39
I end up behind the wheel, but I don't let her get off my lap.
“This isn’t the way to my house,” she says, looking through the window.
“I’d be crazy to take you there right now. Your place is by my side, where I can keep an eye on you,” I murmur, holding the steering wheel firmly. “We’re going to our other apartment.”
When we arrive at the apartment building, cars similar to ours are already parked in front. We head inside with Denis, Sergei, and three other men following us to cover our backs until we’re in front of the door. Then I motion for them to leave, keeping only Denis and Sergei behind.
Lena watches everything closely. A smile spreads across my lips when I see her eyes moving around the place with satisfaction and awe, focusing on the feminine touch I added to the decor. I tell Denis and Sergei to wait for me in the living room before going with her to the bedroom.
“What are you doing?” She asks as I start to undress her.
“I’m going to check you out.”
“I’m fine. I haven’t been hit.” I ignore her and continue undressing her.
I gently slide her skirt and underwear to the floor. I had never had as much willpower as I have now, focusing only on looking for any wounds or anything unusual on her.
When I’m done with her torso I move on to her legs and arms. I walk around her, now focusing on her back, and quickly look away when I see her voluptuous ass.
“See? I’m fine,” she says, covering her breasts.
It bothers me that she keeps insisting on hiding from me. She walks to the bed and gets under the sheets, something my aching balls are grateful for.
“I’ll be right back,” I murmur beside her, unable to take my eyes off her face.
She nods with a smile that takes my breath away.
I kiss her forehead, breathing in the vanilla scent of her hair.
Soon I get up from the bed, knowing that if I stay a second longer I wouldn’t be able to leave, but I’m weak.
Because when I’m about to leave, I lean in again and kiss her softly.
Hearing her laugh makes my heart come alive again.
“Ya lyublyu tebya, lyubov’,” I whisper in her ear, kissing it afterwards.
She smiles wider, repeating the same words I had taught her nights before. Then she closes her eyes. Her breathing begins to slow down gradually, but when she hears a bang and something breaking downstairs she opens them with a look of alarm on her face.
“What’s that?”
“Don’t worry. It must be Denis and Sergei.” She nods before closing her eyes again. My hands go to her hair, stroking her strands until she falls asleep.
Going downstairs I notice Denis’s black eye, Sergei’s broken nose, and the glass on the floor.
“Next time, do me a favor and kill each other in silence. You scared Lena,” I hiss. Then I sit down on the sofa with an impatient look, waiting for one of them to start talking.
“Those Mexican bastards are still alive. One of them started shooting, but he’s dead now. We have no fucking idea where the other one is.” Sergei holds his nose as he speaks with a pained expression.
I glance at Denis, who shrinks into his sofa, and go over to him, punching him hard in the left cheekbone. Then I grab him by the collar of his shirt.
“Explain to me how the fuck that happened. I clearly told you to get rid of them.” My words are as sharp as the knife I want to stab him in the neck with. When he doesn’t answer, I let go and throw him onto the sofa. He starts coughing, clutching his throat under my gaze before speaking.
“I don’t know. Damn it, I buried the bodies myself, Sergei was with me.” My eyes go to Sergei, demanding an explanation.
“It’s true. I was with him and we didn’t see anyone around,” he says, covering his nose impulsively when I take a step toward him.
“Did they come back to life and climb out of their graves?” I ask with acid irony. Denis shakes his head. “Then what the fuck happened!?” I scream in a voice low enough not to wake her.
“I’m telling you, I don’t know, man.” Denis swallows hard, looking at Sergei for some support, but after what happened today on that beach, all he gets from him is another angry glance.
“I think it’s your father’s doing,” he blurts out of nowhere. “We all know he’s got it in for you because of Ray. It wouldn’t be surprising if he were helping the Mexicans who survived to finish you off.”
“You have eight fucking hours to prove that shit,” I reply before glancing at my watch. Dawn is just around the corner. “Five.”
“Where are we going?” I whispered, looking around. He didn’t answer me, his hand gripping mine so tightly that I thought he was cutting off my circulation.
“We have to get out of here,” he said, stopping at the stairs leading to the main floor.
I gasped as I saw the fire approaching the first steps, police sirens joining the deafening noise and gunshots from below. I squeezed his hand, wanting to turn back. I was scared.
“Blyat.” I looked at him, his eyes had darkened even more with that grim expression.
“W-what’s going on? I’m scared, Alek.” My eyes began to water, and he crouched down to my level.
“Don’t be afraid, lyubov’, everything will be fine.
” He kissed my nose gently while caressing my cheeks, brushing my eyelids.
Some tears fell onto his fingertips. “I need you to go hide, I’ll come back for you later.
” I shook my head, tears streaming down my cheeks.
He held my face and pressed his lips to mine in a short kiss.
“I won’t leave without you. I don’t want you to leave me alone,” I said between low whimpers.
“I promise I’ll come back for you and find you.” Our mouths were still very close. “I need you to get to safety. You’re my life, Lena. If anything happens to you, I’ll die. Do you understand?” I nodded as best I could, running my hands over my face.
He stepped back and handed me a gun that I took hesitantly.
“The safety is off, you just have to pull the trigger like I taught you. Do you remember?”
“Yes,” I replied in a whisper. Then we melted into an embrace that didn’t last long, and when we broke apart this time, I could see the sadness and worry in his eyes that he tried to hide behind a smile.
“I love you with every part of my being, never forget that,” he whispered on my lips before pressing them together again.
I felt his tears fall on mine and I could taste them. A scorching heat made me turn my head. When I looked behind him, I saw the fire getting closer to the upper floor. We were trapped.
“Go.” I didn’t move. “Go.” His now imperious voice forced my feet to move.
Even so, a few steps further on, I turned my head and stifled a cry when I saw him approach the staircase railing and jump to a spot where there wasn’t much fire.
I made a move to approach him, but the fire was already consuming everything in its path and turning back would be suicide.
I kept walking, feeling as if someone had punched me in the gut.
Then I entered a large room that looked like a bedroom.
I looked at the window, then the wardrobe, searching for a place to hide.
I trusted that he would find me. He always would.
As I was about to walk over there, a voice stopped me.
“Come with me, I can help you escape.” I turned around to find James standing there. I immediately lowered my weapon. If it weren’t for his voice, I wouldn’t have recognized him. He looked so different, he hardly seemed like himself.
“Alek told me to hide,” I said, his face contorted with disgust.
“You don’t have to listen to everything he says.” I stepped back when he got closer. “You can’t stay here. Fuck. You can’t!” He put his hands to his head, looking desperate, and I couldn’t tell from my face why.
“Why not? What are you talking about?” His blue eyes fixed on me again.
“Come with me and I promise I’ll tell you everything.” I shook my head.
“No, Viktor. I’m not going anywhere with you. Now go away and leave me alone.”
“You leave me no choice. I wanted to do this the nice way,” he said bitterly to himself.
He had turned his back on me. I turn around to leave, and I didn’t see him come up behind me with a gun, hitting me in the back of the head with it. With the first blow, I collapsed to the ground, my vision swimming, but he didn't stop. He kept hitting me... Then everything went black.
A gentle movement on my shoulder helps me open my eyes. I touch my face, still frightened, feeling an unbearable headache. He wraps his arms around me and strokes my hair. He smells faintly of tobacco.
“It’s okay, it was just a nightmare. It will pass,” he murmurs softly in my ear.
I close my eyes, breathing in his scent. I want to forget everything I dreamed because if that nightmare turns out to be true in some way, I’ll be very lost.
My brother and James have been friends since before we moved here.
I can say that he and I are something like friends too, and now it turns out I don’t even know his real name.
He was reticent at times, even unfriendly, but I never thought that in the past he had tried to kill me. Why would he do that?
My head starts spinning and I dig my nails into my palms when they start to shake.
“Lyubov’? Hey, what’s wrong?” He holds my damp cheeks, forcing me to look into his eyes.
I can’t answer. I feel like I can’t breathe, but there’s nothing blocking my throat. My eyes and lungs burn, and cold sweat drenches my forehead.
“Try to breathe with me.” His eyes remain on me as he does so, paying special attention to my chest. I try to copy him, but the tightness in my chest won’t let me.
“I-I can’t,” I whisper, my words broken.
“You can, sweetheart. Just do what I do.” He does it again, making sure I do it too with his hand still over my chest.
After a couple of attempts in which I almost feel like I’m suffocating to death, I hold my breath and release it more easily. When I start breathing normally again, the pressure in my chest and the headache are still there.
“Everything will be alright,” he whispers in my ear. His arms hold me so close I almost feel like we are one.