by Sophia Gray
And I wasn’t. This was exactly where I wanted to be, nowhere else.
His tongue slid across my lips, feeling as though he’d done it a thousand times and should do it a thousand more. I opened my mouth for him, allowing his tongue to slide inside and duel with my own. I groaned against him, wishing for more than just this kiss and afraid at the same time to ask for it.
We kissed like that forever. Our bodies pressed together so tightly that nothing could fit between them, our breaths heaving, our heartbeats drumming in sync.
But eventually, it had to stop. We slowed down, albeit reluctantly. Then, with a tender sweep of his lips across mine, we finally broke apart. He sucked in a breath and when his eyes met mine, they flashed with desire and need. But there was no time for either.
Brushing a strand of my hair behind my ear, he said, “We have to go. Staying here is dangerous.”
I nodded in agreement. I wanted out of this room. It didn’t matter where I was, so long as it wasn’t here and Nikolai was with me. His eyes drifted down to Shawn, examining him coolly. After a moment, he looked back to me. “He’s going to be a problem if he wakes up like that.” Considering him for a second longer, he said, “I’ll make sure he doesn’t get to a phone any time soon.”
Before I could ask what he meant, he pulled away from me completely—it was a terrible feeling, the need to be beside him, wrapped up in him, so intense it was startling—and kneeling down to get a grip on Shawn’s feet. He nodded his chin towards the only other door in the room besides the entrance. “Open it, please.”
I nodded and went to it hurriedly. I opened the bathroom door, then stood aside so Nikolai could drag Shawn’s unconscious form into the small, dirty room. I watched him lean Shawn’s head against the porcelain of the toilet, then come back out into the main part of the room. He jerked out the cord for the telephone and made sure it was detached from both wall and phone. Then he proceeded to tie Shawn up, his hands coming together on the opposite side of the toilet, so it looked like he was hugging the cold porcelain, his head leaned against the top, cheek pressed to the side.
I thought Nikolai was done, but then he stole a pillow, too, and wadded it up. He shoved it into Shawn’s mouth. Then he stepped back and admired his work. Satisfied, he turned back to me. Raising a single eyebrow, he asked, “Are you okay with this?”
There was little today that I was okay with, but Shawn tied up to a toilet—alive, breathing, and in better shape than they thought they’d left Nikolai in—was one of them. I could live with it. I nodded.
He relaxed a little. “Good. We need to go.” He grabbed my arm—the third man to do so today, and by far the gentlest—leading me out the door. He frowned at the broken door he’d kicked in, and released me long enough to pull it back to a standing position. It was definitely still broken, but if you weren’t looking too closely, it looked almost just like the other doors next to it. Hopefully it would be enough to escape attention, for a while at least.
We started walking away from the Market Town Inn. I noticed his car wasn’t in sight. “Where are we going?” I asked.
He held my hand as we walked along the side of the road, staying a little farther into the woods so the trees helped to hide us from view. “I parked about a half a mile up the road, just to make sure no one spotted my car.” He offered me a wry smile. “I’m glad I did, though I don’t know how much good it did me in the end.”
I didn’t answer. I wanted to ask him what had happened, but at the same time, I knew enough to know I didn’t want to know any more. I stayed silent.
We walked until the woods opened up to a clearing. It was a parking lot for a building that looked rundown and boarded up. It didn’t look like anything. When we got around the shack, I spotted his car, hiding in the shadows.
“Good. It’s still here.”
He opened the passenger door for me and got in on the driver’s side. I shivered and immediately he started up the car in response, turning the heat on full blast. It took only a moment for it to heat up, but when it did, I felt better. The heat seeped into my bones, relaxing my body until I finally felt safe and warm and just better.
Nikolai looked over at me. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but I need to find your brother.”
I nodded. Nikolai looked surprised, but I offered him a small, sad smile. “I know.”
After everything my brother had told me, I understood now that he wasn’t who I thought he was. And while maybe I wasn’t ready to consider what Nikolai would do to him—he was still my brother and no matter what he’d done, I didn’t wish for him to die—I knew my brother couldn’t be left to his own devices. He’d done something horrible.
I was hoping maybe I could talk Nikolai into calling the police. It seemed pretty improbable, but maybe if I told him I would make the call—anonymously—and be sure not to mention anything about Nikolai and his employers, then maybe he would go for it. Logan needed to be punished, but I wasn’t yet convinced that he needed to die.
I knew I’d have to talk to Nikolai about it before we reached my brother, but I also sensed that now was not the time to bring it up. Not yet, though it would have to be very soon.
“I’m not sure where he is,” I admitted to Nikolai, frowning. “I know he’s meeting up with Joshua, though.”
He nodded, thinking about it. “That’s good to know. I’ve got a location for Logan; I just wasn’t sure if this Joshua character would be there, too.”
I was surprised to find out that Nikolai knew already where Logan was, but I thought maybe I shouldn’t have been. After all, he’d found him at the Market Town Inn. Biting my lip, I nodded. “What are you going to do? Won’t it be dangerous with both of them there?”
Nikolai gave me a wry smile. “Don’t worry about it. I can handle them.”
I frowned at him. He looked badly beat up, bruised, and his lip was a little bloody. He was covered in dirt, too, and I knew he’d been beaten severely enough that Logan was convinced he was dead. If it had gone that way the first time around, why would this time be any different?
As though reading my mind, Nikolai offered me a more genuine smile. He put his hand on mine, sending sparks of electricity running up my arms. “They got the jump on me before. But not this time. I won’t give them the chance to fight dirty twice.”
I nodded, though I was still scared and worried for him. This was going to go badly; I could feel it.
We drove towards a warehouse that Nikolai had apparently been directed towards. He insisted we stop at a store on the way to pick up a disposable cell phone and to get me some ginger ale and Mentos, the only things that kept my stomach calm, but aside from that, we didn’t stop at all.
He seemed a little on edge with me being there. “I would drop you off first,” he explained as we drove through the quiet night. “But I can’t be sure nothing will happen. What if Logan leaves before I get there? What if Shawn manages to get out? No, I can’t leave you alone. This is the only way I can protect you.”
A warm feeling flooded me. After the way my brother had so carelessly dragged me into this, after Shawn had pointed a gun at my head and then forced himself on me, it was nice to have at least one person thinking about my safety.
I smiled at Nikolai, relieved we were finally together again.
Chapter 30
Nikolai
I drove with purpose towards the warehouse. After getting the disposable cell phone from the market, as well as a couple of things to ensure that Madeline’s morning sickness didn’t suddenly rear its ugly head, I made a point to call Sergei and check to make sure the truck was still there. It was, he assured me. I felt a little bit better this time around, having a few things working in my favor. The first was that Logan felt certain I was dead. It was his own stupidity that had ensured he hadn’t finished the job of putting me to rest and it served him right that he would feel falsely secure. The second was that I knew Joshua would be there, too. Madeline had provided me with that bit of informat
ion and it was helpful, because I knew what to look out for.
My eyes glanced over at Madeline in the passenger seat. She was quiet, thoughtful. Up to this point, she had been pretty adamant about her brother, sure that he wasn’t capable of the things for which he’d been accused, but tonight she was strangely silent.
I think it had to do with the confession of killing me; ironically enough, that swayed her opinion of him. After all, if he was capable of killing me, wasn’t he just as capable of having murdered someone else? It didn’t matter that he actually hadn’t managed to finish me off, only that he’d intended to.
Still, I was surprised she was going along with this so willingly. Perhaps she was still in shock after what happened in the motel.
I gripped the steering wheel tighter until my knuckles were turning white. What sort of monster tried to rape a pregnant woman? I should have killed him right then and there, and probably would have if Madeline hadn’t been in the room. But she was, and though smashing his face in helped a little bit, it didn’t really quell the licking flames of hatred burning in my gut.
At least she’s safe. At least she’s with me.
It was the only comforting thought I had, really.
After a while of driving, Madeline finally spoke up, her voice small and hesitant. “You’re going to kill my brother, aren’t you?” she asked, her gaze ahead of her instead of turned towards me.
I frowned, not sure what to answer with. Of course I was, and I had the feeling she already knew that. Not wanting to lie to her, I nodded. “Yes.”
She fell silent again for a moment, then, “And that’s the only way? I mean, is it about the money, or something else?”
I wasn’t sure what she was getting at. I thought she had realized what sort of man her brother was. After thinking for a moment, I said, “It would be a lie to say it isn’t about the money. Even for those who love what they do, it is still, in some part, about the money. But that is not the only thing I take into consideration.”
“And what else do you consider then?”
I mulled the question over for a moment before answering, realizing how important it was. “It’s a little bit about justice, in a strange sort of way. Some people just need to die. They’re dangerous and have proved themselves to be nothing else. I can’t let that go, but I would be lying if I said I was only being noble or righteous. Because I’m not. I work for some dangerous people, Madeline. And these people are a big part of why I do what I do. I owe Mickey—” I slipped up, I realized, saying his name, but she was going to be a part of my life now. I’d already made up my mind on that, so I glossed over it and kept going. She needed to know who she was getting involved with. “—a lot and if he asks something of me, I won’t ask too many questions before I do what I do.”
There was a long pause filled with tense silence before Madeline spoke again. I was worried as she did, her next words a clue as to how all future conversations might go. “So you wouldn’t consider getting the police involved?” she asked timidly.
I glanced at her sharply and said in a flat tone, “No. Not even remotely.”
She frowned, turning in her seat so she was facing me. “What if it was reported anonymously? He could be locked away and you wouldn’t have to—”
I interrupted her before she went any farther. “Mickey won’t let the police be involved. Logan’s death warrant has already been issued. Now, it need only be served. And if not by me, someone else will take the job.”
She fell silent at that. We didn’t say anything else for the rest of the drive. I knew she wanted to find another way, one in which her brother survived, but there was nothing I could do about that. She loved him, yes, but he’d already wasted too much time and messed up in too many ways. There was no more lenience to be offered.
***
We arrived at the warehouse a little while later. It was still light and the first thing I noticed was that the streetlights in the immediate vicinity were out. None of them worked until several blocks down. I didn’t think it was a coincidence.
The second thing I noticed was the red truck parked out front. There was a second vehicle there next to it, a beat-up Chevy that I hadn’t seen before, but I imagined it belonged to Joshua. Other than those two cars, the place looked deserted.
I had the lights off on the car, though it was still running as I carefully crept around the warehouse looking to see what I could find. I noticed a broken window that could probably serve as my way in, and a back door that looked to be sealed shut. The front door seemed to be open, like they entered that way and didn’t bother to close it up after, but I didn’t want to risk going in the same way. Too dangerous, too obvious. No, I’d use the window.
Driving down the street a little ways, I finally turned off the car, but I left the keys there. Checking my gun, I spoke to Madeline who was sitting in the passenger seat, trembling. “All right, I’m going to go in. You’ll have to stay here—I won’t risk you in there if things go badly.”
She opened her mouth to protest, but I fixed her with a harsh stare. She closed her mouth without saying a word.
“I’m going to leave the keys here, just in case. If anything goes wrong, if anything seems wrong, I want you to run. Don’t go to the police,” I cautioned, sensing what a young woman, wholesome and sweet, might do in this type of situation. “It’s not just a matter of justice with the people I work for. If they figure out you gave them up to the police, the price will be on your head.” I didn’t tell her that I wouldn’t be there to save her, either. “Instead, keep your head down. There’s spare cash in the glove compartment. Don’t go home. Get out of town, use a new name. Start over.”
She looked terrified by all I was telling her. Tears pricked at her eyes as her hands overlapped her stomach, not yet swollen with the baby growing inside. The baby I now knew was mine.
Pride and sadness alike swelled within me at that thought. There was a chance I might die tonight without ever even seeing my child, but I pushed that thought aside, focusing on what I had to do. Pulling Madeline across the seat to meet me, I pressed my lips to her in a searing, passionate kiss. One that I hoped told her everything I was feeling in that moment.
I hoped it told her that she was mine.
When I broke it, her lips were swollen and her eyes fluttered. “Hide in the backseat,” I told her seriously. “If I don’t make it back, take the car and the money and run. And Madeline?”
She looked up at me with those huge, bright blue eyes.
Taking her hand, I moved it so it was palm up and put one of my two spare guns in the palm of her hand. “Protect yourself. Protect that child.”
Before I left, she grabbed me and whispered, “Please come back.”
I nodded once, then I was gone.
It was impossibly dark outside, so it took me a long moment to let my eyes adjust and get my bearings. Once I did, I spotted the broken window and made a beeline for it. Heaving myself inside, I dropped down quietly, my fall barely making a clopping noise. Even so, I ducked down behind a stack of crates three tall, waiting.
When silence carried through the entire place and no one made a move as though they’d heard me, I peeked around the corner of the crates. It was empty. Frowning, I straightened up and pulled my gun, searching the lower floor of the warehouse. Cursing quietly, I was about to reconsider my options—perhaps they’d gone somewhere else, maybe it was a different warehouse, maybe they’d dumped the truck—when I heard voices. Swiveling around, I found a set of stairs leading to an upper floor. Floating down those stairs were voices.
One of them I recognized as Logan’s.
I headed up the stairs as slowly and silently as possible, gun at the ready. As I moved closer, I caught pieces of their conversation. “I don’t want to do that,” said Logan.
The other man answered in an annoyed voice. Joshua. “We don’t have a fucking choice, man. This is your goddamn fault.”
There was a pause, then Logan demanded, “How the hell
was I supposed to know she’d show up at the motel?”
I frowned as I continued my way up the stairs. She? I had a sinking suspicion that I knew who they were talking about and I was thinking I didn’t like why they were talking about her.
“Doesn’t matter,” Joshua again. “She did show up and now she’s a goddamn liability.” There was a long pause, then Joshua sighed and said, “She’s gotta die, man. You know it and I do.”
I tensed. This was a moment of truth for me. Joshua was willing to kill Madeline—which meant there was no question in my mind that he had to die, preferably in a horrible way—but Logan was her brother. Would he really go along with this?
