Chapter Fifteen
The sun had nearly set by the time that everyone made it out to the other side of the farm. Walking through the rich soil with their pants rolled up past their ankles, they talked about what a great investment the winery had been and how marvelous Victoria’s work had been.
Anatoly was silent. With a growl, he followed his father and Victoria and watched Gabriel carefully. He had told his father, but he didn’t know if it had registered. He did not trust the man. What was blind obedience if a man questioned authority down to the very minute? When his father had ordered him to kill someone, he had done it without hesitation or reason. Plus, he had hoped the damned gun was loaded. He would have liked nothing more than to see Victoria’s brains splattered against the concrete.
A small smile tugged at the side of his lip as he looked at the back of her head. She went on talking and pointing, like the queen of the Nile, showing them all what the farmers had done, taking credit for their work. All she had done was what she was supposed to do. What was great in that?
“What are you brooding over?” Dmitry asked, falling back from the crowd. He motioned for his and Anatoly’s bodyguards to walk in front of them.
“I don’t see why I have to stomach her much longer,” Anatoly answered his father under his breath. “She irritates me.”
Dmitry shook his head. “It’s hard to whisper when I’m this tall.” He looked over the vines of the vast farm and breathed in the fresh air. “We’ll talk about this later, da. I’m sure you’ll feel better then.”
“I don’t see how,” Anatoly said, feeling his phone vibrate. He checked it. It wasn’t Renee.
When they arrived at the vine patch named Lilith, Dmitry stepped up to the grapes and pulled one from the vine. Tasting it, he shook his head in approval.
“This is Lilith?”
Gabriel asked, pulling a grape from the vine as well. “What’s the
meaning?”
“I was waiting for that question,” Dmitry said with a smile. “I’m
not Jewish, obliviously, but a man I met in Moscow a while back
told me an interesting story from the Midrash, which is a
collection of books that hold their ancient folklore. Now according
to the Midrash, Lilith was the first wife of Adam. She was made
from the same dirt as he was and considered herself his equal.”
Dmitry kneeled down and grabbed a handful of dirt in his hands.
“Legend has it that she was very beautiful with fiery red hair.
Now, Lilith didn’t want to lay with Adam. So she called out God’s
name, was damned for her disobedience, sprouted wings and flew
away.”
Anatoly looked up at Dmitry with a what-in-the-hell expression on his face. He shifted from one foot to the other and looked around. All eyes were on his father. The bodyguards stood behind them, bewildered by the man’s intriguing tale.
Dmitry continued, noting his son’s confusion. “Anyway, she was turned into a demon that supposedly ate children. And she enticed men in their dreams to lure them away even though in reality she was a frigid, cold-hearted spawn.”
Gabriel shook his head. “And you want to name a bottle of wine out of a child-eating demon? You might not want to tell them what the real meaning behind it is. It’s not very marketable.”
“I am naming the line of wine after her because of what she stands for. She is an enticer. She cannot be trusted not around men, not around their children.” Dmitry looked at Victoria.
“You never told me why you gave the wine that name,” Victoria said quietly.
“I named it for you,” Dmitry said, pulling another grape from the vine. “You are after all an enticer. You cannot be trusted. And for all purposes of this conversation, you have always bitten every hand that has ever fed you.” Dmitry sucked his teeth.
“We know about the call you made to Agosto,” Anatoly said, happy to have finally arrived at the moment when he could get to his real purpose for being there. “We know that you told him about me.”
She turned slowly to Anatoly. Her eyes spoke volumes, full of fire, shooting daggers. Clenching her jaw, she narrowed her eyes at him.
“Lilith,” Anatoly said, lifting his palms to the air.
“Care to sprout your wings one last time for us?” Dmitry asked, pulling his gun into sight.
Gabriel was slow to grasp what was happening. He went from trying to understand the story to witnessing a murder.
Dmitry was less theatrical than his story. Ready to get the entire situation past him, he looked at his watch before he continued. Gun pointed, he sighed. “Do you need a moment to ask God for forgiveness? Need to make any last requests?”
“You’re a monster,” Victoria said with tears in her eyes. “And I hope that you burn in hell, but first I hope that you live long enough to see your entire legacy die before you.” She spat at Anatoly’s feet.
The rest was in slow motion for her. She glanced down the path toward the fleeting sun and took a deep breath. The dirt crunched under her feet as she pushed down against it, running as hard as she could, as far away as she could. She ran towards the sunset, towards the beauty she had found in Tuscany, towards the end.
Dmitry always hated harming women, but he couldn’t bring himself to have his men do it. This had been his mistake. He had brought her here. He had introduced her to his son. He had put his son, his wife, his daughter in danger. In truth, this was his problem to fix.
It only took one bullet. Her graceful run had halted as the bullet hit her in the back of her head. Blood shot from the wound. Her long arms extended up and out as she fell forward into the dirt. The wind blew through Dmitry’s hair as he turned, ignoring Gabriel’s telling eyes. He turned his gun on her bodyguard.
“You were responsible for watching her every move, da?”
The man stepped back into the bushes.
Dmitry’s restraint was less resistant for men. With the pull of his trigger, he shot him twice in the chest. The muscular man fell backwards into the vines.
Anatoly looked over at the dead man curiously.
“He was sleeping with her,” Dmitry answered his son’s gaze. “He got so wrapped up in his own will, he forgot mine. I told him to watch her phone records, listen to her calls, watch her every move to ensure that she didn’t get out of hand. If he had only done his job, he wouldn’t be joining her.” He turned to Vasily. “Get rid of this,” he said, giving the gun to Anatoly’s bodyguard.
Gabriel could not believe what he had just witnessed. A woman and her bodyguard had been brutally murdered in front of him, and he was incapable of doing anything about it. Swallowing his fear, he fought hard to keep his control. Dmitry walked up to him, looked into his eyes and spoke softly into his ear.
“Are you sure that you’re ready for this?” Dmitry asked as he walked past Gabriel.
“What about the body? Are you just going to leave her...it here?” Gabriel asked, watching the men walk off.
“I’m not an undertaker,” Dmitry said, rolling his eyes.
Anatoly smirked as he looked up at him. He was happy, truly, genuinely euphoric. The bitch who had stood in his way was finally gone. He felt better than the moment he had found out that she was still alive many months ago. He felt better than the first time that he had held her in his arms. Without giving her a second thought, he followed his father back towards the house with Vasily in tow.
Gabriel stood in the path as the sun set behind him. The wind blew past his body taking with it the soul of a woman he’d barely known. Defeated, he finally followed. If he turned to her now, he might just meet her end. I’ll get you all, he thought to himself, for her, for my father, for my mother...