by Nicole Fox
The Courtney I know is a fighter. She would be bartering with Elena, arguing for her life. She would be buying time, trying to give me an opening to save her. Instead, she’s taking the pacifist’s approach. She’s turning her cheek with every blow, offering her beautiful face to the guards as a sacrifice which they gleefully slaughter.
Her eyes are puffy, her top lip is cracked, and there are bruises forming all over her knees and arms from the repeated falls.
I want to break through the guards and throw myself over her, but I can’t. Because of her damned glances.
Is she telling me to stay with the girls? To protect them over her? That’s what I would tell her to do if our situations were reversed. I’d want her to take care of our children, to focus on saving herself. But I don’t know if I can do that.
“What is this really about?” I ask.
I catch Devon’s attention, but Elena keeps her eyes on Courtney, watching closely as the guard backhands her, sending her sideways on the ground. Her body hits with a solid thud, and I have to hold myself back from rushing forward to catch her.
“Is this because she escaped?” I ask. “Because she made you and your men look like idiots?”
“The only idiot here is her,” Elena snaps, still not looking at me. “She came back for her family only to be murdered. She should have kept running. I would have found her eventually, of course, but she could have earned herself a few more months of living.”
“Are you really this vindictive?” I ask. “Was your love for Rurik really strong enough to inspire this kind of vengeance? From what I could tell, you two didn’t even like each other that much.”
Finally, she spins around. Her eyes are wide and seething as she marches towards me, hands clenched at her sides. Two of her guards rush forward to wedge themselves between us, afraid their boss is about to get herself into more trouble than she can handle.
“You don’t know anything about our relationship,” she roars. “You didn’t even really know Rurik. You trusted him for years while he was plotting your downfall. Do you really think you have any right to speak of my love for him?”
She’s right, of course. I didn’t know Rurik the way I thought I did. But I knew parts of him better than Elena ever could have.
“You weren’t there when we went out together,” I say softly, quirking the corner of my mouth up in a smile. “You didn’t hear the way he talked. About other women. His experiences.”
Her jaw ticks, and I see the angry color drain slightly from her face.
“Or was that an arrangement the two of you had?” I hold up my hands in mock surrender. “Like you said, I don’t know anything about your relationship, so I won’t pass judgment. An open marriage may work for some people. It certainly worked for Rurik.”
Elena’s teeth are gritted so hard I think they’ll crack, and she lifts a hand to slap me. Then, just as she’s about to bring it down, she stops herself.
I stare at her, daring her to hit me. Every second she spends taking out her anger on me is one less second she’s hurting Courtney. Clearly, Courtney has some kind of plan, and whatever it is, I want to buy her some time.
Elena takes a deep breath and then smiles at me with all of her teeth. Without saying anything, she turns back towards Courtney and the guards flanking her.
“On her knees,” she says.
Like automatons, they force Courtney to her knees, and Elena pulls a gun from a hidden holster at her hip.
My heartbeat ratchets up until it’s basically vibrating in my chest. Until it’s hard to find air. Sadie grabs Tati and turns her away, and oh my God, this is happening. This is really happening. They are going to kill Courtney.
There have been plenty of moments in my life where I’ve felt out of control, where my instincts have taken over, and I act without thinking. Very rarely, however, have I been numb. Just … numb.
The only other time that comes to mind is when I woke up from being drugged to find my house empty. My family gone.
This is worse than that, though.
When I woke up in Olivia’s nursery with no idea where my family had gone, I knew I had to find them. It was a goal. An objective. Something to propel me from the floor and keep me going. It was what led me to the ship, to the container where the girls were being held.
Now, however, there is nothing to be done.
Even if I break free of the guards in front of me and get to Courtney, I can’t save her. There is nothing I can do. I can’t overpower her. Even if Sevastian and I fight together, we can’t take all of these guards. Not before Elena would pull the trigger, anyway.
The fight is over.
If Elena is ready to end this, it will be over.
And then what?
She told me she’d sell the girls. That she would force me to watch my family being ripped apart. So, is that what my future holds? I’ll be forced to sit on the sidelines, useless and weak, while my family is shredded. While my life and purpose are set aflame in front of my eyes.
Numb.
The lack of sensation seeps from my chest and into my arms and legs slowly, like death, claiming my movement and action for itself.
I can’t move, can’t think of anything beyond how this is it. This is it. It’s happening.
And amidst all of it, Courtney looks up at me and winks.
Her beautiful heart-shaped face. Paler than normal due to living inside a container for weeks on end, and bruised due to her beating, but still beautiful. Still Courtney.
Her brown eyes are liquid caramel, golden even in the rickety fluorescent lighting. And winking.
I shake my head in disbelief, trying to understand what she’s telling me. What she could possibly be trying to convey to me with that wink in the last moments of her life.
Elena cocks the gun, and the sound echoes off the metal walls.
Then, I realize, the sound I hear isn’t an echo. It’s coming from the door behind me.
I don’t turn to see what it is because my eyes are locked on Courtney, desperate to take her in for every precious second we have left. But everyone else looks.
First Sadie and Sevastian at my sides. Then, the guards in front of me. Then, the guards standing on either side of Courtney.
Then, Elena.
Her forehead wrinkles in confusion, and I see Courtney smiling.
That’s when I turn and see an army approaching. Guns raised.
That’s when I see the green, white, and red patches on their jackets.
The Italians are here, and for once, I think they’re on our side.
My mobility returns, and I herd Sadie and the girls out of the line of fire just as the shots begin to ring out.
Elena and her guards are so distracted by the Italians’ arrival—and fighting for their own lives—that they barely notice our group running back towards the cell.
I shove Sadie and Olivia inside, followed by Tati and Larissa, and then Sevastian and I follow in last.
“What in the hell is happening?” Sadie asks, clutching Olivia to her chest.
“I don’t know, but you and the girls need to stay in here,” I say.
“They’re on our side,” Sevastian says. “I know that much.”
“Is this about where Courtney went last night?” Sadie asks.
I turn to her, brow furrowed. “You two both knew about that?”
They have the decency to look guilty, and then nod. Sadie points a finger at Sevastian. “But he knew more than I did. He helped her escape.”
“Which explains the outfit,” I say, taking in the image of my oldest friend in my wife’s pajamas.
“Sorry, but she had to go for help,” he says. “I didn’t know who she’d get in touch with or how she’d pull it off, but clearly she did. They’re here to rescue us.”
There are shouts and shots echoing in the room behind us, and I can’t hide in here with the women and children. I have to go help.
“Stay in here,” I say again to Sadie. “Keep the girls down and away from t
he doors.”
“You can’t go out there. You don’t have a weapon.”
“Neither does Courtney,” I argue. “She’s in the thick of it, and I’m going to go protect her.”
“I’m coming, too.” Sevastian claps me on the back. Then, he turns to Sadie and opens his mouth to say something, but before he can, Sadie rushes forward.
In a second, she’s stretched onto her tiptoes, her lips pressed to his.
The kiss is quick and innocent, but there is an obvious fire behind it.
I turn away to give them a second and then Sevastian is at my side, ready to fight.
The room is in chaos. Elena’s guards are fighting with the Italians, bodies are littered across the floor from both sides, and in the middle of it, surrounded by fighting on all sides, is Courtney.
She’s still naked, crouched down in a defensive position, trying to avoid the rain of bullets being fired.
Luckily, Elena is distracted shooting at Italians, but I don’t know how long that will last. Eventually, the fighting may ease up enough for her to take care of Courtney once and for all.
I look around for a weapon, and find a shovel leaning against the wall. It’s ancient and rusted, probably sitting there long before Devon and Elena claimed the place as temporary headquarters, but it’s better than nothing.
Sevastian finds a pair of large shears, and like townsfolk chasing after Frankenstein’s monster, we move into the melee.
I swing the shovel, knocking men to the ground, and Sevastian goes for their throats. We kill one guy that way, but the next is more difficult. He kicks the shears as Sevastian tries to cut, and he ends up wounding the man’s shoulder. With his other hand, the guard pulls his gun and fires at me, but I drop to the ground to avoid his bullet.
On his second try, Sevastian does manage to slice his neck, but then another guard jumps on my back. I feel the circle of the gun’s barrel at the back of my head, and squeeze my eyes closed to prepare for the end. Then, the weight is gone.
Sevastian bats the man off me with his shears like it’s T-ball practice, and then uses the gun he took from the other guard he killed to shoot him in the head. As I get to my feet, he grabs another gun and hands it to me.
“Thanks.” For a second, in all of the melee, we smile at one another. It feels good to work with my friend again.
Then, another shot rings out far too close for him, and I refocus on the matter at hand.
When I find Courtney in the mess again, she has a gun now, and there is a dead guard at her feet. I don’t know if she killed him or not, but she’s using his gun to fire into the crowd. She hits the guard closest to her in the thigh, and he drops to one knee, screaming in pain. I’ve heard a broken femur is more painful than childbirth. Based on the look of agony on the man’s face, I wouldn’t doubt it.
Courtney quickly puts him out of his misery. She takes a clean shot at the side of his head, and he slumps forward, lifeless.
I came out of the cell to save Courtney, but now I realize, she doesn’t need saving.
Courtney was looking at me during her beating, trying to tell me that she had everything taken care of. While I was resting and recovering from my injuries, Courtney was plotting her escape. She snuck past guards, contacted some of our biggest rivals, and then somehow convinced them to come fight on our side.
Courtney managed to broker a deal in one night that would have taken me weeks of negotiating. And now, she’s in the middle of a gunfight, naked, killing our enemies.
She’s the strongest, sexiest woman I’ve ever seen.
Courtney spins and kills another guard, and when he falls, she meets my eyes across the crowd. The eye contact breaks me from my spell, and I run towards her. As soon as we meet, we go back to back and begin firing at enemies on both sides.
As the bodies around us begin to stack up, the gunshots become less frequent. It’s becoming apparent that the Italians are overpowering Elena’s men.
Elena stumbles out of the fight with her gun raised, ready to take aim at anyone in her path. She’s so focused on the chaos in front of her that she doesn’t see Courtney and me just behind her. I almost step forward to capture her, but then I nudge Courtney. Without a word, she steps around me and presses her gun to Elena’s forehead.
“Drop your weapon.”
Elena obeys without hesitation. The gun clatters to the ground, and she holds up her hands. “I surrender.”
The few surviving guards closest to her follow suit, dropping their weapons. Each gun is claimed by an Italian, and within a minute, the room is plunged into silence while every guard and Devon and Elena are brought to their knees in the same way Courtney was forced to hers. It’s cyclical, and it feels like justice.
Without any ounce of shame, Courtney grabs Sevastian’s clothes and pulls them over her naked body, never once taking her eyes off Elena. They hang off her thin frame, but she still looks powerful all in black.
The lines of her heart-shaped face have crystallized, sharpening into a mask of control. Of dominance. She has been fiery since the moment I met her, but now, there is a new sense of control. She has harnessed the fire inside of her and turned it into a weapon.
Elena must see it, too, because her usual cockiness is gone. The smug smile she has worn for days has fallen into wide-eyed fear. Her skin is pale, and her hands shake.
“I wasn’t going to kill you,” she says. “I told Dmitry I wouldn’t. Remember, Dmitry? I said I would let her live.”
“To torture me by torturing her,” I say. “That hardly counts as mercy.”
“It is a kind of mercy, though.”
“Desperation isn’t a good look on you,” Courtney says. She tucks the baggy shirt into the gathered waist of her pants and holds out her hand for her gun. I give it to her.
As much as I want to kill Elena, I know she’s Courtney’s to kill. Elena did all of this to get back at me for killing Rurik, but she did it to Courtney. In a way, it feels right that I would kill Rurik and Courtney will now kill Elena. So, I’m happy to let her end this.
“Just let us go,” Devon says.
It’s the first thing I’ve really heard him say in days. As this plan dragged on and on, he became more and more a servant to Elena. Not her partner, but her underling. I can’t believe I never saw before how weak he was.
“We won’t come after you. We’ll disappear. You’ll never hear from us again.”
I expect Elena to hiss for him to be quiet, but she nods in agreement. They truly are desperate.
“I’ll never hear from you again,” Courtney says. “But not because I’m going to let you go.”
Devon whimpers and then looks around at the Italians surrounding him and his mother. “I thought you all were supposed to be on our side. You supported my father when he tried to overthrow Dmitry. Why would you turn on us now? We could fight together, and you could have everything you wanted.”
“We have everything we want,” one of the Italians says. “We are here in Spain because of your father. He left us with nothing, and we had to join with the Yakuza to scrape by. Now, Courtney has given us more than your father ever did. We might not be loyal, but we’re smart. We know where our best chances lie.”
The man winks at Courtney, and she turns to me, her lower lip between her teeth. I know she’s nervous about taking the lead for me—about what I’ll think about all of it. I wink at her, and she stands a bit taller.
We are a team. We survive together, and we lead together.
“No one owes you an explanation,” Courtney says, silencing whatever response Devon was about to make. “You’ve stolen enough from me, and I won’t let you take a second more.”
“I’m smart, too,” Elena says quickly. “Not very loyal, but I am smart. I know you’re in control now. I’ll follow you. Help you, even. I’ve been in this world longer than you have, sweetheart. I can be of use. I know more about your husband than you do, and I know a good deal about you. You’ll need my help.”
“What do you know about me?” Courtney asks.
Elena smirks, her confidence returning slightly. “I know you aren’t a killer. I know you’re a gentle woman, too kind for this cruel world. Let me handle the darker elements for you.”
“I’m not a killer?” Courtney asks, head tilted to the side.
Elena smiles at her. “No, sweetie. But that’s okay. Not everyone is cut out for this life—”
The shot is so surprising even I jump.
Elena stays upright for a moment before she sags into her bones and falls forward, face-first on the ground. Devon stares at his mother’s lifeless body for a moment before he shrieks and throws himself over her body.
Courtney lowers the gun slowly and steps away. “Shows what you know.”
I grab the gun from her hand and kiss her cheek. Courtney leans back into my chest for a second, and then spins around to stand behind me, letting me take the lead now.
I lift the gun to shoot Devon, to get it over with quickly. I’ve seen what vengeance can do to people, so I have no use for it right now. I don’t want to drag out his torment. I just want to end this.
Then, I see movement to my left. I look over and see that Sadie has stepped out of the cell. She’s staring at Devon, whose shrieks have turned to sobs now. There is no concern in her eyes, no compassion, just curiosity.
I can understand her desire to see it unfold. He was her boyfriend for eighteen months. They lived together. He betrayed her more than Rurik ever betrayed me. I can understand that she would want to see him die.
I hold the gun out to her and nod, and she considers taking it for a second before shaking her head.
Sadie isn’t a killer. Even while the sailor attacked her on the ship, she hesitated. She couldn’t stab him. She’s the one who is unprepared for this world. I nod in understanding and then take aim at the back of Devon’s head.
His shoulders are heaving with sobs, his tears soaking the back of Elena’s shirt, and when I shoot him, he sinks into his mother’s back, cradled against her like a child. It feels fitting.
The Italians have subdued the remaining guards, so there is nothing to be done. No one to fight or run from. It’s over. We are free.