Saviours

by Beth Abbott

  There had been something off about him all night, from the way he’d tried to convince the rest of his guests earlier that everything was fine, to the way he now looked worried that Drago was going to be severely pissed off.

  What the hell was that about?

  Sergei Lebedev was one of the most powerful arms dealers in Russia, and certainly one of the richest. What the hell did he have to look worried about?

  Twenty minutes later the last fight of the night was over, and thankfully the only blood that had been shed was from a cut on one man’s brow, and the other guy’s broken nose.

  “Come everybody…” Lebedev urged his guests towards the dining room. “My chef has provided a delicious late supper, and then our lovely hostesses will provide you with the dessert of your choice in your cabins.”

  “Excuse me Mr Drago?” A woman’s voice distracted him from glaring at Lebedev. “Mr Lebedev asked me to make sure you were… satisfied, this evening.”

  Drago looked around to find one of the hostesses nervously standing a few feet away.

  Shit! This was the last thing he needed right now.

  “What’s your name?” He asked, making sure to keep a hard edge to his voice.

  “My name can be whatever you want it to be.” The woman purred, obviously thinking she held his interest.

  Drago stepped closer to her, causing the woman to lean back simply to look up at his face.

  “When I want to fuck a woman who’s so weak she can’t even claim her own name, I’ll go and find one for myself.” He growled at her. “Now, I suggest you go back to your room and hide under the bed for the next twelve hours so that nobody sees you. And maybe I won’t tell Mr Lebedev you displeased me so badly I had to send you away.”

  The woman stepped back in fear, her face pale and shocked.

  “But… but…” She obviously couldn’t even decide whether to follow his order or not.

  “Or would you rather I took you straight to Mr Lebedev now? Hmm?” Drago threatened. “Do you think he’d kill you before he threw you overboard? Or would he just throw you overboard, and let you drown?”

  “I…” She obviously knew Lebedev was capable of doing both.

  “You have five seconds to be out of my sight, or your fate will be sealed.” He glanced at his watch. “Four, three…”

  “I’m sorry!” The woman stammered as she turned and took flight towards the back door.

  He’d seen the hostesses coming from that direction earlier, so he could only assume that was where she was going to hide out of sight.

  Drago didn’t hang around to see if she came back, turning and following the last of the guests making their way into the dining room. He didn’t have time to waste regretting that he’d treated the girl harshly.

  He noticed that a buffet had been set up on one side, and Sergei and his guests were helping themselves to food and taking seats at a large table.

  He tagged onto the end of the queue for food, not ready to get into it with Lebedev in front of his other guests, and when several of the security guys in front of him tried to wave him forward to jump the queue, he shook his head.

  He needed to bide his time and postpone the conversation he was going to have with Sergei until most of the guests were out of the way.

  It wouldn’t matter whether the delay was one hour or five. The anger and guilt in the pit of his stomach wasn’t going to diminish anytime soon.

  He filled a plate with food and sat down at the opposite end of the room, at a table that seemed to be reserved for security and less important staff.

  He knew he was getting strange stares, but he didn’t care.

  Drago picked at the food on his plate, and for the most part kept his head down, the scowl on his face obviously fierce enough to deter the people around him from trying to engage him in friendly conversation.

  Every so often he would hear the scrape of chairs as one of Sergei’s guests rose to leave, and then there would be the sound of some female giggling and some banter as the guest led their hostess out of the dining room, ready for some adult ‘entertainment’.

  Gradually the guests disappeared until only Lebedev was left, still sitting with a few of his men and one of the hostesses, who was sitting on his lap.

  Drago pushed his plate away and stood up, walking around the tables until he reached Lebedev and his men.

  “A word, Sergei?” Drago said quietly, the fury simply yet clearly broadcast despite the lack of volume.

  The arms’ dealer looked up at him, and for a moment Drago thought he might be stupid enough to brush him off.

  In the end, with a shrug, Sergei dismissed the hostess and the rest of his men and signalled for Drago to take one of the empty chairs.

  “Take a seat, Drago.” Sergei nodded towards the chair opposite. “I know you have something to get off your chest, but there’s no reason why I need to strain my neck looking up at you while you do so.”

  Drago turned the chair around and sat astride it, resting his arms on the back.

  “Why don’t you have a drink?” Sergei pushed a bottle towards him, but Drago ignored it.

  “Ok, I get it.” Sergei sighed. “You’re pissed that your man got hurt.”

  Drago waited until Sergei met his eyes.

  “You have no idea how pissed I am.” He said quietly. “You see, my ‘man’, as you put it, is one of my friends, not just an employee. He and I have a history of trust and loyalty that has nothing to do with how much I pay him.”

  Lebedev took a sip of his drink, but Drago could see his hands weren’t as steady as his voice.

  “Now, I have other men, other friends that will be fighting for me tomorrow.” Drago continued. “And I’m supposed to tell them what? That we’re fighting honestly when others are allowed to break your so-called non-rules? My men and I live by a code, Sergei. I thought the same was true of you as well. Or is it that you talk big, but haven’t got the balls to enforce, hmm? People no longer think you’re a threat, so they think they can do whatever the fuck they want, hmm?”

  Drago had kept his voice low, but Sergei would have had to be a fool not to recognise the anger and contempt beneath the surface.

  He half-expected Lebedev to explode in one of his legendary fits of temper, and maybe pull out a weapon.

  “Your friend was badly injured today, so I’ll forgive you your little rant.” Sergei smiled at him, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “But don’t make the same mistake as our Polish friend and think that I can be ignored, or worse, embarrassed. When I give an order, I expect it to be obeyed, or the repercussions are swift and unequivocal.”

  Drago shrugged.

  “If that’s supposed to give me a measure of reassurance that I can take back to the rest of my fighters, then I’m not entirely sure it succeeded.” He scowled. “And what do the other teams think? They’ve still got to fight the cheating bastards tomorrow.”

  Sergei took a sip of his drink before placing the glass down on the table in front of him.

  “I can assure you that nobody will be fighting the ‘cheating bastards’ tomorrow.” He smiled reassuringly. “I did say that repercussions were swift, didn’t I?”

  “What do you mean?” Drago frowned. “What repercussions?”

  Sergei chuckled, taking a sip of his drink before he answered.

  “Let’s just say I wasn’t happy that the Polish fighter was acting alone.” He shrugged. “The whole team has been removed from the ship, and that includes your friend, Orlov.”

  Drago looked around, not sure what Sergei was saying.

  “How did you manage that?” He scowled. “It would have taken a helicopter a while to be dispatched, and we would have heard it arriving.”

  Sergei burst out laughing and Drago felt an unpleasant tingling sensation run down his spine.

  “Next you’re going to be asking if we dispatched the lifeboat to take them back to port.” Sergei sneered. “Did you really think I would let them dishonour me that way and allow the
m to live?”

  “You’ve killed them already?” Drago whispered, trying to get the shock under control.

  “Come now, Drago!” Sergei shook his head. “Your reputation was of a man of action. A man that was decisive, and who knew how to control every situation. Not someone who would balk at dealing with the Poles in the only way that fit the crime.”

  Drago knew he was being challenged and leaned forward.

  “I am a man of action, and I have my own way of dishing out punishments.” He glared at Lebedev.

  “Yet you balk at the way I disposed of the Poles.” Sergei sneered.

  “No, Sergei, what I was surprised about was the high-handed way you disposed of them yourself, without giving a thought to me or the man they wronged.” Drago argued. “Kellen should have had the chance to extract his own pound of flesh from the guy who cut him up so badly. You’ve stolen that from him.”

  Sergei stared at Drago for a few seconds, and Drago steeled himself to keep up the appearance of a wronged master.

  “I see now that I was too hasty.” Lebedev nodded. “I possibly didn’t think it through when I made my decision. I was only thinking of my own embarrassment, and not of you or your fighter. For that I apologise.”

  Drago nodded, as though he was reluctantly accepting Sergei’s apology.

  “So, what happens now?” He shrugged. “We’re a team short for the next round.”

  “Unfortunately, there’s no way I can introduce another team at this late stage. It’s simply not possible.” Lebedev frowned. “I’ll have to come up with another format that will satisfy all my guests and will also not disadvantage your team now that you have an injured man.”

  Drago stood up and headed for the door.

  “I’ll leave you with the task of figuring out what will work.” He nodded, as he paused with his hand on the door-handle. “But I’ll expect kit and glove checks to be mandatory and thorough in future.”

  He didn’t wait for Lebedev’s answer, just strode through the door and headed for the stairs.

  If he’d secured a pass for Kellen not having to fight again, then he’d at least achieved something.

  What he’d need to make sure of was that none of his team pissed Sergei off, and that included Micky.

  He really didn’t like the thought of swimming home from the Barents Sea!

  Chapter 44 – Danny

  “And you’re sure Kellen’s Ok?” Danny repeated the question for the fourth time and heard Drago sigh. As he watched the screen, he saw Drago roll his eyes.

  “I swear to you, Danny, Kellen’s going to be fine.” The Russian assured him. “He had dozens of wounds, but thankfully none were deep enough to do any serious damage. Micky was able to stop all of them bleeding with a couple of tubes of superglue and a few stitches. She gave him some strong pain meds and he’s now sleeping like a baby.”

  “Really? What did she give him?” Danny asked with a grin. “Whatever it is, I’ll slip some in Hannah’s cocoa. Anything to get her to switch her brain off.”

  “You guys saw everything, huh?” Drago winced.

  “Oh, yeah! In spectacular technicolour!” Danny nodded. “Unfortunately, those cameras you set up picked up every detail, including the way the blood splattered all over the floor, and all over the other fighter. As you can imagine, that went down really well with Hannah, Abbey, and especially Sacha.”

  “Zach’s been on the phone to Sacha continuously since they all got back to the cabin, and there doesn’t seem to be much sign that she’s calmed down any.” Drago admitted. “It’s been almost two hours, and there’s still no talking her down.”

  “If you thought Sacha was the one that needed talking down, then you obviously haven’t heard Hannah’s thoughts on the fight yet.” Danny chuckled. “She was ready to send in the Marines to break everything up and get our guys off the ship.”

  “Royal or US?” Drago grinned. “Or both?”

  “Listen man, you might think you’re joking, but my wife has one-touch dialling to the Pentagon, the Kremlin, and Whitehall.” Danny shook his head. “Don’t ever underestimate Hannah, Drago. If she wanted a missile strike virtually anywhere in the world, I have no doubt she could achieve it within five minutes. Getting either the Royal Marines or the US Marines as back up for one of our missions would take half that time.”

  “We’ll keep that in mind in case the Kremlin decides to pull their submarine from the area.” Drago chuckled.

  “No need, my friend.” Danny smiled. “The Royal Navy weren’t very happy at being left out, so they put one of our nuclear subs on a ‘training exercise’ in the Norwegian Sea. It’s been moving slowly up the Norwegian coast for the last three days.”

  “Good to know.” Drago laughed. “In the meantime, are you sure Hannah is going to be Ok with all this?”

  “She’s absolutely not Ok with any of it.” Danny admitted. “However, she is totally committed to the successful outcome of the operation. She’ll speak to you all in the morning, and providing Kellen, Zach and the guys are still one hundred percent behind the mission, then she’ll suck it up and see things through to the end.”

  “I genuinely can’t see the men backing out.” Drago frowned. “We’ve come so far it would be ridiculous to even consider it.”

  “What about Kellen?” Danny wondered. “After what he went through, he might have second thoughts about getting back into the ring.”

  Drago shook his head.

  “Doubtful.” He smiled. “Apart from the fact that Sergei was looking to change the format of the contest, so he may not even have to fight again, you didn’t see the look on his face when he realised that Micky was going to have to fix him up. Two hours with the beautiful agent and her talented hands running all over him? You could probably have seen his grin from the International Space Station.”

  “She looked quite pretty in the photo her father showed us.” Danny chuckled. “I take it the photo was accurate.”

  “A photo seriously wouldn’t have done her justice.” Drago whistled. “You really need to see her in the flesh to appreciate how gorgeous she is.”

  “Lucky Kellen! Well if it’s all the same to you, we’ll leave it there. I have a wife upstairs who is possibly the most beautiful woman on the planet, in my humble, if somewhat biased, opinion. I’d very much like to go and make sure she’s Ok.” Danny stretched out his arms, before covering his mouth as he yawned. “It’s late, and I’ve no doubt you guys need to get some sleep.”

  “You’re not wrong.” Drago gave him a quick salute. “Catch you on the flip side.”

  Danny grinned at the screen as it went blank and wondered where Drago got all of his little sayings from. Movies, maybe?

  He stood up and walked out of the office, flicking off the lights as he went.

  In the living room, Abbey and Jordan were sitting on the sofa, and Abbey had two laptops in front of her, one on her knees and the other on the coffee table.

  “Are you two going to be Ok for the next few hours?” He yawned, leaning against the doorframe.

  Jordan pointed towards the pile of snacks on the coffee table, next to a baby listener.

  “I think we’re covered for the next hour.” He grinned. “We can hear if the kids stir, and I know where Hannah keeps the goodies if we run short.”

  “Candy and Tuck will take over from us at about four o’clock.” Abbey smiled. We’ll be fine until then, and if anything happens, we’ll make sure you guys are the first to know about it.”

  “Drago was just gonna head to bed now that all the excitement has died down.” Danny shrugged. “Hopefully, your shift will be as boring as it can possibly be. That would be the best outcome.”

  “Let’s hope.” Abbey agreed.

  “See you in the morning.” Danny didn’t wait for an answer, just turned and headed for the stairs.

  He checked his son’s room to find Adam, Dylan and Rocco fast asleep.

  Smiling, he closed the door quietly and checked on his daughter
s.

  Lilly was fast asleep tucked up under her duvet, so you could just see a few blonde curls peeping out. Rose was the complete opposite, spread-eagled on her bed in her pyjamas, her duvet already fallen to the floor.

  Danny had long since stopped putting the duvet back over her, not least because the bedrooms were always warm. Rose had always been the worst of their children for sleeping, and if you made the mistake of waking her once she’d dropped off, she could stay awake until morning, buzzing even with only an hour’s sleep.

  Finally, he made his way to the bedroom he shared with Hannah and opened the door.

  The room was in darkness, and he could just about make out Hannah’s shape in the bed before he switched the landing light off.

  He closed the bedroom door, and removed his clothes quietly, dropping his wallet on the dresser before piling his clothes on the chair.

  When he was down to his boxers, he quickly crossed to the bathroom to use the toilet, shower and brush his teeth.

  When he finally made it into bed some ten minutes later, Danny noticed Hannah hadn’t moved. That was unusual in itself.

  Normally, if he came to bed after Hannah had fallen asleep, her normal reaction to him jostling the mattress as he climbed into bed was to turn in her sleep and wrap her arms around him.

  The fact that she hadn’t done that was enough to convince him that she must still be wide awake.

  Wide awake and very upset.

  As he slid under the duvet, he reached his arm around Hannah pulling her body closer, so he could spoon with her.

  Every one of her muscles was tight, and Danny could feel the tension rippling off her in waves.

  When he was snuggled as close as he was going to get, he kissed her shoulder gently, rubbing his thumb over the skin of her forearm.

  “I’ve spoken to Drago, and Kellen is fine.” He said quietly. “Micky has glued all the wounds shut, and despite what you might have thought, none of them was deep or caused anything more than superficial damage. He’ll have a few scars, but from what Drago said, Kellen will probably have considered them a fair price in exchange for having Micky Koslova’s hands all over him for a few hours as she fixed him up. Apparently, he really has the hots for her.”