17. Chapter Seventeen #2
With a burst of energy, I run forward. Mikhail slumps to the ground. Liam flinches, surprised at what’s happening. And that’s when I collide right into Liam, knocking him back. In his shock, he drops his gun.
I try to grab it but Liam lunges for it, getting on top of me and hitting me in the back. With a cough, I roll over, trying to get away, but he’s so much stronger than I am.
Mikahil kicks Liam right in the face, sending Liam sprawling to his back. He doesn’t get back up. If it weren’t for his ragged breaths, I would think he was dead.
“Come on,” Mikhail says, grabbing my arm and hauling me away from the warehouse.
We try to run but Mikhail is moving too slowly for it and I’m not strong enough to help him. I can barely keep his weight up.
I glance over my shoulder to see that no one is following us but that could change any moment when Nico and Cillian realize Mikhail isn’t there.
“We don’t have a car,” I gasp. “Or cell phones to call for help.”
Mikhail slows down until he stops walking altogether. “We need to be smart about this. Come on.” He tugs me towards the large shipping containers in the distance. “We can hide here.”
“But what if they find us? We need to leave, Mikhail. We need to get away from this place.”
“I know what I’m doing.” He grabs my face. “Do you trust me?”
I answer without any hesitation. “Of course I do.”
“Then trust me to do this.”
“But you’re hurt. You can barely walk. I’m hurt.” I realize that Liam hit me harder than I first thought. My stomach is pounding with pain with every step I take.
“And I’ll make those fuckers pay for ever hurting you but right now, we need to hide. We can’t outrun them. So come on.” He leads me into the maze of shipping containers. We find one to hunker down behind and wait it out.
For a long moment, nothing happens.
And then I hear footsteps in the distance. I hear shouts of anger. Nico and Cillian don’t have us anymore but that could change at any moment.
The footsteps start to get closer to our hiding spot. Mikhail readies himself. Despite the obvious pain he’s in, he’s still going to fight. He’s doing it for me.
A man walks past the shipping container. One of Nico’s men. He doesn’t even see us until Mikhail smacks him in the head, knocking him to the ground. Mikhail quickly grabs the gun from the man and shoots him in the head. The gunshot echoes across the water. It’s going to draw more attention to us.
But the good news is that Mikhail searches the man’s pockets and finds a cell phone.
“Hurry,” he says, guiding me even deeper into the shipping containers.
We hide behind another one as he makes a call.
After a few tense seconds, someone answers.
“Charlie, I need help. Natalya and I are stuck by the dock. Nico and Cillian are after us. We need a car to get out of here.” He listens for a few more seconds before he hangs up.
“My guy, Charlie, is gonna come and get us. He’s close by so that’s working in our favor. We just have to make it.”
More footsteps start coming in our direction.
The gunshot drew attention, like I knew it would.
I’m not sure we’re going to make it out of here so I grab Mikhail’s face and kiss him with everything I have.
I even ignore the way he winces from his cut cheeks.
I don’t care. I need him to feel the love I have for him.
We part and stare at each other with heavy glances. If we weren’t in this situation, we’d probably be making love already. But we are in this situation and making love is the last thing on my mind. Staying alive is.
Mikhail’s eyes soften as he pushes my hair back. “Natalya.” There’s so much emotion in that one word. Passion and frustration and fear and… love.
“I promised I would keep you safe,” he says. “I’m going to keep that promise.”
“Don’t do anything reckless. Don’t give yourself up to save me. I can’t lose you.”
“If it means saving your life, I will die many times over.”
But Mikhail doesn’t get the chance to sacrifice himself to save me. The sound of police sirens fills the air and are coming closer to us. The footsteps I hear – Nico’s men and Cillian’s men – disperse. They run away, so not to get caught.
I breathe a sigh of relief but Mikhail doesn’t seem happy.
“The police,” he growls. “Even worse.”
“Even worse than Nico and Cillian?”
“If they catch us, yes. We won’t be killed. We’ll be arrested and I wasn’t made to spend the rest of my years in prison.”
“But look at you. You were obviously tortured. You can just tell them they did this to you.”
“I don’t like to bring police into my business, baby. We need to keep moving until Charlie gets here.”
Mikhail tugs on my hand and I follow him. We walk through the shipping containers, staying far away from the police. I can see them off in the distance, near the warehouse. Someone must have called the cops about all the shooting. I don’t see Nico or Cillian anywhere.
We ease around an office building and come to a stop.
“There’s Charlie,” Mikhail says, pointing to a man across a large parking lot, waiting by a car. The problem is: multiple cop cars are in the way. They’ll notice us and ask questions for sure, especially with Mikhail covered in blood the way he is.
“How do we get to him?”
“You can walk through. Just tell the police you were an innocent, walking by when you heard the gunshots and you hid.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll stay hidden. Come back for me when the police are gone.”
“Mikahil, no. You could be caught. You could be hurt.”
When he cups my face, it’s almost painful. “I will not lose you to anyone. Go to Charlie. He’ll take you home. Tell him where I am. He’ll come back for me. Nico and Cillian won’t be coming around for a long time. The police scared them off. I’ll be fine.”
“But you almost died,” I whisper as tears slip down my face.
“But I didn’t. Thanks to you. Now, go.”
I know he’s right and his commanding tone is something that I know I’ll listen to. So with heavy legs, I walk away from Mikhail and head straight for the police.
They notice me like Mikhail said they would.
“Hold on,” a male officer says, stopping me in my tracks.
“Thank god you’re here,” I gasp out. “I heard gunshots. I hid. I was so afraid.”
“What were you doing out here? Alone?”
“I was supposed to meet up with some friends to go to a party but they bailed. So I… called my dad to come pick me up. There he is.” I point towards Charlie. Thank goodness he’s old enough to be my father – or looks it anyway. “I was leaving when I heard the gunshots.”
“I’ll need your statement.”
After talking with the police for a few minutes, they let me go. They must see my young face and summer dress and realize I’m not the kind of person to be causing trouble. When I look over my shoulder, I don’t see Mikahil anywhere. He’s disappeared, like a ghost.
Charlie lets me into his car without a word and drives us back to my house. I tell him where Mikhail is and he promises that he’ll go back for him.
Once I’m in the house, I realize just how alone I am. Mikahil and I went through something insane tonight. We both could have died and yet, we didn’t.
I turn my eyes to the ceiling. “Dad? Did you help me tonight?” I don’t get an answer, not that I expected one, but it’s a comfort thinking of my father protecting me, even from beyond the grave. I just hope he can do the same for my sisters.
I spend hours pacing around the house until the front door opens and Mikhail stumbles inside. “You’re ok. You’re alive.” I pull him into a deep hug and feel him wrap his arms around me. I’ve never felt this safe before.
“But you’re hurt,” I say with a gasp. “Mikhail, you need to go to the hospital.”
“No. They’ll ask too many questions. I have a first aid kit in the bathroom.”
“A first aid kit? Have you seen yourself? You’re still bleeding.”
“I know. It got on the seats of Charlie’s car.
He’s pissed about it and I told him I’d pay him back for the damages done.
” He walks past me into the nearest bathroom where he pulls out a first aid kit from under the sink and slumps onto the toilet lid with a heavy sigh.
His hands are shaking as he opens the box.
I’ve never seen him look so bone tired and worn down before.
“Here. Let me.” I take the box from him and pull out multiple alcohol wipes and start dabbing the cuts on his chest. He winces every time but otherwise, doesn’t say a word. Once I’m done, I place gauze over every one of his cuts until his entire chest is covered in it.
“Thank you,” he murmurs.
“It’s the least I could do. You’re my husband after all. I don’t want you dying on me.”
“Now that I’m feeling better, we should talk about what happened tonight.”
“Ok?”
A flash of anger courses across his eyes. “About how reckless and stupid you were. How you could have died. I should spank you for it. If I wasn’t so tired, I would.”
“ I was stupid and reckless? I saved your life!”
“And I never asked you to. I went there with Cillian knowing I would die. I never asked you to save me.”
“You didn’t go with Cillian. He dragged you away. So I saved you. Don’t get angry with me right now. You’re hurt. I’m hurt. I’m tired. You’re tired. We should just go to bed.”
“I can’t go to bed now. I have to deal with Nico and Cillian. I have to find them and kill them.” He stands up and I promptly nudge him back down.
“Mikhail, you love being in charge and I love that. But right now, I’m going to take the reins.
You’re hurt. You need to rest. Please. Come to bed with me.
Hold me. I thought I was going to lose you tonight and I fought hard to get back to you.
To save you. I’m not letting you go put yourself back in danger right away again. Please.”
He stares into my eyes for a long time, then cups my face. “You mean everything to me.” We share a tender kiss that speaks for so much. Our love. Our fear. Everything we went through together tonight.
Mikhail agrees to come to bed with me and we lay down in each other’s arms. I don’t place my weight on him since he’s still in pain but I do lay beside him, letting him know that I’m right here.
“What exactly did you go through tonight?” he asks.
“I went to my uncle and asked for his help. He locked me up but I managed to escape. Nico found me and wanted to use me to hurt you. He didn’t know Cillian had kidnapped you without his knowledge so I told him and he found out where you were and took me there.
I think he planned on using me to hurt you but he got caught in his fight with Cillian. You know the rest.”
He stares at me in awe. “You went through all of that? Just to get back to me?”
“I did.”
“Why? What have I done to deserve it?”
“You’re my husband,” I answer honestly. “I made a vow when I married you. You were just a stranger to me then but I still made my vows and I meant them and I’m going to stick by them for the rest of my life. I will fight for you, Mikhail.”
“And I will fight for you. I promise you that. I never knew I had a wife this brave.”
“I didn’t know it either.”
He gives me a kiss on the head. Everything, in this moment, is all right.
Even if tomorrow brings more war.