him, and he had done it without question, only now he had a ton of them, and what was more, Gnesin refused to be seen. He refused to have a meeting, and now his lifelong enemies, the Gambinos, were discovered on Babkin property. This did not bode well.
He drove an hour before he came to a stop at a motel that looked busy. No one would expect him to stay here. He told Anastasia to wait in the car, as he went and paid for a room. He gave a fake name and paid cash. There were no questions, as he didn’t raise any, not with his bruised knuckles. The man on the desk just wanted to get back to watching his television show.
Dmitriy walked back to the car, held the door open, and Anastasia climbed out. He took hold of her hand and walked toward the room he had taken. It was on the first floor, and he let them in. The curtains were already drawn, and it was getting late.
“I don’t understand why we’re here,” Anastasia said.
“I have no idea what is going on, and I can only assume my safe locations have been compromised. I’m not going to put you in any danger. We’ll rest here tonight, and tomorrow, we’ll figure something out.”
“You know, if you had killed me, you probably would be able to just run away and live your life.”
“Running away is not an option.” He never ran away, not from his parents, not from anything.
“Take a shower. I’m going to go and get food, and do not answer the door to anyone.” With that, he closed the door and left the motel room.
He should have killed her. It should have been easy for him to do. Just one bullet to the back of the head, or slitting her throat, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. He didn’t want to hurt her. In all his years, Dmitriy had never felt this way for anyone.