Chapter 28
Cara
I can’t stop staring up at Dmitri as he holds me in his arms, like if I blink, he’ll vanish.
I dreamed about this moment and hoped with every fiber in my being for it to happen. There were moments when I thought it never would, and there’s a part of me that’s pretty sure I’m hallucinating, dreaming, or dead.
“Dmitri,” I say again once we reach the top of the stairs. I can’t help but gently brush my fingertips against his cheek, flecks of dried blood covering his face and arms.
He’s warm. His stubble tickles my fingers.
He’s real.
“I’ve got you,” he tells me as he lingers in the doorway, his eyes darting back and forth as chaos unfolds in the house.
My throat tightens as a sob of relief threatens to rise up it. I manage to fight it back for now, but my eyes still water. He’s actually here.
He saved me. I’m not going to die. We aren’t going to die.
I glance down toward my stomach for a second, but I don’t get the chance to let my gaze linger when I hear a familiar voice.
“They’re fleeing!”
My eyes widen in surprise as I see my dad hurrying toward Dmitri, blood trailing down from a cut on his forehead. “Sean?”
The moment he lays eyes on me, he grins. Grins. “There you are.”
Confusion rings through me as I look between Dmitri and my father, trying to understand what in the world is going on right now. They’re enemies!
“We’ll explain everything later,” Dmitri assures me before looking back up at Sean. “How many got away?”
“All the rest of them,” Sean replies. “I couldn’t make out an actual number.”
“Cowards,” Dmitri mutters. “Should’ve known Ferro’s crew would run.”
Shock and realization hit me like bolts of lightning. “Ferro? The Italians? They’re the ones who did this to me?”
Dmitri nods and turns his body so that I can see a dead man lying on the ground nearby. “That’s Enrico Ferro, the one who was orchestrating all of this.”
My eyes roam over the man’s face as I try to ignore how gruesome the whole scene looks. My eyebrows then lift in realization. “I remember him. I pulled his file for you.”
“And I tortured him,” Dmitri replies.
“Are you sure it was just the Italians?” I ask Dmitri, trying to remember all the different voices that I heard.
“Why would you say that?” Dmitri asks me as he frowns in confusion.
“A lot of people questioned me about different people. I doubt it was just the Italians,” I tell him. “They asked me about you, my dad, Luca, and Andrei. But I swear I didn’t say anything.”
Dmitri’s eyes roam over my face. He holds me tighter and takes a deep breath. It almost sounds shaky. “You’re safe, Cara. Enrico’s dead. And everyone who touched you or hurt you will follow.”
“We should leave before they call for reinforcements,” Sean tells Dmitri. He glances over at me, his mouth tilting downward. “You look like you’ve been through hell…but you’re still breathing.”
His words catch me off guard so much that I don’t even know what to say in return. Why is he talking to me like this? He actually sounds…nice.
“Let’s go,” Dmitri says before carrying me toward the front door. “We need to get Cara to a doctor.”
I take advantage of that moment to glance around, drinking in my surroundings and getting a look at the house that I was held captive in for weeks. It’s just an old farmhouse. Nothing special.
It’s the perfect cover.
“How did you find me?” I ask Dmitri as he walks out onto the front porch. I immediately take a deep breath, letting the fresh air finally fill my lungs. Even the sensation of the air on my skin feels incredible.
“That’s a long story,” Dmitri tells me.
I frown as silence follows his words. “Are you okay? Are you injured?”
“I’m fine,” Dmitri assures me, not slowing his pace as he carries me across the field toward one of the black vans parked on the dirt driveway. He approaches the side where the sliding door is open, fluorescent light flooding the inside where there are weapons and gear stored.
I resist the urge to protest when he sets me down to sit on the edge of the opening. “Are you…mad at me?”
“Mad at you?” Dmitri frowns before gently cupping my face in his hands, a mixture of emotions filling his eyes. I know him well enough to see that there’s anger in them. “I’m not mad at you. I’m mad at myself. I can’t believe they did this to you. They hurt you.”
My eyes sting a little as I gaze back at him. I want to hide my damaged face.
“They wanted information. I wouldn’t give it to them. I didn’t want anyone to get hurt because of me,” I tell him, my voice barely above a whisper.
Dmitri shakes his head. “You shouldn’t have had to endure any of it. I hate that you paid the price for my world.”
I swallow hard and narrow my eyes as tears well up in them. “I wasn’t going to let them use me like that. I refused.”
Dmitri presses his forehead against mine.
Between the two of us and our injuries, old and new, the smell of blood is borderline overwhelming, but I don’t want him to go anywhere.
“I’m so happy that you’re okay, Cara, but the rage that I feel toward the people that did this to you… it makes me want to explode.”
Anyone else would feel nervous being around him right now when he feels this way, but I feel safer than I have in weeks. He rushed into danger for me. He killed for me. I think he would do just about anything for me.
I place my hands over his, drawing his eyes back to mine. “I’m angry too.”
Dmitri breathes in through his nose and nods. “We’ll do something with that. We’ll make sure these fuckers pay one way or another. I swear to you that I will track down every single one of them for you.”
His determined words make my heart race. He does care about me. He must after all that he just went through to save me.
But what about his last words to me before I left the city?
“What’s wrong, milaya?” Dmitri asks me.
I didn’t even realize that my face had fallen. “I was just thinking about what you said to me before I left town.”
Dmitri frowns in realization. He immediately starts shaking his head before crouching in front of me, his hands resting on my thighs as he gazes up at me.
“I didn’t mean a word that I said. I thought pushing you away would keep you safe from my enemies.
I didn’t realize that I was putting you in danger until it was too late. ”
Warmth flickers in my chest as I place my hands on top of his. “Did you read my letter?”
Dmitri smiles, and it’s the best sight that I’ve seen in weeks. “I did. You cleared up a lot of things for me. Made me think about a lot.”
I gently bite into my bottom lip as I peer at him, wondering what all he considered. What he feels right now. “And?”
Dmitri leans up and presses his lips against mine, not minding the dried blood in the corners of my mouth. He draws back just a little so that our eyes can meet once more. “I love you, Cara. And I’m done pretending I don’t.”
My heart nearly beats its way out of my chest. For the first time in weeks, life feels good. Happy and hopeful and really, really good. The man I love saved me, and he loves me too.
This is the fantasy that I’ve been dreaming about for weeks now. I didn’t think that I would actually get to live it.
“You’re crying,” Dmitri murmurs, his smile faltering as he carefully wipes my tears away.
“It was awful, Dmitri,” I whisper to him as more tears tumble down my cheeks and drip off my jaw.
A pained shudder rushes through my body, and the extent of my injuries starts to really weigh on me now that the adrenaline slowly leaves my system.
“I thought I was going to die. I thought I would never see you again.”
Dmitri wraps his arms around me and pulls me against him in a firm but gentle embrace. He cups the back of my head, not minding how dirty and tangled my hair is. “I was so worried about you. I worked every single day to find you. I’m so sorry it took me so long.”
I wind my arms around him and squeeze as much as I can without hurting myself too much. It just feels good to be back in his arms again. “Thank you for not giving up on me.”
“Never,” Dmitri promises me.
We hold each other like that for a few seconds until we’re interrupted.
“Sorry to break up your reunion, lovebirds, but we need to haul ass out of here.”
I look over Dmitri’s shoulder, my jaw nearly dropping at the sight of the man standing behind him. “Luca?”
“We need to go. We’re all loaded up,” another voice says before Andrei steps out of the shadows to stand next to Luca.
I blink in shock, not expecting to see either of them. Or my father. “Did you decide to team up with everyone?”
Dmitri lets out a dry laugh as he stands up. “Trust me, I still have plenty of enemies. This is the dream team that I managed to scrape together.”
“Good to see you again, Cara,” Andrei tells me with a sympathetic look on his face. His shirt is dark with blood at his side.
Luca flashes a sly smile before shooting me a wink. “Sorry about my family, bella. Now you know part of why I don’t want anything to do with them.”
That clicks in my brain. Luca did mention being kicked out of his family. But why did they capture me?
“I need a full explanation,” I tell Dmitri, unable to complete the puzzle in my head. There are way too many missing pieces.
“We’ve got a long drive back to the city,” Dmitri replies. “I’ll sit in the back and tell you everything.”
“Shotgun,” Luca quips before throwing open the passenger’s door and hopping into the van.
“I’ll catch up with you tomorrow, Dmitri. I need some stitches,” Andrei says as he holds his left side. He throws up his other hand in a slight wave before walking away.
“I think a good bit of us need medical attention. Especially you,” Dmitri tells me as he takes a closer look at some of my injuries.
I glance around as the other vans and SUVs start taking off, not wanting to see his reaction to all the wounds. We shouldn’t linger here any longer. The last thing that I want is for something bad to happen after I just got rescued. “We can deal with that later. Let’s get out of here.”
An SUV slows down next to us, the passenger’s window rolling down. Sean peers at us through it. “I’m sure Cara needs her rest. Let’s meet tomorrow after she’s recovered.”
Dmitri nods in agreement. “I was thinking the same thing. I think everyone needs some rest. Did you lose anyone?”
“One,” he replies with a grim look on his face. “A worthy cause, though.”
My eyes meet his, and I feel more conflicted than I have in a long time. When I was a teenager, those first few years after we met, he did show me some kindness. But once I grew up and was old enough to understand his world, he started growing colder toward me. Harsher.
Where is this sudden concern coming from?
Is it guilt? Did it take me getting kidnapped and almost killed for him to feel a hint of paternal responsibility or affection for me? If that’s the case, I don’t know if I want it.
I don’t know if it’s even real.
“I’ll give you a call tomorrow. We’ll go from there,” Dmitri tells him.
My father nods before looking at me again. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I watch the SUV drive away, leaving us behind as the last vehicle on the property. Now that everyone else is gone, the farmhouse looks even eerier with the moonlight cast on it. For weeks, I was tortured there. Starved. Beaten.
I almost want to burn the place to the ground.
“Are you okay? I’ll explain everything about your father on the drive home,” Dmitri asks me as he helps me to the bench in the back of the van where I can sit with him.
I have so many questions and so many things to tell him that I don’t even know where to start, but I can answer that one question.
“I’m okay now,” I say, letting him buckle me in before he sits down next to me.
One of his men gets into the back with us and slams the van door shut. “Good to go!”
Relief washes over me as I feel the van back up before driving forward, leaving the farmhouse behind us.
As Dmitri starts from the beginning, I lean my head against his shoulder, letting his voice fill my ears and feeling so grateful that it’s not just my imagination. So much hasn’t hit me yet, but when all of reality finally falls down on me, I’ll need him beside me.
I know this isn’t over.
I think it’s only the beginning of something bloodier.