Draft version - Russian Roulette - Family secrets

Ch. 51: I pretty much consider our relationship over

Day 4 of the hostage situation.

Gareth sat at his desk staring at the screen of his laptop. Spreadsheets, stock updates, contracts. Reports from his men and their different areas of responsibilities. Emails, phonecalls, texts and a few random old school letters. None of them could grab his attention.

His mind was one place and one place only.

Back at their apartment with Mackenzie.

Their apartment.

He had not noticed when he had begun calling it theirs and not his. Maybe it was that day when he had brought Mackenzie to the hospital and ordered Jace to get the apartment ready for them to move into the second Mackenzie had been discharged. He had demanded Jace got it done at any cost, luckily Jace had done everything to his specifications and more.

The apartment was theirs, it was where he wished they could build a life together, where he would cherish every moment spent with her. Unless she wanted to live somewhere else. A house, another apartment, another city or country. He would go wherever she went if she would just let him.

If she would just accept him.

When the fuck had he turned into a sappy romance prince?

What he would not give for an attack on a warehouse or even Grychenko to piss him off which could bring out something in him not fluffy enough to stuff in a teddy bear.

Just sodding something!

He was Gareth fucking Tempest not some Disney prince ready to burst into song and dance on some meadow among deer and butterflies.

The knock on his office door surprised him.

Usually Nina would stop whoever tried to get to him unless it was Vasili, Cracker, Jace or Phoenix and of course, Mackenzie. They normally had an appointment with him when they came to his office and Mackenzie never knocked like that.

"Adjenkov, you'd better open that fucking door right now. I know you're in there!"

What the fuck?

Gareth grabbed the gun he had strapped under his desk and held it in the holster aimed at the door. Though he was sure Nina had done it already, he quickly clicked the panic button alerting his men and waited.

"Enter."

He was not afraid. If it was his time his only regret would be dying without having told Mackenzie he was sorry.

The door was not only slammed open it nearly went off its hinges as it was opened with great force and revealed an extremely angry Vittorio Sante. His tall and broad body in an impeccable Italian suit filled the doorway; his grey hair partially disheveled and the dark brown eyes, resembling Mackenzie's, were cold and fixed on Gareth.

"You..." Vittorio raged taking a step into the office. "...have a fuckload of explaining to do, Dragon."

Gareth let go of the gun and stood up addressing Nina who was worriedly wringing her hands looking in at Vittorio with fear. "Nina, it's ok. That's Mackenzie's father."

"Mr. Angel," Nina mumbled respectfully and withdrew to her desk not wanting to know what kind of trouble Gareth was in with Mackenzie's dad.

Vittorio slammed the door shut and focused on Gareth. He looked at him from head to where the rest of him disappeared behind the large desk. In terms of being handsome and young, Mackenzie had been right, from an objective standpoint he understood why women liked what they saw, and sadly why his daughter was attracted to him.