Chapter 32
IVY
“Moira!” Her fingers curl around my forearm like claws and she uses all of her weight to pull me back toward the cafe. Ruslan’s voice rises up behind me, deep and demanding, while I stare into the eyes of my best friend. “What have you done?”
Tears pour down her cheeks, dragging streaks of her mascara with them, and her lower lip trembles violently. “They made me!”
“Who made you? I don’t understand!”
“After the cafe when he—when he grabbed you and you both left. They c-came and they told me they would kill me if I didn’t!”
“Moira—”
Ruslan’s arm sweeps around my waist and he lifts me off my feet as he drags me swiftly out of Moira’s grasp. “We have to go!”
“I’m sorry!” Moira yells through her sobs, clutching her hands to her chest. “I’m so sorry!”
There’s no time to think. Ruslan all but tosses me back into the car, slides over the hood, and scrambles into the driver’s seat just as the first car screeches to a stop next to us trying to block us in.
“Ruslan, who are these people?” I gasp loudly.
“Seatbelt!” Ruslan snaps as he wrenches our vehicle into gear. Suddenly, several pops and bags explode from beside us as multiple men pour out of the black car and open fire.
I scream, ducking down in my seat as bullets collide with bulletproof glass and smash into the metal work of the doors. Ruslan drags the steering wheel, and rather than slamming into the car blocking us in, he drives up onto the sidewalk, narrowly missing Moira as she cowers back into the door.
For a moment, my attention is locked on her as I stare through the glass. Her form gets smaller and smaller as we race away and confusion mingles with hurt in my chest, crashing together like waves against a rocky shore.
She set me up?
Why?
Why would she do this?
“Shit,” Ruslan snaps. The car vibrates and jolts as we crash through planters and displays in front of the shops we drive past. Spinning in my seat, I peer through the back window.
Several of the cars jolt back and forth as they fight to turn around and follow us.
Those at the back have a much easier job of doing so and as Ruslan drives us back onto the road with a shudder, three cars are in pursuit.
“Ruslan!”
“I know, I know.”
“What’s happening? I don’t understand!”
“They’re Russian.”
“What?” I slump back down in my seat with a squeal as another round of gunfire thuds into the back of our car like popping corn. “But you were there today. What did you do?”
“You think this is my fault?” Ruslan snaps.
“No! I’m just… I’m trying to understand!”
“Alexei. It’s got to be Alexei.”
Alexei. Kraven’s son. The man Florence was engaged to years before my father. If that’s true, then why the hell does he want me dead so badly? Why go to all the trouble of cornering my best friend and threatening her into luring me someplace like this?
Ruslan speeds around a corner and I slide against the cold door with a whimper. Ruslan’s arm shoots around me and holds me back against my seat as he takes another sharp turn that leans us hard in the opposite direction.
“Seatbelt,” he repeats. His arm remains across my chest until I slide the seatbelt over me and lock it in place, then he tosses his phone into my lap. “I need you to call someone.”
“Who?”
“Just press on the card deck app. It’ll call whoever is available.”
My trembling thumb misses the app twice.
As I finally press it, one of the chasing cars slams into the back of us and we’re both thrown forward.
The seatbelt tightens around me, and air is momentarily trapped in my lungs from how tightly it presses against my heart.
Ruslan’s phone slips from my fingers and lands in my lap, then slides to the floor as another car slams into us from Ruslan’s side. I’m thrown against the door once more.
Through the glass, I see the third car pull up alongside us. Blacked out windows make it impossible to see who is inside, so it’s only the reflection of our car gleaming back at me.
“Ruslan!”
“I know, they’re trying to box us in. Phone. Now!”
“Shit. Yeah, yeah, I got it. I got it.” Straining against the seatbelt until the rough edge digs into the side of my neck, I locate Ruslan’s phone by skimming my fingertips along the floor that I can reach.
Locating it is easy. Picking it up from this angle is hard with the car swaying and jerking due to Ruslan’s expert driving.
I push the phone against my foot and lift the edge with my fingernails until I can get a grip.
Phone secured, I sit back while panting just as Ruslan wrenches the wheel to the left and slams our car into the one next to us.
Metal screams and screeches as both vehicles grind against one another, locked into a brutal tug of war until the chasing car suddenly slams into a parked car on the street and vanishes from view.
“Oh, my God!”
“It’s okay. We’re okay. Call someone,” Ruslan orders, his voice breathless but calm. “Please.”
“I got it. I got it.” Tapping the app again, the screen goes black for a second, then Valentina’s voice rises from the speaker.
“Hello?”
“Code red,” Ruslan yells as one of the pursuing vehicles rams into us from behind. “I need an exit, Valentina. Now!”
“Shit.” Her soft curse is the last thing I hear for several seconds, so I lean forward and slot Ruslan’s phone into the holder next to the GPS. “Alright, Raven’s got you. What the hell is going on?”
“Fuck knows,” Ruslan barks. “Cassian called with a warning, but the call got cut off. I need someone to check on him.”
“I’ll alert Bradley. Where are you going?”
“At this point? I’m just driving. I need an out, Valentina.” We skid around corners, weave through busy streets to the music of angry drivers and blaring horns, and race through red lights that leave skid marks and crashes behind us.
Not once do the two remaining cars let up. Their drivers are just as skilled as Ruslan and even more reckless.
“Take a left here,” Valentina instructs. “Guide them to the edge of the city. I’m sending a team to meet up with you. It’ll be tough, but you have to make it as far out of the city as you can.”
“Easier said than done,” Ruslan grunts.
“What can I do?” I gasp, my voice quavering as my heart pounds like it’s trying to break free from my ribcage.
Ruslan’s attention locks onto me for half a second. “Trust me,” is all he says.
Valentina barks out instructions for Ruslan, where to go, when to turn, what alley to take to try and lose the chase.
Each time the pursuing cars fall behind and it seems like we have a second to breathe, they find us again.
It would be exhilarating if it wasn’t so fucking terrifying every time one car slams into ours.
Then they grow impatient. It becomes painfully obvious that shooting won’t take us off the road, and shunting us around like a hockey puck isn’t doing much good either.
The two cars fall back for a second, but just as those words leave Ruslan’s lips for Valentina, they both surge forward and one races past us to get in front.
“Valentina, where’s the team!” Ruslan yells, steering us violently back onto the sidewalk and through a crowd of screaming people who thankfully sprint out of the way in time.
“Two minutes,” comes Valentina’s reply. “You’ve got this, Ruslan. You’ve got this.”
Her words ring in my ears as Ruslan turns us down another alley, deafening me as we smash through trash cans and garbage built up at the edge. As we race out of the mouth of the alley, the car that managed to get in front of us and vanish slams headfirst into the side of our car.
I scream in fright. Ruslan yells as we’re shunted violently to one side, then our car catches on something and for several terrifying seconds, we’re in the air.
I rise out of my seat, caught in place only by the seatbelt across my chest. Ruslan’s arm shoots out to grab me and as he makes contact, we’re suspended in the air.
It’s half a second and yet when our eyes meet, it lasts a lifetime. Oddly, the only thing I can focus on is how fluffy his hair looks as he spins through the air.
“Ruslan!” My head snaps to the side, colliding with the window and for a second, everything is quiet.
The car lands on its roof with a sickening crunch of metal and glass. My stomach rolls violently and bile burns the bottom of my throat as I dangle from my seatbelt, upside down with my blood thundering in my ears.
There’s no time.
No sooner have I dragged in my first strained breath than both our doors are ripped open. Multiple hands drag at me, pulling at my limbs and my clothes, and then my hair when the seatbelt prevents me from being dragged out of the car.
Angry, indecipherable yells reach my ears and I glimpse Ruslan being subject to the same treatment, only he’s dragged immediately from the car because he didn’t put on his seatbelt.
Idiot.
Finally, the fabric around my shoulder snaps and I’m dragged out of the car wreck, dizzy from being upside down.
I land face-first on a grassy, sloped embankment, and the bile resting at the base of my throat rushes out of me with several coughs and gags.
Those around me don’t care. As I’m gagging, hands grab under my arms, at my clothes and my waist, and I’m dragged up the embankment.
Did we really fall that far? It didn’t feel like we were in the air that long, but as I’m dragged, kicking and screaming, to the top of the embankment, it’s clear that not only did we flip over, but we rolled down the hill. Warm blood trickles down my cheek as I’m thrown to my knees.
The trailing cars are parked haphazardly in the street. There are more men than I can count and they stand around holding guns and rifles. Shaking my head, I try to shove away the hand firmly clamped around the back of my neck while scanning desperately for Ruslan.
Where is he? Where is the team?
“Ruslan,” I gasp, peering through gathered legs. “Where is he? What did you do? Where is he?”
I’m dragged upward so swiftly that I barely have time to get my feet under me, and then I see him.
Ruslan’s on the ground several feet away with multiple men kicking the shit out of him.
The impact of fist against flesh turns my stomach.
Blood sprays across the ground, his clothes are slightly torn, and I can’t tell if the gash along his abdomen, weeping blood, was from the crash or from these monsters.
“No!” Turning, I slam my elbow into the face of the man holding me. He lurches back in shock, releasing me from his fist so I sprint toward Ruslan. “Leave him alone, you monsters! Leave him alone! Stop! Stop!”
Dodging the outstretched arms of two other guards, I make it to the group around Ruslan and grab one by the arm.
Throwing my weight backward, I do everything I can to haul him away from Ruslan.
The man stumbles a step, turns, and slams his fist so hard into my face that I blink and suddenly, I’m on the ground with no memory of how I got there.
Hands claw at my shoulders, pulling me upward while I twist and yell. “Leave him alone!”
“Careful,” says one man as he shakes his fist, the impact of punching Ruslan causing him pain. “He’s the Ace. Don’t kill him. Just fuck him up.”
“Kill him.” One voice cuts clear through everything, a slimy voice that’s cold and slightly high-pitched. Through the crowd walks a man with broad shoulders straining out of a white T-shirt, and a head covered in light blond hair so fair that he almost looks bald.
“Boss,” says one of the men, poised to kick Ruslan once more. “He’s the Ace. We can’t kill him.”
Boss? Is this… Alexei?
“Fine,” Alexei murmurs and he pulls a large, heavy silver handgun from his back. “Then I will.”
“No!” I scream, lunging forward with all my strength. They’re ready for me this time, though, and several men step in my way. “Don’t you dare! Don’t you fucking dare!”
Alexei stands over Ruslan, aiming his gun down.
Ruslan, through bloodied teeth and a torn lip, manages a laugh that’s more of a wheeze.
His jaw tics back and forth, then he spits a mouthful of blood on the ground at Alexei’s feet.
Pushing against the bloodied tarmac, he manages to get up onto his hands and knees.
Dirty boot prints cover his shirt and blood soaks into his jeans as he moves.
“Alexei,” Ruslan croaks. “You ain’t g-got the balls.” Kneeling, he gazes straight up at the barrel of the gun.
My heart leaps into my throat and for a cold, terrifying moment, I fear Ruslan’s just signed his death warrant.
To my surprise, Alexei doesn’t take the shot. He lowers his gun, then he leans forward and a cold smirk stretches across his pale face. “I don’t need you dead,” he says. “Not when I have her.”
Then all eyes are on me. I blink furiously, trying to clear the slight haze creeping across my vision. Alexei clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth and the sea of men around him leap into action. They all head back to the cars and those holding me start dragging me back.
“Ruslan! Ruslan! No, let go of me, you fucking dick. Let go!” I kick out my legs and twist my body back and forth until the skin under their hands burns, but no one slacks on their grip this time.
Through it all, I glimpse Ruslan panting heavily and still on his knees as Alexei stalks away from him.
“You bastard!” Ruslan yells, failing in his attempt to get up. “I’ll find you, Ivy. I swear to God, I will find you. I will find you!”