Chapter 25 - Gemma

I had never experienced that kind of pain before in my life.

The dull ache that seemed to linger in the background turned into incessant, roaring pain that pulsed in my temples and showed no sign of getting any better as my surroundings became clearer with every passing second.

My vision, while bleary at first, evened out, but it took some time for the sounds around me to fully register.

Every one of my senses seemed to be attacked at once, briefly overwhelming me as I tried to piece together where I was, or how I got there in the first place.

My arms were pinned behind my back, wrists locked together with rough, scratchy rope that bit into my skin. I was sitting up, albeit uncomfortably, with my legs tucked underneath me as I leaned to one side, and the cold concrete beneath me sent a chill through my system.

While the hard ground was the only thing I could concentrate on at first, the dark shadows cast over me brought a chill along with them, and the not-so-distant sound of passing vehicles captured my attention.

I was outside—that much was clear. But I didn’t know where. It was hard to look up from how bright the sun was just ahead of me. Those rays of golden light felt both like a beckoning and a thoughtful send-off, almost like the sky above knew something I didn’t. As if it wanted to give me one last good sunset before that inevitable darkness returned to me again.

Based on how much pain I was in, it was a wonder I was still alive. For a moment, it made me wonder if I even was.

I tried to blink through the remaining cloud of my confusion, but the aching in my head was too intense to ignore.

With my eyes closed, I managed to lift my head and open them to look directly above me, seeing a solid structure above my head. At first, I thought it was a ceiling of some kind, but the longer I looked at it, the more I heard those passing cars above, and I knew it was some kind of overpass.

While it didn’t help me understand where I was, it was enough to trigger unshakable fear within me.

It was clear I wasn’t home, and I certainly wasn’t back at the apartment, either. I felt completely lost and disoriented, and every second felt like agony I couldn’t escape.

“Look what we have here,” a masculine voice said. “The little journalist is finally awake.”

Looking in the direction of that voice, I had to force my eyes to get used to the sun’s glare until two figures eventually came into view.

My skin froze over the second I registered those unfortunately familiar faces, and I knew at once that I was far from safe. Far from any other place I’d rather be.

The twins took several steps toward me until Alina blocked the sun completely. She sank into a crouch and pressed the barrel of her pistol against my forehead, pushing my head back as she examined me with a smirk. Adrik stood behind her with his own gun lazily drawn at his side. Neither of them was particularly guarded—not when they knew I was the farthest thing from a threat, especially in that moment.

My heart jumped, feeling like it was moments away from bursting out of my chest.

“Welcome back to the land of the living, Gemma,” she said, red lips resembling a bloody slash of cut skin. Despite her words, her voice was anything but welcoming—anything but kind.

There was an unmistakable hatred in her tone, thinly veiled by her smugness, and it made me wish I could get up and run as fast as I could manage. She pulled the pistol back, forcing me to hold my head up on my own.

The lingering fragments of my confusion seemed to dissipate as I looked between the two of them weakly, and everything came back to me at once. Going to the apartment, Mikhail getting shot and dying on the sidewalk, and the crippling darkness that overcame me soon after. With those pieces back in place and the rush of adrenaline that followed, some of the pain in my head cleared.

Regardless of their mutual self-satisfaction at that moment, since they had me tied up like some defenseless animal, I could feel the deep hatred that emanated from them. How beneath it all, they were glowering and itching for the chance to make someone pay for everything.

I had the feeling I was that person.

I blinked back at them and tried to temper my fear, regardless of how I shook in place. “What’s going on? What do you want?”

Alina snickered before her brother started talking, and at my question, their masks of amusement fell to betray their true anger underneath it all.

“Don’t act coy with us, Gemma,” he mumbled, eyes fixed on me critically. “You’ve caused an incredible amount of trouble for us ever since that article came out.”

Alina sighed and didn’t look away from me either, feigning her disappointment, as if she cared about me for even a moment. “We thought you would’ve taken our warning a bit more seriously, but it seems you never made those changes we asked of you. Why didn’t you redact our name and make that little public statement you promised us?”

Growing irritated by the way they seemed to toy with me, I tried to curb my tongue. “It was already out of my hands, and I was let go from my position, anyway. There wasn’t anything I could do about it.”

It wasn’t entirely false, but it wasn’t the full truth, either.

At some point, I could’ve gone to Norman to admit I framed the Ivanovs. I could’ve at least taken steps to put the notion out there, but I didn’t. I was afraid of being fired at the time, and Ben had convinced me I didn’t need to. So long as the twins couldn’t reach me, I’d be fine. I hoped that if I ignored it long enough, the problem would go away.

But once again, that hadn’t been enough.

Alina sucked her teeth in feigned dismay. “Oh, Gemma. We don’t believe that for a second. We know how these things work. And surely you knew it would’ve come to this one way or another the moment you decided to submit that article.”

“Or is she really that naive, I wonder?” Adrik muttered as he crossed his arms over his chest, gun held far too casually for my liking. “Either way, you not only put a target on our backs with the cops, forcing us into hiding and to cover our tracks, but our reputation at large has been put into question. Do you know what happens when other crime families take notice of your name floating around the public so openly?”

As he stared at me with those intense, almost dead eyes, I knew he wanted a vocal response from me, and he likely wouldn’t let up until he got one. So I hesitantly shook my head, feeling a vague ache in my neck. “No…”

His lips pulled back in a humorless smirk as he pointed at me vaguely. “When other families begin to suspect your immunity has been compromised, they distance themselves as much as they can. They sever all ties to cover their tracks just in case the feds come sniffing too close to home. You become ostracized, mocked, and hated faster than you can recover. So not only have we had to dodge the cops, but we’ve also been working overtime to maintain our image among the others, to convince them not to abandon us completely.”

“Try as we might, it hasn’t been enough. They’re all anxious about more secrets coming out, and old, incriminating cases being reopened, because nobody wants to find themselves being connected to any of them. If we’re the reason everyone else’s operations come crashing down along with our own, there will be a worse fate than death waiting for us,” Alina explained, growing more irritated as she spoke. “And all of this has happened because of your libelous article. Pat yourself on the back, Gemma. You’ve managed to shake up the city’s underbelly all for a little recognition.”

I was in complete disbelief as I listened to them, realizing for the first time the implications of what I had done. How the right research and one article could be enough to expose the crime families' crimes and possibly lead the authorities in the right direction, even if the information had been targeting the Levovs first.

It didn’t seem to matter who was being framed, after all. One solid lead would be enough for an uncorrupt detective to get on the right trail and possibly bring down some of the most notorious families in the city.

If I never changed Levov to Ivanov and published that article, there was a chance I could’ve initiated the downfall of Ben and his family.

While we weren’t anything to each other at that point, the thought still made my stomach turn in agonizing knots.

Blinded by my ambition and desire to further my career, I never stopped to realize the power that came with the article. I lacked the foresight to really understand what it would do to me, too.

Aware that the Ivanovs had every reason to want to see me dead, and they could easily do exactly that right then and there, I knew my survival was dependent on what I did next. On how I proceeded forward.

“It really is out of my hands now. I’ve been fired, and I can’t access that article to redact it,” I said, hoping to appeal to them. “Even if I tried to make a statement about it, nobody would care. I’m not with the paper anymore, and my boss likely wouldn’t do anything about it either. I…I can’t do anything now.”

Unimpressed by my claim, they both shook their heads absently.

“Right. But the thing is,” Alina began as she patted the side of her gun in a silent threat, restraining her unbelievable anger as best as she could. “That’s not good enough. Your little words won’t reverse the damage you’ve caused, which leads us here to this very moment.”

I knew I was in danger—which was an understatement. But at least part of me had been hoping they were bluffing. It certainly was a naive thought, but it offered me the comfort I needed to stay calm.

Bracing myself for their next words, I feared what their true retaliation would be. They captured me already, but that wasn’t the real punishment. No, it couldn’t be. It was the prelude to their real plans, and I hated how that thought made me want to crawl out of my skin.

“You’re our hostage now,” Adrik said, sneering at me. “Since you failed to meet our demands before, you’re the only tool we have now to fix our image. You’re our last chip, and with you, we’re going to wager something with the Levovs. If you’re lucky, that husband of yours will reach a beneficial deal with us that will reshape our presence in the world of organized crime, and you will get to keep your life.”

“But until then, we aren’t making any guarantees about the latter,” Alina added, eyes piercing into mine.

It was only the slightest comfort to know they weren’t planning on killing me right away since it gave Ben time to save me, but it didn’t do anything to shake that deeply rooted fear in me.

Terrified as I looked up at them, I swallowed back the dread that crept up my throat.

I silently cursed myself for every taking on that assignment, framing the Ivanovs, and submitting that article, but I knew it was pointless. Regret and remorse would only get me so far.

I hated how that one decision felt like a looming specter in my life, and the way it jeopardized virtually everything I cared about. How I had no business being involved with anything mob-related, and yet I found myself sucked right into the middle of it.

But even when I should’ve been angry with Ben for dragging me into that mess, I just didn’t have it in me. I didn’t hate him.

Above all else, I just wanted to see him, and I could only hope I’d get the chance to be with him again.