19. Sonya
19
SONYA
B en drove us back into the city the next day.
It still felt like it was too soon. It seemed like I was venturing into the unknown and embarking on a dangerous mission that could go so wrong. But it wasn’t. I was simply coming home.
I’d dreamed of it all those years I was gone. That fiery need to come back to the house I grew up in was never extinguished, but with time, I lost hope. It was inevitable that my hope would falter the longer I was stuck on the Ilyin property, but I hadn’t given up.
Now that the time had come and I was being taken directly back there, I was nervous. Tension claimed me, and I struggled with realizing that I could view this trip as something bad, as something negative to brace for.
“What has you so worried over there?” Ben asked calmly. He didn’t take his gaze off the road, and his tone was calm and neutral. He wasn’t teasing, nor was he demanding.
“You think I’m worried?” I huffed a little laugh.
“I know you’re worried. I can tell.”
I smirked at his profile. “You think you can claim to know me already?”
He dragged his focus off the road and gave me a slow once-over. “I’ve been learning quickly.”
Oh, whoa. That smoldering look heated me right up. I had been alarmed when he didn’t try to make a move on me after that shower. It seemed that we were so quick to fall into each other’s arms whenever we saw each other, but he didn’t reach out for me with desire again.
Three days, he’d been there taking care of me and giving me no pressure to do anything. He let me call the shots of what it would be like to be in that cabin, and all I had wanted to do was sleep and rest. I needed it, and somehow, he anticipated giving me space and time like that.
When he kissed me yesterday, hope bloomed again. My heart felt so full when he reached over to kiss me while we talked. It was proof that he wasn’t uninterested. Even with that kiss, he was showing me that he could give me space. That kiss was just a kiss, not a prelude to fucking, and that made it all the sweeter. Tender.
I guess if I’m going to fall head over heels for someone, it’d be a man like him.
Tough, no-nonsense, stern. Yeah, he checked all the boxes I hadn’t realized I’d organized.
But this is still not the time for that.
I had to see my family. I needed to know Benson would be killed. I wanted to eliminate any and all threats against me and my baby.
Wait. How ? —
“Will Oleg wage war against the Ilyins for how they’d taken me and held me captive?”
Never mind wondering how well Ben could think he knew me. I had to focus.
“I would be surprised if he didn’t. If, for some reason, he doesn’t, then I’ll take them out.”
I blinked. “All of them?”
He glanced at me, almost deadpan.
Well, he did pick off all the men at that warehouse…
Picturing Ben avenging me and killing my enemies was a nice image to hold on to. Yet, at the same time, I hated the smidgen of doubt. Would he, though? He said he was an independent contractor, and taking out a Mafia family wasn’t something an independent would do.
It felt so good to lean on him and trust him, but I worried I was looking at him too na?vely. I couldn’t help but imagine him being with me, staying with me and wanting our child. Like a real family. Like Jenny and Kyle with baby Damon.
Stop. I had to chide myself and quit this silliness. I was getting way too ahead of myself with thoughts like that.
First things first. I had to go home and see my uncle and sister again. They deserved to know and see firsthand that I was okay. All my worries about my return faded the more that I reassured myself I wasn’t doing this alone. Ben was here, and it didn’t look like he’d leave me or betray me.
When he neared the city, he turned in a way that wouldn’t lead to the mansion.
“They’re not at the house,” he explained. “I’ll take you there if you want, but in order to see your family, they’ll all be at the hospital visiting Oleg. Or on their way to do so.”
I nodded. “That makes sense.”
At the hospital, I had a fleeting wish that I could be here for any other reason. Like… maybe coming to check on the baby in my belly. I worried about the lack of prenatal care so far, but I had to convince myself that I would soon have access to the medical care I deserved.
Ben snuck me into the hospital with ease. For as tall as he was, it was almost amazing how well he could prevent himself from standing out. Ben blended in like a pro, and I was grateful he was the random stranger I’d found all those months ago. Only him.
“You’ve done this before, huh?” I asked wryly once we were in the elevator going up to my uncle’s floor. “Trespassing and sneaking around.”
He smiled and winked, no doubt proud of his stealth and memory of codes at doors. “It comes naturally.”
Once we reached the correct floor, he took my hand and guided me out. Making sure that I followed him, he proved again and again how protective he wanted to be over me.
Instead of knocking, he used another code on a panel to unlock a door.
My heart raced. Anticipation built again. The surface of my palm had to be so slick with nervous sweat, but Ben didn’t let go once.
I noticed the slight stiffening of his fingers as they tightened around my hand, though, and I knew at once that something was wrong.
None of my family members were in here but one. Uncle Oleg was alive, if pale and unconscious. Seeing him in the flesh after so long of thinking he was dead should’ve brought happy tears to my eyes. Instead, I narrowed them and braced myself for violence.
Ben urged me to stay back as he ran forward. His target was the man trying to place a pillow over Uncle Oleg’s face. He was going to smother him! But Ben was there. Rushing over, he halted the man from ever placing the fabric over Uncle Oleg at all.
While Ben fought the man back, I didn’t waste a second going for the other person trying to mess with my uncle. A woman in a nurse’s uniform got up from the floor. Dazed and shaking her head, she seemed to be coming to after being knocked over and out. In her hand was a syringe, though, and she wasn’t getting through my uncle’s skin, not while I was here.
“Stop!” I lunged at her, mindful of not letting her lash out and hit my stomach. Fighting while trying to cover my abdomen wasn’t easy, but I did it. We struck out and resisted, facing each other off, and with my experience of self-defense, I got her into a chokehold.
As I fought her, I lost track of Ben in the room, but he was there. Right at my side, he came to take over holding the nurse still.
“What is going on?” I asked, panting from the exertion of the fight. A glance to the side showed the man on the floor. But I checked another look at my uncle again, alarmed that people would be in here to harm him. Where were the guards? Why wasn’t he protected?
“He’s a Petrov soldier,” Ben said, not tearing his serious scowl away from the woman. “He was here to kill Oleg.”
Was? I took that to mean Ben had killed the guy already and he wasn’t just lying on the floor unconscious.
“Let me go!” the nurse protested as she wriggled and flailed to get free. “I’m just a nurse and, and, and, I’ll call security!”
“Why would you be giving him a shot?” Ben demanded. He didn’t release her. “If he needs medication, they push it in his IV line.”
“This is different,” she argued, her eyes frantic and open wide as she searched for a way to get out of his grip.
I swallowed hard, my mouth so dry, as I calmed down from the fight. Too many things were happening here, and I struggled to stay level-headed. “Different how?” I pointed at the man on the floor before she could answer, asking Ben, “Is he dead? And where are the guards?” Lev couldn’t have had Oleg here unsupervised.
Ben tipped his head toward the opposite wall. Behind a chair, I saw the legs of two men lying down, shoved out of sight.
“I should’ve wondered why the guards weren’t at the door when we came. They usually have them take a break when the family is visiting, so I assumed that meant they’d be in here.” Ben hardened his features at the nurse again. “What the fuck were you doing?”
“I’m a nurse,” she protested.
Ben got his gun out and held it up to the underside of her chin. “Tell me.”
Tears leaked from her eyes. She trembled with the gun aimed up at her head. “I’m— I—” She sobbed. “I was told to give him a medicine to make him weak. To weaken his heart further, but slowly, so he’d pass away naturally.”
“Fuck,” I muttered, scowling at her. As I’d expected, people wanted Oleg dead. My uncle had been alive all this time, but it seemed enemies were trying to change that after all. “Who? Who paid you?”
“A man. I don’t know who he is, but someone…”
Ben jammed the gun up harder, forcing her to tip her head back. “Try again.”
“Someone named Ilyin.”
Ben and I shared a glance. A Petrov was in here to smother Oleg. The Ilyins were bribing a nurse to drug him.
Right then, over the sounds of the nurse crying, the Petrov soldier got up. He wasn’t dead, but knocked out. Cursing in Russian, he quickly advanced again. “The Ilyins won’t get this kill. Igor will claim his death, and the Petrov name will be respected as holding all the power and?—”
Ben didn’t let him finish. Before the man could come at us or my uncle on the bed, Ben hurried at him to fight once more. He’d dropped his gun in the flurry of action, though, and I didn’t waste time lowering to grab it.
“Please. Please, I beg of you, let me go.” The nurse flinched when I grabbed her arm, torn between retreating to get Ben’s gun or keeping a firm grip on her.
Digging my fingers into the flesh of her forearm, I fought to keep her close. And I did, almost. She played dirty, flinging out her fist to punch my stomach, and I had to arch back to avoid that impact. Once more, we were engaged in a wrestle, with slaps, strikes, and elbows, but in the scuffle, I managed to get the gun off the floor. With the silencer, it made no noise. Aiming once, at her brow, I fired a single shot, planting a bullet right between her eyes.
Heaving hard and hating how out of breath I felt, I leaned over and pressed my hand to my side. If this wasn’t a stitch from the exercise of fighting, it was a cramp. Wincing, I breathed through it and waited for the ache to fade. It did, slowly, but I felt so winded.
“Sonya?”
Ben lowered the dead man to the ground. He was dead now, with that fatal crack of his neck. Ben’s hands slipped away from the man’s head, and he didn’t bother watching his kill slump to the floor. His gaze was on me, worried and alarmed.
“Are you okay?”
I nodded, cringing at the aches in my side. They weren’t too low in my abdomen, so I was hopeful it was just a sore muscle, not something to do with the baby. “They’re dead.”
“Yeah.” He approached, not losing that worried stare. “They’re dead. I’ll handle the cleanup.”
“I’ll help—” As I handed him the gun, I had to stop at the tightening of the cramp in my belly. Putting my hand on Oleg’s bed, I waited for the pain to recede.
“Sonya.” Ben shoved the gun into its holster at his back. He didn’t stop there, though. As soon as his hands were free, he collected me in his arms and encouraged me to lean against him. “Sonya, you’re bleeding.”
Huh?
I looked down at my arms and hands, guessing that the nurse had injured me in our fight. The only blood I could find was lower, on my thighs. The light-gray leggings I wore showed darker spots of crimson near my crotch.
I lifted my face and furrowed my brow at Ben, realizing why he seemed so worried now.
The baby!