15. Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Fifteen
Sasha
T he first thing I do when I wake up is smell smoke. Frowning, I sit up in bed. Not understanding where it’s coming from. Nico is asleep beside me. I can’t help but think of our time together yesterday. How I finally let him claim me. He said there was no going back and he’s right.
I can’t imagine Nico dead any longer. I still want to save my family but maybe, in time, I can convince Nico to help them.
He’ll probably never like Natalya just because she’s married to Mikhail but he didn’t kill her when he had the chance.
That’s a good sign. As long as they stay away from each other, my sister will be safe.
As for Irina and Ana, Nico could easily go inside Denis’s house and get them back. But that would require backstabbing my uncle and breaking his alliance which I’m not sure Nico will do. He tends to only hurt people when they try to hurt him and so far, Denis hasn’t done anything to hurt Nico.
It’s all a conundrum.
As I sit in bed, I realize that the burning smell is getting stronger. I slip on a silk nightgown and head downstairs. Is the smell coming from outside or in?
I check the kitchen first and don’t see anything. There’s no fire burning. So where is the smell coming from?
It’s then that I hear gunshots outside. They almost sound like firecrackers but I know it’s gunshots. As someone who was trained to use a gun – my mom taught me – I know the sound.
Rushing to the front window, I peel back the curtain to see what’s happening. Nico’s guards out front are getting gunned down. And the front of the house is on fire.
I can just barely see it from the window. It hasn’t spread inside yet but it will soon.
With a gasp, I step away from the window. Who is out there killing Nico’s men? Is it someone come to hurt me? Has Giovanni found me?
The memory of him trying to rape me still haunts my mind, even days later. He tried to make me feel unsafe in my own body. I’m glad I was able to give Nico my body but that doesn’t mean I feel fully safe with anyone else.
Which says a lot: that I feel safe with Nico.
What is this world turning to? How did I end up feeling safe with Nico Bernardi?
Another gunshot shakes me out of my trance and I rush upstairs and into the bedroom where I nudge Nico awake. He jerks up, grabbing the gun off his nightstand. Mafia men always like to be prepared.
“What is it?” he asks.
“Someone is outside shooting your guards. And the house is on fire.”
He sniffs the air and his eyes widen. “Shit.” He grabs his pants off the floor and quickly puts them on before running downstairs. I stay close behind. There’s only one thing I’m certain of and it’s that Nico will keep me safe.
By the time we reach the bottom step, the whole front of the house is on fire. It’s finally come through the wall.
Nico pulls me back. “We have to leave out the backdoor.”
“But what if the shooter is out there?”
“Then I’ll kill him.” He states it so simply that I have no choice but to believe him.
He grabs my hand and hauls me towards the back of the house. But we come to a stop when we see that the back wall is also covered in flames. Whoever is out there is trying to trap us inside.
“We go out a window,” he says, leading me to a window off the living room that isn’t covered in flame. He raises his gun and shoots the window out. The glass shatters. He clears the glass away with his own hands, not even caring when he starts bleeding. This is all to save me.
“Here.” Nico lifts me up and places me outside. I look around the backyard to see what’s happening but all I find are dead guards. I don’t see the shooter.
Nico joins me, taking my hand again. “This way.” He pulls me along towards the back gate.
But before we can reach it, we hear something.
“Stop,” a man growls.
Slowly, Nico turns around, placing himself in front of me. Even now, he’s still protecting me.
I almost lose my breath when I see that the shooter is… Mikhail. He has a large machine gun in his hand – easy enough to take down multiple guards.
Super easy to kill Nico with.
But what about me?
“Mikhail,” Nico sneers.
“You tried to kill my wife, you motherfucker.”
“I didn’t try to kill her. I didn’t kill her. You’re making a big deal out of nothing.”
“Nothing?! My wife could be gone from this world if you had pulled that trigger. The fact that you thought you could go after her in the first place…”
“She was trying to take my wife from me. I had to stop her. But I didn’t kill her. It was just a little warning: stop trying to take Sasha away. Simple as that. No one needed to get hurt.”
“Sasha is hurt,” Mikhail says. “Being married to a man like you will ruin her. Natalya told me everything. How you made Sasha kill a man with her own hands. I’m sure you beat her. A man like you – a Mafia man – definitely beats his wife.”
Nico curls his hands into fists. “I do not beat my wife. I have never beat her.”
“He’s right,” I blurt out. “Nico has never beat me. He’s…” Spanked me. But I’m not going to tell Mikhail that. It will only make things worse.
Mikhail’s eyes flick to me in surprise. “He made you kill a man and you’re… defending him?”
“I want my family to be safe,” I say. “That is true. I want Natalya to be safe. But… Nico, to his credit, has never beaten me.”
“See? Sasha is safe with me. Now leave Mikhail. Before you make things worse.”
He raises his gun higher. “You still threatened my wife and that cannot stand. I’ve come here to kill you and to save Sasha.”
“If you shoot that gun, there’s a good chance you end up shooting Sasha too. Can you live with yourself if you killed your wife’s sister? The sister Natalya cares about so much?”
“Shut up,” Mikahil growls. But he’s hesitating. He doesn’t want to accidently kill me.
Which means I have the chance to make sure both of these men make it out alive. Mikhail for Natalya’s sake.
And Nico… for my sake.
I run forward, planting myself in front of Nico.
“What are you doing?” Nico hisses.
“Saving your life,” I snap back. “Mikhail, take me to my sister. Save me. But… don’t kill Nico.”
Mikhail’s eyes widened. “You don’t want me to kill him? Why the fuck not? I thought you didn’t want to be married to him. That you hated him.”
“I… don’t hate him as much as I thought I did. Just take me to Natalya. But spare Nico’s life.”
“No. He’ll just come back after me and try to kill Natalya again. I’m sorry, Sasha, but I can’t stand for that. I don’t care if you have feelings for him. He’s dead.”
“Run,” I say to Nico, while still keeping myself planted in front of him.
Nico scoffs. “I am not running.”
“You will die if you don’t. Go out the back gate. Just run. Mikhail will not shoot if I’m in the way. Right?”
Once again, Mikhail hesitates, telling me that he wants to shoot Nico but he doesn’t want to kill me. It would ruin his relationship with Natalya if he did.
“Get out of the way,” Mikhail says to me.
“No. Nico, stop being stubborn. And prideful. Just go. I am keeping you alive.”
“But if I run, Mikhail will take you away.”
“And I’ll be safe. I’ll be with my sister.”
Nico’s face darkens. “That’s what I’m worried about. You still can’t let that part of your life go, can you?”
“She’s my sister. So no, I can’t. I will always want to save my sisters. But I’m choosing to save you too. So run. But if you come back for me, you better not kill Natalya. I will never forgive you for it.”
Nico looks between me and Mikhail, clearing wanting to fight him but also knowing that he can’t. Knowing that Mikhail will gun him down the second he gets.
I’m choosing both sides. Return to my sister – which is something I still ache for – and also save Nico – which is someone I can’t see die, despite everything we’ve been through.
“I will come back for you,” Nico says. It’s either a promise or a threat.
I remain in Mikhail’s line of sight as Nico leaves out the back gate. When Mikhail tries running after him, I run into him, barreling him back.
“Don’t,” I say. “Just take me back to Natalya. Do one thing right.”
“He needs to die for threatening her life.”
I stare at Mikhail for a long moment. “Did you come here to save me or to kill Nico?”
“Both.” But he answers too quickly for me to believe him.
“Mikhail.”
His eyes flick to mine and then he sighs, shaking his head. “Let’s just go. If I didn’t succeed in killing Nico, then I’m not going to fail with you. I’m going to save you.”
“You started that fire.” The house is becoming a raging inferno. Smoke is in the air. It won’t be long until the fire department shows up. “Knowing I was inside.”
“I had to do whatever I could to get Nico out of that fucking house.”
“Even though you knew I was inside,” I say slowly, realization dawning on me. “Were you ok with killing me if it meant getting to Nico?”
“Clearly not or I would have killed you right now. But I didn’t. I do want to save you for Natalya’s sake.”
“For Natalya,” I scoff. “Not for me. Because you don’t care for me. You have no love for me. We barely know each other.”
“Does that matter? What matters is that I’m trying to bring you back to her. She misses you. She wants you safe.”
“And I’ll be safe with you? The man who lit my house on fire to get to my husband? I could have died inside. What then?”
“Then I would have blamed it on Nico. But you’re alive.
So stop whining. I’m taking you to your sister.
She’s the reason I’m doing this. She’s everything to me.
And I didn’t kill Nico when I could have to save you.
I’m not the bad guy here. Nico tried to kill Natalya.
He tried to kill her right in front of you.
How am I the bad guy for defending my wife? For trying to get you out?”
Mikhail has a point. If someone tried to kill me, Nico would have gone after them. Mikhail is just trying to be a good husband to Natalya. Just like Nico is trying to be with me.