by Bry Ann
“I don’t die.” I nudge him playfully, ignoring my own pounding heart.
“I am beginning to think that.”
“Where’s Gunner?” Rex gaze flickers to the hall. I realize then exactly where he is. Of course. Gunner. Smart. He is taking out potential threats. Keeping other people out. Smart fucking man.
I run back over to Anatoli and Tobias. I let Sam and Rex handle our escape. As soon as I see Anatoli’s pale face my heart stops and I tear up again.
“He needs a hospital.”
“No shit Alex,” Tobias snaps.
For the first time since I met him, I see Tobias truly struggling not to kill, to completely lose it. Because if he loses the person he’d kill would be me. My group. Everyone in the room who witnessed his brother getting shot. I stay quiet and give him time to deal. I rub Anatoli’s hair back.
“You still with me?” I whisper.
“Here. Is Tobias?” Anatoli whispers, his voice hoarse.
“Kind of.”
“Make sure... make sure he doesn’t hurt anyone.”
Then Anatoli’s eyes roll back and he passes out. Yeah, thanks for the easy task. Tobias is a fucking human weapon. How could I ever stop him if he decides to kill?
Thankfully, Gunner runs back in the room. “We need to leave. Now.”
I look around. Tobias has Anatoli over his shoulder, being careful of his bullet wound. Anatoli weights a lot more than him so it’s incredible that he is just standing here waiting for us without any sign of struggle on his face. I instinctively look for Rex. I'm surprised to see he’s holding Sam. Confused, I look at Sam. She is pale white, shaking and there is vomit all over the floor. My eyes whip around the room to find out what happened.
Holy shit.
To say Blaze made Pytor suffer is the understatement of the century. There’s no question my nightmare is dead. He is nothing but a pile of flesh and bone spread all across the floor. Blaze is covered in blood, and he still hasn’t stopped. The knife in his hand is still furiously carving away. I run over and put my hand on his shoulder. I owe him this. I'm more than willing to risk what could come of trying to stop him. This is what Mia would want.
“Stop Blaze! He’s dead. He’s dead.”
Blaze tries to jerk his shoulder free from my grip. I let go and run to the other side of the room to try and get some semblance of fresh air. I bury my urge to throw up. It’s so gross. So morbid and violent. It smells God awful.
“Stop.” I look him dead in the eye. “Blaze. He’s dead. She’s gone, Blaze.”
His face curls up in anger as the pain starts to bury him. He turns to hide his tears from me.
“Go. I’ll clean this up.”
“You sure.”
“I said got this. I’m sure.”
I let the weight settle in my chest and make my voice soft.
“Blaze, check in with someone. Please. Let someone know you are okay when you leave.”
We stare each other down. A battle of pasts, resentment, and anger coming to a head. Finally, he nods. Some of the weight lifts. I run to check on Sam. Rex has her in a firm hold. I kiss his cheek and let him take care of Sam. I follow Gunner. Somehow, by some fucking miracle, we all make it out somewhat alive.
The nightmare isn’t over because if Anatoli dies mine will just be beginning.
Chapter 18 (Dana):
I flip through the magazines on my couch. Gunner’s been gone so long. We got a chance to talk earlier, we're having a decent conversation when he had to abruptly hang up on me. Not before I heard Alex frantically shouting in the background about Sam. Worry squashes my trust. I tried to call Sam. Several times. But she never picked up. I'm so mad right now. I’ve never felt more alone. More left out. I don’t care what the danger is, I just don’t want to be left in the dark. I flip to the next page of my magazine and that’s when I lose it.
LOGAN PRESCOTT ABRUPTLY LEAVES SET IN APPARENT EMERGENCY
What? WHAT? I don’t even read the article. I stopped reading shit about Logan years ago. I always go straight to him.
I run into my room, change, pull out my keys and run to my car. I drive so fast down the highway I'm glad I don’t get pulled over. I storm out of my car and pound on Logan’s front door. He opens it, without checking the flipping peephole first, which is so unlike him. I am abruptly taken aback by his appearance. His eyes are swollen and red. He looks dirty. His knuckles are bleeding. He’s wearing sweats.
I gasp and take a step back.
“Logan, what’s…”
Dusty and Jazmine appear in the doorway so I shut up. Jazmine looks like she’s been crying. She’s still in her pajamas. Dusty is completely shut down. What the hell? What the hell. Where’s Sam?
“Dana,” Logan says with a croaky voice. “What are you doing here?”
“Let me in.”
I push through the three of them. When we are all awkwardly standing in the living room I turn to Logan and glare at him. He knows he has to talk. He sighs and visibly pulls himself together. He crouches down in front of the kids. He extends his arms to make a bubble around the kids, but Dusty pulls away.
“Can I talk to Aunt Dana alone for a bit?”
“Alone. No surprises there,” Dusty mutters.
“Is it about my mom?” Jazmine says quietly, but I catch it. My heart seizes.
“It’s just adult talk.”
He kisses Jazmine. Dusty grabs Jazmine’s hand and leads her upstairs while she cries. As they are leaving I see him rub her back to try and comfort her. He’s a good boy. When they are gone I round on Logan. Logan, my successful, big, strong brother, falls to the couch with his face his hands and cries. I’ve only seen him cry a handful of times.
“Logan,” I gasp. I run over and put my hand on his back, trying to suppress my own tears. My heart is racing.
“What happened? Talk to me. Please talk to me.”
Logan looks up. His eyes are so full of pain it makes my heartburn. I never want to see Logan hurt like this.
“Sam… she… oh fuck I knew. I knew.”
“Sam what? Knew what? Where is Sam Logan? What the hell is going on?”
“I’m not completely sure. Your boyfriend hasn’t called and updated me, but he doesn’t have to. I know Sam went off to save Alex from the bastard Gunner is chasing.”
“Gunner knows? Sam’s in trouble?” The room is spinning. “And Gunner knows.”
Logan sniffles. “Gunner didn’t plan for this. This wasn’t the plan, in his defense.”
I breathe a sigh of relief. If he knowingly put Sam in danger I couldn’t stay with him. That would destroy me. Ugh, love is so dangerous.
“Logan I…”
Am interrupted as someone begins pounding on the door. Logan lets out something between a groan and a whimper.
“Does this ever end?”
He somehow gets himself up and goes to the door. I follow him in case he emotionally can’t deal with people right now. I am prepared to step in for him. I think I am in shock. None of this feels real. It can’t be real. None of this. Logan swings the door open and instantly all the air leaves my lungs.
Gunner.
I push past Logan and run into Gunner’s arms. I can tell he’s more than more than surprised to see me, but his tense posture softens the moment he wraps his arms around me.
“Gunner, what happened? Where’s Sam? Alex? What’s going on?”
Gunner pushes me away and cocks his head to the side. Walking up the pathway is Sam. Sam. I turn to my brother. His legs give out and he grabs the door frame for support. I’ve never seen Sam look the way she does now. Her head is down with her hair covering her face. Her hands are in front of her, fidgeting. She looks meek. When she sees Logan her eyes tear up. She bites her lower lip, the guilt written all over face. She walks past me, squeezes my shoulder and goes to her man.
“I’m so sorry Logan.” Tears run down her face and she holds his arm. “I had to. I couldn’t let him take Alex.”
Logan jumps
forward and wraps his arms around her and cries. Full on sobbing into her arms. I’ve only seen him like that twice. When I tried to kill myself and when Sam was taken. I fall into Gunner’s side and he wraps his arm around me.
“So everyone’s okay?”
“Everyone you know. A friend of Alex’s got shot. He took the bullet for her.”
“Oh my God.”
“She’s with him at the hospital.”
“Is she okay?”
“She will be. The man who hurt her all those years is dead so…”
“Did you kill him?” I feel sick about that.
“No. The man who killed him deserved the opportunity.”
I pull away and frown. “Opportunity?”
His lips turn up. “I missed you, Dana. Yes, sorry. It is truly unfortunate he had to kill the rapist, murderer creep.”
I slap his arm. When he’s not looking I slowly shake my head and smile. I missed him so much. I look back over at my brother and future sister.
Sam is crying. Logan is holding her now. Comforting her. God, my brother adores her. It’d be hard pressed to find something she could do to push him away. I'm sure she’s crying right now because she is overwhelmed. Sam is strong for the world, but when she is around my brother her walls come down and she’s just a normal girl. Logan looks at me and shakes his head. I don’t know what to do with her. That’s what he’s telling me. Gunner grabs my hand and squeezes it hard, commanding my attention.
“Want to go back to your apartment. Just me and you?”
I turn to him, he cocks an eyebrow when our eyes meet. Gunner is definitely in his dominant mode. I mean he always is dominant, but sometimes more than others. I remember when he was working for Tim. When we hung out after he was done with a job he was so much more commanding than when we spent time together during his time off.
I nod and walk over to Sam. I give her arm a squeeze and whisper for her to call me. I nod at Logan and let them have their moment. Good luck to them, because they have two kids they have to deal with on top of everything else. They can’t just cry, have sex and talk. They have to explain to their kids that everything is okay first. I don’t envy them. I’d offer to babysit for them, but Gunner would completely kill me. He wants alone time just the two of us desperately. Probably to do the former; cry, have sex and talk. I can’t imagine how stressful what all he just went through was.
Once we are in the car Gunner’s posture relaxes considerably. Once Gunner drives away worry hits me like a freight train. I want to ask Gunner six hundred questions, make sure he’s okay, check for injuries, but I can’t do any of these things. Gunner’s in alpha mode. He will just brush me aside. Not to mention he’d be so annoyed if I treated him like that. He would take it as an insult. I’ve learned this the hard way. The benefits of befriending a criminal before dating him. You learn this random shit.
“You look skinny Dana,” Gunner says, breaking up the silence.
“Thank you.” I smile.
Gunner shoots me a very hard look. “I didn’t mean it as a compliment Dana.”
“You think I look bad?”
“I think you look like you haven’t been eating.”
“I… Geez, I don’t need to explain myself to you! You’ve been out on a killing mission, and somehow you’ve managed to turn this on me to make it seem like I'm the one who’s been partaking in bad habits!”
I cross my arms over my chest and slump back in my seat. I know he’s saying that because he cares, but whenever anyone brings up my bad habits I get unusually defensive. Usually, Gunner’s able to ask me about things and we can have a civil conversation about it, but given where he just was I am more defensive than usual.
The rest of the ride is silent. I can see Gunner is stewing over something, but whatever it is he doesn’t say. I remain stubborn. I stay closed off from him, but I hate that I feel the need to partake in this silent battle. I missed him so much and now I’ve gotten myself into a ‘who is going to apologize first’ war with the most stubborn man in the world. That’s the real reason I am pouting. Stupid feelings. Stupid hot, dangerous boyfriend.
When Gunner pulls up to my apartment I get out of the car first and bolt up to my apartment. I play it off like I am still being stubborn, but really I am intensely mortified because I didn’t clean up when I left in a hurry. My kitchen counter is filled with hot cocoa ingredients, and let’s say not all the ingredients are in their respective containers. My couch has been turned into a blanket hoarders dream, and my tv has wires everywhere from where I connected YouTube to my television. In fact, I am pretty sure my TV is still on and playing some girly crap. Ugh.
I throw open my door and quickly turn off the TV. Then I run to the kitchen and frantically try and wipe the chocolate from the counters. I am hunched over, mid clean up when somebody touches my shoulder. I jump, my hands come flying up to defend myself. Gunner is standing there looking thoroughly amused. He cages me in with his arms and smiles. I love his smile, but I so genuinely humiliated that I can’t think straight. I know my cheeks are flaming red, and Gunner is on the verge of laughter. Gunner never laughs.
“Did you subside solely on hot chocolate while I was away?” He laughs slips out. It’s such a beautiful, rough, sexy sound. It’s a shame I'm too embarrassed to enjoy it.
“It’s hot cocoa, not hot chocolate, and I was constantly changing the ingredients. I never used the same recipe twice!”
Ugh, why was I trying to save my dignity? It’s beyond saving at this point.
His smile gets even wider. “Is that so?”
“Yes! It is. Mini marshmallows, big ones, cinnamon, nutmeg. It’s never ending really.”
Gunner tries to hide his amusement behind his hand. He looks past me to the filthy counters.
“I see that,” he smirks.
... and my facade falls. I hide my face behind my hands and groan.
“Please stop. This is so embarrassing. I didn’t know you were coming back today. I left in a hurry. I would have cleaned up, of course, if I’d known.”
“You would have hidden all this from me? That’d have been a shame.”
I look up at him with an open mouth.
“Uh, duh you idiot!”
I slap his chest. Gunner lets his head fall back and he laughs so hard. When he looks back at me his eyes are happy and bright. Something I never get to see unless we are joking around. It’s one of the things that makes me happiest in life.
“Oh Dana, you don’t know how much I needed this. I love you.”
My insides turn all mushy like they do every time he says that to me.
“I love you too Gunner. I missed you. I was so worried.”
My voice is soft. I hate admitting that to him, but I can’t hide it from him either. He smiles and kisses my forehead, but when he pulls away his eyes are dark. Since I know he won’t hurt me it honestly just turns me on.
“What was that crap in the car about not needing to explain yourself to me.” His tone is sharp, and he cages me further in his arms.
“Ah, I knew you were stewing over something in the car!” He doesn’t say a word. He keeps staring at me. He really expects an answer to this. “I don’t need to explain myself to you.”
Gunner leans in and kisses me so aggressively I have to lean onto the counter for support. I moan as he wraps his hands around my waist. I hold onto him, before it can go any further he pulls away, keeping that same dark expression on his face.
“You are my girl. It is my job to protect you. It’s easy on jobs like the one I just had for me to make sure you don’t get involved in any way, but how am I supposed to protect you when your enemy is your own mind, huh? I need you to explain yourself to me because I love you and I can’t help you if I don’t know.” He nips at my ear and smirks. “You have to. I will make you.”
“Oh, don’t get all alpha now. That was possibly the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me. And you,” I stab his chest with my finger, “you left me out of everything
on purpose! You didn’t want me to get hurt.”
Gunner nods. “Of course, but it wasn’t just you getting involved in this job that scared me. Your mind. I have to protect that. It was some twisted shit, Dana. I love your heart. I’m not gonna let some Russian asshole change you in any way.”
“But Sam and Alex?”
He waves a hand flippantly. “They are hardened. Good people, but no one’s darkening their hearts anytime soon.”
I snort. “You are an asshole. You do know that right?”
“I say it like it is.”
“No, you say it as you see it.”
“Same difference.”
“Oh, my gosh and you are cocky too.”
“Confident babe.”
“Cocky.”
“Confident.”
“Cocky.”
“Confident.”
“Are we five?”
He kisses me and scoops me up in his arms and takes me to my room.
Nope. We are most definitely not five.
Chapter 19 (Rex):
My phone buzzes in pocket. I quickly glance over at Alex who has not left Anatoli’s side ever since we arrived at the hospital. Tobias has been busy pacing the hospital, threatening all the hospital staff. Alex has been crying quite tears and silently begging Anatoli to be okay. I had no idea she cared about him that much. To be honest, I don’t think she knew either, not until the bullet pierced his skin. It’s funny how almost losing someone makes you realize how much you care.
My phone buzzes in my pocket. I glance over at Alex to make sure she’s okay. She’s on the verge of falling asleep, but fighting it. So she’s fine. I quietly sneak out of the room.
“Hello, this is Rex.”
“Rex, its Blaze.” Something about Blaze makes my mood drop instantly.
“I just wanted to let you know that this won’t fall back on all of you and I’m alive. Tell Alex I called.”
I internally take a deep breath. “You finally realized she didn’t want any of this to happen.”
I feel the tone change. “I realize she’s a kid who got in way over her head and caused the death of my fiance.”
“Yeah, she’s my sister too Blaze. You know Alex was just as much of a victim.”