Chapter 21
Maksim
Each heartbeat sends fresh waves of agony through my body.
I ignore it. I have to ignore it.
I fire at the guards emerging from the compound, each shot sending lightning through my shoulder. My vision blurs at the edges, but I force myself to stay focused.
Semyon moves beside me, his weapon barking in controlled bursts. "We need to fall back!" he shouts over the chaos.
"Not until they're over that wall!" I squeeze off another round, dropping a guard who was getting too close to Kira and Anya.
More of Roman's men pour through the kitchen door. Too many. We're being overwhelmed.
"Maksim, we're out of time!" Semyon's voice cuts through the gunfire.
I glance back. Kira and Anya are halfway to the wall, but it's still too far. They need more time.
"Go!" I order Semyon. "Get them over. I'll hold here."
"You'll die!"
"Then I die!" I fire again, the recoil nearly dropping me. "But they live. Go!"
I pick up the gun from the man I dropped earlier. For a second, I think he'll argue. Then he nods once and sprints toward the women.
I'm alone now, one man against Roman's entire security force. The math doesn't work in my favor.
But I don't need to win. Just need to buy time.
I retreat toward a stone planter, using it for cover. My left arm hangs useless, blood dripping steadily onto the ground. I brace my arm against the stone. The blood loss has left me weak. Pulling the trigger takes as much effort as rolling a boulder uphill.
A guard rounds the corner. I fire. He drops.
Another appears. Same result.
But there are too many. For every one I drop, two more take his place.
My magazine clicks empty. I fumble for the spare Viktor had, my fingers slippery with blood. My fingers don’t want to cooperate. I realize I'm losing too much blood. Shock is setting in.
I slam the magazine home and chamber a round. My hand shake so badly I can barely aim.
"Maksim!" Kira's scream cuts through everything.
I look up to see her at the wall. Semyon has Anya halfway over, but Kira is fighting to come back. For me.
"Go!" I roar at her. "Get out of here!"
"Not without you!"
Stubborn woman. Beautiful, infuriating, stubborn woman.
I force myself upright and start running toward them. Each step feels like dying, but I keep moving. Guards pursue, their shots kicking up dirt around my feet.
Semyon gets Anya over the wall and reaches for Kira. She resists, her eyes locked on me.
"Kira, climb!" I'm twenty feet away. Fifteen.
She finally turns and starts scaling the wall. Semyon helps pull her up.
Ten feet. Five.
A bullet slams into my side.
The impact drives me forward, momentum carrying me the last few steps. I hit the wall hard, my legs giving out.
Semyon grabs me. “Go!” He shouts in my face; his lips close enough we could kiss.
I’m so dizzy.
He’s behind me, his hands on my ass as he pushes me up. I managed to reach up with my good arm and it’s Kira hand on my wrist pulling me up.
“Don’t you die on me!”
I feel my stomach scrape across the stone as I make it over and then I’m falling. I hit the ground and decide now would be a good time to die.
But then Kira is there.
"Maksim, run!" Kira's voice cuts through the fog in my brain. Her hands are on me, pulling, desperate.
I can't. My legs won't work. Everything is going gray at the edges.
"I can't—" The words come out slurred.
Then Semyon is there, his arm hooking under my good shoulder. Between him and Kira, they drag me forward. My feet drag uselessly across the ground. Each movement sends fresh agony through my side where the bullet hit.
"There!" Semyon grunts.
Through my blurred vision, I see a car.
They haul me toward it. My body is dead weight, but they don't stop. Don't let go. I don’t know where my girl gets the strength. I know I’m twice her size. Twice her bodyweight but she’s a fucking animal.
"In!" Semyon shoves me into the backseat.
I collapse across the seat, unable to sit upright. Kira scrambles in after me, lifting my head into her lap. Her hands are immediately on my wounds, pressing down hard.
I groan. The pressure is agony.
"I know, I know." Her voice breaks. "But I have to stop the bleeding."
Anya throws herself into the front passenger seat. Semyon slides behind the wheel, and we're moving before the doors are even closed.
The car lurches forward. Every bump sends lightning through my body. I try to focus on Kira's face above me, but she keeps splitting into two, then three.
"Stay with me." Her hand cups my cheek, leaving blood smears. "Maksim, look at me. Stay awake."
"Trying." But my eyelids are so heavy.
"No!" She taps my face, harder than necessary. "Open your eyes. Talk to me."
"About what?" The words are thick, wrong.
"Anything. Everything. Tell me about—tell me what you want to do when this is over."
When this is over. Like there's an after. Like I'm going to survive long enough to see it.
"Want to..." I force the words out. "Take you somewhere. Somewhere he never touched."
"Where?" She's crying now, tears dripping onto my face.
"Don't know. Anywhere. Everywhere." My vision darkens again. "Just... with you."
"You'll take me." Her hand presses harder on my side. I can't suppress the scream. "You're going to live, and we're going to go everywhere. Do you hear me?"
I try to nod. Not sure if I succeed. The car swerves violently. Semyon curses from the front seat.
"They're following!" Anya's voice is high with panic.
"I know!" Semyon takes another sharp turn.
I'm sliding across the seat despite Kira's attempts to brace me. The movement tears at my wounds. Fresh blood soaks through her hands.
"Where are we going?" Anya asks, her voice shaking.
"Safe house." Semyon's voice is tight with concentration. "Twenty minutes if I can lose these bastards."
Twenty minutes. Might as well be twenty years.
"Maksim!" Kira's voice pulls me back from the edge. "Don't you dare. Don't you dare leave me now. Not after everything."
"Not... trying to leave." But the darkness is so tempting. So peaceful compared to this agony.
"Then fight!" She's shouting now, her hands never stopping their pressure on my wounds. "You survived six years in hell! You can survive twenty minutes in a car!"
Six years. Yeah, I survived that. Barely. But I was fueled by rage then. Had something to keep me going.
What do I have now?
I force my eyes open and look at her. Blood on her face. Tears streaming down her cheeks. Hair wild around her shoulders.
Beautiful. She's so beautiful.
"There you are." Her smile is watery. Desperate. Terrified. "Stay with me. Please."
"Okay." The word costs me everything. "Okay."
The car swerves again. Gunfire erupts behind us—the distinct crack of weapons being discharged.
"Shit!" Semyon floors it.
The acceleration presses me deeper into the seat. Into Kira's lap. Her hands slip on my blood-slicked skin, and she has to reposition.
"How much further?" Kira's voice is steady despite the terror I can see in her eyes.
"Fifteen minutes." Semyon takes another turn so sharp we go up on two wheels for a second. "Maybe less if I—"
More gunfire. The rear window explodes.
Anya screams. Kira throws herself over me, shielding my body with hers.
"Get down!" Semyon barks.
The car fishtails. Regains control. Accelerates harder.
I can hear the pursuing vehicles. Multiple engines. They're not giving up.
"Maksim." Kira's lips are against my ear. "I love you. Whatever happens, I love you."
"Love you too." The words come easier this time. "Always did."
Even when I hated her. The love was always there, twisted into something ugly but never truly gone.
"We're going to make it." She's saying it like a prayer. Like if she says it enough, it'll become true. "All of us. We're going to survive this."
I want to believe her. Want to have that faith.
But I can feel my life draining away with each pump of my heart. The darkness at the edges of my vision is spreading, consuming more with each passing second.
"Ten minutes!" Semyon's voice sounds distant now. "Hold on!"
My eyes drift closed despite Kira's pleas to keep them open.
Just for a second. Just need to rest for one second.
"Maksim! No!" Her voice is fading, like she's moving away from me.
Or I'm moving away from her. Into the dark. Into the quiet. Into…
A sharp slap across my face jerks me back.
"Wake up!" Kira's face swims into focus above me. "You don't get to give up! Do you hear me? You don't get to die after finally admitting you love me!"
"Not fair." The words barely form.
"I'll use whatever works." Another slap, lighter this time. "Stay awake. Talk to me.”
"Don't want to." Speaking is getting harder. Each word requires monumental effort.
"Too bad." Her hand is on my face now, gentle despite the desperation. "Tell me about where we will live after this is over.”
The car swerves again, but I barely feel it anymore. Everything is distant, muffled.
"Five minutes!" Semyon shouts. "Kira, how is he?"
"Losing too much blood." Her hands press harder, but I can feel the warmth pooling beneath me. Too much. Way too much. "I can't—I can't stop it."
"Just get us there!" Anya's voice, high and frightened.
The car accelerates even more.
"Maksim, look at me." Kira's face fills my world. "Remember the creek? Remember what we said?"
The creek. Making love. Her body against mine. The feeling that maybe, just maybe, we could fix this.
"Remember." Barely a whisper now.
"You said I was yours. That I'd always be yours." Her tears fall faster. "Well, you're mine too. You don't get to leave me. Not now. Not ever."
"Not... leaving." But even as I say it, I know it's a lie.
My body is shutting down. Systems failing one by one. I can feel it happening, powerless to stop it.
"We're here!" The car screeches to a halt.
Doors opening. Voices shouting. Hands on me, lifting.
Kira's face above me as Semyon carries me inside. Her lips moving, saying something I can't quite hear anymore.
I'm sorry. I want to tell her I'm sorry for everything. For wasting so much time. For dying just when we found each other again.
But the darkness is winning. And I'm too tired to fight it anymore.