by Jaden Wilkes
Nico came through the door at top speed, skidded on the hardwood floor and came to the sofa. He knelt next to Dimitri as if the two of them worshipped at the altar of Columbia, the cult of the little dove.
“Oh she’s bad,” Nico said. “What do we do?”
“Get Albu, he’s Boian’s doctor. I need him.”
Nico leapt up and left, searching for Boian and anyone who could offer assistance.
“Don’t leave me,” he whispered into her ear. Her eyes fluttered under her lids, but she remained unconscious.
He noticed a large bruise forming on her temple, the skin was damaged and almost split, a blow to the head had done this. He kissed it softly and told her how much he’d missed her, how his world would be meaningless without her in it, and how she was the one who kept him from becoming the beast.
He spoke to her until her eyes fluttered again and her lids opened and then closed.
She whispered something in such a tiny voice that he had to lean close to hear her, and begged her to say it again.
She squeezed his hand and repeated herself. “I knew you’d come, please forgive me.”
He said, “I love you so much Columbia. Please forgive me for taking so long, if anything happened to you, I am at fault, not you.”
She smiled and closed her eyes. She squeezed his hand again and appeared to drift back into sleep.
He didn’t want her to though; he knew it wasn’t good for her in this condition. He frantically looked around but nobody was to be found.
“Nico,” he yelled, projecting his voice into a booming echo off the walls of the room, “I need you!”
He looked back down at his beautiful girl and thought, I need her. God how I need her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
COLUMBIA
Both men had turned on her the moment they’d decided she wasn’t worth keeping. She did her best to fight them, to summon some strength and keep them at bay.
She wiggled free of Mace’s grip and backed away, ignoring the burning in her foot and the ache in her ribs. They came for her, Mike smiled and said, “Come on, princess, it doesn’t have to be this way. Come with me, a nice bath, a good meal, you’ll be good as new in no time.”
“She’s a whore,” Mace said, “don’t waste your time with her.”
“But I like her,” Mike replied and turned back to Columbia. “Forget about your filthy Russian, he can’t fuck you like I can.”
At that, she’d lashed out, struck Mike in the face and managed a swift upper cut into Mace’s jaw. Both men had howled in anger and Mike had dropped her with a blow to the head. His Colt 45 connecting with her temple and she’d fallen straight to the floor.
She was only semi-conscious as they’d discussed her fate. Mace had said leave her, let her rot, but Mike was still attached to her. He harbored some sick fantasy that this would all work out for them in the end. Then he would fuck her, kill her eventually and dump her body somewhere.
Ever the romantic.
She heard arguing and a scuffle, Mace took off and she was left alone with Mike.
“Don’t worry, princess,” he said and knelt beside her, “I’ll make sure you’re taken care of, real good.” He pulled the jacket open and squeezed her breast. He pinched her nipple and twisted it, somewhere in her fog she felt the pain and whimpered. It seemed to excite him, so he twisted harder.
She tried to stay awake, to fight for her life, to see Dimi again, but the lure of unconsciousness was too strong. She wanted to leave this life behind, shed the pain and guilt and find out what was beyond, what was on the other side.
She didn’t want to leave her Dimi, but she couldn’t fathom hanging on to her corporeal body any longer. The agony was too great.
She was giving up.
*****
She must be dreaming, somewhere on the edge of death, she was sure of it. She heard Dimitri’s voice and could swear she felt his hands on her body.
She clung to something, feeling adrift; as if she let go she’d never find her way out of here. She wanted death, not this eternal limbo.
She heard his voice again, felt his lips on her forehead. Had she any tears to cry, they would have squeezed out at his simple touch. She longed for him so much; she would give anything to feel him again, to make this fantasy a reality.
She forced herself to be more present, to confront the pain and find out if he was truly holding her again.
She opened her eyes and saw his frantic face scanning hers. She closed them and asked for his forgiveness, in case this would be her last time with him.
He forgave her, which was all she needed to know. She could let go now, and be unburdened of anything left in the world. Dimitri forgave her for putting their baby in harm’s way; he forgave her for letting it die.
She could fall now, and let go.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
DIMITRI
“I’m losing her, Nico, I’m losing her!” His voice startled him with the force of anguish it exuded. He felt his heart rending and his world collapsing around him.
The only thing he could see was her face, her beautiful face and the light going out. She had stopped breathing, gasped, and started again…but it was so faint he couldn’t get a pulse and he could barely register the rise and fall of her chest.
“In here,” Nico’s voice came from behind him. He had found Boian and Albu.
Albu yelled something in Romanian and lifted his medical case.
“He says to get the fuck out of his way and let him do his job,” Boian said and allowed Doctor Albu to get past him.
Dimitri sprung up and moved to her head, keeping her hand in his. He spoke a constant stream of words, talking to her, begging her to stay, promising her all the things they would do when they got back to Malta…loving her and holding onto her.
Albu said something and looked at Dimitri, and back to Columbia.
“Did he tell me to shut the fuck up?” Dimitri said, not looking at Boian.
“No, he said to keep talking. He believes it’s the only thing holding her here.”
So he did, he spoke as Albu worked on her. At some point Boian left to go find his own girl, leaving Dimitri babbling about anything he could think of, and Nico pacing back and forth muttering in Greek under his breath. Every ten steps or so, he would stop, make the sign of the cross, and look to the heavens.
Dimitri had never seen his friend pray, hadn’t even known he was a religious man. He thanked him for it now, for they needed everything they could get to keep her alive.
He heard people yelling outside, but no sounds of gunfire. The fight seemed to be over, they had won. He hoped Boian had already found his girl.
Albu prodded her foot and took a small knife to the bottom of it. Dimitri wanted to protest, but remembered in spite of the doctor’s appearance, he did seem to know what he was doing.
Albu drained it, she jerked her foot and a foul smelling, thick discharge flowed from the opening.
Her body was raging with infection. Dimitri felt utterly helpless, there was no way he could fucking fight this thing, nothing he could do but talk her through it.
Albu opened his case and pulled out a hypodermic needle. Dimitri noted he took it from a brand new package, and relaxed as the doctor drew some medicine from a small vial and gave her a shot in the arm. It appeared to be antibiotics.
Albu moved his hands up her body and she grunted in pain when he reached her midsection. He motioned to Dimitri and he looked down. Over her ribcage Albu made a broken gesture and held up three fingers.
The bastards had broken her ribs. Her abdomen was bruised and discolored in several places; the skin looked black over the rib Albu indicated was the worst.
He told her about the people who would be waiting for her when she got home. How Eden would be there, Nico, everyone who loved her.
He told her how he would never leave her again; never let her go, if she would only come back to him.
“Please,” he said, desperation creepi
ng into his voice, “come back to me.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
COLUMBIA
She was being manhandled again, but this was different. She felt the skilled hands of a professional, not the cruel hands of her captors.
Her body still ached, but not with the same intensity she remembered.
She heard a voice whispering in her ear, a deep, melodic voice speaking to her of her dreams. The places she had been and the places she had imagined while trying to escape her body and the agony of being alive.
Dimitri, it was Dimitri’s voice.
She opened her eyes and saw him crouched at her head, gripping her hand. She was on a sofa, naked except for Mike’s suit jacket. It was hanging open and leaving nothing to the imagination. Nico was pacing behind the sofa, and there was a filthy man with fish eyed glasses prodding her abdomen.
“Fuck,” she whispered. Her throat was almost impassible; it was an arid wasteland of gulping sobs and desperate crying.
Dimitri stopped talking. He looked at her, his face a mask of something she’d never seen before.
Fear.
Her Dimi was terrified, blanched white and face in a grimace of dread.
“Albu,” he said and the strange man with the funny glasses glanced her way. He smiled and gave Dimitri a thumbs up. He went back to palpating her abdomen.
“Columbia,” Dimitri said to her, “Can you hear me?”
Nico stopped dead in his tracks and came to her side, leaning over the back of the sofa.
“Is she awake?” he asked Dimitri.
“I don’t know.”
“Has she said anything?”
“I think she said, ‘fuck’.”
“Sounds like our girl,” Nico said and smiled. He leaned towards Dimitri and placed a hand on his shoulder. “She’ll be okay. You’ve got her back.”
She closed her eyes again and felt Dimitri lift her upright. Her ribs protested, but not as sharply as before. The man in the glasses, Albu, Dimitri had called him, started to wrap something around her, a wide bandage she assumed.
She would die for him; he already knew this. But now she realized she must fight for him, she must fight to live for him.
Albu barked a word, and Dimitri set her back down. She opened her eyes to watch him. He took a thick blanket from under her head and helped her sit up. She winced, but didn’t feel the consuming agony of her broken body. The doctor must have given her something.
He noticed her open eyes and said, “We’re taking you home, my love,” and wrapped the blanket around her. She scooted over so he could pick her up and hold her while he carried her outside.
She opened her eyes from time to time, just enough to take in some of the damage that had been done.
Shattered front door, metal twisted and blackened.
Bodies on the steps and in the grass.
Helicopters waiting, their rotors spinning and blowing her hair and blanket in all directions. The air was like heaven on her face after the stale cell she’d been in.
There were people everywhere, some in what looked like military gear, and some who looked more like peasants conscripted into the army against their will.
Most of them cheered when Dimitri walked to the helicopters, being noticed embarrassed her; she was so filthy and exhausted.
He lifted her inside, Nico helped him from the ground and somebody in military gear helped place her on a stretcher. She felt something hard jab her in the side, she found the suit pocket and touched metal. Keys, she thought.
The guy in military gear moved to strap her in, to secure her to the stretcher, but the moment the first strap touched her body, she started to scream and thrash about.
Embarrassing again, but she couldn’t control her reaction.
She started to cry and reach for Dimitri, he jumped inside and was next to her in an instant, calming her and kissing her.
“My god, what did they do to you?” he asked and rubbed her back as she pressed her face against his chest.
“I’m sorry,” she said and started to cry again.
“Don’t be sorry,” he said and hooked his finger under her chin. He pulled her face up to look at him and said, “Don’t ever be sorry for being you, for being anything. I love you and I will spend the rest of my life, every single day, showing you how completely unapologetic you should be. None of this was your fault.” His eyes grew dark and she saw a shadow flit across them. She believed him, but wasn’t sure he would feel the same way when he found out about their baby.
He knelt beside her and caressed her face, stroked her hair and kissed her forehead as another man in military gear slid a needle in her arm and hooked her up to an IV.
“He works for me,” Dimitri told her, “they have battlefield medical training.”
“It’s just a saline drip,” the man told them, sensing that they both needed reassurance. “She’s severely dehydrated and we need to get her blood volume up before we treat the rest of her injuries.”
Dimitri kissed her hand and didn’t speak; he just stared at her face as if not quite believing she was in front of him. She had a flash of memory and needed to know what had happened to her captors.
“Did you get them?” she asked him and lifted herself up into a sitting position. He pulled the blanket around her and she clutched it to her chest. She dried her remaining tears on a corner and concentrated on remaining calm.
“I got the one from Vienna, the one you left with. I shot him in the study upstairs, next to you.”
“Damn,” she said and tried a smile. It felt foreign; it had been a while since she’d had an occasion to use one. “What about the other one? The guy who burned with you?”
“Mace?” Dimitri asked. He was alarmed; she realized he hadn’t known about Mace taking over Sergei’s empire.
“Yes, that’s the one. We killed his brother in Hong Kong.”
“Mace is behind all this?”
“He took over after Sergei’s death. He is much worse from what I’ve heard. Meaner. Please tell me you killed him.” As she said it, she realized he hadn’t, or else he would have known it had been Mace all along.
“I haven’t seen him,” Dimitri replied and turned to Nico, “did you see any sign of him?”
“Nothing,” Nico replied. “I haven’t checked the bodies though.”
“That’s a thought,” Dimitri said, “but Mace is a slippery bastard. He’s holed up somewhere, I’m sure of it.”
“He was going to torch the basement,” Columbia said, memories coming to the surface all at once. “Iryna.”
“Iryna?” Dimitri asked, “what about her? You mean Sergei’s Iryna? My Iryna?”
“Yes, she’s here. Oh god, Dimi. She’s down there! She was brought in with a Romanian girl…Ioana or something. And there are more, people I never met. Mace is going to burn them all, you have to save them Dimi!”
Nico looked at Dimitri and said, “Boian’s girl. And Iryna!”
“You have to save them,” Columbia said, “I promised her.”
Dimitri thought back to the voice he’d heard in the cell next to Columbia’s. Had that been his little Iryna? If so, she’d already selflessly given up her chance for freedom by sending him after Columbia. “I can’t leave you though,” he said, “Nico, go round up Boian and his men, get them out of there.”
“I told her you’d come for her,” Columbia protested, “you have to go to her. She’s been through so much, Dimi, you don’t even know.”
“I won’t leave you.”
“I’ll be safe here, but she’s in danger. I don’t think I could live with myself if anything happened to her. She saved me in there, many times over. Go get her, Dimi, bring her home with us. She’s family.”
Dimitri contemplated her request. It went against every cell in his body to leave her again, but she was insistent. He knew one thing about his little dove, once she got an idea in her head, she wouldn’t let go.
He took her hand, kissed it and told her, “I’ll go g
et her. I’ll set them all free. For you; and because she’s my family. I’ve known her since she was a baby, I was her Uncle Dimi.” He jumped down and turned back to her.
She smiled, effortless this time, she had to yell to be heard above the noise of the rotors, “I know, she told me all about you…Enforcer. Now go, get them out of there. I’ll be fine.”
He moved to leave and something occurred to her. “Wait!” she yelled again, “you might need these. They were in Mace’s pocket.” She handed him the keys she had found and settled back on the stretcher.
Dimitri reached back in, took the keys, blew her a kiss and was gone. She watched him run across the lawn, she could almost feel the vibrations of his powerful stride from where she was.
Nico glanced back at her, a strange look full of unspoken words just below his skin. Longing passed briefly over his face, and was gone in an instant. The flash of a fish in a deep pond. He rushed to catch up to Dimi, leaving her alone.
She appreciated him not saying a word. She knew he would do anything for her now, but hoped he kept those feelings unspoken, swallowed them whole and digested them in private.
She couldn’t handle anything more than surviving this night and spending the rest of her life with Dimi at her side. She wanted nothing else in her head or her heart, just her and her love.
She fell back onto the stretcher and let the hypnotic vibration of the helicopter rotors lull her into a semi conscious state. She imagined she heard Dimitri’s voice, yelling and coming back for her. A scuffle at the opening of the chopper brought her back, her eyes flashed open.
The military guy was gone; she was alone. She tried to look out the door, but the IV wasn’t portable and it didn’t offer much room to move. She dreaded getting up and using her foot, remembering the sensation of broken glass under the skin.
“Hello?” she called out, but heard nothing above the din of the rotors. The pilot was up at the front and had the door closed. “Is anyone there?”
Mace filled the doorway with his bulky body.
