Chapter 35 Grace
GRACE
Darkness.
All I can see is darkness. And it’s cold. I’m freezing, my body is shivering. I think I’m turning into ice. Maxim, Maxim! I call, but my ears feel like they’re full of water. I can’t hear anything.
“Grace, Grace.” A voice in the distance. “You’re safe now.”
Where are they? They sound so close. I force my eyes open but see only blurs. I shake my head, trying to get the water out of my ears.
“Don’t move,” the voice commands.
I’m exhausted and my limbs are like Jell-O. Bit by bit my eyes open, but it’s still dark.
“Grace.”
“Sergei?” I look up into his blurry face. He has blood dripping down his face, there’s a cut along his forehead. He uses his forearm to wipe off the blood, but it just keeps coming back.
“Oh, thank god you survived.”
“You’re bleeding,” I say.
“I’m fine. How are you?”
“Cold.” My teeth begin to chatter.
“I know, I know. Look, help will be here soon. We need to stay out
of sight, it’s still dangerous out there.”
“Maxim.” I suck in a breath, looking around for him.
“Grace, relax, you have injuries.”
“What? Where is he?” Panic rises through my body. I
look around the muddy bank.
“I don’t know. They were supposed to meet me at this rendezvous
point, but they’re not here.”
“What do you mean they’re not here?” I try to sit up again, and Sergei pushes me back down.
“Brooks and Damon will be here any moment. Maxim has a GPS
locator on his watch—we will find him.”
I settle a little because I remember all the equipment Damon set
us up with. Sergei curls up around me, our cool body temperatures mingling enough to stave off the cold. I drift in and out of consciousness, my eyes trying to focus on the bridge above and the sounds of the traffic going past us.
“What happened to Dmitri?” I ask, wondering how we are safe.
Sergei’s arms wrap around me tighter. “I’m not sure, maybe us going over the bridge was enough for them to think we didn’t survive so he gave up.”
“Were we chased by a helicopter, or did I imagine that?”
“I wish that was your imagination, but we really were chased by a Black Hawk.”
“How did we survive? Why aren’t they looking for us?” A terrified shiver goes through my body. Fear grips my aching bones.
“I’m not sure, Grace. Luck? God? Not our time? I just don’t know.”
Silence descends between us as we fall asleep.
“They’re here!”
Voices wake me with a start.
Sergei pulls me close, trying to work out if they are friend or foe.
“Grace! Sergei!”
“Brooks!” Sergei looks toward the voices. “Over here.” We hear footsteps thundering along the muddy bank.
“Thank fuck,” Brooks says. He throws a blanket over us. “Grace, I thought—” His voice hitches in his throat, the fear and worry etched on his face.
I wrap myself around the giant, and he holds me tight, his face buried in the crook of my neck. He’s warm, so warm, like a furnace, and I burrow myself into his hard chest, which makes him laugh.
“Thank fuck you are alive. Sophie would have fucking killed me.” He tries to lighten the mood. Brooks isn’t one for showing emotions. He picks me up and carries me off the muddy bank, and Sergei follows. “Damon is looking downstream where the last ping of Maxim’s GPS was.”
I see the van sitting beside the road, and Brooks places me inside it. The heating is on full, and Sergei and I rub our hands together, trying to warm our bones.
“Where’s Dmitri?” I ask again.
“He left once you guys ...” Brooks can’t say it.
I can hear the tremor in his voice.
“Once you guys crashed through the bridge. He shot into the water a couple of times, but as the car sank to the bottom and no one floated to the surface, he fled away.”
I keep rubbing my hands. The feeling is coming back to them.
“What about Max and Elena?”
Brooks shrugs. “Damon will stay and search for them, but my orders
are to take you back to the plane, make sure you are safe and secure, and on the way out of here. The longer you stay, the better chance of being captured.”
“No, you can’t leave Maxim here!” I yell at him, my voice hoarse after struggling to breathe.
“There’s a second jet on standby, but my orders are to get you back to Ibiza.”
“We can’t leave them, Brooks, we can’t,” I sob.
“I know and we won’t—Damon is searching for them. Don’t forget Max is wearing the GPS. We will find him. But you need to leave. You won’t do Max any good if Dmitri captures you again.”
Sergei stands up but stumbles. “Let me stay.”
“Sorry, old man. You have a nasty gash, and the doctor needs to see you. He’s waiting on the plane. You can’t do anything if you can’t stand up straight. How many fingers?”
I watch as Sergei squints and stares at Brooks’s fingers.
“Three.”
“Wrong, I had four up.”
Sergei grumbles at Brooks in Russian, and I don’t need the fancy
translator to work out what he’s saying. Brooks slides the van’s doors closed and jumps into the driver’s seat. Sergei and I sit in our seats quietly.
When we arrive at the airport, we’re shuttled directly to the plane.
“Here.” Brooks hands me a bag. “Go get changed out of those wet clothes and have a shower, then the doctor will look at you.”
“Thanks.” I take the bag and head to the back of the plane, where there is a bedroom and shower.
I lock the door behind me and undress, my fingers shaking.
I turn on the shower and perfectly hot water comes out.
I let the warm water run over my body, washing off the mud.
Brown water swirls down the drain. I hear the rumble of the jets as the pilots get the plane ready.
I wash my hair, getting the sticks and grass out of it.
I dress in the airline sweats, and if I’m honest, I do feel better, warmer.
My heart is still missing its other part.
I walk back into the main cabin.
Brooks smiles at me. “Feel better?”
I nod, I don’t have the energy for anything else.
“Here.” He places a cup of hot chocolate beside me. Sergei has one too. “Once we are up in the air, you can use the shower, and the doctor will stitch you up,” Brooks tells him.
Sergei just nods and sips his hot drink.
“Can’t we wait five more minutes in case Damon finds them?”
Brooks shakes his head. “I just spoke to Damon. He hasn’t found them yet. We must go, Grace.”
“No!” I scream. “No!” I get up and head to the door, but Brooks’s strong arms catch me, and I’m no match for him. “Please don’t leave them. I
can’t lose him. I can’t lose him, Brooks. We just found each other.” Tears fall down my cheeks as I crumple against him.
“I know, Grace. I get it, but our priority is to get you home safe and sound, okay?”
I thump his chest. “Damn it, Brooks. Find him.”
“We will, I promise. No matter what, we will.”
Two whole weeks I’ve been wandering this earth without my soul mate. Two bodies were found further downstream from where Sergei and I washed up, one male, and one female. The only way they could be identified was by dental records, and they were apparently a match for Maxim and Elena.
I don’t believe it.
I never saw his body. Not till I see his cold dead body will I believe that Maxim is gone.
I’ve spent the past two weeks in my bedroom, not talking to anyone, wanting to be left alone.
Apparently, the intel Enrique has on Dmitri says he’s taken his uncle’s place in the Bratva as the new boss of Eastern Europe.
He has given up his search for the Bratva Jewels now that his life is no longer in danger and has started to collect new ones.
I have no strength to continue fighting Dmitri. He has taken so much from me—he has taken everything—and yet he seems to have gotten everything he has ever desired.
How does evil win against good? How is that fair?
I really wish I had a little white pill to take away this pain,
but my family is watching me, worried that I will relapse.
And I want to, I want the pain to go away.
But I won’t for Maxim.