Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Natasha
Enzo comes into my room a few hours later. “How are you settling in?”
“You kidnapped me, so not well,” I snap.
He chuckles. “Someone is feisty.”
“Not usually. This is a unique situation you’ve put me in.”
“I’m sure Maksim is losing his mind right now.
” Enzo strolls over to me but thankfully doesn’t touch me.
“Not knowing where you are. If he even cares about you. I asked around after bringing you here and come to find out, you and Maksim haven’t been married long.
An arranged marriage I was told. So tell me, Natasha, do you love him? ”
My heart skips a beat. I’m not sure I can answer Enzo’s question when I’m still not sure about my feelings for Maksim but what I do know is that my feelings have grown for him every day since we married.
After he helped me with Alexandra and how I told him with my secret about my father, I know he’s someone I can trust. The question is: will he find me in time before Enzo does something to me?
“You’re hesitating,” he comments. “You don’t love him, I take it.”
“I’ve only known him for two weeks. You can’t love someone in that time.”
“I believe you can. Love doesn’t have a time limit. You either love him or you don’t. Is he bad in bed, is that it?”
I flinch.
Enzo’s eyes widen with glee. “Have you two not fucked yet? I’ve known Maksim for years. One night stands after one night stands. And yet, he hasn’t slept with his own wife? What’s wrong with you then? Or what’s wrong with him? Because you’re clearly a beautiful woman.”
“There’s nothing wrong,” I snap. “He respects me. He never wanted to push me.”
“Oh, so he’s nice, is that it?” Enzo sneers. “I hate to tell you, Natasha, but I’m not nice.”
“What are you going to do to me?”
“Nothing… yet. But when Maksim has gone and truly lost his mind, I’ll make sure to hurt you then. Just to rub salt in the wound.”
I shiver. “You’re evil.” It’s making me realize just how good I have it with Maksim. He’s never tried to hurt me – not once. I was so scared of him at first and now I know I never needed to be.
Enzo winks. “I’m a mafia man, Natasha. What do you expect.”
Before I can answer him, a loud boom happens from downstairs.
For the first time since meeting Enzo I see a flash of uncertainty on his face. He doesn’t know what’s happening either.
Enzo runs from the room and doesn’t shut the door behind him, giving me a chance to follow. When I reach the top of the stairs, I see multiple men running inside the house. The front door is on the ground, having been pushed in.
Of those men, I recognize some of them. Nikolai. Gregor. And Maksim.
To say Enzo looks shocked would be an understatement. “How the hell did they find this place?”
I’m expecting him to turn around and run but he doesn’t.
Instead, he pulls a gun from his jacket pocket and runs down the stairs, firing bullets into the air.
Nikolai, Gregor, and Maksim all have their own guns drawn as well.
They fire at Enzo but he dives down a hallway, just barely avoiding getting hit.
“Don’t kill him,” Gregor says. “We don’t want a war.”
“You don’t want a war?” Enzo calls out. “Then you shouldn’t have come into my house firing off your guns.”
“We’re just here for Natasha,” Maksim says. “Give her to us and we’ll go. We won’t kill you, Enzo. But if you try shooting at us again, we’ll kill you.”
“Then you’ll have to deal with my men. My contacts. The mafia is powerful. More powerful than the Bratva and you know it. My men will kill all of you.”
“So then let’s not have a war,” Nikolai says, holding his gun in one hand in surrender. “Natasha comes with us and you’ll survive and we can go back to fighting like we’ve always done. How does that sound?”
Maksim glances up and does a double take when he sees me on the top step. “Natasha.”
“Maksim,” I cry out.
He rushes up the stairs towards me but not before Enzo runs from the hallway and shoots Maksim in the shoulder. Maksim slumps to the stairs while Nikolai runs at Enzo and clocks him in the head with his gun. Enzo falls to the ground, unconscious.
“Maksim!” I run to his side.
He’s gritting his teeth but otherwise looks unharmed. “I’m ok. Shot in the shoulder. It fucking hurts but I should be ok.” But right as he says it, his body gives out and he fully falls onto the stairs.
“Maksim. Help!”
Gregor runs up the stairs to us. “Maksim? Son?”
Maksim groans. “I’m fine. Just hurts.”
“We need to get you to the hospital,” he says. “Now. Nikolai, make sure Enzo won’t cause problems.”
“Of course.” Nikolai presses his gun to the back of Enzo’s unconscious head.
“Don’t kill him,” Gregor warns. “You know all of this will be worse if you do.”
“He shot Maksim. He’s looking for a fucking war. It might be time to give him one.”
“No. I’ll think of something. Let’s just get Maksim out of here.”
Nikolai thinks on it a moment before he puts his gun away. “Fine. It’s Enzo’s lucky fucking day.”
Gregor helps Maksim stand up and I follow the men out of the house. I notice the dead guard – the burly man who kidnapped me – laying on the front porch. I don’t comment on it. Death is becoming more commonplace for me and I’m not sure how to feel about that.
I help to put Maksim in the back seat. He groans and his back shoulder is bleeding but at least he’s alive. Gregor drives us to the hospital while Nikolai takes his own car.
“You’re going to be ok,” I say to Maksim, squeezing his hand. “It’s just in the shoulder, right? People survive shots to the shoulder all the time.”
“You say that like you know from personal experience,” he grits out, trying to smile… for my benefit, I realize.
“I have no experience with any of this. But I know I don’t want to lose you.”
His eyes widen. “Really?”
“Has no one ever said that to you before?”
“No one has ever cared enough about me to say that. Everyone I’ve ever been with before was just… It wasn’t what we have.”
“And what do we have?” I ask.
Before he can answer, he cries out, slumping forward.
“Maksim!”
I help him lie back on the seat and then watch in horror as his eyelids flutter closed. “Gregor! Go faster.”
Gregor gets us to the hospital in under a few minutes, breaking a lot of laws to get there.
Maksim is still unconscious as Gregor gets him out of the car and shouts for help.
Two nurses come running outside with a gurney and get Maksim onto it.
Gregor explains to them how Maksim was shot in the back shoulder. Helplessly, I follow behind.
Maksim is taken into a room that I’m not allowed to follow.
“But I’m his wife,” I explain to the nurse closest to me.
“Then you can fill out his chart.” She hands me one. “We’ve got this, honey.” Then she walks away while I’m left feeling nothing but fear and helplessness.
I stare down at the chart blankly. I don’t know about any medications Maksim takes or any history of disease. I’m still learning so much about my husband and I can’t lose him before I know all of him.
My tears hit me and I slump against the wall and break down crying. Gregor takes the chart from me and fills it in while I cry. He’s a lot like my father – offers no comfort when you need it.
Eventually, my tears stop. Just in time for my father to show up at the hospital, still in his suit from the charity event. My evening gown is wrinkled and ruined.
“Natasha,” Lev says, coming over to my side. “Gregor called me. Said Maksim is in surgery.”
The sight of my father fills me with so much fear, I move away from him on instinct. He frowns but doesn’t otherwise comment.
Instead, he turns to Gregor. “You went after Enzo without me? You didn’t even tell me my daughter was kidnapped.”
“Because we got her back. That’s the important part. And Enzo is still alive. We don’t want a war with him.”
“He kidnapped my daughter. I’m going to kill him.”
Gregor grabs Lev’s arms. “Then that will put me at war with you. We found peace by marrying our kids together. Don’t ruin this. We’ll deal with Enzo another way.”
“What way? Do you plan on making peace with the man who kidnapped my daughter? Because otherwise, this only ends one way.”
“Maybe we should make peace. It would keep Enzo from kidnapping Natasha again.”
“How? By marrying your own daughter off to him?”
Gregor goes silent.
Lev huffs. “Didn’t think so. I did what I had to do and I entrusted my daughter to your son and yet you won’t offer up your own daughter to make peace? If Enzo comes after my daughter again, I will not hesitate to kill him.” Lev turns to me. “Come along, Natasha.”
When he tries to grab my arm, I pull away. “No.”
“No?”
I’ve never disobeyed him before but I know nothing could take me away from Maksim’s side.
“No,” I repeat. “My husband is here. I’m staying. I no longer belong to you.”
The anger in my dad’s eyes frighten me but he knows I’m right.
I no longer belong to him and there’s nothing he can do about it.
“Fine. I told you to make this marriage work and it seems you’re trying.
But Maksim didn’t protect you tonight. Once he’s better and you have a chance to talk with him, I’m taking you back to Chicago.
Clearly I’m the only one who can protect you.
” He walks away before I can get a word in.
Gregor stays out of it completely.
After an hour, a doctor approaches us and tells us that Maksim is all right. They got the bullet out of his shoulder and gave him blood and he’ll be fine in a few days.
I run to the room they have him in to find Maksim awake. A bandage is across his shoulder.
“You’re alive,” I sob, grabbing his hand.
“That’s not the reaction I ever expected from you.”
“I said I would try. I’m trying. I care for you, Maksim. I know that. Almost losing you tonight made me truly see that.”
“I care for you too.” Before he can say anything more, Gregor appears in the room, silencing Maksim.
“Glad to see you’re all right,” Gregor says stiffly. “But we have a problem on our hands. Enzo. We’ll need to find a way to handle him.”
“Can’t I have a moment with my wife?”
Gregor gives Maksim a disapproving look but leaves the room.
“Maksim, there’s something I need to tell you.” I bite my lip, readying myself to tell him what my father told me.
“What is it?”
“My father is going to take me back to Chicago. He thinks you’re not doing a good enough job protecting me. I don’t know what to do.”
Despite the pain he must be in, Maksim pushes himself upright and gently cups the back of my head. “You’re mine now, Natasha. When we married. I may not have wanted this marriage but I know I want you. I won’t let your father take you back. I’ll protect you from him. I promise.”
“How can you promise that?”
“Because I’m not afraid of him.” He presses his lips to mine, silencing my worries.
And for this one moment, I let myself get lost in Maksim’s kiss.