by Zoey Parker
If she wanted out, if she wanted to be free, I would let her go. I never understood the saying about loving someone and letting him or her go so that if they came back, you would know it really was love. But now I did. If I had to let her go, I would hope and pray she would come back to me. I would do anything for that. I would change. I would become a better man. Hell, I wanted to be a better man for myself. All of the rage and anger I had been living off of for so long had blinded me to how good my life had been. I hadn’t cared about my money or my family — my men, my mob. Out of the tragedy of losing my parents, I had forged myself a new family, but that hadn’t been enough for me and it should’ve been. I never should have been so caught up in revenge.
Bullets flew, and one whizzed so close to me I had to duck. We were in the house, but none of us had left the entranceway. It was time to move forward, to press the attack. I nodded to my men and signaled for them to fan out. We moved onward and pressed inward, and I darted into the first room I saw, closing the door behind me just in case anyone was following me. It was a bathroom. Empty. I turned to leave, when I heard rustling.
I shoved aside the shower curtain. Cowering in the tub was one of Vasilev’s men. “Please,” he begged, his eyes wide, his hands raised. My ears were still ringing from all of the gunshots, but I could hear him, even if just barely. “Please don’t kill me. I…I have a family. A wife. Two young kids.” He reached toward his side.
I aimed my gun at him. “Don’t move.”
He winced. Maybe I was talking too loudly. “I just want to show you… their picture,” he said. “My wallet…”
“Where?”
“Back left pocket.”
I made him stand up and turn around and grabbed out his wallet. He slowly turned back around as I opened it. Cute pictures of a little boy and girl playing in the sand, a picture of the guy and a beautiful woman in front of a nice but small house.
Not lowering the gun, I handed him back the wallet. “I’m—”
“I know who you are. I…Mikhail’s my cousin and…” He winced. “Shouldn’t have said that…”
“I’m not here to kill just anyone,” I said hotly. “You fire at me, and I’ll fire back. You haven’t, but if you want to live, I suggest you start talking. Where is the bastard?”
“My cousin? Last I heard, he went out to buy more bullets, but he should’ve been back by now.”
“Where is he?” I growled, jabbing him with the nozzle of my gun.
The guy winced. “Probably upstairs. Look, I know I’m a coward. I shouldn’t have dashed in here, but…when push comes to shove, I pick my family over my cousin. Maybe that’s not right, but…yeah, it’s not right. I take his money. I do what he asks of me. I’ve done things…”
“We’ve all done things. Upstairs where? His bedroom? East, west?”
“Last door on the left. But he might be holed up in the basement. That’s where he keeps his armory. You really don’t want to go down there.”
“His wife and kids?”
“Aren’t here. Haven’t been since…” The guy glanced away.
“Since he realized one of my guys was involved with one of his daughters.”
The guy nodded.
“Is she…”
“Sent to live out of the country was what I heard. He won’t hurt one of his own. I don’t think. His vendetta against—”
The door opened. One of Vasilev’s men stood in the doorway. He raised his gun.
I grabbed Vasilev’s cousin and shoved him down as I ducked and fired. My second shot got the guy in the temple.
I turned to the cousin. “Get the hell out of here,” I barked. “Too many loose bullets, and you have a family to get back to.”
He nodded, pulled out a gun from his boot, and handed it to me. “You didn’t deserve all of this.”
Maybe, maybe not. I definitely played the game, and now a ton of men were caught up in the crosshairs, dying for a pointless war. Vasilev deserved to die for what he had done years ago and for what he had done now, but the others…who could say if they should be killed, too?
I left the bathroom and fired shots to cover my ass as I made my way toward the stairs. It might be smart to sabotage the armory, but I had come here first to save Kelly, not for revenge. She was what mattered most.
A few of my men followed me upstairs, and I did whisper to Dima about the armory so he could look into it if he found the opportunity to. There were even more men upstairs, which made me believe either Kelly was up here or maybe his cousin had been right, and Vasilev was, or maybe they both were.
Kelly. I’m coming for you. I’ll save you. If it’s the last thing I do.
Chapter 33 Kelly
It sounded like a world war was going on outside of these four walls, my prison. I was terrified, afraid to move, afraid to leave, afraid to stay. My stomach was cramping again, and I felt lightheaded, woozy. I had to brace a hand against the wall to keep from falling over. Should I try to make a break for it? Try to find one of Andrei’s men, to find Andrei himself? It might be better to stay put. All those guns going off, all of those bullets…the last thing I wanted was to be caught in the crossfire.
Hand still on the wall, I walked over to the window. If I weren’t on the second floor, I would risk breaking a window and trying to escape that way, but I couldn’t risk it. There was no ledge outside of this window, just a straight drop down.
The sight of bodies lying on the floor, some of the men writhing around in pain, blood staining the grass, made me even sicker to my stomach, and I had to look away. God, help them. Help me, too. Please. This is terrible.
Andrei had come for me, but at what cost to himself and his men? Yes, I had hoped and prayed he would come rescue me, but I never thought it would end up being such a bloodbath.
The gunfire continued, on and on without end, and shouts and screams filtered to me, as well as the sound of men fighting. Terrible howls of pain as shots connected. Threats of more violence, promises that loved ones would be hunted. I couldn’t make out all of the words, and I couldn’t recognize any of the voices. My ears were beginning to hurt, even though my closed door muffled the sounds of the shots.
How long the fighting lasted, I didn’t know. Had there been neighbors to this house? Couldn’t others hear the gunfire? Would they call the police? Maybe not, if they knew they lived near a mobster’s house. Couldn’t blame them for not wanting to get involved, and maybe the police showing up wasn’t a good idea. Andrei himself was a mob boss. The police might want to arrest him or his men.
And if that happened, if we were so close to reuniting only to be separated by jail bars this time, I wouldn’t be able to handle it. I wasn’t meant for this kind of life. I needed to not live in fear. I needed something more.
I wanted something more. Out of my life. Out of his.
If we survived this somehow, I wanted to do something with my life. I didn’t just want to be Andrei Petrov’s woman or mother to his child. I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to help women who had been abused or kidnapped. I wanted to help them survive. I wanted to give them hope.
Hell, I needed hope myself right now.
The man who had kidnapped me…he wouldn’t be able to get away with this, right? I could see him try to claim this all as self-defense. They came to my house, guns ablazin’. We had no choice but to fire back. The thought sickened me. If I survived this, I would do whatever it took, I would testify, I would make sure he would end up convicted and in jail.
But I had never seen the man behind the curtain. I didn’t even know his name. His men talked about him but only ever referred to him as their boss. What if he tried to claim ignorance? What if he threw his men under the bus and said they acted under their own authority? That he hadn’t ordered them to take me? It would be my word against theirs, and considering I was involved with a mob boss, would the jury believe me?
The gunfire and the shouts of the angry and the wails of the dying grew louder. I slid backward to the c
orner. What if the door opened but it wasn’t Andrei or one of his men on the other side? What if the mobsters holding me hostage decided they didn’t need to keep me around anymore? That I was expendable? There wasn’t a weapon here. All it would take would be a gunshot.
The doorknob jiggled, and I held my breath. The door opened. The guy standing there was one I didn’t recognize, but it didn’t matter if he was friend or foe because suddenly he slumped down, bleeding profusely, dead from a shot to the temple.
I stifled a scream, my hand over my mouth. I was going to be sick again. This was a nightmare. So much death and carnage. I was going to die here. This was it. The end for the baby and me. We would die. Andrei might have already died. Who knew? The two mobs might shoot each other to the point of destroying both.
Trying to calm my stomach, I held it, hunched over, walking bent over to the door, but I didn’t leave. Bullets were whizzing by in the hallway. The house shook suddenly from a big blast beneath us, and I stumbled to the ground, landing hard. What was going on?
I brought myself up to my feet, peeked outside, and in the room across from mine, I saw Andrei. He was holding a man by the throat. His lips moved, and from his facial expression, it was obvious he was shouting. Whoever the man was, Andrei was beyond pissed at him. His arm came up, and I gasped, my hands flying to my mouth. Was he going to execute the guy? No. Andrei pistol-whipped the man, knocking him unconscious.
“Andrei!” I tried to cry out, but his name was unintelligible on my lips.
Or maybe not. He turned around, and his eyes widened. The expression on his face…I would never forget it. He looked at me like I was his whole world, his sole reason for breathing, and I couldn’t handle it. I couldn’t handle the terror that had been my life throughout this ordeal. I couldn’t handle the thought that I might be saved. I couldn’t handle Andrei and his baggage or my baggage either.
I didn’t mean to, but I started to cry. There was still fighting going on, but it did seem to be winding down some. The number of shots fired was going down. Maybe they were starting to run out of bullets. I risked a few steps forward so I could peek up and down the hallway. I sorely wished I hadn’t. The amount of dead bodies was terrible. Piles of them. Men stepping over them to shoot at others. The cost was way too high.
Andrei was making his way to me, but I didn’t want him to, terrified a stray bullet might hit him, but then he was standing in front of me and picking me up, cradling me to his chest. I had wanted this moment for so long it didn’t feel real. Maybe none of this was real. Maybe I was hallucinating or sleeping. Yes. This was all a dream. A nightmare. Both in one.
It took me a few tries to be able to lift my arms to wrap them around his neck. I could feel him, his hard, long body. He felt real. He smelled real. He looked real. Maybe this wasn’t a dream after all.
I was still crying, the tears hot against my cheeks. He had to know. He might have saved me, but the baby…I didn’t know if the baby still lived or if I had lost him or her, and that pain remained with me despite my happiness at being held by Andrei again.
Through tears and gasps for breaths, with my eyes closed so I couldn’t see his reaction, I managed to say, “I’ve been bleeding. Andrei…Andrei, I probably lost the baby. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry…”
I couldn’t stop apologizing, to both him and to myself. When I opened my eyes, I saw that his face was fierce and grim, so grim. But he didn’t say anything. He just walked down the hallway, stepping over bodies, ignoring the carnage. He held me close, and I should feel safe. I had always felt safe in his arms.
I didn’t feel safe. I didn’t feel happy.
My sense of happiness, my sense of self, my sense of security…they had taken a lot more than just my body by holding me prisoner.
Andrei carefully carried me downstairs, cradling me close to his chest, and we made our way outside. He tenderly placed me in the backseat of his car and belted me in. Then he got behind the wheel. Taking me away from my prison. Taking me to the hospital.
I was free.
But I still felt trapped.
Chapter 34 Andrei
Leaving wasn’t easy. I had hit Mikhail Vasilev hard in the temple with the butt of my gun, but he was just unconscious. He wasn’t dead. I hadn’t had my revenge. I had gone upstairs, hoping to find either Vasilev or Kelly.
And I did find Vasilev, or rather he found me.
Maybe because of his cousin, or maybe because I was growing more desperate and just wanted to find Kelly as quickly as possible, I found myself aiming for legs rather than head shots. I was shooting to stop rather than kill. Might be stupid, but I did find that since I changed my shot location, my bullets were hitting their mark with more precision.
The amount of Vasilev’s goons up here was insane. It was a blessing I didn’t come up by myself. The ringing in my ears was growing worse, and my arms were growing sore from holding up the guns, but I didn’t stop. I didn’t quit.
My guys and I were in a tight circle, back to back, firing both sides of the hallway. Vasilev’s guys flooded the hallway, though some stayed in the doorways, using them as a shield to pop out from behind.
A few of my men, myself included, wore Kevlar. It wasn’t easy to get hands on it, or else I would’ve gotten enough for every single one of us.
Up and down the hall, I noticed which doors guys had left from and which had guys hiding in. Two doors had no activity, both on the left.
I motioned for the man next to me to cover me, and I darted down the hallway. The gun from Vasilev’s cousin ran out of bullets, and I used the butt of it to slam into the temple of a guy who rushed me. After I shot off another couple of shots, I knocked a guy down, shoved another toward one of his mates, and tackled yet another one. The useless gun smacked against his face, and he stopped moving.
More volleys of shots fired overhead, and I kept low as I neared the doors in question.
One of them opened, and I darted inside to see none other than Mikhail Vasilev, surrounded by no less than ten of his men.
“Leave us,” Vasilev demanded. “He’s mine.”
I dropped the gun that held no bullets and stepped forward to allow his men enough space to be able to live. How fitting that it would come down to this — to just him versus just me.
“You never should’ve taken her,” I growled.
Vasilev shrugged. “You never should’ve had your man sniff around my daughter.”
I circled around him, my gun raised and aimed directly at his. “If your daughter wouldn’t have talked so freely, he wouldn’t have bothered with her skirts.”
He sneered and fired a shot that I jerked to the side to avoid.
“Oh, did I hit a nerve?” I mocked.
“You’re too arrogant and cocky for someone who has lost so much already. Or have you forgotten what I did to your parents? It was my mistake that I didn’t kill you off then.”
I smirked at him. “There’s a reason why you haven’t tried harder to kill me. You need the ransom money more than you need me dead. Oh, I’m sure you’ll kill me if I bothered to pay you, but—”
“I fired a shot at you,” he growled. “I could easily kill you right now.
“Then pull the trigger,” I said hotly. I damn near pulled the trigger myself. The firepower going off in the hallway was increasing, and a few guys were backing up and into my line of sight through the open door. Chaos, that’s what this was, and it would be a miracle if I could get Kelly and myself out of here alive.
Vasilev hesitated.
I barked a laugh. “You won’t, and I know why. Because you need me alive for my money. You’re that desperate for the ransom money.”
A loud explosion went off, and the house shook slightly. I darted forward and knocked Vasilev’s gun aside, clear across the room.
He backed up slightly, hands raised. “Listen, I—”
“No. You listen,” I hissed. “I don’t care who it is that kills you. Me. The police. The guys at Sanchez Truckin
g. Oh, wait…didn’t you realize I knew about that? About how you’re a wanted man? Because I did. You’re a dead man any way you look at it, Vasilev, because I can’t pay you. I won’t. I refuse.”
Sweat dotted his brow. I could hear a door swing open from nearby, more gunshots, too, but I didn’t glance away. I had Vasilev right where I wanted him.
“I could ask you to beg. I could make you get down on your hands on knees and plead for me to spare you. I could grab your family from wherever you stashed them, bring them here, and kill them in retaliation for what you did to me.” Quick as a snake, I leaped forward and twisted him around, his head in the crook of my arm as I held him tight in a headlock. “I could, but what would be the sense in that?” I whispered in his ear. “I know you, Vasilev. You would rather die than be thrown in jail. You would kill yourself first if given the chance since you know neither I nor the guys you owe money to won’t give you a peaceful, merciful death.” I pistol whipped him, and he slumped to the ground, unconscious but still alive. I bent down over him. “You won’t get the chance to hurt anyone else that I care about.”