Chapter 6 #2
“Tikhо,” Quiet. I whispered against her ear, my breath warm against her skin.
My hand moved to cradle her face again, my thumb stroking along her temple in slow, soothing circles, my gaze set so deeply into hers that I thought I could see the tip of her soul calling out to me. “I’ve got you. You’re safe.”
The words slipped out before I could stop them, gentle and protective in a way that had nothing to do with keeping an asset alive. I was stroking her hair back from her face, tucking strands behind her ear with infinite care. Demons aren’t gentle, what was I doing?
She looked up at me with those big brown eyes that had first sparked my fury, wide with fear. In that moment, with bullets flying around us and death lurking in every shadow, she looked at me like I was her salvation.
Before I could fully memorize that look, her eyes widened, focused on something else.
The red dot appeared on my chest at the same moment she launched herself forward, her small body colliding with mine and knocking me sideways.
Pain exploded through my left arm as the bullet meant for my heart tore through my bicep instead. We hit the ground hard, her body covering mine, her hair falling around us like a curtain that blocked out the world.
For a split second, everything else faded. The gunfire was distant, hazed by the scent of her strands that stole my focus. The weight of her against my chest made her seem so fragile in my arms.
How could she do this? How could she throw herself in front of a bullet for the man who’d kidnapped her, who’d humiliated her, who was about to hand her over to a monster even worse than me?
A bullet hit the tire right beside Adrianne’s head, breaking me from this frozen trance I’d stupidly fallen into. I rolled us over in one smooth motion, pinning her beneath me, my good arm braced above her head to shield her from any debris.
“What the hell was that?” I snarled, my face inches from hers, searching her eyes for answers. “Why would you do that?”
“You had a laser dot on your chest,” she said breathlessly, her chest rising and falling rapidly against mine. “Now we’re even.”
Even. For saving her from Dmitri.
But we weren’t even. It would never be even. Because she’d just risked her life for mine, and that wasn’t supposed to happen. Especially because she had no idea I was about to deliver her to her own fucking funeral.
More gunfire erupted around us. I forced myself to focus, to push down the raw rage her sacrifice had unleashed.
Through the smoke and chaos, I heard a scream that made my blood run cold.
A woman’s scream. High and sharp and filled with pain.
“SASHA!” Adrik’s yell came right after, raw with panic and angst.
I raised my head just enough to see through the smoke. Blue hair and too much blood. My men were dragging her toward the second escape vehicle, her legs not working, leaving a dark trail on the asphalt.
“Get her out of here!” I roared over the gunfire. “NOW!”
The second car peeled away into the night, tires screeching against asphalt. I caught a glimpse of Sasha’s pale face in the back window before they disappeared around a corner.
She can’t fucking die. Blyat! Fuck.
I couldn’t see if she was even conscious or where she’d gotten shot, for that matter, but the culprit will pay for hurting her. I couldn’t bear to think that I’d just watched someone else I care about slip away because I’d been distracted by a pair of brown eyes.
I rose to a crouch, keeping Adrianne pinned down with one hand while I returned fire with the other. Blood was soaking through my shirt sleeve, but the wound was clean. The bullet had gone straight through.
In the chaos, I saw a figure moving low between the cars, getting closer to our position.
“Adrianne!” He shouted, and before I could stop her, she was on her feet and running towards him. Shots fired behind her, giving her cover as she ran into the arms of that fucker.
This was the Battaglia’s doing, after all. I was not about to lose my last chance of getting what I’d worked so many fucking years for. This was my last assignment. She was my ticket to peace, the only way I could finally fulfill my promises.
Without hesitation, I ran towards them, snatching Adrianne by her waist before she reached him, putting three bullets into that fucker’s chest.
“NO!” Adrianne screamed, twisting and thrashing in my hold, trying to set herself free. “Jimmy!”
I grabbed her tighter, pulling her over my shoulder while opening fire in every direction I’d registered the enemy shooters were earlier.
“You killed him!” She was fighting me now, punching my back while kicking her feet as hard as she could. “You fucking killed him!”
“And I’ll kill anyone else who tries to take you,” I growled, tightening my hold around her legs and carrying her toward our escape vehicle.
Something fell to the ground at my feet as I shifted her body to shove her into the back seat of the car. A phone, cracked and bloody. It fell directly off of her, and I couldn’t help but wonder how the fuck that had passed my men’s inspection.
Picking it up, I pushed her further, forcing her to slide to the other side of the seat behind the driver. As soon as I was in, Kirill drove off without hesitation.
The car lurched forward into the night. Behind us, the gunfire was already fading as the Battaglias realized their primary targets were gone.
“Where’s Adrik?” I demanded, checking the street behind us.
“He’s in the other car with Sasha," Kirill replied, taking a hard right onto a side street. “They had to get her to a safe house fast.”
My chest tightened. “How bad was she hit?”
“I don’t know, Boss. There was blood everywhere.”
She might be bleeding out in the back of that car right now. May already be gone.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!” I shouted, punching the headrest of the passenger’s seat so hard I felt my knuckles split. “How the fuck did they know where we were?”
“We swept for trackers, changed routes. We took all the precautions.”
Trackers. Precautions. That reminded me. The phone I picked up was still in my hand, weighing a fucking ton. I looked into Adrianne’s eyes, teary and angry, still mourning the loss of whoever that was to her.
The screen was cracked, but still functional. One single text flashing on the screen.
Track this. Adrianne.
It was Dmitri’s phone. My little fucking moth had pulled it from his dead body and given away our location.
My whole vision went red hot around the edges, fury physically burning into my system.
I turned to face Adrianne, my voice deadly calm, but I knew my expression gave away just how pissed off I was. “Care to explain this?”
She was pressed against the far door, her eyes wide but still defiant. No fear. No apologies. Just that same stubborn fire that had been driving me insane since the moment I met her.
“When Dmitri attacked me,” she said quietly. “His phone fell out of his pocket. I grabbed it and sent the text before you showed up.”
“You used a dead man’s phone to call in a strike on my people?”
“I was trying to survive.” Her tears were silently falling now, and I could see through whatever facade she forced onto her face. She was afraid. She was afraid of me.
“That text might’ve just killed Sasha.” My hand was moving before I’d consciously forced it to, grabbing her jaw and forcing her to look at me. My face was an inch from hers, close enough to see the gold flecks in her brown eyes. “Do you understand that?”
She flinched, but didn’t look away. Whoever said she wasn’t a Battaglia catalogued her fucking wrong. She was everything those damn files said her sister was. Maybe innocence was the only distinction, but that fire in her? That survival instinct? It was just as sharp.
“Sasha could be dying because you can’t follow simple instructions.
You’re not worth her life, and you sure as hell aren’t worth mine.
” My eyes bore into hers, feeling the slight trembling of her body while I exhaled my fury onto her skin.
“I should have let Dmitri finish what he started,” I snarled, releasing her face like she’d burned me.
The words tasted like the blood that seeped through my wound and stained my shirt, but I forced them out anyway. She was worthless. And I was better off reminding myself of the ruthless criminal that I was. No more mercy. No more softness for the sake of a memory.
The car filled with tense silence, broken only by the sound of sirens in the distance and the harsh intake of my own breathing.
I’d let myself see someone else in her shoes when, in reality, she was the enemy.
Pity didn’t suit me. It sure as fuck didn’t suit my agenda.
“Speed up,” I ordered Kirill, leaning against the door, purposely avoiding Adrianne’s gaze. “Meet them at the safe house. We leave for DC in the morning. Vladimir’s package will be delivered on schedule.”