21. Kelly
21
KELLY
F uck. Fuck. Fuck!
Panic filled me as I stayed plastered to Rurik’s side.
While he stared down the security guard I’d bumped into accidentally when I hurried out of the dean’s office suite, I tried to think of some excuse or loophole to talk my way out of this. That was what I did before. That was my go-to method whenever any figure of authority questioned me before. Lie, fudge, and divert. It used to work like a charm.
Except for the case of Officer O’Malley.
And apparently, except for the case with this security guard.
“She’s not going anywhere until she explains why she was hurrying through the offices.”
Rurik huffed. “It’s against the law to be in a fucking hurry?”
“She was acting suspicious,” the guard declared, scowling at me.
“No, I wasn’t.” I narrowed my eyes at him, feeling stronger and bolder with Rurik at my side. I wasn’t alone. I had backup. I had support. Facing off this man, we were a team.
“Don’t tell me what I saw.” He jabbed his finger at me, speaking through clenched teeth. Whoever this guy was, he clearly had issues with his temper. Anger management could work wonders with him.
Rurik smacked his hand away. “Don’t point at her like that.”
“I’m not talking to you. I’m talking to her.” He locked his steely gaze on me again. “Why were you rushing away?”
“I wasn’t,” I protested. Nervous all over again, I tried not to panic or react. The mere thought of being caught spying terrified me. I was a rule-follower as much as I could be. I didn’t go looking for trouble. My motto was to stay on the down low and avoid making waves.
I’d screwed that all up by agreeing to be with a Mafia man, though. And I’d worsened it all when I said I would spy for the Baranov Family.
What have I done? What am I going to do? Terror gripped me, and I couldn’t find the words to give this man. If I opened my mouth to speak, I feared I’d say something to make this even worse.
He was targeting me just because I’d bumped into him exiting the office, but I hadn’t been running. And I’d been so careful to look bored and not nervous. Avoiding others’ attention was something I had practice with.
“I don’t believe you. You’re acting suspicious,” the guard accused.
“And I don’t give a fuck what your opinions are of her.” Rurik urged me to turn and walk away with him, but the guard wasn’t having it.
“You don’t walk away from me!” He grabbed for Rurik’s arm, getting a flimsy grip on his sleeve. In a blur of motion, Rurik faced him again and encouraged me to hide behind him. He’d moved so quickly that it blurred in a flash. Rurik had the front of the guard’s shirt within his fist as he shoved him back. Standing between me and the guard, he looked like an impassable wall of strength.
“Did I give you permission to lay your hands on me?” he growled.
“You answer to me!” the guard sneered.
Rurik chuckled. He shook his head as he let out the low and dark sound, not releasing the man. “Of all fucking days. Of all fucking days for a power-hungry little rent-a-cop to try to pick a fight with me.”
“Fuck you,” the guard whined, shoving at Rurik’s hand on his shirt. “You’re under?—”
Rurik flung him back. The guard smacked into a column that was part of the support system of this basement corridor. Upon impact, he grunted in pain. Then he opened his eyes wider, perhaps in alarm. It looked like he realized he was picking a fight with someone who wasn’t his size, but instead of retreating and giving up, he snarled and lunged forward.
“You’re going to regret that,” he growled as he raised his arm. His punch landed on Rurik’s face, but probably not with as much force as he wanted it to. Rurik didn’t dodge his hit. Instead, he leaned in to brace himself for hitting the security guard’s side with a brutal left hook.
“Oh, fuck.” I whispered it to myself as I backed away, staying out of harm’s way.
This wasn’t supposed to be happening. I was supposed to come here like usual and work, just with recording devices strapped under my shirt. Then we were supposed to leave.
That was it.
I hadn’t been counting on a power-tripping security guard to have a beef with me just for bumping into him. I wasn’t aware things would spiral this fast. As I retreated toward the wall, steering clear of the security guard fighting Rurik, I tried not to assume the worst what-ifs. If this guard had a reason to be so suspicious of me. If he saw me… well, doing nothing, because I really hadn’t done anything. Maybe there was a device or something that could pinpoint me as wearing a wire. Or what if he was working for one of the rival families and the many drug dealers? The possibilities were endless, but I felt like this was a one-off situation, a perfect storm of an idiot security guard thinking he was the law. Maybe I’d hurt his ego by bumping into him and rushing away without profusely apologizing. He had to be one of those dumbasses with such a threatened, fragile sense of masculinity that he had to overcompensate and act like a hard-ass after the fact.
He just had to figure that he could teach Rurik a lesson about not messing with him. Unfortunately, Rurik was stronger and more apt to using violence as a means of dealing with people.
I winced and forced myself flat to the wall. I was still wearing the wire. Someone else on the Baranov crew had to hear this. Help would come soon. Worried more that the security guard could have backup, I searched the ceiling and corners of the walls to see if a surveillance camera was watching this fight that the guard had instigated.
Before I could call for help or do anything else, a buzz and flash of light came from the guard’s hand. The slim device he held had issued the bolt. He’d tazed him. He had a Taser.
Rurik grunted out in pain as he dropped to the ground, shaking.
“No!” I scrambled closer to him as the guard backed up. He staggered and wheezed for air, trying to catch his breath. As he coughed and groaned, he lowered to reach underneath the hem of his pants.
“You stupid asshole,” the guard muttered, pulling out a gun.
No guards on campus had firearms, and seeing him getting one from a hidden holster terrified me. This wasn’t just some random idiot with a fragile sense of masculinity. He was unhinged and gun-happy to think he was invincible to be carrying a gun around where they weren’t allowed.
“You can’t try to beat me down and get away with?—”
I kicked out, sending his gun falling to the floor as he raised it at Rurik.
Still breathing hard but groaning through the pain from being tazed, Rurik struggled to sit up and get back into the fight.
“You bitch!” He dropped back down to retrieve his gun that I’d knocked away.
I tensed, bracing for a hit as he grabbed it. Covering the hunched form of the man I was falling for, I tried to be as small as possible and pray that his aim was terrible after a brutal fight.
My heart hammered so fast that my pulse was deafeningly loud in my ears. Dizziness played with my mind as I struggled to draw in enough air.
This was it.
This was the end.
As the guard retrieved his gun and straightened, aiming his gun at us, Rurik shifted. In the same stroke of a second, he pushed me down further, blocking me, and pulled out his gun.
Two shots sounded off. The echo of the blasts rang in my ears, and I squeezed my eyes shut tight as I waited for the pain.
I couldn’t even think past the panic. I had never been so scared in my life, not even when Officer O’Malley was about to violate me.
Another shot went off, but when I realized that slight kickback of motion had come from Rurik’s body, I understood that it was his arm. He’d fired. Not the guard.
“Kelly,” he uttered, breathless and worried. “Kelly?” He pulled at my arm, impatient for me to get up enough so I could face him. “Kelly.” The third time he said my name, he spoke it firmly, like an instruction.
I blinked up at him, bowled over with deep relief that he hadn’t been hit. That he was sitting here and assisting me to get up without cringing in pain. He caught his breath still, breathing deeply as he maneuvered me to get up with him.
“Come on.” He shook his head at the guard he’d shot, seeming annoyed and frustrated more than anything. “We’ve got to?—”
I struggled to stand, still so shaky from the violence. “I… Why…?” Now I shook my head too, as if that gesture could make my thoughts settle rationally in my head. “Why did he have to push like that and…”
“Some people are just assholes like that,” he growled. He held my hand, keeping me back almost comically. As if he feared that guard coming back from the dead to attack me. It seemed symbolic, like he wanted to always stand between me and any danger, but it was already done.
Nothing could protect me from the turmoil of my life now. I’d well and truly invited this kind of chaos just by wanting a man like Rurik, by befriending a woman like Eva. But it was still such a shock to the system that I couldn’t move past how suddenly things could spiral into death and gore.
I clung to Rurik’s hand as he got his phone out. All the while he called the Baranovs here on campus to hide this body and deal with the evidence, he scanned the walls and the ceilings, no doubt looking for evidence of a camera or anyone being able to see what happened here.
“I didn’t see any cameras,” I told him when he disconnected the call and made another one.
He huffed out a breath and arched a brow at me. “You knew to look?”
I swallowed, not wanting to explain where I’d gotten that part of my street smarts from. Yes, I knew to always make sure there wouldn’t be incriminating evidence to damn me later. I had my first lesson with that when I fought back against Officer O’Malley.
“Lev,” he said into the phone instead of waiting for me to reply. “We’ll be on our way.”
Unlike the last time Rurik whisked me away from danger on campus and took me to the Baranov mansion, I was glad for his rescue and help now. The further I could get from this dead guard, the more distance I could put between me and the waste of time that my spying attempt had been, the better.
Rurik looked at the stairwell as two Baranov men filed down, ready to clean up and handle this. I hadn’t enjoyed the benefit of a cleanup crew when I took someone’s life, and I cringed at how morbid of a thought that had to be.
What is happening to me? What is my life becoming?
I didn’t have an answer, but as I held on to Rurik’s warm, big hand, I prayed that he’d help me find my way.