Chapter 32
CHAPTER 32
KOSTYA
M y stomach dropped in horror as the car with Marina inside flipped and landed on the grassy strip at the side of the road.
I was out of the car before Damien had even pulled over, swearing at him for shooting out the tire instead of the driver.
If he had shot out the driver, the car would have slowly come to a stop and Marina would have been able to get out safely.
Instead, she was in a horrific accident, and I had absolutely no idea if she was injured, or worse.
How could Damian be so fucking stupid?
Deep down, I knew logically that Damien wasn’t being stupid.
He was relying on his training in high-speed chases and shooting out the tires was definitely the right move if there wasn’t precious cargo in the fucking car.
If he had hurt her, if she was injured or worse, then I was going to kill him with my bare hands, and then I was going to kill Solovyov and every other motherfucker that was involved.
Then I was going to kill their families, their associates, and every other asshole they had ever met. There would be no stopping the bloodbath that I would rain down on this city and back home in Moscow.
I flew out of the car, barely keeping my feet under me as I ran, my heart pounding, my lungs burning as my legs pumped faster and faster, taking me even closer to that car.
The entire time I prayed with everything I had that Marina was okay.
That stupid high-speed chase had put her in more danger than she was already in.
How could I let that happen? How could I fail her again and again?
A foot came out of the window of the back passenger door on the driver’s side and for a second I thought Marina was okay, for just a flash I thought she was getting out of the car. Instead, I saw Oleg.
Solovyov’s favorite hitman and pet psychopath crawled out of the car, his scarred face made even bloodier by the accident.
I shouldn’t have been surprised to see him.
After all, he was who Solovyov sent to do his dirty work.
He stood to his full height and glared at me with a Glock in his hand. Before he could even raise it, I lifted my gun and shot, firing a single bullet neatly between his eyes .
He dropped like a ton of bricks, his eyes still open, staring lifelessly into the road.
Asshole.
I gave him a quick, painless death. He deserved so much worse. From the stories I had heard about Oleg and what he liked to do to women and children, he should have died slowly, in a great deal of pain. It would have only been a fraction of what that monster had inflicted on others.
Making him suffer was the devil’s responsibility now.
The only person I needed to be worried about was Marina.
I grabbed Oleg’s corpse by the shoulders and dragged him away from the car so I could look in the back seat for Marina.
She was hanging upside down, still strapped into the car.
Her arms were covered in bloody scrapes, and she was holding the bag in her hands, clutching it to her chest as she stared blankly ahead. She was pale and trembling but looked relatively unharmed. Shaken but alive.
Yanking on the door did nothing. I moved around to her side and tried to open that door, but it wouldn’t budge. The frame was too bent.
Marina’s eyes were wide, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to form words.
I needed to get her out of there now.
The frame was far too bent on the door side, so I went to the back of the car and ripped off my coat, using it to clear as much of the glass from the rear window as possible and then laid it down to cover the ragged edges .
“Come on, babygirl,” I coaxed. “Let’s get you out of there.”
She nodded, still not looking straight at me, almost seeming to see right through me as she un-clicked her seat belt and fell to the roof of the car.
I reached in and pulled her out, hugging her frail, shaking body to my chest as she cried, still clasping the bag to her chest.
The driver of the car kicked out the windshield and crawled out. He took one look at me and turned and started running. A wise man would have gunned him down, but my hands were full. Marina was my only priority.
It didn’t matter; Damien was right behind him taking care of it.
I held Marina carefully, wrapping her in my arms and just letting her cry for a moment as I carried her away from the wreckage and toward the Mercedes.
After a few moments, her sobs calmed. I put her on her feet, my hands staying on her shoulders to steady her.
“This is all your fault,” she said, her voice cracking. “You did this to me. You attacked the car, you shot out the tire, you’re the reason he found me in the first place. All of this is your fault. You led him right to me and then you let him take me. Why did you let him take me?”
Her voice was shaking as it ramped up to hysterical screaming.
She cried over and over, asking why I had let all of this happen.
The words to defend myself were on the tip of my tongue .
I wanted to explain, but I deserved her anger and her rage.
She was right.
All of it was my fault.
Her fists rained down on my chest over and over as she took out her frustration by beating me.
I let her. I would take whatever punishment she deemed appropriate.
This was all my fault.
Had I tended to business with Veronika, kept a more careful eye on who she was allowed to see, kept her away from Soloyov, this whole series of events wouldn’t have been set in motion.
Marina wouldn’t have been placed in a position of having to run for her life.
She was in danger because I couldn’t hold everything together.
And when it all fell apart, I said I was going to protect her. I made her that oath even if she didn’t know it, and then I let them take her.
She was only ever in that hotel room because I put her there and then I allowed two rookie guns for hire to take her out of my room and hand her to Solovyov’s psychotic dog.
I let her be taken.
Everything that had happened was completely on me and I would never forgive myself for it.
It wasn’t her recklessness that had put her in danger; it wasn’t even her sister’s impulsive nature that had done this to her. I did it .
Over and over, her fist pounded on my chest while she screamed her accusations at me.
She blamed me and she was right to.
“It’s all your fault. My sister is dead because you couldn’t protect her,” she wailed. “They found me because you led them straight to me. Then you let them take me. How could you? How could you? And for what? This bag filled with dirty money? That’s all you wanted. So take it.”
She hit me with the bag, over and over, until finally her voice cracked and she crumpled against my chest.
I wrapped my arms around her and just held her to me as she sobbed.
Every pained cry that came from her body cut deeper, her tears pouring salt into every single wound.
“I almost died,” she whispered. “He was going to do things to me he—” Marina dissolved into another fit of tears.
“We need to go,” Damien said, pulling my attention from Marina. “The cops are on their way and there’s only so much footage the police commissioner can delete from body cams.”
I nodded and picked Marina up in my arms, cradling her tiny shaking body to my chest again as I carried her the rest of the way back to the Mercedes.
Damien grabbed the bag and followed.
A better man would have put her in the back seat, buckled her seat belt and then gone to the front.
I didn’t deserve to comfort her. I had put her in danger, and I had failed her in a way that was so profound she should have hated me.
But I couldn’t let her out of my arms .
I couldn’t bear the thought of not being the one that held her and comforted her.
So I slid into the back seat of the Mercedes and just held her to me as she continued to cry, while Damian put the bag at my feet and got into the driver’s seat, taking us toward the Ivanov compound in Virginia.
He made the call to Gregor to let them know what was happening, and I just held Marina, pressing my lips to her forehead as she finally settled into my lap, her sobs turning into whimpers, until eventually she fell asleep in my arms. Exhausted by all that had happened.
I told myself that I was comforting her, but really, I was taking comfort in the fact that she was still alive, that I had not failed her so completely that it had cost her her life… yet.