The soles of my boots were thin and I slipped a few times, but was able to stop myself from falling by grabbing onto the first available thing that I saw.
When I came up to the building I noticed all these black cars parked out front and I decided to take the back stairs. Seeing them gave me a sense of dread. I wasn’t sure, but I had a feeling that they weren’t here to see Tamara. It couldn’t be for me. I’d been too careful.
One government vehicle would have sufficed for a clandestine romance, but there were four of them clustered around each other. Two very burly young men stood at the ready by the vehicles.
I slipped out of sight and down an alley way, until I came to the back stairs. The door was ajar; somebody had used a crowbar a long time ago to break in and nobody had done anything to fix it. I was able to fashion a steel bar over the inside. I was the only one that was able to loosen it enough to squeeze through to the other side. It was by my own design. The stairs were littered with garbage and a drunk named Owen was sitting with a bottle at the top of the stairs. This was really the only place in the building that had any heat.
“You know what, Owen? I think you may be the only sane one around here after all. If I had any brains, I would come out here with you.”
He smiled with one tooth missing and raised his bottle. I took it and had myself a slug and it warmed my insides. I did wipe the top of the bottle first to make sure that I didn’t catch anything. I need to keep up appearances, but I wasn’t stupid. I handed it back to him and he gave me this smirk and went back to talking to himself.
I opened the door and made my way over to the stairs that would lead to my floor. I was going to take the elevator, but I had this feeling that I should keep myself incognito. I climbed the stairs two at a time, feeling the cans of pasta sauce slamming up against me. I took care of myself and I ran every day. It wasn’t that I wanted to have a nice figure, but it was something to do when I didn’t have anything else on my plate.
I had my hand poised on the door leading to my hallway, but I stopped and decided to press my ear against it instead. There was nothing but silence. I took a few steps forward and opened the door, gritting my teeth and hoping to God that it wasn’t going to make a noise that would attract anybody’s attention.
I walked cautiously down the hallway towards my apartment and I saw that Tamara had come out at the end of the hall and had begun to shake her head vehemently. I wasn’t sure, but I think that she was trying to warn me away. I was standing at the threshold and I heard somebody inside my apartment. The door was wide open and splintered from somebody using more force than necessary.
“I want everything. Tear this place apart and make sure that there isn’t any place that she could hide from us. Tell the boys downstairs to give us a heads up when she returns.”
I heard pounding and the crashing of glass. I was terrified. For the first time, I was stunned into immobility. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t talk, and the only thing I could do was watch these men in trench coats tear my place apart.
I must have gasped, because the man inside my bathroom came out and saw me standing there. He grabbed for his pistol and suddenly my legs came back to life. It was my natural instinct to survive that made me run like I’ve never run before. The bag of supplies that I had been carrying fell from my jacket and landed on the floor with the two cans of pasta sauce rolling.
I heard a gun go off and I heard the hot lead pass by my ear and embed itself into the wall. I turned to see that the man that was chasing me had stumbled over the cans. He was now face down with his gun out of his hand and at my feet. I picked it up and waved it around with shaky hands, while the man lifted his face from the carpet to see that I was the one in control now.
“You don’t want to do that. Put the gun down and let me take you into custody.”
I didn’t want to know what that could possibly mean. I had no desire to be tortured for what I believed, like my mother and father were. “Did you really think that you could talk back against the government and we wouldn’t find out?”
Two more men came from my apartment wielding similar weapons. I pulled the trigger and fired indiscriminately. The man that had been talking to me ducked down and held his hands over his head. Those that were coming out of my apartment had decided to rethink that decision, and dove back within the cover of the doorway.
I backed up and I stayed vigilant, but I needed to get out of here pronto. I got back to the stairwell and opened it up, deciding that taking one stair at a time was not going to give me the head start that I needed. I leaped the entire landing, landing heavily on my boots and feeling the impact all the way up my legs and spine. I leapt three more times, until I got into the hallway on the first floor. I went towards the stairs and I found that drunk still sitting there, but this time he was passed out and snoring heavily.
Thinking quickly, I took off his jacket and I replaced it with my own. This very thin piece of fabric was not going to keep me warm, but maybe it would keep me safe. I had taken the bottle out of his hands.
I got on the street and I walked out of the alley, stumbling and waving the bottle around. With the snow that was heavy, it was hard to see anything and I was hoping that they would take me for a drunk and not try to accost me. I had my disguise, but I had no idea how long it would stand up to scrutiny.
“God bless Putin… God bless Putin… God bless Putin.” I had replaced the lyrics to one of my favorite songs with that of a drunken mantra.
“Hey…come back here.” Apparently, my ruse was not that convincing. It wasn’t like I was a trained professional that could disappear at a moment’s notice. I was a freelance journalist in a country that really didn’t take kindly to people speaking out.
“Don’t move.”
I should’ve known that those inside would have called down to tell them that they should look out for anybody leaving the building. If I was thinking clearly, I could’ve probably taken refuge in Tamara’s apartment to ride this out. They didn’t have the resources to stick around for too long and the storm was going to hamper any kind of campaign against me.
I ran away from them, hearing their footsteps getting closer and knowing that my life was on the line. I was trying to lose them in the storm and for once I was thankful that the wind was getting stronger by the second. I was frozen to the bone, but the adrenaline pumping through my veins was enough of an incentive to keep me going. I was heading into a nearby park and I could still hear their boots gaining traction. They were closing the distance between us.
I heard the squawking of a walkie talkie and I was a little worried that they were calling for reinforcements. I heard them screaming something at me, but it was lost in the wind like some kind of whisper that only Mother Nature could hear.
I don’t know what compelled me to go into the park; there was nothing there that was going to give me any kind of help. There were no structures to hide behind – the only options were trees. Once they zeroed in on my location, they would scour the area and cordon it off, until they were able to drag me out kicking and screaming.
I resigned myself to my own fate, sitting down at one of the benches and looking out over the lake. This was my moment of reprieve until they took ahold of me and made me accountable for what I’d done. I didn’t know what else to do and I had no phone to call anybody. Even if I did, I’m not sure that anybody would want to get involved. Jensen might be convinced, but even he was jittery and a little nervous about going against the natural order of things.
“You’re not alone. My team and I came as soon as we could. By Presidential order, you are being taken back to the United States in protective custody.”
I looked up to see this man with a blue jacket and black pants. He had this air of superiority. It must’ve come from some kind of military background. “My name is Liam Heisman and I am a navy seal. I’ve been sent in to retrieve you, but we needed to make sure that you were not being watched.”
I was defeated, but now he had
given me the one thing that I thought was lost…hope.
Chapter three
I stared at him for some time. He sat down and took my hands in his. “I’m not going to lie to you and tell you that this is going to be easy. This is going to be the hardest thing that you’ve ever done in your life. I need you to be fully aware of your surroundings. I need you to take my advice and follow my orders to the letter. If you want to survive, then we need to work together and get back to the extraction site.”
I was still a little floored that a Navy Seal and the United States government had taken an interest in little old me.
“I’m not saying that I’m not grateful, but I do question the reason why you would come here.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t really ask those questions. I’ve been asked to do a job and to get you out of Russia and that is what I’m going to do. I lost two men already. I’m not going to lose any more on my watch.”
It was comforting to know that I wasn’t alone, but he was really not here for anything more than just a duty to his country. He had no connection to me and my death would not keep him up at night. Having him as my guardian angel was something that I wasn’t expecting, and I was going to grab onto him as my own personal lifeline.
“I still don’t understand any of this. It’s not like I’ve got my hands on state secrets.” I then remembered some of the articles that I had written. Those who would read those articles would think that I had knowledge of various instances of government corruption. I was only given that information by an unknown source within my alliance. There were no names bandied about and I really didn’t want to get anybody else into trouble. I took the responsibility on my own shoulders. I was now regretting that decision.
I couldn’t help but to look at this soldier and feel bad that he had gotten caught up in all of this. This was not his business and my life was not his responsibility; however, I was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. If he was going to save me, then I may as well take any help I could get.
“We’re really going to have to move. They are coming and they know that you went in here. They also know that you have a gun and that’s the only reason why they haven’t come in here with force. They are waiting for certain individuals that have ice water in their veins.”
If he was talking about what I thought that he was talking about, then we were both in serious trouble. This was the secret police, or at least that is what those of us in the know had begun to call them. They were shadow figures that were called in to take care of those that had become too much to handle by conventional means.
“I would tell you that I’m not scared, but I don’t think that you would believe me. Lead the way.” He got up and suddenly he sniffed the air like he sensed something was coming.
I looked at him and I heard the growl in the pit of his stomach. It sounded like some kind of animal. “What is it?” I wanted to know what I was getting myself into, but I had a feeling that maybe I had jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire.
“I’m not sure, but I don’t think that we’re alone…”
He didn’t get a chance to finish his thought, as an arrow embedded itself in his shoulder from a distance that seemed like it came out of nowhere. He grimaced, but he did not scream like a normal person would have. He reached back and pulled it out like it was a common occurrence. “I should’ve known that they would send the hunters. That must mean that they know that I’m here. That is only bad news for the both of us.”
The arrow had literally gone through to the other side. He had snapped it off and pulled it from his body like it was nothing.
“Are you even human?” The words were barely out of my mouth before we were surrounded. These men didn’t look like they were in the mood to talk this thing out.
I turned to Liam for any kind of support, only to see something that would forever change the way that I viewed the world as a whole. His body began to grow and his clothes shredded from his frame like they were just a nuisance. His back arched and I heard his bones breaking and then shifting into something that wasn’t normal. Those men that had surrounded us were now looking at each other, but they did not scream or run the other way.
“Run and don’t look back.” His voice had changed and lowered a few octaves. He certainly didn’t look like the same person he was when he first approached. “I mean it. I don’t want you to stay here and see this.”
I was shaking like a leaf, but I was also quite fascinated by what I was seeing. It wasn’t possible, but this man was now turning into something that was even more deadly than his navy seal training.
Hair began to sprout out of his body, and I thought that he was intimidating before but it paled in comparison to what he was now. This bear-like form emerged and attacked these men with a vengeance. I ran away, hearing screams and stopping long enough to glance over my shoulder and see the massacre. Those men tried to use knives, but they were useless against this man, or should I say beast. He had become something of a nightmare for all of them.
I saw blood spraying as he used his razor-like claws to tear them apart. One dug his knife into his back. He turned and swatted the man with such force that his whole body went flying into a nearby tree. The sickening thud could only mean that he was dead, and the rest soon followed with a melee and carnage of the likes that I’d never seen in my life.
“I told them to send more men, but they wouldn’t believe me.” It was now down to a one on one confrontation between Liam and a man who held two knives like he knew how to use them in the most deadly way possible. “I can’t allow you to leave here alive. I might be asking for it, but you’re not going to go by me, unless you’re climbing over my cold dead body.”
They were matched up against one another and I could see that they were both waiting to see who was going to make the first move.
I would’ve thought animal instincts would have made him attack, but he was patient and waited until the man standing in front of him decided to end the stalemate. He suddenly dropped one of the knives onto the ground, distracting Liam and making the beast itself look down. This was followed by the man taking out a gun and firing it point blank at the bear. The scream was ungodly, but that gun only managed to fire one shot before it and the man’s hand were severed from the rest of his body.
He ran, holding his bloody stump, but Liam attacked him. But, his strength had waned considerably with the blood loss. They rolled around in the snow and I could barely see, but eventually one of them was going to emerge the victor.
It only lasted a few seconds, until finally the only sound was the wind and the howling of the storm that had now reaching its apex. I should have turned tail and kept running, until I couldn’t run anymore. My journalistic integrity prevented me from taking those necessary steps for my own survival. I needed to see how this played out. The only way to do that was to witness it firsthand.
I heard my heartbeat and the sound of my footsteps, as they made their way one step in front of the other. The snow was marked with those dead bodies, twisted in the most grotesque way.
I had seen something that was otherworldly or maybe supernatural, and I wasn’t really affected in the way that I thought I would be. I was scared, but I was more interested in knowing more about this phenomenon. There were rumors on the black net that these things existed, but I never did believe a single word that was being said in conspiracy sites.
I followed the blood trail for a few more yards, until I saw Liam in his human form, lying there with blood coming out of his mouth and streaking from a wound in his chest. The man that he had matched wits with was nowhere to be seen. I could probably follow that blood trail to his location, but I really didn’t want to do that.
“I’ll be fine, but we need to find some place to lay low.”
I reached for his hand and I helped him to stand, giving him my diminutive body as some kind of crutch. He was naked and his large phallus did not escape my attention. He was a beast in so many wa
ys and yet there was this gentle and compassionate soul underneath. I couldn’t help but to admire his physical makeup. He was chiseled out of granite. Every man should strive to be exactly like him. Add the component of a large, swinging bat between his legs and you had the perfect man for the woman that had nothing.
Chapter four
He was lying there, breathing heavily, and I was tempted to touch him in an inappropriate way. My hands were inches away from touching his body and the cock that was lying dormant along his left thigh.
There were several wounds that had been inflicted on him by those men who had decided to take him out with extreme prejudice. “I don’t know where you came from, but I’m glad that you came to my rescue when you did. I’m sorry that you had to get hurt, but I imagine that this is not the first time that you’ve done something foolish in the name of God and country.”
He had his eyes closed, but I could sense that he was aware of everything that was going on around him. “I’m just doing what I’m supposed to do. I need to get us back to that extraction site, as soon as possible.”
I heard the howling of the wind and I looked up to see that the snow was really intensifying. There was no way that we were going anywhere until this storm settled down, which wouldn’t likely be for at least another few hours. It was night and I had taken him to the only place that I knew would be uninhabited.
He was lying on the counter inside the store that I had gone to previously. The owner had already taken off to weather the storm in the privacy of his own home, several miles away. I’d heard in passing that he didn’t live in the building. I was taking that on face value. “I don’t think that we are going anywhere for the time being. Since we have time, I would really like to know more about who…or what you are.”
Taken By The Forbidden Highlander (Scottish Highlander Romance) Page 74
