Chapter Forty Six Willow
Chapter Forty Six
Willow
He’s here. Dragna is here.
I feel like I’m dreaming. I’m confused, angry, sad, and yet never felt relief like this.
“Help us.” I mouth at him and his demeanour immediately shifts to what I now know is the side of him he kept from me.
“Get your fucking hands off her.” He spits out towards Sean, the guy who’s lap I’m being held in against my will. Dragna leans down and grabs Sean’s arm, twisting it back and allowing me room to stand up and finally get away from him.
Ivan grabs me and pulls me to him while all the men in the booth shove the girls off them and stand quickly as Lev and Anton step closer to the booth.
Lev grabs Alina and pushes her behind him to Ivan and I. I grab her and pull her into a hug as Mia is next to be pushed to us, then Gigi.
The four of us stand huddled together at the back of Dragna, Lev and Anton while Ivan keeps an iron grip on one of my arms and one of Alina’s.
“The fuck do you think you’re doing here lads?” Tommy shouts while pulling Ella back towards him. He holds her in front of him like a shield knowing none of the guys would ever hurt her.
“Let her go Tommy. Anton here has a good aim. You’re fucking dead regardless, so how about you quit hiding behind an innocent girl.” Lev spits back at him.
At the mention of shooting, a few of the Irish men pull their guns out and Ivan begins pulling us all towards the side of the club.
“What are you doing! We can’t leave Ella!” I shout at him and the girls all begin trying to argue with him about staying to get Ella out safely.
“I’m following orders, which are to get you all out safely so just help me out here. Dragna will get her out, don’t worry.” He says before pulling Alina and I with so much strength he leaves no room for any argument.
I look back around Ivan’s arm to see Ella still being held against Tommy and put all my trust in Dragna that he’s able to bring her out after us.
We make it to the door leading to the stairs and Ivan pushes us up telling us to hurry and we all begin running up the stairs, the feeling of finally being out of the clutches of Tommy engulfing me.
The reality that Dragna is here and we’ll all be safe hits me and I grab Mia and Alina’s hands as I pull them up the stairs faster and faster behind Gigi who’s already almost at the top of the second stairwell.
We reach the front door and Ivan rushes in front of us before pulling a gun from his waistband and opening the door as the doorman just looks the other way.
Ivan tells us to wait as he checks the alley and once he’s happy that there’s nobody else outside he whistles and holds the door open for us telling us to run to a van.
Gigi grabs my free hand and the four of us run hand in hand towards an all black van as the side door slides open and I see Mikhail.
A sob rips out of my throat as I realise we’re safe again. We’re okay. Dragna found us and we’re safe, we just need them to hurry behind us with Ella.
We make it to the van and we all pile into it falling on top of each other, all of us crying, hugging and in complete disbelief.
Mikhail hands us blankets and we wrap them around us as we wait for everyone else.
I’m about to ask Mikhail where Ivan is when the van starts up and Mikhail takes off away from the alley.
“What’s going on?” I rush out breathlessly.
“It’s okay Willow. There’s another two vans, they’ll get Dragna and everyone else back to the house.” He says softly when he notices the panic on my face.
“This is the plan and there is no deviating from it. I get whoever made it out to the house as fast as I can and the others will get everyone else back. Ivan is waiting with the second crew for the others to come out.”
I sit back down and pull the blanket tighter around me as every scenario runs through my mind.
Dragna not coming back, Ella being harmed, something happening to Lev. Every single thought of what could go wrong and not one of what could go right and I have a sinking feeling the further we drive away from that place that something is wrong.
We make it back to the house that Mikhail told us Dragna owns here in Boston and it’s like driving into a fortress.
There are men with guns strapped to them walking the grounds outside and as Mikhail pulls up to the front doors. I watch through the windscreen as one of them approaches the van and opens the sliding doors for us.
“Anyone injured?” He asks as he looks us all over. We all shake our heads and he holds his hand out for each of us to take as he helps us out of the van individually.
He leads us to the house and when we step inside it’s like a scene from a movie.
There’s a few men in a living room to our right and they sit around a large table with laptops open in front of them watching as different dots flash around on their screens. One of the men stands and approaches us as he looks at each of us before his eyes land on mine.
“Willow?” He asks, and I glance at the girls anxiously before looking back at him and nodding.
“I’m Nikolai, it’s nice to finally meet you and to see that you are all unharmed.”
He gives me a sympathetic smile before holding his arm out in the direction of another room to the left.
“There’s food, water, tea, anything you’d all like in the kitchen.
It might be a while before Dragna and the others are back, make yourselves as comfortable as you can.
If any of you are injured or feel sick, we have our private doctor and medical team here too.
Just let us know what we can do and it’ll be done. ”
I feel myself start to go dizzy and Gigi grabs ahold of my elbow at the same time as Mikhail grabs my shoulders to steady me.
“I know this is a lot to take in, this side of Dragna, but you are safe now and that’s exactly what he wanted out of tonight.
We’re tracking their movements, you can sit with us and watch if that will ease your worry.
” Nikolai offers and I nod without thinking about any of the words he actually just said.
Tracking, movements, Dragna… This is the real Dragna. These are the things he’s capable of and I had no idea. I don’t even care about any of that right now though, I just need him to come back, to have Ella with him and to walk through the front door unharmed.
“Show me please.” I say to Nikolai and I take a wobbly step in the direction of the room he came from.
His hand replaces Gigi’s on my elbow and he walks me to the table and pulls out the chair he was sitting in for me.
When I sit down all I see are red dots on what looks like a map.
I blink a few times and lean closer to the screen, making out that it is a map and the red dots are obviously Dragna, Lev and everyone else.
“Where are they?” I ask and Nikolai clears his throat before he answers.
“They are still at the club. I imagine since only four of you arrived back, there’s another girl still there and you know Dragna isn’t leaving without her.
” He says and I sigh as I lean back in the chair thinking about what could be happening right now between Dragna and Tommy and hoping Ella hasn’t been hurt.
I feel like I’m in a state of shock, like none of this weekend has actually happened and I know my brain is about to shut down and disassociate to protect me from having a panic attack.
Just as I begin to feel myself slipping, I feel a comforting hand on my shoulder and a huge cup of tea is placed down in front of me. I look up to see Alina and immediately stand to pull her into me.
“We have to be strong. They’ll all come back. They’ll come back Willow.” She whispers into my ear, but she’s breaking just as bad as I am and it sounds like she’s not just trying to convince me, but herself too.
“Yeah.” I sniffle.
“They will.” I whisper back as we hold each other tighter.