8. Rurik
8
RURIK
“ Y ou motherfucker,” I growled, punching the man a couple more times. He wasn’t that skilled of a fighter, but one hit to my still-healing shoulder was all it took to knock me down a peg or two.
I was taller, bigger, smarter, and faster. This was just a college punk, a little guy on the totem pole. Ordinarily, he wouldn’t have been a challenge for me, but my injury was working against me. So was the rabid rage that swept over me at seeing Kelly walking alone and pursued by an asshole like this.
I’d just found her. I’d just gotten to the campus and sought her out. My hope was that she’d be walking to or from her apartment building, and I’d lucked out in seeing her on her way there. With her head hanging low, her shoulders drooped, and her lips parting in a yawn, she looked like a weary, ragged traveler trekking home after a long journey. I detested how she struggled under the burdens of whatever troubled her. And she sure as hell didn’t need the stress of this punk rushing up after her with the clear intention of some wrong-doing. Her gasp and instinct to run were all the cue I needed to know she was in danger.
I punched the guy harder, again, taking out my anger on him. If he’d been planning to steal her away, to rape her, to drug her, to hit her, he had another thing coming. More than one, because no matter what I did, I couldn’t stop beating him.
Letting my protective emotions about her rule, I lost sight of any level-headed approach to this fight. I saw a threat to the woman I cared about, and I wouldn’t rest until he was dead. It was that simple.
Only the buzzing of my phone cut through the haze of anger. Only the slight rhythm of buzzes from that device reined me in.
The punk didn’t move. He’d stopped resisting me and fighting back a minute ago, but so consumed by the need to obliterate him for even daring to scare Kelly, I had gotten carried away.
His face was a bloody pulp. A tooth had fallen out onto his shirt. I slowed, holding my fist up with my arm reared back to punch him again. Eyeing him as I let the buzz of my phone reach me, I sucked in a deep breath.
Stop.
What the fuck are you doing?
What happened to just watching from a goddamn distance?
Wincing, I lowered the man to the sidewalk. He rested in an immobile heap, but he wasn’t dead—not yet. Lying still, but still breathing, he remained right where I dropped him on the path under the tree’s shadows.
As I straightened, reaching for my phone in my pocket, I winced at the sharp pains ricochetting from where I was shot protecting Oleg.
“Fuck,” I grunted.
I really shouldn’t have done that. I knew better than to just rush into a fight. I was doing fine with my rehab and exercises, but impulsively diving into hand-to-hand combat like that was stupid.
I blinked, catching my breath and willing myself to ride through and ignore the pain in my shoulder. Paying attention to my phone, I scowled at the message that reignited my regret of fighting this man who’d rushed after Kelly.
Lev: Meeting starts in fifteen minutes.
“Fuck!” I repeated. I’d gotten to campus with the intention of checking where Kelly was. She was my first interest, but at the same time, I would’ve been waiting for Lev to report on when this meeting was supposed to occur.
With Oleg appointing me to be on campus to keep an eye on things—and under Eva’s request that I check on Kelly—I was expected to get close to a meeting being held among people of interest. Marcus James and Eric Benson were both up-and-coming politicians who’d gotten involved with a variety of things at the college. Both of them had also been rumored to be participating in the drug trades here, and both men were shopping around between the Mafia families for a superior supplier.
According to word from one of the Baranov spies here, Petrov and Ilyin dealers had called for a meeting with Marcus and Eric. I was expected to listen in and record that meeting, but here I was, already deviating from the plan.
“Fuck,” I whispered, rotating my arm and testing out my range of motion. That was three times I’d uttered that word, but it really was all that could sum this situation up.
Fuck this asshole for chasing her. I wanted to know why he had, if it was another case of someone wanting to drug her again or if there was another danger lurking near her.
And I was fucked for chasing her. In the time I was distracted by the need to protect her, I almost missed the starting time of this meeting the Boss expected me to spy on.
One more glance in the direction of where Kelly had escaped showed me nothing but a cool, calm night. No one was walking by. Kelly was nowhere to be seen. Not a single sound of a footstep reached my ears. She was gone, hopefully to safety, and I wouldn’t have the time to follow up on her now.
I groaned lightly as I turned. Leaving this man unconscious under the tree, I had to surrender him as a source of answers. If I didn’t have to go to this meeting and spy, I would’ve dragged him somewhere private and secure. Then I’d wake him and torture him until he explained why he was targeting Kelly like that.
I broke into a jog away from him, though, duty bound to listen in on this damn meeting. As soon as it was over, I’d hurry back here and see if this asshole was still lying out in the cold. And after that, I could go to Kelly’s apartment and make sure she had entered and was safe.
Aggravated to run further from her, I hurried just to get back to her again. Being torn and pulled in two directions wasn’t ideal, but I had no other options at the moment. I had to get to this meeting, then focus on Kelly from a distance.
I reached the tall, castle-like building soon, and I slipped inside to locate the wing where the dean’s office would be. That was the intel we’d received, that Marcus and Eric were in cahoots with the dean, Owen Nolan, and this meeting would be hosted in his office after hours.
Oleg wondered if they would determine who could distribute what on campus. Lev suspected they were calling the meeting to shop around. Either way, the Baranov organization would benefit to stay one step ahead of their enemies and have this knowledge.
Sneaking along the corridors gave me more time to catch my breath. While I hurried to follow the arrows to where the dean’s office was, I steadied myself emotionally from the rush—from seeing Kelly in danger, from wanting to kill that scrawny asshole who’d wanted to get her. I tried to get my head straight and lock down on how I missed Kelly, but telling myself to wait for her wasn’t getting any easier.
It isn’t like this meeting can last that long. I doubted anything would be decided today, and I could be in and out of here quickly.
Finally reaching the area near the dean’s office, I slowed down and moved cautiously. A glance at the clock on the wall showed that I was five minutes late to when this thing was supposed to start. The lack of voices concerned me.
Did I miss it?
Then, someone, a woman, spoke up.
“I’m not going to wait around all night to see if they show up.”
I hurried to press record on my phone, capturing whatever was being said around the door I hid behind. The place was empty, and no one was around except for me.
“Jessica,” someone argued lightly, “Marcus will be here. Just wait.”
“No. I’m outta here.” She huffed.
“Yeah, me too,” another man said, speaking with a slangy drawl. “I ain’t got time for this shit, just waiting around and whatever.”
I tensed, ready to retreat and hide around another corner before I could be spotted spying.
I backed up further as heels clacked over the floor.
Oh, shit.
This Jessica woman wasn’t patient. She wanted to go now .
I just barely had the time to get out of sight as she exited, striding out and down the hall.
“Well, fuck. If she’s leaving, I am too,” a man said.
I stayed back, still recording, as a tall man left. I couldn’t step forward to get a better glimpse of him as he left, and the range of my camera on my phone wasn’t enough for me to capture who he was.
That settled it. The meeting seemed to be canceled now. I was off the hook. Nothing could hold me back from going to check on Kelly again.
Ending the recording, I locked my phone then put it back in my pocket. After waiting a couple more minutes while the others in the room bitched about how hard it was to find a time for this meeting, I eased out of my hiding spot and left the building.
The air seemed colder now, even though I’d only been inside for a few minutes. It had felt like much longer since every second away from Kelly was becoming unbearable. Just how much could a man want a woman and be denied before he went crazy? I was testing out that theory on myself. As I jogged in the direction of where her apartment building was, I ignored the misty chill and worried about why that man had been after her in the first place.
If she had been drugged again, she wouldn’t have had anyone else to rely on. I caught a brief snippet of her fake call to a boyfriend, knowing it was a ploy because she’d held the phone slightly away from her cheek and it had been in the lock mode, not on a call.
If Kelly was facing trouble, who would’ve been here to help her? I hated that I might not have been. Try as I might, I struggled under the thought that I’d arrived just in time to save her from whatever that punk had in mind.
Up ahead, a woman screamed.
It was her. It had to be her. I was near her building. I recalled the pitch of her voice.
“Goddammit!” I ran harder, ignoring the bite of pain in my arm as I ran forward.
I shouldn’t have left that fucker for dead. I shouldn’t have fucking left him there.
If she was being followed and targeted by that asshole again, or if his buddies had come to help him get her on her walk to the bar to work, I’d never forgive myself. My options were limited. I couldn’t have spent time questioning that punk I’d fought away from her. I didn’t have the space to take care of him and make sure he never bothered her again. I had been expected at that meeting.
Which ironically had been canceled, anyway.
Locking down on the anger making my heart beat faster, I raced ahead to save her again.
I’d be damned if anyone hurt her. Not when I was near.
I never wanted to be far from her in the first place, and as I approached the man raising his arm to backhand her hard, I saw red.
She wouldn’t be out of my sight after this, both for her safety and for my peace of mind to see and know that she was out of harm’s way.
You’re mine, Kelly.
Mine to have and hold.
To protect and secure.
Starting right now, not a moment too late as I reached the man attacking her.