Chapter 29
ELLE
The world slows to a nightmare.
Nikolai's body crashes into mine, knocking us both to the floor. It happens in fragments. His weight suddenly heavy. His grip loosening. Something wet and warm soaking through my clothes.
I don't understand until I touch it.
My fingers come away red.
Blood.
So much blood.
His blood.
The scream that claws out of my throat doesn't sound human. "No, no, no. Stay with me!"
I roll him enough to see his face. Eyes open, glassy, unfocused. His mouth moves like he's searching for words that won't come.
"Nikolai..." My hands flutter over him, desperate to stop the bleeding, not knowing where to press. The blood is everywhere, blooming dark and fast from his side.
He coughs. Red on his lips. "Elle," he rasps.
I lean close, crying so hard I can't see. "You're okay. You're okay. I've got you."
Behind me. Footsteps. The click of heels on marble.
I know that sound. I'd know it in my sleep.
"Move away from him, Elle." Gayle says it like she's telling me to set down a fork.
I turn my head. She's standing a few feet away, gun still raised, face composed like she's already counting this as a win. I clutch Nikolai tighter, my fingers digging into his shoulders.
"You shot him. You shot him!"
"Of course I did." Like shooting your son-in-law is the most reasonable thing in the world. "He killed half my men. Now move."
"Mother, please." I'm begging and I don't care. "I'm carrying his baby. He's my husband."
"Move." She levels the gun at his head. "I'm finishing what I started."
Nikolai's blood soaks through my dress. Warm and thick, turning cold against my skin. I can feel his heart. Racing, then slowing, then racing again. Still fighting. He's still fighting.
"Elle..." His voice is barely a rasp. His hand finds mine, squeezes weakly. "Go. Run while you can."
"I'm not leaving you." Tears burn hot tracks down my face. I shift my body, rolling over him, shielding him with everything I have.
His blood smears across my skin. I can feel him trying to push me away, trying to protect me even now. But I press closer, making myself the barrier between him and my mother's gun.
"Please," I whisper against his chest. "Don't leave me."
"Raphaella, you're being ridiculous." Mother sighs like I'm having a tantrum in a store. "Move, or I'll shoot through you."
I look up at her. My chest heaving. "Then do it. You'll have to shoot your own daughter. Your own grandchild."
Her expression doesn't change. If anything, she looks bored. That's when I know she's truly gone. Whatever she might have once felt for me has been incinerated by her own ambition.
"Mom, please." One last time. "This isn't you."
She tilts her head. "You never did understand how this world works. How disappointingly naive you turned out to be."
Beneath me, Nikolai's breathing is shallow. Labored. His lips move against my hair.
"Elle... the baby. Save our baby."
Our baby. Two words that crack my heart wide open. He only just found out. And now he might never...
No. I can't think that. We're getting out. All three of us.
I shake my head, tears streaming. "I'd rather die right here by your side."
"How romantic." Gayle actually laughs. "You know what? That might be easier. You've always been too much effort."
She raises the gun. Aims at my head.
"Goodbye, Raphaella. You were always such a disappointment."
Her finger tightens. Everything slows. Panic floods every sense.
I close my eyes.
Hold Nikolai tight. Think of the family we could have built. Pray for Pasha. Think of all the things I'll never see.
Through the roar of blood in my ears, I hear Nikolai screaming at me to run. Feel him fighting to push me off.
I hold tighter. Tears streaming. Waiting for the shot. For pain. For darkness.
The sound that comes is deafening. A crack that splits the air like thunder.
But the pain doesn't follow.
Instead, there's a thump. Heavy. Final. A body hitting the floor.
I open my eyes.
My mother is on the ground. Blood pooling around her head like the only halo God thought she deserved.
Behind her, Natalia stands in the doorway. Breathing hard. A smoking pistol shaking in both hands.
My brain refuses to catch up.
Natalia. Pale, trembling, hair a wreck. But standing. Breathing. Alive.
"How..." I choke.
"Jeffrey." She's gasping, gripping the gun like it might fly out of her hands. "He got me out when the shooting started. Gave me the gun. Told me to find you."
She looks terrified. But beneath the terror, something fierce and unflinching.
"She was going to shoot you," Natalia whispers. "I had to."
I don't have words. The woman who betrayed me just saved my life.
The door bursts open again. Jeffrey storms in, gun drawn, face a mask of fury until his eyes find me.
Relief floods his expression. "You're alive."
He crosses the room in three strides, checking corners, lowering his weapon when he sees Gayle's body. "Christ," he mutters.
"Jeffrey." My voice is barely there. "He's bleeding."
Jeffrey kneels beside me instantly, ripping his jacket off, pressing it against Nikolai's wound. "We have to move him. Now."
"He can't move. He'll bleed more..."
"He'll bleed out if we don't." His voice is firm. Not cruel. "Listen to me, Elle. We have Viktor's men securing the building. There's a car downstairs. But we have to go now."
Nikolai groans, eyes flickering open. "Elle." His hand finds mine. Weak but reaching.
"I'm here." Tears won't stop. "I'm right here."
"You... you have to go."
"Stop saying that." I sob it. "We're okay. We're getting out."
"She's not coming back," I say, glancing at Gayle's body on the floor. "She's gone. She can't hurt us anymore."
I can't feel relief. Just grief. For the man bleeding in my arms. For the mother I lost long before she died.
Jeffrey adjusts pressure on the wound. "He's lucky," he mutters. "Through and through. Missed the organs. But we need a hospital. Now."
Two of Viktor's men appear in the doorway. Jeffrey barks orders. They lift Nikolai between them, careful but urgent, and I stay at his side the entire way down, my hand locked around his, refusing to let go.
The elevator. The basement. A black SUV with the engine running.
I climb in beside him. His head falls against my shoulder. His breathing is shallow but steady, and I press my lips to his temple and whisper things I don't even hear myself say. Stay with me. Don't you dare leave. I love you. Stay.
The car peels out into the night.
I look back once at the building. At the tower where I grew up. Where I was locked away and lied to and told the world was too dangerous to enter.
It shrinks in the rearview mirror until it's just a shape against the sky.
I never look back again.