Chapter 8 Laney
Laney
I know I'm breaking my promise the moment I unlock the car doors.
But sitting there listening to gunshots, knowing Yakov is inside that warehouse fighting god knows how many men, knowing Laurie might be in there. I can't. I just can't.
I grab my phone, open the car door, and run.
The warehouse looms ahead of me, a concrete monster squatting in the desert. The front entrance is dark, but I can see faint light leaking from somewhere in the back. I circle around, staying low, my heart hammering so hard I can barely breathe.
The loading dock door is propped open.
I slip inside. The smell hits me first, gunpowder, sweat, something metallic that might be blood. Then I see the bodies. Three men sprawled across the floor, blood pooling beneath them.
Oh god.
I press my hand over my mouth to keep from making a sound and force myself to keep moving.
I step around the bodies and move to a large metal shipping container with the door hanging open. There are women inside, huddled together, terrified. One of them sees me and gasps.
"It's okay," I whisper. "I'm looking for someone. My sister. Laurie Parker?"
The blonde one points toward the back. "He went to get her. The Bratva guy. He's getting her out."
Bratva?
"Thank you." I'm already moving, running now, not caring about stealth or safety or anything except getting to my sister.
Just as I’m about to reach it, it opens, and I see Yakov half-holding my sister as she finds her balance.
"Laurie!"
She lifts her head, her face a mess of bruises and dried blood, and for a second we just stare at each other. Then we're moving at the same time, crashing together in a hug that could break bones.
"Laney, oh my god, Laney—" She's sobbing into my shoulder, her whole body shaking. "You came. You came—"
"Of course I came." I'm crying too, holding her so tight I'm probably hurting her. "I've been looking everywhere for you. I was so scared—"
"I'm okay. I'm okay now." She pulls back just enough to look at me, her hands cupping my face like she needs to make sure I'm real. "How did you find me? How did you—"
"She was supposed to stay in the car," Yakov says from the doorway, his voice flat.
I turn to look at him. The expression on his face beneath bloodsplatter and sweat is somewhere between fury and relief.
"I heard gunshots," I say, not apologizing. "I wasn't going to sit there while you—"
"We need to move. Now." He's already pulling out his phone, typing something fast. "More of them are coming—"
The sound of engines roaring closer cuts him off.
"Fuck." He grabs my arm. "Both of you, Get into the container. Stay inside with the others and wait for me to come and get you."
"What?" I almost screech. "No—"
"Laney." He turns to face me fully, and the intensity in his eyes makes me reconsider my argument before it’s even fully formed. "I need you safe. I can't fight if I'm worried about you. Please."
I clamp my mouth shut and hold back the torrent of objection that tries to force its way out, because the way he is looking at me makes my chest hurt.
He dips his head then, and kisses me, rough, almost desperate, and then he's pushing us toward the shipping container. The women inside move back from the door, and Yakov slams it shut.
"Don't open it for anyone but me!" He shouts as darkness engulfs us.
I feel for the interior lock but can’t find one.
Laurie grabs my hand in the darkness. "Who is that guy?"
"Yakov Korolyov. He's... it's complicated."
"Is he your boyfriend?" she asks, like now is the time to be catching up.
"No. Maybe. No. I don't know." I peer through the tiny sliver of light where the doors don’t quite meet, then turn my ear against the metal door, trying to hear what's happening outside. "He saved me earlier. He's saving all of you now."
The first gunshot makes everyone scream.
Then it's a chaos of gunfire and men shouting in languages I don't recognize or understand, punctuated by the sound of bullets hitting metal and concrete. I count the shots without meaning to. Seven. Twelve. Fifteen.
How many bullets does a gun hold? How many guns does Yakov have?
"Everyone get down!" I grab Laurie and pull her to the floor, away from the walls where stray bullets might penetrate. "Stay low! Cover your heads!"
The other women follow my lead, huddling together in the center of the container. Some of them are crying. One is praying in what sounds like Spanish. One is offering words of calm reassurance.
Another burst of gunfire. Closer this time. Someone screams outside, not Yakov, it doesn't sound like Yakov, please god don't let it be Yakov…
"Is he going to be okay?" Laurie whispers next to me. "Your... whoever he is?"
"Yes." I say it with more confidence than I feel. "He's going to be fine. He's…he's very good at this."
"At killing people?" she asks, incredulity in her voice.
"At doing what needs to be done to protect what’s his."
The firefight continues. I lose count of the shots after thirty. Time stretches and compresses, seconds feeling like hours, minutes disappearing into the chaos of sound and fear.
Then, suddenly…silence.
We all freeze, barely breathing.
"Everyone get up," I whisper-shout. "If anyone other than Yakov opens that door, we rush them and you run. Do you understand?"
A small murmur of yes washes through the container.
I reach for Laurie’s hand. "You get them out of here, okay? I’ll be right behind you. Promise me you’ll get them out."
"I think we both know our promises don’t mean shit right now, but I will get them out."
Then there are footsteps right outside. I give Laurie’s hand one last squeeze.
"I love you, Laurie."
"I love you too."
I brace myself between the women and the door, and crouch into a position to jump on whoever opens it. Adrenaline courses through me. I feel the women at my back and know I’ll do anything to protect them, to protect Laurie, to get them out of here.
The door swings open, and a man I don’t recognize faces us, his expression going from curiosity to surprise in an instant as I leap from my position with a scream and wrap my legs around him.
He staggers, trying to find his balance before falling onto his back.
His gun clatters over the warehouse floor as I begin to pummel his face with every ounce of strength I possess.
"Run!" I shout, and the rush of the women as they move past me feels like freedom.
"Stop," the man beneath me shouts as he tries to grab my wrists. Only now I’m utterly feral, biting at his arms and scratching at his eyes. Hitting any part of him I can reach. Relentlessly battering his nose and eyes.
I hit him hard, feel bones splinter and reach for the gun while he cups his nose with both hands. Within seconds, I have it pointed right between his eyes.
"Fuck," the guy grunts.
"Well, if that isn’t the sexiest thing I’ve ever fucking seen."
I spin and find Yakov nearing us.
"I’m going to kill him," I say, my voice ragged and breathless.
"I see that, but I’d rather you didn’t, as he is one of my best men."
My head snaps back to Yakov before returning to the man beneath me.
"Oh my god, I’m so sorry," I say, dropping the gun as a laugh bubbles from my throat. I clamp a hand over my mouth and swing my panicked eyes back to Yakov. Shocked at what I did, but more so at the desperate urge to laugh about it.
"It’s okay," he says with a gentleness I would never have imagined him capable of. He lifts me from the man on the floor and strokes the strands of hair from my face. "You did great, you got everyone out."
"Laurie—"
"She is okay, too. We have a couple of medics here, they are seeing to them."
"You're okay," I say, looking him over as my entire body begins to tremble uncontrollably.
"I'm fine. Are you hurt?" His eyes scan over me, checking for injuries.
"No. But you're bleeding—"
"It's nothing." He pulls me against him and holds me tight. "Kaiden, check the area, make sure all the women are found and getting the help they need."
The man on the floor sits up and shakes his head as he tentatively touches his nose his nose, frowning when his hand comes away smeared with blood. "Yes, boss," he says before adding, "I think she broke my nose."
Yakov leads us away from the container and through the warehouse. I try not to look at the bodies, but I catch glimpses anyway. Blood. Empty eyes.
Outside, three black SUVs are idling at the loading dock. Men in tactical gear are loading the women into the vehicles, efficient and gentle despite their intimidating appearance.
One of them, tall, blonde, scary in the way all of Yakov's men seem to be, approaches us. "Boss. Everyone's accounted for. We're good to move."
"Take them to the safe house. A larger medical team is already on their way. Full checkups, trauma counseling, whatever they need." Yakov's giving orders like he didn't just fight off god knows how many men with guns. "And Luka?"
"Yes, boss?"
"Make sure they know they're safe now. No one touches them without permission. No questions they don't want to answer. They've been through enough."
Luka nods. "On it."
Yakov turns to me. "You and Laurie go with Luka. He'll make sure you're—"
"No." I step closer to him. "You’re coming too."
"Laney—"
"You can’t just ship me off when you’re bleeding. You need to come too." I glance at my sister, who's being helped into one of the SUVs by a gentle-looking guy with kind eyes.
"Go with your sister, I’ll follow in my car."
I look at him, not sure if I can trust him to keep his word after I broke mine. Not knowing why it bother me so much. We only met a couple of hours ago and yet in that time I’ve gone through a range of feelings and now ended on, what?
He found my sister.
Gratitude is what I’m feeling. I’d do well not to mistake it for anything else.
I look around, Laurie has her window down, watching me, and after everything she has been through this week, I need to be with her right now.
"Luka, you stay back and organize the clean-up," Yakove finally says and my shoulders sag with relief. "I’ll follow the SUV’s to the safehouse."
Yakov takes my hand, his is warm, solid, covered in blood that's mostly not his, and leads me to Laurie.
"Get in," he says. "I’ll be right behind you."
"How do I know?" I ask.
"Because I keep my promises, Laney." I take the dig. I deserve it after entering the warehouse and causing more trouble than not.
He closes the door, and for a second we just sit there in the darkness, breathing, coming down from the adrenaline.
"I can’t believe you found me," Laurie says, breaking the silence and taking my hand in hers.
"It was him, I mean I was close, but if it wasn’t for him, I’d have been joining you in that shipping container under the same circumstances as the rest of you."
"He is certainly something," she says as she drops her head onto my shoulder and drifts off to sleep.