by Cherie Marks
After another half hour, the conversation had died down, and Tasia sat on the bed, trying to imagine how she was going to get them out of this situation when a key was put in the lock of her door. The knob twisted easily and the door opened. A short, wiry man she hadn’t seen before stood in the doorway. His dark hair was perfectly combed and gelled, and he wore a three-piece suit. Totally unexpected in the current backwoods surroundings, but the minute he cleared his throat and spoke she understood how he came to be here.
“You are daughter of Olev Petrov. Finally, we meet in person.”
“And you are?” Despite her question, she already had an idea who he was.
“I am Vadek Pajari. And I will know you better, my Estonian beauty.”
Oh, crumbbutt, how did she continue finding herself in these situations? This just wouldn’t do. If anyone was going to get to know her better, it would be Alex.
Now, where had that thought come from?
“Really do not have time for a meet-and-greet, Vadek. I think I know enough people. Right now, I just want you to let my father and me go.”
His nostrils flared and his chin went up a notch. “Interesting. Did not expect this fire. Though, if I am honest, was either very foolish or very brave to run to America. I like to think you brave.”
“Probably closer to foolish, but about that exit pass for my father and me…”
“Will not happen.”
“What could you possibly want with us?”
He licked his lips and leered at her until she was extremely uncomfortable, and she had an idea where his thoughts were going. Her skin crawled. Not good for her.
“You and I get to know each other…intimately. Then, when back in Estonia, your father will go about doing my business while he takes care of his own. You will stay with me to ensure his compliance. Don’t worry, we have fun together.”
“I am not on board with that, and I doubt my father will be either.”
He laughed but no humor entered his hard eyes. “Funny. As if you have choice.”
Her heart rate picked up and her mouth went dry. This just took a very ugly turn. Now she really wished she were back in Alex’s rental cabin, spending days and evenings with the man she’d thought her enemy. This guy…he was a real bad guy, and she wanted nothing to do with him…intimately or otherwise.
Her father shouted from the other room, “Leave her alone, Pajari!”
Vadek shouted back, “You should have done what I wanted in first place.”
There was no answer from her father, and she imagined his anger at feeling so helpless. If he ever got his hands on this guy, there’d be nothing left of him. For that matter, she knew someone else who’d take some desperate action if he got a hold of Vadek.
“Alex will come after you.”
“Yes, I imagine he will try. But perhaps bullet my man put into him will delay him until we are long gone, behind fortress-like, steel fences of my compound in Russia. He will never find you, and if he does, he will never get past my multitude of guards who shoot first and ask questions afterward. I leave you for now. Let you think about my words. Just realize there is only one choice for you—and that is me.”
Her heart plummeted to her feet. What if Alex didn’t come for her? What kind of life did she have to look forward to now?
Alex didn’t like the odds. Andrei and he had tracked Tasia’s scent here, to this out-of-the-way, trapper’s cabin with some difficulty. Clearly the Russian goons had taken a page out of Alex’s book and used a substance to try to cover their trail. What they hadn’t expected was how experienced the two brothers were at finding people who didn’t want to be found.
Andrei asked, “How do we do this?”
With a quick glance at their crew, Alex looked at the five of them sitting in the small space on the back side of the clearing surrounding the cabin. In the last ten minutes they’d observed the comings and goings of the area, and he’d counted no less than twenty guards. They were vastly outnumbered, and from military-grade look of the guns the guards were toting, they were ready to take on anyone mounting an offense.
“We need a distraction, and we need someone who’s good at extractions.”
“So, it’s like every other job we’ve ever signed on for. Well, at least we’re experienced…or crazy.”
Alex couldn’t muster a smile at his brother’s try at humor, not when Tasia was in such a precarious situation. There were multiple Russian Mafiya bosses linked together in a crime syndicate that had its fingers in everything they could touch, and Alex hadn’t found a single one he’d liked. But when he’d researched Vadek Pajari, he’d learned what true evil was. Nothing was out of the question for this guy. He was into drugs, forced prostitution and human trafficking, murder-for-hire, and many other things that turned Alex’s stomach. He wanted to put a bullet between this guy’s eyes so badly, his hands itched with the idea, but in reality, if he did, there’d just be another one like him to take his place. It was the way of things.
An idea began to form though, and he might be taking an impossible risk, but he really didn’t have much of a choice. He didn’t have a choice if he wanted to give Tasia one final gift—her freedom.
“I’m going to draw their attention away from the cabin. I’ll take two of your men with me. You get inside with your other man and get them out.”
“What are you going to do with that many guards coming your way?”
“That’s where your men come in.” He turned to the other three sitting a couple feet away. “How are your sniping skills? I need you up on each of those ridges, picking off guards as they come after me.”
Andrei rubbed a hand over his chin and jaw. “That might work. Worth a shot anyway. But, do you really think you’ll be able to get out in front of them without getting shot at again? You’re still healing as it is.”
“I’ll be okay. Just worry about how you’re going to get inside and back out again.”
“Still not sure we’ll make it out of this alive, but I’m with you all the way.”
They stood and embraced briefly, but as the other three men stepped out in front of the two brothers, Alex laid a hand on Andrei’s arm and said, “When you see her, make sure she knows that I never would’ve forced her to do anything she didn’t want to do. Never. No matter what.”
“Why don’t you tell her yourself once all this is over?”
“Let’s hope I get the chance.”
* * *
Tasia pulled her knees up to her chest and braced herself for whatever was coming next. Someone was at the door again, but whoever it was clearly didn’t have a key. Now, they were slamming against the door, trying to break through, and she dared to move to the end of the bed. Maybe it was Alex. A burst of excitement filled her chest at the thought, and she realized how much she really wanted to see his face.
The wooden frame surrounding the door began to bulge right where the doorknob met it. Suddenly, the door flew wide and slammed against the wall behind it. She stood up, ready to run into Alex’s arms, but felt the excitement on her face dissipate as his brother Andrei stepped through with a guy she didn’t know.
Worry crowded her mind. Maybe her dad’s reassurance that Alex was okay was just wishful thinking. “Where is Alex? Is he injured badly?”
“Man, I hope not. I just bandaged him up. Of course currently, he’s doing his best to get himself killed. Has pretty much every guard here chasing after him, but this is his plan.”
“What? We have to help him. We have to go! Let’s get my father out and find Alex. Now!”
About ten minutes later, Tasia was hugging her father, squeezing her arms around him tightly. She couldn’t stop the tears that flowed down her face in the moment she finally saw him. Once her father and she were out, though, she turned her thoughts to getting to Alex as quickly as she possibly could.
She pulled free of her father’s arms and turned toward Andrei. “What do we need to do to help him?”
“I don’t know that
we can. I think he had in mind it was a suicide mission. That he’d become their target, so we could get you two away and safe.”
The breath left her lungs in a panicked rush. She didn’t want to be the reason something happened to Alex, but, more importantly, she didn’t want to lose him. Maybe she wasn’t perfect and maybe she still had a lot to learn, but thanks to Alex, she was a better person. In the short time she’d known him, she’d connected with him in a way she knew she never would again. Her heart broke and tears began in earnest—large, wracking sobs that she felt from her very soul.
Her father embraced her again. “I thought you did not want to marry him?”
“I…I do not…at least…I did not. I’m so confused now. I did not want to marry him because I did not want to be forced to. That was it. I did not want you or him to force me.”
“But, Ana…”
Andrei stepped forward. “He wanted me to tell you that. He told me to say he never would’ve forced you to do something you didn’t want to.”
Her father chimed in. “I was just about to say that he told me before he even left for America to find you that he would never force you to marry him. He wanted you to have choices for your life before he even knew you.”
With a sudden realization, Tasia nearly dropped to her knees. She loved him. He was everything she’d ever dreamed of having in a man, and a life with him would be as close to perfection as anyone ever got. Why did she have to lose him now?
She didn’t! Determination sparking inside her, she brushed past Andrei and the other man, rushing toward where she thought the front of the cabin would be. All three men called after her to stop, but she ignored them and ran headlong to get to the man she finally realized, that in a short amount of time, had become the most important person in her life.
True purpose pushed her through a large, open room to the door that seemed so far away. Once there, she flung it wide, ready to drive through anyone standing there in her way. But she nearly cried out at the sight on the other side.
Alex stood there, sweaty and heaving, blood pouring down one arm, but it was him.
She couldn’t help the heartfelt grin that stretched across her mouth. She wanted to grab onto him, but was afraid she’d hurt him. But, he was all right. That was all that mattered, and she would have the chance to tell him just how much he meant to her now.
“Thank goodness you’re okay.”
He wrapped his arms around her, lowering his mouth until it was right next to her ear and asked, “Are you okay, princess? Are we okay?”
“Better than. I want to tell you something…”
But the sound of a gun clicking behind her halted her words.
Alex spun her around and shoved her behind him, through the door, and outside the cabin. Her father, Andrei, and Andrei’s man were close by. They’d almost made it to his side and were just as vulnerable as Alex.
His gaze locked onto Vadek Pajari, the man he wished he had by the throat right now.
“Vadek, you’ve lost. Give up now, and maybe you’ll walk away alive with only a few permanent scars.”
He didn’t even flinch, instead hardening his eyes with a shrug. “I think I have the upper hand here. Now, hand over the girl, and the rest of you can make a run for it. I will probably only sink a bullet into two or three of you before you get clear. Of course, to be honest, more than likely, I will send my men to finish you off.”
Alex hated these situations. Not only because they threatened his life, but because it forced him to make hard decisions about collateral damage. He didn’t want any one of the people around him to get hurt, but he also had no intention of letting Vadek leave here alive. Because if he’d learned anything about men like Pajari over the years, it was that they didn’t stop. They were too proud to stop, and their tentative hold on the people around them was threatened anytime they humbled themselves.
He exchanged a look with his brother, and with a flattening of his lips to show his irritation, Andrei gave the slightest of nods that he understood.
Alex took one step forward, followed by another, slowly, blocking the door so that Andrei could grab Tasia and run, getting her to safety. He hoped the others would follow.
He pulled his gun at the same time Vadek began shooting. Two bullets missed Alex before one finally hit into the right side of his chest, puncturing a lung, he was sure. With a coolness he didn’t feel, he raised his arm and fired, hitting Vadek directly between the eyes.
The man went down on his knees first, then face-planted into the hardwood floor. Once he was no longer moving, Alex allowed himself to feel the pain. He sunk to the floor and his vision went fuzzy.
Suddenly, Tasia was over him, and he fought to stay conscious a little longer. He wanted to rail at her for coming back instead of running. She shouldn’t be here, but he knew her stubborn spirit would do things exactly how she wanted. And he wouldn’t want her any other way.
Her tears were hitting his chest as she worked to stem the blood flowing from his wound. His ears were ringing, but he thought she was saying something.
With effort, he worked hard to listen to her voice.
“Alex! Please, do not die! Not now. I…I wanted to tell you something important. I wanted to tell you.”
He lifted a weak hand to cup her cheek briefly before it dropped back down to the floor, all his strength gone.
“Tell…me…princess.”
She met his gaze, a sad, smile on her stunning face. If he had to go, this was the last sight he wanted to see on earth.
“I love you. Do you hear me? I did not know it was possible, and I did not want it to happen, but I fell in love with you. You cannot leave me now.”
Alex couldn’t believe how beautiful the sound of someone saying she loved him could be. How unfortunate it was under such circumstances.
“Tasia, love you too.”
Though he fought to stay with her, he couldn’t lift his eyelids again and the image of her love was the last thing he saw before darkness took him.
“How did we get here?”
Tasia looked up at the love of her life and smiled. He looked genuinely perplexed but more attractive than ever. She knew his question was referring to their situation and not their location.
“Pretty sure it was one of the hardest courtships anyone has ever undertaken. Probably not that common to have weeks of hospital stays and months of rehabilitation for a gunshot wound be romantic dates, but I would not have it any other way.”
“So, do you have any regrets about becoming my wife?”
She couldn’t help but tease him, “Only that you still have not learned how shirts work.”
He laughed. “Are you sure that’s really a problem for you?”
A thrill chased through her as his eyelids dipped. Oh, how she loved their flirtation, their wild sex, and their deep love. Maybe it took her some time to see the wisdom in her father’s choice for her, but she’d fallen for him long before she’d found out the truth anyway. And now that they were six months from when she’d almost lost him, she’d had enough time to realize just how fortunate she was. She was taking classes again, still working at The Bread Basket, loving life in Woodland Creek, shifting and running through the forest with Alex, and she’d never been happier with her choices.
Even Alex seemed to be happier now that he was teaching at the university instead of working for his father. Turned out, he had a degree in law enforcement and was qualified to teach classes. He loved everything about it, and she loved that he was happy.
“You are right. I would much rather have you shirtless and under me.” Of course, her sense of wanting to take charge would never go away.
“Under you, huh? How about over my knee, sassy girl?”
A rush of desire sparked deep inside at his provocative words. He was such a dominant man, and she loved it. She felt herself growing wet and reached for him. As long as his gentle hands were on her, she knew she’d be happy. Like her own parents, she’d found the perfect
match for herself, and she loved that he was her wicked jackal.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my novella from Woodland Creek!
All reviews are appreciated.
If you would like to read more from the Woodland Creek series, please click on the link below:
Woodland Creek Website
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About Cherie Marks
Twitter: http://twitter.com/cheriemarks
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My blog: http://www.authorcheriemarks.com/
It all started with an old fashioned typewriter. When my family brought it home, for the first time, I knew what I wanted to do. All those stories rolling around in my head could finally get out. The press and click of the keys were satisfying in their own right, but when I pulled out a finished page, I knew this was for me. Since then, I've graduated to a laptop, but the stories still find a way out.
I'm a breast cancer survivor, a teacher, a wife, a mother, and a writer. I continue to strive for less procrastination and more tact. The battle wages on.
More Books by Cherie Marks
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Cade Lanter is no ordinary being. The son of a human policeman and a Queen of the Fae, he lives in the human world for now. When an enemy of old threatens the balance of both the human world and Eiru, Land of the Fae, he must fight the would-be usurper in the human realm. Of course, that might require more focus than he can muster lately since a certain, sexy neighbor keeps him distracted.
