19. Nikolai
NIKOLAI
I threw the car into drive and floored it as the back window exploded inward.
Glass sprayed across the back seat and Kira screamed and ducked down with her arms over her head.
Two more rounds punched through the trunk and I heard one of them ping off something metal under the chassis as I yanked the wheel left and we fishtailed around the corner hard enough to send Vlad's head into the passenger window.
He was barely conscious.
With my knowing absolutely nothing about how to offer first aid to someone who'd been knocked out cold, Yakov had climbed into the back with him. Kira sat next to me in the passenger seat, sobbing hysterically, covering her head and rocking back and forth.
"Stay with me, Vlad," Yakov said. "Keep your eyes open."
I checked the mirror to see a black sedan, two cars back, weaving through traffic to keep up. There were at least two men inside, maybe three. They'd come through the front of the restaurant right as we pulled away and now they were on us and gaining.
"What the hell were you thinking?" I shouted at Kira, glaring at her in glances while trying to keep this thing on the road safely.
She was pressed against the door with glass in her hair and tears streaming down her face. "My father sent someone for me! He came for me!" She looked angry enough to pummel me.
"Your father didn't come for you, Kira. He sent a hit squad to the restaurant where he knew I'd be. You just happened to be there too." I was furious with how foolish she was acting. I whipped the car into a hard left, squealing the tires, and it threw her into the door. "He's not coming for you."
"That's not true! Rictor was there for me. He said my father sent him."
"And how did your father know where we'd be tonight?
" I cut the wheel into the next right and blew through a red light.
A taxi slammed on its brakes and laid on the horn behind us.
"Think about it. How did he know which restaurant we'd go to?
He wasn't there to rescue you. He was there to put a bullet in me and you just happened to be in the way. "
"You're lying!" She was sobbing harder now, hugging herself. "You fucking killed Rictor."
"He had a gun, Kira. He had a gun and he was dragging you into an alley where I couldn't protect you."
"I don't need your protection!" She turned and pounded my shoulder with her fist, but a round cracked off the side mirror and took it clean off the car.
It made her shrink back into her seat as I swerved left across two lanes and cut through a gap between a delivery truck and a bus.
It couldn't have been wider than six inches on either side of my car.
The sedan followed, but it was bigger and slower and the bus forced it to swing wide.
"Yakov, can you get a shot?" I asked.
He climbed over Vlad who groaned at him and leaned across the seat, aiming out the broken back windshield. The wind tore at his jacket and he braced himself against the doorframe and waited.
"I hate you," Kira snarled at me, but she really didn't get it.
Markin had no intention of coming for her.
Maybe he'd have taken her home if one of his men got her away safely, but he wasn’t there for her.
He was there to kill me and nothing more.
If he wanted to save her, he'd have made a move on my compound weeks ago. He didn't care about her.
I took the next turn hard and the sedan came around the corner behind us, closer now. But the driver made the mistake of pulling into the open lane to line up a shot. Yakov fired three times in quick succession, aimed right at them.
The first two hit the hood and the third caught the front tire dead center.
The sedan lurched sideways as the tire shredded.
The driver overcorrected and the whole vehicle slid across two lanes and slammed broadside into a row of parked cars.
It spun around, forcing two of the cars up onto the sidewalk then came to a rest perpendicular to the street as steam erupted from the crumpled hood.
Yakov pulled himself back inside and sat down next to Vlad, who was still groaning. "They're done."
I checked the mirror and saw the carnage and after four more turns, never slowing, I decided we were safe enough. But the minute I tried to let off the gas and slow to a more reasonable pace, Kira yanked the handle and opened the door.
My hand barely snagged on her hair, hauling her back before she leapt from the moving car.
"Dammit, woman! What the hell's your problem!"
"Ow! Let me go!" She clawed at my wrist, but I didn't let go until Yakov's hands took over. He leaned over her and shut the door hard, then reached into the glovebox and grabbed a few zip ties and bound her wrists to the handle above the door.
"What're you trying to do? Get yourself killed?" I managed to slow to a normal speed, rounding a corner into my neighborhood where we'd be safe, but Kira looked livid.
"I'm trying to get away from you. You're a liar." She hid her face, turning away from me, but I caught a glimpse of Yakov's wicked smirk in the rearview as I turned into my driveway.
"Well, you're stuck with me," I grumbled, coming to a stop right at the door.
My entire night out was ruined, and I should've seen it coming.
I had four extra men stationed around the place, and Markin's guys still got to me.
I was lucky we weren't both dead, because I had no doubt in my mind if Kira had been seated by me when the shooting started, she'd be gone too.
"Get Vlad in the house and call Keller," I ordered to Yakov, then I climbed out and rounded the front of the car.
Kira glared at me as I opened her door and used my pocket knife to cut her zip ties loose.
When she tried to stand up and slither past me, I pinned her to the back door with my hip and shut the front door.
Bullet holes marred the side of my vehicle, but thankfully, only Vlad was hurt, and thankfully, it wasn't a bullet that took him down.
"If I let you go, are you going to run away?" I asked Kira, and she spat in my face.
I gritted my teeth and slowly raised my hand and wiped away the saliva before taking a deep breath. She was testing my patience, which I was running out of. She had no idea the mess she was in. Markin would've killed her right alongside me if he had the chance.
"I hate you."
Knowing there was no way she'd walk willingly, I bent, pressing my shoulder into her waist, and hoisted her off the ground.
Her body fell limp over my shoulder but her hands beat at my backside every step of the way up to my room where I dropped her on the bed.
I wanted to comfort her, but she was being unreasonable.
Still I had to try. I crouched next to the bed as she sat up, and I rested my hand on her knee. "Kira, baby, I just want you to know that—"
Her hand swung hard, connecting with my cheek, and I bit down on my cheek to avoid lashing out at her.
"Let me go home where I’m wanted, you monster…" The only thing that stopped me from tearing her limb from limb were the tears pooling in her eyes.
Her insult hurt.
Home was not where she was wanted. It was so obvious to anyone who could see it.
Markin didn't care about his kid at all.
All he cared about was killing me and taking my territory.
But the fear and pain in her eyes told me she was scared and confused.
She wasn't trying to be intentionally hurtful.
She didn't know I wanted her more than anything.
"I'm gonna pretend you didn't say that."
"Get out. I hate you," she hissed, and she tried to smack me again.
I rose slowly, knowing if I didn't leave that room I would do something I'd later regret.
"Have it your way," I told her, too angry to say anything else.
If she wanted to be angry and stew alone, so be it.
I had a man to check on.
And an enemy to go after.