Chapter 14 Mikhail
MIKHAIL
The video plays on loop in my mind, even though I’ve turned off the phone.
Melinda’s battered face.
Her swollen eye.
The blood matted in her blonde hair is too close to what Nicole’s blonde looked like after…
I stand at the window of the safe house, watching the sun rise over the mountains.
I haven’t slept.
Can’t sleep.
Not when every decision I make could mean the difference between life and death for the woman I love or her best friend.
Behind me, Sophia paces the length of the small living room.
I hear her footsteps, back and forth, back and forth.
She’s been doing this for hours, ever since we received Adrian’s message.
Twenty-four hours to deliver Sophia or Melinda dies screaming.
“We have to do something.” Her voice cracks with exhaustion and fear. “Mikhail, we can’t just stand here.”
I turn to face her, and my chest tightens at the sight.
Her black hair is tangled, her blue eyes red-rimmed from crying.
She’s wearing one of my shirts, the fabric hanging loose on her slender frame.
She looks fragile, breakable, and the thought of sending her into Adrian’s hands makes my stomach turn.
“I’m working on it,” I say, my voice rougher than I intend.
“Working on it?” She stops pacing and stares at me. “Melinda is being tortured because of me. Because I called her. Because I led them right to her.”
“This isn’t your fault.” She’d told me about the call. At first, it felt like a betrayal. But it wasn’t her fault. It was Elena’s.
“Then whose fault is it?” Sophia’s voice rises, sharp with guilt and anger. “She’s innocent in all of this. She doesn’t deserve what they’re doing to her.”
I cross the room and grip her shoulders, forcing her to look at me. “Neither do you. And I won’t let Adrian use you to settle his vendetta against me.”
“So we just let Melinda die?” Tears stream down her face. “Is that what you’re saying?”
“No.” I pull her against my chest, one hand cradling the back of her head. “That’s not what I’m saying. We’ll get her back. I promise you, we’ll get her back.”
She sobs against my shirt, her fingers clutching the fabric.
I hold her, breathing in the scent of her hair, memorizing the feel of her in my arms.
Because if this goes wrong, if Adrian’s trap works the way he wants it to, this might be the last time I hold her.
My phone buzzes on the table. I release Sophia and check the screen. It’s my enforcer Marco, calling from the secure line I gave him.
“Talk to me,” I answer.
“I’ve got eyes on the location Adrian sent.” Marco’s voice is steady, professional. “It’s an abandoned textile factory on the east side. Three stories, multiple entry points, but they’re all covered. I count at least fifteen men, maybe more inside.”
“Melinda?”
“Second floor, northwest corner. They’ve got her in what looks like an old office. Two guards on the door.”
I glance at Sophia, who’s watching me with desperate hope in her eyes. “Is she alive?”
“As of ten minutes ago, yes. But Mikhail…” Marco pauses. “They’re not being gentle with her. Whatever you’re planning, it needs to happen soon.”
“Understood. Get back here. We need to strategize.”
I end the call and find Sophia already moving toward me. “What did he say? Is she okay?”
“She’s alive.” I don’t tell her the rest, that Adrian’s men are probably beating Melinda right now, using her pain to draw us in. “Marco’s on his way back. We’ll plan the extraction.”
“I’m going with you.”
The words hang in the air between us. I knew they were coming. I’ve been dreading them since we first saw that video. “No.”
“Mikhail—”
“I said no.” I turn away from her, needing distance before I do something stupid like agree. “It’s too dangerous.”
“It’s dangerous for everyone.” She follows me, her voice rising. “But I’m the one Adrian really wants. You said it yourself. This whole thing is about getting to you through me.”
“Which is exactly why you’re staying here.”
“And let Melinda die because I was too scared to help her?” She moves in front of me, blocking my path. “I won’t do that. I can’t.”
I look down at her, at the determination blazing in her blue eyes, and something cracks in my chest.
This woman.
This fierce, stubborn, beautiful woman who’s somehow become everything to me. How did I ever think I could keep her locked away, safe from my world?
“If something happens to you…” I cup her face in my hands, my thumbs brushing across her cheekbones. “If I lose you, Sophia, the world will pay.”
“Then don’t lose me.” She covers my hands with hers. “Come with me. Protect me. But let me do this. Let me save my friend.”
The sound of vehicles approaching pulls us apart.
Marco arrives first, followed by three SUVs carrying the men I trust most. They file into the safe house, their faces grim.
They know what we’re up against.
I spread a map of the textile factory across the dining table. “Adrian’s holding Melinda here.” I point to the northwest corner. “He’s got at least fifteen men, probably more. Multiple entry points, all covered.”
“It’s a trap,” Marco says.
“Of course it’s a trap.” I meet his dark eyes. “Adrian wants me to come for her. He’s counting on it.”
“So we don’t go.” One of my other men crosses his arms. “We find another way.”
“There is no other way.” Sophia’s voice cuts through the room. Everyone turns to look at her. “Adrian wants me. So we give him what he wants.”
“Absolutely not.” Marco shakes his head. “Boss, you can’t seriously be considering this.”
“I’m not considering it. I’m doing it.” Sophia moves to stand beside me at the table. “I walk in the front door. Adrian gets what he wants. And while he’s focused on me, you get Melinda out.”
“And then what?” Marco leans forward, his expression troubled. “He just lets you go? Sophia, this is suicide.”
“Not if Mikhail comes for me.” She looks up at me, and I see the trust in her eyes. The absolute faith that I’ll save her. It terrifies me. “I buy you time to get Melinda to safety. Then you come back for me.”
The room erupts in protests. My men talk over each other, arguing about the insanity of using their boss’s wife as bait. But I’m not listening to them. I’m looking at Sophia, at the set of her jaw, the steel in her spine. She’s not asking for permission. She’s telling me what she’s going to do.
“If we’re doing this, we do it my way,” I say. “You wear a wire. You carry a weapon. And the second things go wrong, you run. You don’t wait for me, you don’t try to be a hero. You run.”
“Okay.” She nods. “I can do that.”
“What about Adrian’s men?” Marco asks. “They’ll be expecting us.”
“Let them expect us.” I study the map, calculating angles and timing. “We’re not trying to be subtle. We’re trying to be fast. Get in, get the target, get out. Anyone who gets in the way goes down.”
We spend the next hour going over every detail, every contingency. My men are professionals.
They’ve done extractions before.
But I can see the doubt in their eyes.
They don’t like using Sophia as bait.
They don’t trust that Adrian will play fair.
Neither do I. But we’re out of options.
As the sun climbs higher, we load into the vehicles.
Sophia sits beside me in the lead SUV, her hand gripping mine so tightly I can feel her pulse racing.
She’s terrified.
Of course she is.
But she’s doing this anyway.
“You don’t have to be brave,” I tell her quietly. “You’re allowed to be scared.”
“I am scared.” She looks at me, fear flooding her blue eyes. “But I’m more scared of living with myself if I don’t try to save her.”
The textile factory looms ahead, a hulking structure of brick and broken windows.
Through my binoculars, I can see Adrian’s men positioned on the roof, at the entrances, watching our approach.
My jaw clenches.
There are more than Marco reported.
At least twenty, maybe twenty-five.
We’re outnumbered. Outgunned. And walking straight into a trap.
I stop the SUV two blocks away.
This is as close as we can get without alerting them to our full numbers. Sophia takes a shaky breath and reaches for the door handle.
“Wait.” I pull her back and kiss her. It’s hard and desperate, full of everything I can’t say.
When I release her, her lips are swollen and her eyes are bright with unshed tears.
“Come back to me,” I whisper against her mouth.
“Always.” She touches my face, her fingers tracing the line of my jaw. “I promise.”
Then she’s gone, stepping out of the SUV and walking toward the factory.
I watch her go, my heart hammering against my ribs.
She’s so small, so vulnerable, walking alone toward that building full of armed men who want to hurt her.
Every instinct screams at me to go after her, to pull her back, to find another way.
But I force myself to stay in the vehicle, to trust the plan, to trust her.
Marco’s voice crackles through my earpiece. “We’re in position. Waiting for your signal.”
I watch Sophia reach the factory entrance.
She pauses, calling out, then steps into the building, out of my sight.
My hands grip the steering wheel hard enough to make it creak.
The men push Sophia through the entrance, and she disappears inside.
I’m forced to listen to the men as they pat her down, but then there’s nothing but static from her wire until I hear Adrian’s voice, smooth and mocking.
“Well, well. Mrs. Artyomov. So good of you to join us.”
I close my eyes, forcing myself to breathe. To think. To wait for the right moment.
“Now,” I say into my earpiece.
The plan is in motion.
Sophia is inside.
God help us all, there’s no turning back now.