“I love you.” She pressed up on her toes and kissed me, then Sebastian protectively pulled her tight to his side.
“You sure about this?” Sean asked, closing the space between us, Emilia next to him.
“Yes.” I wasn’t sure about Maxim striking any deals with Luca after this, but fighting this man—yeah, that needed to happen.
I gave one last reaffirming nod to Alessia and approached Luca.
Four of Maxim’s guards stood in a line on one side, and the other four about three meters away on the other, creating a fighting space.
Maxim stepped up between two of his guards, remaining a hell of a lot calmer than I would’ve thought given today. Of course, he may have had plans on how he’d torture Adrian, and even Luca, after all of this. And I hoped he would have no mercy. “Now,” he directed, and Luca pushed at the sleeves of his shirt and raised his guard.
There was already a major gash above Luca’s right eye. His left cheek swollen. The brow of his left eye had a cut going through it. And I was looking forward to doing more damage, too. A lot more.
Luca charged my way, an unexpected roundhouse kick just missing my head as I stepped aside, striking my palm to his chest in the process.
I deflected two more jabs to my face and missed an uppercut.
He kept firing shots, which almost made it impossible to land any of my own.
He’d wear out fast if he kept up with this, though, and then I’d move in.
He circled me, his focus intense when he lunged and pressed a vicious thumb to my eye. An illegal move in fighting, but here, it was fair game.
I shoved him off me and struck him in the head with my own, then brought the back of his head down and lifted my knee, striking him again.
Luca cursed and staggered away, but only for a moment before launching at me with such force, I fell backward and onto the ground.
I caught Alessia’s terrified eyes just before Luca jumped on top of me and plunged his hand into the knife wound at my side. He pushed and pressed, tearing into the wound, and I bore down on my back teeth, struggling not to curse and yell from pain.
“Stop!” Alessia shrieked. I glimpsed Sebastian holding her back, trapping her in his arms to prevent her from coming toward me.
“You like that?” Luca’s words, his actions, elicited another sharp cry from Alessia.
I braced my palms against his chest and tried to push him off me, but I was bleeding too much. Too quickly.
“When you’re dead, I’m going to take what you think is yours and make her mine. Fuck her,” Luca said into my ear as he continued to push his fingertips deeper into the wound, the material of my shirt keeping his skin from touching mine.
I roared at his words and flung an elbow to his face. Then another. I had him on his back before I even realized it, punching. Barreling one after another. He had to die. He had to feckin’ die.
“Stop!” a voice called out, but I couldn’t back down. Not this time. “He dies, you all die!”
“Cole,” Sebastian hollered and hooked his arms around mine on one side, Sean at the other. They both pulled at me, but I wouldn’t budge.
I stared at Luca’s face splattered in blood. Nose probably broken. Eyes shut. The anger inside of me like nothing I’d ever experienced.
“Baby.” Alessia circled Luca’s body as I continued to resist moving. She crouched to eye level, which forced me to view her. “Please.”
I hung my head and finally relented, and when I stood upright, I collapsed onto the concrete, clutching my side. Head spinning. Alessia knelt to my side, hands on the wound, pressing down to try and control the bleeding.
“Tell me now.” Maxim leaned over Luca and fisted his shirt.
Luca coughed up blood. “Do . . . we . . . have a deal?” he asked while spitting blood to the side.
I barely heard Maxim’s response. I was pretty sure it was the most painful yes I’d ever been party to.
“Now tell me!” Maxim demanded.
Luca rattled off an address while my eyes fell shut. A location in France, maybe?
“And who else betrayed me?” Maxim’s roaring voice had my eyes flashing open, but only for a moment.
Alessia’s mouth went to my ear. “You’ll be okay. Stay awake for me, please.”
“Your daughter,” Luca said, his words so low I may have misheard him. “It was her idea,” he added as my world went feckin’ black.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Alessia
When we opened the door to rush out of the building, I threw a hand to my face to shield my eyes from the drastic change in lighting. The sun was surrounded by heavy, puffy clouds, and yet, it remained unobstructed. Bright and visible like a signal of hope everything would be okay. Cole would be okay.
Emilia grabbed hold of my arm, urging me to quicken my steps. “McGregor Enterprises has a bird, and since Adam can fly, we asked him to be on standby just in case,” she shouted over the sound of the spinning blades as we rounded the corner.
Sean and Emilia jumped into the chopper, and Sebastian and I helped them hoist Cole inside and stretched out his limp body across the leather seats.
Adam stood from the cockpit and placed a hand to the ceiling as he stared in shock at Cole. “What in the hell happened?”
What had happened? I wasn’t able to get my vocal cords to work, the kaleidoscope of emotions, the terror, striking me hard.
“Knife wound.” Sebastian glimpsed Adam, then wrapped a hand over my forearm, keeping his head ducked so he didn’t bump the ceiling. “I have to go back in there.” He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to my temple. “Love you.” He disappeared from the helicopter within seconds, and I forced my attention back inside the bird, my thoughts all over the place. My stomach a nervous mess.
“We gotta go,” Sean ordered and directed the very shocked Adam back into the pilot seat.
“Place Cole’s head in your lap.” Emilia dug into a medical bag while on her knees in front of where Cole lay.
I shifted onto the leather seat and gently repositioned Cole’s head on my lap. His breathing wasn’t too labored, and I took that as a positive sign. “He’ll be okay? You’ll make sure of it?” I sputtered, my eyes blurred as I stared down at his handsome face.
His dark lashes fluttered, and his lips parted, but he didn’t speak or open his eyes.
“Nothing can happen to him. Please.” I swept the pad of my thumb across his forehead, smoothing his hair away from his face.
The helicopter lifted smoothly from the ground, banked to the left and picked up speed. I wanted to be at the hospital already, running to get help. Instead, I rocked gently forward and back as I cradled Cole, trying to stay as calm as possible and not lose my mind.
“He will be fine.” Emilia’s calm voice didn’t settle my nerves like I wished it would. “Put a headset on.” She pointed to the wall at my side where the headsets were located, and I did as instructed.
Adam’s firm voice suddenly filled my ears through the headset, and his words managed to steady my trembling hand a touch. “He’s a fighter, too. Like us.”
I quietly nodded even though Adam couldn’t see the movement. I was too focused on Emilia packing Cole’s wound. Blood on her latex-gloved hands. On her clothes. Too much damn blood, and I pressed a hand to my mouth, my nerves once again on fire.
The only way to extinguish the fear and pain would be to hear the doctor announce Cole would be fine.
“Think about something else,” Sean instructed. From where he sat, he wouldn’t be able to see me, but he must have known I was a shaky mess. Based on his voice, he wasn’t that much better.
I kept my hand on Cole’s clammy forehead, my eyes moving to his lips. Lips that’d kissed me not too long ago.
The first and only other time I’d been in a helicopter was with Cole.
When I was nineteen, he’d surprised his sister and me by treating us to a view of Manhattan from the sky. I’d gripped his hand so hard, I nearly cut off his circulation.
Thinking back on that day, the almost agonized look on Cole’s face, his free hand curled into a tight fist on his lap . . . I had to wonder if his reaction was due to something other than my stranglehold on his hand. Our bodies had been pressed closely together, our hands clasped, and my desire for him may as well have been announced on a loudspeaker. His heart and body had hurt for me as much as mine hurt for him.
We’d held off being together for so long, and I didn’t finally have this man back in my life to lose him now.
“Can I help?” I asked Emilia, peering back at her applying pressure to the wound.
“No. I’m good,” she answered.
“The hospital knows we’re minutes away, and they’re preparing for our emergency landing,” Sean announced, and thank God for that.
Cole’s long, dark lashes moved again. I reached for his hand lying limp at his side and carried our joined hands to his chest. The feel of his heartbeat reassured me. Calmed me, so I didn’t break down.
I wanted Luca dead, but I still stood by the hope Cole would never have to experience how it felt to take a life, to shoulder that responsibility.
Dimitri died to protect me. Protect Ivana. Had she truly betrayed her own brother, or had Luca lied? It was hard to separate truth and fiction when it came to Luca Moreau.
“Should I be worried about my brother?” I heaved out a deep breath. “He’s alone with a Russian mob.”
“We have plenty of League members on standby to step in if their deal goes south,” Emilia responded, never lifting her gloved hands from Cole’s body.
“I didn’t see them.” I palmed Cole’s cheek this time, needing to touch him, to feel his skin, ensure he remained warm, and his body didn’t become too cold.
“That’s the point.” Emilia nodded. “Your brother is quite capable of handling Petrov. He will be fine.”
She was right. Sebastian was always okay. So strong. And now we needed Cole to pull through. I leaned forward and whispered near his face, “Nothing will happen to you. You’re not leaving me. Got it?” Tears slipped down my face and dropped onto his skin.
“As for Luca,” Emilia began, prompting me to focus her way again, “before he went to a League prison months ago, your brother planted a tracking device beneath Luca’s skin while he was unconscious. So, if you’re worried he will get away, he won’t. Sebastian said a friend of his at MI6 created the device.”
“Oh.” Her words did nothing to soften the blow that Luca would be out in the world if Maxim and Sebastian came to a deal. Instead, dread draped over me like a heavy blanket on a sticky, hot summer day.
Luca. Once again, the sight of Luca pressing his fingers into Cole’s wound as they fought flashed before my eyes. Focus. Cole will be fine, I tried to remind myself, allowing the words to chase through my mind round and round. “And you really think I’ll be safe from Luca?” I asked, my voice weak. “That any of us will be safe?”
“I’ll never let anything happen to you,” Cole groggily whispered back.
* * *
“He was lucky. No major damage. Lost a lot of blood, but he’s out of the woods.”
The doctor’s words had me turning into Adam’s arms and burying my face against his chest with relief, unable to stop myself from sobbing as we stood just outside the waiting room in the hall.
Adam smoothed a hand up and down my back as the doctor added, “When he’s awake, you can go see him.” I wasn’t sure what else he said after that, too overwhelmed with the flurry of emotions.
Adam kept his hands moving up and down my back, taking over the role of my brother since Sebastian was still with Maxim.
We’d left a few hours ago, but I had no idea how long such a meeting would take. I wanted him here and safe, too.
“My cousin is tough. I told you not to worry,” he said once I finally unglued myself from him, his shirt now damp with my tears.
“Sorry about that.” I brought the backs of my hands to my cheeks, and he smiled.
“I can handle some tears. Happy tears are just fine with me.” He captured my arm. His blue eyes bloodshot and red-rimmed. He was holding back from showing emotions.
The poor man had been in the hospital not too long ago worried he’d lose his baby and wife, and now we were back again. It was all too much.
I reached into my pocket for the shamrock I’d plucked from a patch outside as the sun began to set thirty minutes ago. It was wilted, but I traced my forefinger over it, flattening it.
“And more good news.” I followed Sean’s pointed finger. He stood off to my side, along with Emilia. Sebastian had just entered the hospital doors, blood still on his clothes, which meant he came straight here.
“Sebastian! He’s okay!” I cried out to him, ignoring the looks of other visitors and medical staff as I charged for my brother. “He’s okay,” I repeated when we met halfway, and he wrapped his arms around me. “What about you?” I lifted my fist containing the shamrock and set it on his chest.
His heartbeat was rapid beneath my hand as if he’d run here instead of racing his car, like surely he had, adrenaline, no doubt, getting him here in a flash. “We made a deal. Luca is back in League custody for now, though. Back to prison.”
My eyes widened in surprise. “But not permanently?” I sucked in a sharp breath as I waited for an explanation.
“No,” he said through gritted teeth. “But let’s not talk about any of this now. Just know you’re okay. The Petrovs are on our side.”
I drew some comfort from his words, then he guided me to turn back toward my new family—the McGregor brothers and Emilia.
“My driver should be here soon with Holly. I sent her, Anna, and the baby outside the city to keep them safe and guarded during the meeting today, so it’s taking a bit of time to get Holly back here,” Sebastian explained, repeating what Adam had told me earlier while we’d been in the waiting room.
I hated that I ever had to put any of them in the position of being unsafe.
No, I had to stop thinking like that. If Cole was at my side, he’d remind me Luca put us here, not me.
We settled into the waiting room, and Emilia and Sean brought us all coffees a few minutes later. Caffeine probably wasn’t the best thing for my nerves, but I took it anyway.
“How are you?” Emilia sat next to me, and I twisted in my chair to better view her.
“Okay, now that Cole and Sebastian are safe,” I admitted. “The Alliance. Luca. All of that—I can deal with later.” Right now, I just wanted to be near the man I loved.
“Everything will be okay. You have my word,” Emilia said, but her eyes weren’t on me, and when I followed her gaze, she was staring at Sean seated across the way. His elbows were on his thighs, gaze on the floor as he braced the back of his neck with both hands.
“Of course.” I forced a smile and did my best to cope with the passing time as I waited for Cole to wake.
Thirty minutes later, a nurse popped her head into the room and asked, “You ready to see him?”
“Yes!” I glimpsed Adam and Sean, checking to see if it was okay I go first, and they both smiled and nodded. “Thank you.” I followed the nurse without wasting time.
She stopped outside a glass door down the hall and opened it, then parted the curtain that obstructed my view of him.
I clutched my chest at the sight of Cole sitting partially upright in his bed. Color had returned to his cheeks already. He was a fighter. Strong. Never gave up on me.
“Hi, baby,” he said groggily as I made my way to him after thanking the nurse.
I swallowed the lump down my throat and took his outstretched hand. He was still coming off the anesthesia, blinking, a slight curl of his lips, movements slow. “Hi,” I said, tears in my eyes while I gripped his hand and sat on the bed next to him.
The bedsheet covered his abdomen, but aside from that wound, there wasn’t much in the way of bruises on his face or arms. He’d clearly done most of the damage to Luca and Adrian’s mercenaries.
“You going to kiss me, or what?” he asked in a husky, still-out-of-it tone.
I lightly laughed and cried at the same time, then leaned in, and his lips molded with mine as he somehow found the strength to return my kiss. And I was probably breaking all sorts of medical rules, but we were together. The truth had been spilled, and wrongs had been made right and now . . .
When I pulled back, he lifted his hand and palmed my cheek, though I could tell he was in pain. “There’s something I have to tell you.”
“It can wait. It’s okay.” I brought my face closer to his. Nose to nose. I wanted to kiss him again. To express my love. Gratitude. My everything.
“I have to tell you.” His lids closed, and he bowed his forehead to mine. “I’m sorry.”
My breath froze in my lungs in anticipation as to what he was about to say.
“I killed someone. The guy who stabbed me . . . I killed him.”
My shoulders collapsed, but I pulled myself together as quickly as possible. The regret in his voice wasn’t a result of what he’d done, it was because he was afraid his actions would hurt me. “Don’t apologize,” I forced out the only truth there was to give. “You did what you had to do.” I dipped my hand into my pocket in search of that shamrock, slipped my hand between our close bodies to find his palm, and pressed the shamrock to it. “No matter what, my heart only beeps for you,” I whispered, edging my mouth near his. “I’m never running again.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Alessia
Moscow, Russia – Ten Days Later
Cole’s gloved hand tightly clasped mine as we stood off to the side of Dimitri’s gravesite. Sebastian and Holly were opposite us, alongside Emilia and Sean.
Dimitri was thirty-five when I ended his life. He may not have been a saint, but I mourned the man who saved my life, who chose to sacrifice himself for me, for the sister who betrayed him.
Snow blanketed most of the ground, and it was still freezing outside, which was typical for March in Russia. Icy branches on nearby trees reached out like a hug where Dimitri was laid to rest, and the sun hung in a bright blue sky, free of clouds, offering a heaven-like feeling on what was meant to be a gloomy day.
The Inside Man: A Dublin Nights Novel Page 29
