Page 58 of Kidnapped By the Boss

Chapter Twenty: Katya

I didn’t realize it until I was back in the house with Sacha and my mom, but that little jolt from the close scrape with Annie had tweaked my injury in just a perfect way and now my neck, shoulder, and head werethrobbing. I was sitting in Sascha’s bedroom with him in one hand and my phone in the other, waiting to hear anything about what was happening out on the road, but no one had reached out to me yet.

Suddenly, my mom grabbed me by the shoulders and pushed me backwards into the rocking chair I was sitting in. I didn’t realize that I was damn near falling out—the pain was making me woozy.

“I’m sorry,Pantera. I think I should take Sascha and you should go and lay down,” my mom said. “I’ll keep an eye on your phone and let you know as soon as Vincent or anyone else reaches out to you.”

“Mama, I can’t do that,” I said simply. “Not only is that my husband out there, but I should be out there too. I’m letting all of them fightmybattle. All of this is happening because of me.”

“You can’t take this upon yourself,” my mom replied. “Some lunatic deciding that he’s entitled to you does not make his chaos your fault.” She looked down at me with Sascha in my arms and smiled. “You know, I was a lot like you when I was younger.”

“You were?”

“Yep. Always feeling discontent with the world around me. Constantly trying to live up to the expectations of others. Then when I married your father, I too wanted to be involved. To help make decisions and be more than just ‘The Boss’ Wife.’ But I came to learn that the person in my life who was doing me the greatest disservice was myself. I kept trying to forge paths that others had set out before me and never really got to chart out the world as I saw it. Becoming your mother was the greatest gift I’d ever been bestowed, but I didn’t feel I was meant tojustbe your mother, any more than you feel like you’rejustsupposed to be Sascha’s.”

“That’s why you have so many hobbies?” I asked.

She nodded. “I’m making up for lost time.” Bracing him carefully, my mom pulled Sascha from my arms. “The big difference here is that you and Vincent are actually in love with one another. You care for each other deeply, and that makes a significant difference here. He loves you, that’s why he gave you a role, because he knew that you wanted to be respected for your intelligence and strength. And you love him, so you accepted that role to be amongst his ranks, but I can’t imagine how stressful that must be on the two of you. This world isn’t something you just shut off at the end of the day. It follows you. Consumes you. I think there’s a better place for you, one that doesn’t put your relationship at risk, and one that doesn’t have you forging others’ paths. One that doesn’t make you attempt to shoulder an insanity that was brewing long before it reached your door. Vincent doesn’t have to respect your strength and intelligence if you respect yourself, but I assure you if you show yourself that respect, he will as well.”

“Yeah… Thanks, Mom.”

“You’re welcome. And part of my job is being your nagging mother so get up. Up, up, up.” She fluttered her hands at me until I finally stood up out of Sascha’s rocking chair. “And go lie down.”

“Okay. I’m gonna take my phone because I won’t rest if it’s not on me, but let me know if you or Sascha needs anything, okay?” I said.

She settled down into the chair, already consumed by my cute baby, and waved her hand. “We’ll be fine.”

As restless as I felt, my mom gave me a lot to think about. I considered the fact that when Vincent offered me the role as his caporegime, I accepted it without even thinking twice. It meant a lot to me that he trusted me with that role, but I never really considered if I actually wanted it. Something Vincent said seemed like an insult to me, but maybe I was thinking about it in the wrong light.

If he had to choose between having me as his wife and having me as his capo, he’d pick me as his wife without question.

At the time, it made me feel bad that he didn’t think there was a way I could do both, but now I see that it meant he wouldn’t want to give up his wife for his capo or vice versa. If ever one end of the rope started to tug more than the other, one would fall by the wayside, simply because it had to. Vincent was right, there wasn’t a way to do this without blurring the lines.

But then that meant…

My phone started to buzz, and I snatched it up quickly thinking it might be Vincent, but instead it looked like there was a commotion coming from security. I clicked the app, which only Vincent and I had access to, and noticed that our soldiers out by the gate were now being met with a group nearly their same size. At the very front of this group, standing with an evil smile on his face, was Antonio.

“Shit.”

I jumped up out of bed, ignoring the dizziness from how fast I moved, and ran out to the front of the property. I already had a gun on me, so I pulled it out and made sure the safety was off before throwing myself into one of the golf carts and zoomed off towards the gates. All I could think about was how bad this could get and how quickly.

And where the hell were Vincent and the others?

I refused to let myself think the worst and just resolved myself to deal withthisproblem. This man had caused enough turmoil in my life. I wanted to see blood pouring from his body.

At the front of the compound, a couple of soldiers tried to get me to turn back, but I refused to go. My mother and my son were inside and needed to be protected. There wasn’t much that I knew about Antonio, but I’d learned one thing, and it was the only thing I needed to know to take him down.

I cocked my gun quietly as I stepped through the lines of Costello legions, until I was at the front of the group, facing Antonio.

“Ah, there she is,” Antonio said. “My beautiful Queen to be. I knew you’d—”

Before Antonio could get any other words out, I quickly lifted my gun and fired. I saw the flash of shock cross his face, right before my bullet sank into his stomach and he stumbled backwards. He opened his mouth to speak again, but I shot again, hitting him in his chest.

He fell backwards, flat on the ground, and I lifted a hand in the air, and simultaneously, our entire army lifted and cocked their guns, bore for the enemy in front of us.

None of them moved or even did anything, just looked down at Antonio dead and bleeding on the ground.

There was only one thing I knew for certain amidst Antonio’s dozens and dozens of lies—that man liked to run his goddamn mouth.