Life Begins (25 page)

              He turned so that he could wrap her in his arms. His little sweet wife really did make his life better. “I will always make sure that you are safe.”

              She watched his eyes for a moment, before finally nodding. “Okay. I will continue to trust you. And I will try my best not to worry. I still don’t like the idea of you being gone the whole night, but I’ll accept that you’ll have to send me a text if you aren’t going to come back.” She poked him in the chest. “And I mean it. You don’t come back during the night, I expect you to send me a text. I like Nenad and all, but he doesn’t give me the same feeling of safety that you do.”

              He had to kiss his wife for that one. He moved her until her back pressed against the cold wall and commenced to awaken her body to his desire. It was a much better way to celebrate the children taking a nap.

Chapter 26

              Gary hadn’t heard a word from his friendly neighborhood thug and could only assume that the man was too chicken shit to do something. That’s what he got for trying to trust a lowlife in the first place. He should have just gone with his first mind and had done the job himself.

              All he needed was the address. He couldn’t ask Josie’s mother because the bitch was upset after everything that happened during the court case. He could have told the stupid tramp in the first place that Josie wouldn’t have been happy to have her own mother turn on her. But, what did Josie expect when she wasn’t thinking rationally in all of this?

              His cell phone rang, the song letting him know that it was his lawyer calling. Gary almost did not answer, but changed his mind shortly thereafter. “Hello.”

              “You’ll never believe what just arrived on my desk?” his lawyer said in answer.

              “What?”

              There was the sound of papers rustling. “Information on your girl’s new man. Apparently, someone wants to make sure that this man doesn’t live a happy life.”

              Gary perked up at that. “What kind of information are we talking about?” Was there an address? Something he desperately needed if he were going to make sure that he had Josie back in his arms. Hell, he if just had the man’s job information that would be more than enough for him to make sure that he had everything go as he planned.

              His lawyer didn’t seem to share the same level of excitement. “It looks like there’s an address. When I looked it up, it appeared to be a home address. There are also a few things on him that are business related. I have to tell you, Gary. No wonder your girl isn’t leaving him. This guy is loaded, like seriously loaded.” Which is why he had no problems paying for Josie’s hospital bills or even for the lawyer that he had been required to pay for.

              Fuck. A rich guy just couldn’t go missing without the whole world asking questions. On the other hand, a rich guy would most likely give his wife access to all of his cash. Done correctly, Gary figured he could make it work for him and come out on top of the money game.

              As soon as he got rid of the children. He was not sharing a dime with anyone other than himself. “I’ll be right there to pick up the papers. If someone wants my help taking this guy down, then that’s what I’m going to do.”

              His lawyer made a strange sound before he finally said, “I would just leave it alone if I were you. Something about this man gives me the chills. He has the eyes of a killer.”

              Gary laughed. “Are you high? He has the eyes of a killer,” he mimicked the tone of his lawyer’s voice. “He’s just a regular man with more money than he knows what to do with. Besides, I’m only interested in getting Josie to understand what she’s been missing.”

              There was a long pause, and Gary could feel the waves of discontent from his lawyer. It didn’t matter anyway, because he was going to do things his way. Once he killed Josie’s new man and made sure that she paid for even trying to leave him, he was going to use the guy’s money to get out of town. Maybe head to the Bahamas or something where the weather was always nice. Josie would look really good in a bikini.

              “Have the documents ready for me when I get there. I want to make sure that I don’t waste my time more than necessary.”

              “Fine, but if something happens, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

              “I’m telling you. Nothing is going to happen.”

              “Mommy, Julji stinks,” Josif yelled out from the family den.

              Josie sighed, but left the kitchen to get her daughter. With the pregnancy, she was tired, actually beyond tired. She just wanted to rest, but with little Mr. early detection, she had no choice but to be on her game. She found her son, almost in the baby’s face while she played in her “office” seat. Baby Juljiana, loved the attention, and spent her time vacillating between grabbing at her stationary rattles and reaching for her brother’s face.

              Nenad, unfortunately for him, was nowhere in sight. Josie bit back a curse, before reaching down for her daughter. Josif was right. Baby Juljiana had made a huge stink bomb in her diaper. “Oh, baby girl,” Josie said on a groan. The response she got was a cute smile and a giggle. She couldn’t help but to kiss her daughter’s cheek before looking down at her son. “Come on, you. Let’s go change your sister’s diaper.

              Her son pouted, but one strong look from her, and he followed her up the stairs and into the nursery. The change came quick, for the sake of Josie’s sensitive stomach. Josif passed her the wipes, more than she needed, but she would never stop him from being helpful. She had just finished redressing Juljiana when the doorbell rang.

              Josie waited, thinking that Nenad would get the door, but when the bell rang twice more, she got annoyed. “Where in the world is that boy?” she asked quietly.

              “What boy?”

              Josie shook her head. “None of your business, baby boy.” She guided him back to the stairs, really upset with the person that had turned into an asshole. Did they have to lean on the bell because poor Josif had to hold his hands over his ears and she did the same to her daughter?

              She wanted to throw open the door and begin cursing out the “guest,” but she wasn’t going to do that with her kids with her. Instead, she peered out of the side window, finding Gary standing there with a shotgun in his hand. Josie didn’t bother to figure out anything else. She grabbed hold of her son, tightened the one that she had on her daughter, and bolted back up the stairs and into her bedroom, making sure that she closed and locked it behind her. She rushed her son into the bathroom, setting Juljiana in the tub with her son.

              In the bedroom, she grabbed her charging cellphone and then felt under the bed for where she remembered Žarko putting his gun. Her hands touched empty space. “No. Oh, God, no. Where the hell did he put it?” She tried sliding under the bed as much as possible, but finding nothing, was forced to run back into the bathroom with her kids. Good thing she did, because she began hearing the sound of banging coming from below, causing Juljiana to begin crying.

              She locked that door as well, climbing into the tub with the children. She gathered her daughter into her lap, hoping to shush her, even as she tried quieting Josif’s voice. In between all of this, her mind raced as to what she needed to do next.

              She could call the police. Most likely she should have, but something kept telling her that she needed to call her husband. So that’s what she did. Crying as soon as his voice reached her.

              “Josie. What is wrong?”

              “It’s Gary,” she said. “He’s trying to break into the house with a gun.”

              The pure menace that seemed to float through the airwaves of the phone surprised even her. It made her question whether she had actually made the right decision. Maybe it would be better to call the police and get them involved.

              “Where are you?”

              “In the bathroom, she whispered. “In our bedroom. Please tell me you’re close.” The sound of banging came closer, letting her know that he’d made it to the bedroom. “He’s at the bedroom door.”

              “I’m pulling up to the house now,” he said, and she could have almost passed out at the relief of knowing that he was here. The banging at the bedroom paused, as if Gary had either heard something, or had changed his mind about what he was going to do.

              Josie waited, both children pressed against her sides. The only thing she heard was a gunshot. She screamed, not even noticing how scared her children were in their tears. She climbed out the tub, searching for a weapon of some kind, hoping and praying like hell that Gary hadn’t shot her husband. She didn’t know what she would do if something happened to him.

              She eased her way to the door, leaning against it to try to hear something. Her phone rang, scaring the hell out of her, before she answered, hearing her husband’s ring tone. “Open the door, Josie.”

              She scrabbled for the first lock, not being able to calm her shaking enough to get the door to open. Renewed banging came from the bedroom door, louder than that what Gary had done, so she knew that Žarko, at least, planned to obliterate the door if he had to.

              Finally, her door opened and Žarko was there to hold her tight. Josif climbed out of the tub himself to wrap his little arms around his father. Then, because Juljiana made a noise in the kitchen, her husband let her go long enough to pick him up and then moved to retrieve Juljiana before she hurt herself in the hard tub trying to get out.

              Josie stood there, watching him, more like assessing him to make sure that there was absolutely no damage done to him. “You’re okay?” she asked him.

              He guided his family to the bed, where they could all rest comfortably. Josie couldn’t help reaching for him when it looked as if he were about to leave them. Žarko allowed it, perhaps knowing that she needed the extra comfort. With his free hand, he picked her the nearest phone and dialed 911, reporting the events as they happened.

              It didn’t take the police and ambulance long to arrive on the scene. Josie worried about Žarko being arrested for murder, especially when she was separated from him to be questioned. Someone tried to take her children, which caused her a massive amount of panic.

              Jason refused to be separated from his father, so she had no idea how that questioning went. She only knew that she wanted the eyes of people that she trusted to be on her children at all times. And at the moment, the only people she trusted were herself and her husband.

              For hours she answered questions about the events, the same questions coming again and again until Josie was shouting for them to get to the point and leave her alone. She hated feeling as if the authorities weren’t listening, because what did they know about the scare that she went through with her children.

              Her mind already raced at the lasting affects this might have on her little ones. She’d never been so glad and yet so resentful for her husband’s occupation as she was at that moment. The police finally left in enough time for her to leave and pick up the girls from school. The nice dinner she’d planed had to be scrapped because it got burnt beyond recognition in all of the confusion of the home invasion and the self-defense of her husband.

              Žarko had already given her his credit card to pay for a hotel suit for everyone, and had even called Srecko to let him know what happened. It was all so organized and controlled, that sometime after picking up the girls and before stepping into the hotel room, it occurred to her. Nothing of the events that she went through made sense.

              She sat the kids down in front of the television, putting it on something that everyone can watch. She grabbed the pad of paper that the hotel provided and began writing out everything that happened leading up to and then during the event.

              What she found disturbed her, greatly. Nenad hadn’t been at the house, and hadn’t told her that he planned to leave, something that he would never do because of what Žarko would do to him. More than that, her husband never asked about him. In fact, he was too calm on the phone. His time of arrival also had to be questioned, considering he was supposed to be in Geneva doing something he refused to tell her about.

              Her writer’s mind worked through the whole story, from the very beginning to this moment. Žarko absolutely had set up a situation by which he would be able to get away with murder. She didn’t know how he accomplished most of the details, but at the same time, she wasn’t sure that she needed to know them either.

              Her husband’s level of intelligence set him in a place capable of doing anything that he set his mind to. He absolutely could convince the police that he acted in self-defense of his family. Gary showed up at the house uninvited, with a gun. Gary was the one that broke down the door. Josie aided her husband in murder because she called him, scared out of her mind about what her ex-husband was going to do to her.

              She buried her face in her hands. She might as well be a murderer, the way she felt, knowing that she was going to continue protecting her husband by sticking to the story as it happened for her. Nenad obviously could not be in the house because that would have looked too much like a trap. Why else would Gary feel comfortable entering the premises?

              No matter what, Josie knew that she had to deal with this. Žarko probably wouldn’t admit to his plan, and she wouldn’t want to ask him while the police were searching for evidence and what they considered the truth. She wanted to know nothing that would get anyone into trouble.

              “That man better be so lucky that I’m so in love with him,” she whispered to herself. She would have to do so much praying and soul searching, but at the end of the day, Gary didn’t have to bring a gun to the house and certainly, no one asked him to break down the door.

              She didn’t want to rationalize this, but she really did have to be honest. Gary deserved a bullet to the brain if he thought that using violence was a good idea to make his case. He should have just left her alone after the court case, and understood that she loved the life she lived. She loved her family. She would die and kill to keep her children safe. She had no intentions of creating chaos where she lived. If that made her part of Žarko’s dark world, then that’s what it would have to be. Her husband would always have her loyalty. Until the end of days.