Chapter 17
Aurora
“Five minutes. Pack what you need. Nothing more.”
I swallow hard, the weight of inevitability crushing me. There’s no way out of this situation. No escape route. Not with him watching my every move, tracking me like I’m the prey he’s finally cornered.
Everything feels slow and dreamlike. As if it’s happening underwater.
This can’t be real. Twenty-four hours ago, I was just a cocktail waitress with a mosaic art hobby and too many overdue bills. Now I’m packing to leave with a Russian mobster who’s killed a man in front of me after someone else ransacked my apartment and threatened my sister.
I grab the small duffel bag I keep under the futon, shoving in whatever clean clothes I can find amid the chaos.
My fingers brush a smooth surface, and I pull out the photo of Samantha that he’d seen earlier.
I tuck the picture carefully between my clothes in a small act of defiance.
He already knows about her, but this feels like keeping a piece of her safe, away from his prying eyes.
As I pack, I’m calculating. Looking for openings.
For weapons. For any chance to run. But Alexei never gives me an inch.
He tracks every movement, anticipating my thoughts almost before I have them.
When I linger too long near the kitchenette where my knives used to be, his posture shifts, blocking the path.
When I drift toward the fire escape window, his head tilts in a silent warning.
“Time’s up.” He checks his watch, a sleek, expensive piece that glints in the fading light. “We need to move.”
“Wait.” I grab the ancient book about Roman and Greek warriors from where it fell earlier. Though awkward and heavy, I refuse to leave the book behind. Not after everything else I’ve lost.
Alexei raises an eyebrow but says nothing as I stuff it into the already-full duffel. Once I’m finished, he takes the bag from me, slinging the strap over his shoulder like it weighs nothing. “After you.”
The hallway outside my apartment feels colder than usual, the flickering fluorescent light casting sickly shadows across the stained carpet. Each step away from my home, wrecked as it is, feels like severing another tie to my old life. To safety. To the person I used to be.
Alexei’s hand settles at the small of my back as we approach the stairs, guiding me. Firm. Possessive. My skin burns through the thin fabric of the maid costume I still haven’t had a chance to change out of. But at least I managed to slip into my sneakers.
Worn out as they are, they’re still better than heels.
“When we reach the car, you get in immediately. No hesitation. No looking around.” His voice is a low murmur meant only for me. “Someone went to a lot of trouble with your apartment. They might still be watching.”
My blood runs cold at the reminder. The photograph of Samantha with the crosshairs. The message that read, “Silence is a sister’s best friend. Next time, we won’t miss.”
When we reach the main entrance of my building, Alexei steers me into the street toward his black Lexus.
My heart sinks, body heavy as we approach. And here I thought I’d outsmarted my captor. That I’d actually gotten away. How could I think—
A black sedan screeches around the corner. We both pivot as the engine growls closer. Beside me, Alexei goes rigid, his body coiling with sudden tension.
His free hand drifts toward the gun I know is holstered at his hip. “Get behind me.”
I forget to breathe as the sedan slowly approaches, its windows tinted too dark to see inside. My legs become concrete as my stomach falls to my feet. There’s nowhere to run or hide. Just Alexei between me and whatever’s coming for us.
The sedan draws closer. And I’m already worn ragged from fighting.
Time stretches thin. Alexei’s hand tightens around my arm.
His body shifts subtly, almost imperceptibly. He positions himself more firmly between me and the imminent threat.
A window rolls down a few inches.
I open my mouth to speak, to scream, to do something.
Then the world explodes in a thunder of gunfire.
Clouds of plaster dust detonate around us. The roar whips my hair into my face and sets my ears ringing. I can’t even hear my own scream.
Panic swallows me whole.
Alexei hooks my waist and hauls me clear of the line of fire.
We’re sprinting before my brain can process what’s happening. My feet barely touch the ground as he half drags, half carries me toward the narrow gap between buildings. I’m as useful as a sack of potatoes, but he knows what to do.
Bullets punch into the brick beside my head, sending shards of masonry flying.
One cuts my cheek, but the hot sting barely registers through the adrenaline.
The crack-crack-crack of automatic fire is deafening, each blast a physical pressure against my eardrums. My heart beats in one continuous contraction, a single sustained note of pure terror.
“Stay down!” Alexei’s sharp, commanding voice slices through the chaos.
He doesn’t have to tell me twice.
I curl inward, making myself smaller as he guides us behind a parked car. His body curls over mine like human armor.
The sedan continues its approach.
The passenger fires. A bullet whizzes by, hitting where we were only seconds ago.
Alexei clamps a hand over my mouth, his eyes never leaving the threat. “Don’t move.”
Tires squeal as the vehicle accelerates and repositions for a better angle.
Alexei pulls me from behind the car and propels us both toward the alley entrance.
My legs tangle with his as our feet scrape against rough pavement. Because of the fear scrambling my reasoning, walking becomes a conscious effort.
But he doesn’t let me fall.
His strength both terrifies and comforts me. The same hands capable of violence also ensure that I don’t stumble, slow, or die.
More gunfire erupts behind us, ripping into trash cans and shattering a window overhead.
Alexei navigates the narrow space with unerring precision, as if he’s done this a hundred times before.
Probably has.
His head is on a swivel, no doubt cataloguing threats and escape routes.
Up. Down. Behind. Ahead.
I’m just dead weight. A complication. Still, he adjusts for me without pause or complaint.
We burst out the other end of the alley into a small courtyard bordered by dumpsters. The shooting stops. The attackers must have lost their visual on us. The engine rumbles as they circle the block, hunting.
“Listen to me.” Alexei’s face is inches from mine, his eyes sharp and focused. “When I say run, you fucking run. Straight across to that doorway.” He nods toward a service entrance on the opposite side. “Don’t look back. Don’t stop.”
My throat clogs with fear. “They’re going to kill us.”
“No.” The absolute certainty in his voice gives me courage. “They’re not.”
He reaches in his waistband and draws his gun from its holster. The black metal gleams, deadly and beautiful. With practiced ease, he checks the weapon.
“Ready.” Not a question. A warning.
I nod anyway, muscles tensing in anticipation of the sprint.
The sedan materializes at the entrance to the alley we just exited. Headlights sweep the walls as our assailants close in.
Alexei’s hand tightens on my shoulder. “Now.”
I run.
My legs pump, and my lungs burn. I sprint across the space on feet that barely feel the ground. In front of me, the distance to the doorway stretches to an impossible length. Behind me, gunfire erupts again with two distinct sounds.
The heavy, rapid stutter from the sedan and the controlled shots coming from Alexei’s position.
He’s firing back.
Covering for me.
I throw myself at the door and yank on the handle. Locked.
Of fucking course.
I slam my palm against the barrier in desperation. “Dammit!”
Tossing a glance over my shoulder, I find Alexei crouched behind a dumpster, still exchanging fire with the sedan.
The vehicle lurches forward, tires screeching into the courtyard. More guns pop out of the windows. Bullets punch the metal dumpster, the brick wall near me, and the ground at Alexei’s feet.
He rolls to avoid the lethal spray of bullets, firing three more precise shots before zigzagging toward me.
After a short eternity, he reaches me, breath fast but controlled. “Door?”
Even in my terror, I find myself admiring the deadly grace of his movement. “Locked.”
Without hesitation, he fires once at the lock mechanism, kicks the door open, and pushes me through, following immediately after.
We tumble into darkness, the door slamming shut behind us. For several seconds, we can hear only our ragged breathing and the muffled sounds of the sedan outside. Then his hands are on me again, checking for injuries with clinical efficiency.
His fingers skim over my arms, my shoulders, and my torso in his search for blood. “Are you hit?”
“I don’t…think so.” My voice sounds strange, distant.
He’s already moving deeper into what appears to be a service corridor. “I dropped your bag inside the building entrance before they started shooting. We might not be able to retrieve it.”
Outside, engines rev as the sedan repositions again while continuing to hunt us.
Alexei’s hand settles on the small of my back as he nudges me into the unknown darkness. “Keep moving. And stay with me.”
The service corridor stretches out before us.
He keeps me close, his hand a constant pressure guiding me forward through the maze of industrial pipes and electrical panels.
Cold, metallic fear coats my mouth. My breathing comes in short pants, each inhale carrying the musty scent of disuse.
Outside, tires squeak as our pursuers loop the building. The sound echoes through the walls.
I slow as the corridor splits. Alexei chooses left without hesitation, as if he’s memorized the building’s layout and calculated our escape route already.
Maybe he has. Maybe this is just another day at work for him.
A hysterical laugh gets caught in my throat as we reach a metal door marked “Exit.”
Alexei pauses to press his ear against the door.
I examine his face, noting the minute shifts in his expression as he listens and the calculation in his eyes. The lethal grace and controlled power.
He eases the door open a crack, peering through the narrow gap. “Stay behind me.”
“Okay.” I mold myself to the wall, shrinking smaller. The cold concrete seeps through the thin fabric of the maid costume, raising goosebumps across my skin.
He grabs my hand and squeezes to demand my attention. “Clear. But we need to move fast. The car’s circling.”
We slip out into some sort of loading dock area behind a row of shops. Alexei scans our surroundings, his body tense and alert.
The sudden roar of an engine shatters the momentary quiet. Headlights sail around the corner, ensnaring us in their glare.
“Run!” Alexei shoves me forward, away from the vehicle barreling toward us.
My sneakers slap against the rough pavement as I sprint across the open space, Alexei right on my heels.
Gunfire joins the chorus of screaming tires.
Alexei pulls me backward until we crash behind a rusted trash bin. He folds himself over me, shielding me as more bullets zing by.
Under his crushing weight, every breath becomes a struggle.
This should feel threatening, suffocating.
Instead, I feel secure. His body creates a fortress around mine, blocking out the murderous world.
His breath warms my neck. His arms bracket my head, cloaking me from flying debris.
He’s transformed himself into a human bulletproof vest, placing his flesh between me and danger without a second thought.
Except he’s not bulletproof. He’s literally putting his life on the line to keep me safe.
“Why?” The question comes out a muffled whisper.
He eases some of his weight off me, hovering his face inches from mine as he scans for threats. “Why what?”
“Why protect me? I’m nothing to you.”
An unreadable emotion, one too quick to decipher, flickers across his face. “I already told you. You’re mine. My witness.”
The possessive pronoun sends an unwelcome shiver through me. My witness. His problem. His responsibility. The words he’d used in my apartment come back to me, heavier now that he’s literally my lifeline.
Engine noise grows louder again as the sedan returns. Alexei’s body tenses, coiling with renewed readiness. One hand stays on his gun while the other curls against my shoulder, keeping me bulwarked behind the cover of the dumpster.
Headlights sweep past our hiding spot, illuminating the alley in harsh white light.
I hold my breath and press myself deeper into Alexei’s chest.
The sedan slows.
Stops.
Through the narrow gap between the dumpster and the wall, I can just discern its back end idling from twenty feet away.
Alexei adjusts his position, angling his body to better shield mine while maintaining a line of sight to the threat.
For several heartbeats, the sedan sits motionless.
Without warning, the vehicle accelerates away, tires squealing against pavement. The sound fades until there’s only the ambient noise of the city, the hum of air-conditioning units, the buzz of passing cars.
Still, the vigilant Alexei refuses to move or relax. His steady breaths on my cheek contrast with my ragged ones.
I’m pressed so tightly against him that I can feel every muscle in his body still tensed for action. The relaxed pace of his heartbeat mocks my racing pulse.
“Are they gone?”
A beat passes.
Alexei peers around the edge of the dumpster.
“For now.” He doesn’t sound convinced. “Could be circling wider. Could be waiting for us to break cover.”
The intimacy of our position—our faces inches apart, his arm around my waist, his legs tangled with mine—hits me.
An unwelcome heat—a reaction I desperately try to suppress—warms me from the inside out.
This isn’t attraction.
It’s adrenaline.
My body’s confused response to danger.
Nothing more. It can’t be anything more.
Minutes pass in uneasy silence. Alexei remains coiled around me, still positioned to absorb any renewed attack.
My muscles ache from being held in this awkward position against the cold metal, but I don’t dare move.
Not until he says it’s safe and decides to release me from this protective cage he’s formed with his body.
Finally, he shifts his weight, easing back just enough to study my face.
He swipes his thumb over my cheek, causing me to wince. “You okay?”
A cold numbness settles over me. “I’m great.”