He drags me through the building and I close my eyes as we pass men who look me up and down with lust in their hard eyes. I hum softly to myself, trying to block out their jeers and lewd comments. I think of Colton and the night when I fell asleep with his strong arms wrapped around me.
My escort, or captor, comes to a stop in front of an office. He knocks on the door and leans in to listen. “Boss your dessert is here,” he says.
“Send her in,” a muffled voice answers back from the other room.
My throat is burning and my first thought is to run but this guy is holding me tight and I’m wearing stilettos even if he wasn’t. There’s no escape. I have to do whatever they want me to do.
He opens the door and a cloud of cigar smoke floats out. “Good luck,” he says as he pushes me into the office.
I wave the smoke out of my face and cough as the door shuts behind me. Fedor is sitting behind the desk with a wet stub of a cigar between his clenched, yellow teeth. His sunglasses are on the table and his scarred, broken eyes are facing the wall.
“Come here child,” he says in a soft voice. “I see with my hands. And I want to get a load of you.” He grins. “Or put a load inside you is more like it.”
My stomach turns as he chuckles at his own disgusting joke. At least I hope it’s a joke.
He turns towards me and my skin tightens as I feel his eyes on me even though I know he can’t see. “I’m not a man who likes to ask twice, child,” he says, his soft voice now with a hint of anger to it. He grinds his cigar stub into a huge crystal ashtray and lifts up his hands. “Come.”
I glance back at the closed door and take a deep breath. As much as I want to run I know that I won’t get anywhere before they catch me and drag me back by my hair. My best bet, my only bet, is to get this over with as quickly as possible. He can take my body but he won’t take my mind. I’ll be thinking of Colton while he paws me with his foul hands.
My hands snake together and fidget while I walk behind Fedor’s monstrous desk. He’s breathing heavier as I approach and he loosens his purple tie and unbuttons the top couple buttons of his shirt, showing off his thick, graying chest hair.
He shifts in his chair and my eyes fall down to his lap. His erection is pressed against his pants and my skin tightens at the sight.
I can’t do this.
My foot steps back on its own accord and I turn toward the door when strong, steel fingers wrap around my tiny wrist. Fedor yanks me onto his lap and my thigh brushes against his erection, making him groan.
I swallow uncomfortably as I try to shift my weight away from his nauseating package but he holds me in place with his rough hands.
“I’ve had thousands of girls,” he says, sliding his rough hands under my nightgown and onto my swirling stomach. I cringe away from him but he holds me in place.
I’ve never felt so dirty in my life and I feel a compulsion to flee. I close my eyes and try to picture Colton’s smile but it disappears from my mind every time Fedor’s hands discover somewhere new on my body. He brushes his hand up my stomach and rubs the bottom curves of my breast through my lingerie as his other hand tucks in-between my inner thighs.
“I’ve had girls of all sizes, of all colors,” he continues. “But there’s nothing quite as sweet as having the daughter of my enemy.”
He kisses my neck with leather lips and I almost scream out.
My stomach is burning with cramps and I’m so nauseous that I may throw up on him. I wonder if he has this effect on all the women he’s about to rape.
He grins as his hand slides up my thigh, forcing my legs apart as he heads for my privates.
Someone yells in the hallway and his hand freezes in place on my leg as he listens to hear the commotion outside.
Gunshots ring out and a man screams in pain.
“Chto za huy,” he spits out like a curse. The hand that was groping the bottom of my breast wraps around my midsection like a rope. He pulls me into his body and holds me in place. His other hand leaves my leg and opens a drawer. He pulls out a handgun and points it at the closed door that I came in through.
There’s more commotion outside as gunshots and screams ring out like it’s d-day in the hall.
I hold my breath and stare at the door, hoping to see a familiar face walk through it. I glance around the desk, looking for a weapon if I might need one but there’s nothing but stacks of paper and a couple of expensive looking pens.
My fight or flight response has kicked in and I’m definitely in flight mode. There are only two exits from the office: through the door or through the window to the left behind us. But unless I learn how to become bulletproof or learn how to fly in the next thirty seconds I’m stuck here.
Several long seconds stretch out like an ocean as we wait for someone to open the door. Fedor taps the trigger with his finger as he listens.
I spot a letter opener on the desk beside a stack of paper and bite my bottom lip. He’s blind and if I’m very careful I might be able to grab it. I lean forward and reach out as careful as I can.
His hand tightens around my ribs and he yanks me back into him, holding me tighter than before. “Don’t try a thing you little blyadischa,” he warns. “I might not have any vision but I can see better than most men.”
My hands fall to my sides as the door handle turns. I pray that it’s Colton. It has to be him.
Fedor brushes his jittery finger over the trigger as the door creeps open. My heart is pounding.
The door swings open and Colton is standing in the entrance with blood splattered all over his fitted, black suit. His white shirt underneath is stained a wet red. Everything that’s going on and the first thing that pops into my head is how hot he looks in a suit.
A look of relief flashes across his face as he sees me but it quickly turns to a look of rage as his eyes trawl down my body and he sees what they have me wearing.
Fedor shifts me in front of him and hides behind my body, using it as a shield. He raises his hand and digs the muzzle of the gun into my temple.
“Don’t move,” Fedor says to Colton in a calm voice. “Drop the gun.”
Colton has a gun in each hand. There’s a holster strapped to his leg but it’s empty. He looks from Fedor to me and back again. He looks like he’s trying to gauge whether or not he can make the shot. Fedor yanks me closer to him. His foul breath contaminates my neck.
Colton sighs and drops one gun on the floor. It lands on the hardwood floor with a clank.
“The other one too,” Fedor says as if he has psychic ability.
A flash of panic crosses Colton’s eyes and he shakes his head slowly. He takes a deep breath and drops the second gun.
“Let her go and I’ll kill anyone you want,” Colton says. “I’ll kill the fucking President if you release her unharmed.”
Fedor shakes his head. “You expect me to trust you after you just mowed down a building full of my men?”
Colton nods. “If it means her safety. Yes.”
I feel my heartbeat thumping in my chest. I was worried that Colton thought of me as a one week fling but that intense look in his eyes is telling me different. He seems to have genuine feelings for me. He killed for me and the way that he’s standing there, unarmed with the barrel of a gun pointing at him, he looks like he’s willing to die for me too.
My fingers ache with the need to touch him. I wasn’t sure, until this moment, that he cared.
“You’ve killed so many of my brothers over the years,” Fedor says, squeezing the gun so hard that his hand is shaking. “You killed my nephew Sergio a few years back. I’ve been looking for you.”
Colton’s eyes narrow as he glances over my shoulder.
“And now I have you,” Fedor continues. He grabs my breast and Colton turns back to us and takes a step forward with flexed arms and flaring nostrils. “Is this your girlfriend?” he asks. “Maybe I’ll fuck her over your dead body.” He slides his hand to my other breast and my stomach turns. “Would you like
that you little whore?”
Colton is breathing noisily as he keeps glancing behind us.
“Tell her you love her,” Fedor says. “Give her something nice to think about as I slide my fat cock up her tight ass. You have five seconds before it’s lights out.”
Colton turns to me and his eyes soften. “I love you,” he mouths, only for me to see. My stomach sinks as Fedor raises the gun an inch.
“Oh well,” he says, holding me tight on his lap. “I guess you were just a whore to him like you’ll be to me.”
I can’t watch. I close my eyes and the gun goes off. My ears ring as I’m thrown off balance and we tumble to the ground. Something wet splatters on my cheek. I fall onto Fedor and roll off him onto the hardwood floor.
I open my eyes, confused as all hell, and see Fedor lying on the floor. His scarred, burnt eyes are filling with blood leaking out of the fresh hole in his temple. It drips down his face and pools on the floor under him.
“What the fuck?” I whisper as I push myself up to my knees. My ears are still ringing and I can’t hear a thing.
Ichiro, the Ninja Assassin, is standing behind the desk, next to the open window. He’s pointing a smoking gun at Colton. His mouth is moving but all I hear is ringing.
I rub my ears and eventually the ringing subsides.
Ichiro turns to me. His gun is still pointed at the man I love. “You’re safe now,” he says. “I’m taking you back to your father.”
“What about Colton?” I ask, afraid to hear the answer.
Ichiro grins. “He’s not going to be able to make it.”
“He tried to save me,” I say in a panic. “My father is going to want him alive.”
“Actually,” Ichiro says turning back to Colton, “I’m getting paid fifty grand to extradite him. By your dad.”
“I’ll pay you a hundred grand,” I scream. My hands are shaking as I plead with him not to pull the trigger.
Ichiro looks amused. “You can offer me a million,” he says. “I’d rather have the exhilarating feeling of putting a bullet in his brash, cocky mouth.”
Colton doesn’t plead for his life, he doesn’t try to run away, he just stands there glaring back at the man who is holding a gun aimed at his head.
“On your knees Colton,” Ichiro says pointing to the ground with his gun. “You lived your life with no humility. The least I can do is give you some before you die.”
“Fuck you Ninja Ass,” Colton says and spits on the floor between them.
The joy on Ichiro’s cold face is unmistakable and I know he’s about to pull the trigger.
I move on the floor, unsure of my next action but sure that I have to do something or Colton will be shot, when my hand grazes cold steel. The gun is still in Fedor’s stiff, dead hand.
I unpeel his cold fingers from the handle as Ichiro steps forward saying something about how this settles that he is the number one assassin between them.
My fingers wrap around the handle and I get a rush of adrenaline with the hard metal in my hand. I’ve never fired a gun before but I’m so close to my target that there’s no way I can miss the hitman in front of me.
I point the barrel at his back. “Say hello to your dead wife and kid,” Ichiro says and I fire. A flame bursts out of the gun barrel as it jerks in my hand. The shot is loud and my ears start ringing again as Ichiro falls to the floor and disappears from my view on the other side of the desk.
Colton lunges forward. By the time I stand up he has his arms wrapped around Ichiro’s neck, choking the life out of him.
Ichiro’s face pales as the blood drains from his cheeks and out of the bullet hole in his body. I watch in horrid fascination as Colton squeezes. His fitted suit hugs his jacked muscles and his face is twisted in exertion as he does what he does best.
“That was for Olivia and my baby,” he whispers into the dead Japanese man’s ear.
My stomach is hit with cramps like I’ve never felt before. I drop to my knees, clutching my stomach and howling in pain. Colton is by my side at once, rubbing my back and asking me what’s wrong.
I shake my head and I grit my teeth as another wave of cramps pass. I don’t know what’s wrong. I’ve never had pain like this before.
And then it dawns on me.
I’m pregnant.
I’m late for my period and I’m never late for my period. I’ve had constant cramps and nausea the past few days. The gained weight. And now there is something new. I can feel a presence in my stomach like I’ve never felt before. There’s a baby in there. Call it intuition or a mother’s sixth sense but I know that there’s a baby growing in my belly.
Colton’s baby.
His hand covers mine as he rubs my back and comforts me. He kisses my head with a gentleness that I didn’t realize was there when I first met him. It’s a welcome surprise.
“Are you okay?” he asks in a soothing voice.
I nod and relax now that the pain in my stomach is subsiding.
I want to tell him. But now is not the time. Not while we’re surrounded by dead people.
He helps me to my feet and guides me to the door. “You might want to close your eyes,” he says. “There’s a lot of dead bodies out here.”
And they’re all for me. He came back, risked his life and killed for me.
I hold my stomach with one hand and his with the other. I’m going to make this work, whatever ‘this’ is between us. We’ll be a family.
We’ll be together.
There’s just one obstacle left to deal with.
nineteen
Colton
This is going to be the hard part.
I have to let Sara go. I’m not good for her and being around me is just plain dangerous. She deserves much more than a killer for hire. She’s going to go on to become a great lawyer, marry a CEO of a respectful company and squeeze out two or three pups and have a life that others will look up to and envy.
“I’m dropping you off at your father’s place,” I say as I change lanes on the highway.
“Why?” she asks, whipping her head around. She pulls her hand off mine, recoiling like she just touched a hot stove. “I want to stay with you.”
I keep my eyes on the dark road as I exhale slowly. I can’t look at the hurt in her eyes. It will make what I have to do that much harder. It’s better this way than her ending up like my mother or Olivia. People tend to go cold when they’re around me.
“You know why,” I say, glancing up at the big, highway lights that we’re passing by.
“I really don’t,” she answers. Why does she have to make this harder than it is?
She rubs the back of my hand. “I want to stay with you.”
I look at her, dressed in my jogging pants and t-shirt, and sigh. “You don’t want to stay with me. You can lead a normal life. A safe life.”
“As my father’s prisoner?” she asks. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because I fucking love you,” I say. The words just come out on their own but it’s the truth. I love her.
I can feel her staring at me. “You love me?” she asks. “For real?”
I swallow hard and nod. “I wouldn’t lie about that.”
She strokes my hand with her thumb as she kisses my shoulder. “I love you too,” she whispers.
A tightness grips my chest at her words. It’s been so long since someone has told me they loved me. Too long. But that’s why I have to let her go.
“You deserve better than me,” I tell her. “You deserve to be safe.”
“It doesn’t matter what I deserve,” she says, leaning closer to me. “I want you. As arrogant, cocky and flawed as you are.”
“You forgot brash,” I say with a grin.
“And reckless,” she adds.
“And sexy,” I say.
She nods and smiles. “You’re definitely sexy.”
The car fills up with silence and tension. Sara telling me that she loves me doesn’t change anything. It only makes it harder.
>
“I have something to tell you,” she says.
“Sara,” I say in exasperation. “Please don’t make this har-”
“I’m pregnant.” She blurts it out and I jerk my head to the side so fast that I almost run us off the road. Someone honks and I yank the car back into our lane.
A lightness hits my chest and I shake my head. It was a mistake. She didn’t just say that.
“Excuse me?” I ask.
“Don’t be mad,” she says, pulling her hand off mine. “But I’m pregnant.”
I reach over and swallow her hand in mine. “Mad?” I ask in shock. “How could I be mad?”
“I know we didn’t plan this,” she says, sounding nervous.
My pulse is racing, in a good way, and a grin spreads across my mouth. I’m going to be a father. And Sara is the mother. I’ve never felt so blessed in all of my life.
I never thought this would happen for me again.
“Please say something,” she says, looking down in her lap.
An insatiable urge to have her right now invades every cell in my body. She’s carrying my baby inside her.
I fly across two lanes to get to the quickly approaching exit. The cars behind me lay on the horn but I don’t care. Sara is the most beautiful thing in the world. My seed is growing inside her and I have to have her. Now.
“What are you doing?” she asks as she grips onto the handle of the door. “Colton?”
I speed up and my Porsche flies off the highway and onto a back road. It’s mostly unlit country roads around here lined with dense forest. I take a sharp turn off the main road onto a secluded dirt road hidden by tall, green trees.
“Where are you going?” she asks, looking out the window with a tinge of panic in her voice. It just drives me further.
I pull over next to a large maple and throw the car into park.
“Look I’m sorry,” she says speaking rapidly. “I didn’t mean to get pregnant. It was an accident. Please don’t leave me here.”
“Leave you here?” I ask, pulling back in shock. “You’re the mother of my child.”
She’s looking at her fidgeting hands in her lap. I gently take her chin and guide her eyes up to mine. I can’t let her go now. Not with my baby in her.
The Hitman's Baby: A Standalone Bad Boy Romance Novel Page 12
