Chapter 35
?
Luna
My mind feels like it’s stumbling through a swamp. I hear sounds that seem very far away and my forehead is throbbing. What the hell happened to me?
My eyelids fight against me, each attempt to open them intensifying the hammering in my temples. I try to figure out where I am and focus on the senses that are available. The voices start becoming clearer, and the smell...is that leather?
"I don't care what you do with her. As far as I'm concerned, you can make her a star in one of your brothels."
That voice is familiar. Where do I know that voice from? Come on, Luna. Focus.
"Don't you dare put your hands on me!" I hear another voice and immediately force my eyes open.
Roxy .
The light is relatively dim here, but it feels like an explosion in front of my eyes. In that moment, everything that happened comes rushing back.
Roxy. Aidan. The explosion. Roman.
My thoughts center on Roman. Roman who was in that house that exploded.
"Luna, we can leave now," Aidan tells me as he comes toward me.
His gaze settles on the head wound that he caused.
"Sweetie, why are you bleeding?"
I frown at him. Has he really gone insane? The idiot hit me in the head with something and he's surprised I'm bleeding.
"Roxy..."
My voice is barely a rasp because my tongue feels like I've swallowed a handful of sand.
"The boys will take care of her," Aidan tells me, and when I manage to look beyond him, I see a group of three men hovering around a chair.
"If you put your hands on me, I swear I'll break your neck!" Roxy screams like a banshee.
Without thinking, I start yelling for her, struggling against the ties binding my hands behind my back. Two seconds later, I feel the first slap land on my cheek. It's strong enough to turn my head to the side.
"After everything I've done so we could be together, you're looking at that little whore friend of yours?!" Aidan is the one shouting now. "You know something, Luna? I agreed to let you play with that Russian scum while I was away and I even forgive you for that. Especially since he's in pieces somewhere in a yard, but you need to understand that only I matter to you," he says, and his words are so certain that for a second I'm shocked when I hear them.
His mention of Roman and the explosion brings a wave of tears, but I swallow them down. I need to help Roxy.
"Help Roxy, please. I'm begging you," I plead with him and hate myself in this moment for how vulnerable I am.
The second slap lands on the same side of my face, and this time a scream escapes me.
"ME! I SHOULD BE THE ONE WHO OCCUPIES YOUR THOUGHTS! NOT HER!"
Oooh, you are occupying my thoughts. Thoughts of you bleeding on a dirty floor. Thoughts of someone breaking your neck in front of me. Plenty of thoughts.
Aidan keeps turning and walking in circles, running his hand through his hair. Behind him, the men start laughing and I hear one of them say, "Let's see if that mouth is good for something other than insults, boys."
"Give it to her, Devin!" sneers another man.
Every fiber in my body goes on alert, and although my hands are tied, I realize I still have the gun Roman gave me at my back.
They didn't frisk me . Their mistake.
I start rotating my hands, and the damn rope cuts into every layer of skin as I struggle.
"ROXY!" I yell at her because I want her to know I'm here. She's not alone.
Then Aidan comes toward me and lifts me up.
"Maybe if you see what happens to disobedient women, you'll be nicer to me, sweetie."
His arms lock around my waist, lifting me off the chair—the perfect opportunity to work my wrists against the restraints, feeling them give just slightly. My gaze drifts across the room where Roxy kneels on the cold concrete, her head bowed before a stocky man with salt-and-pepper hair. His hushed tones carry through the room, the lilting cadence of his words unmistakable even if the meaning escapes me. But I would bet all my money that’s Irish.
Roxy's eyes meet mine as the man unzips, exposing himself. I give her a subtle nod - our silent code. My pulse pounds in my ears, sweat breaking across my skin as adrenaline kicks in. We need chaos. Just enough time to reach the gun.
Roxy leans forward, the man's head tilting back in anticipation. Then comes the scream - raw, primal - as Roxy's teeth sink deep into his erection, crimson droplets of blood spattering the concrete between them.
In that second, when everyone is in shock and the man's scream echoes through the factory, my gun is already in hand. And before Aidan realizes what happened, I've pulled the trigger.
Immediately an explosion sounds from behind me, but I'm too focused on Roxy, who takes advantage of the chaos and pushes into one of the men, making him lose his balance.
I'm instantly beside her, shooting the man on the ground.
"You fucking whore—" says the third man, but a bullet disfigures his face. Literally.
I turn and my eyes meet gray ones. My gray ones . Roman crosses the distance between us in seconds and takes me in his arms.
He's here. He's here and seems to be okay. God, thank you.
I'm still holding Roxy's hand, and when I turn, I see Damien approaching her as if she's a small animal caught in a trap.
Roxy has blood on her mouth, disheveled hair, and her dress is torn in several places, but when I look at the Polish mafia boss, I could swear the man is smitten. When his hand lands on my friend's shoulder, she gives him the "I'll kill you and your family won't be able to identify your body" look, and Damien laughs.
"I love you," he whispers, looking at Roxy as if she hung the moon.
Normally I'd be worried about his reaction, but Roxy is quicker than me.
"Get in line, buddy," she tells him and pats his shoulder while letting go of my hand.
I break from Roman's embrace and follow my best friend, who has moved to sit in a chair with her head in her hands.
"Roxy? I'm so sorry…," I start and can't stop my tears from escaping. I'm a terrible friend. It's my fault she went through all this trauma, and she probably hates me.
Roxy raises her gaze, and when she sees me, she looks at me so angrily that I want to fall at her feet and beg for forgiveness.
"No! Don't you dare blame yourself for everything that happened!" she tells me as she hugs me. "You're family, Luna. You're like a sister to me, and if I have to get kidnapped occasionally to have you in my life, I'll do it," she says, and we both laugh because only Roxy could make a joke after destroying a man's penis, being kidnapped by another, and almost being proposed to by a third.
In the background, there are still some gunshots, but somehow I know we're fine. When I turn with Roxy, I see Aidan trying to get up. Apparently my bullet didn't do enough damage.
Roman moves toward him and presses on the wound with his boot. Aidan's scream is...soothing.
I suppose there are moments when you know you're about to change. An event that you feel will shape you as a person. This is that moment because, as I approach Aidan, I take Roman's hand and make a confession.
"I want to be there."
I know he understands what I'm saying. I want to be there when Aidan takes his last breath because it’ll be by my hand.
?
After things calmed down, Damien offered to drive Roxy home, but we had to remind him that he's suspiciously limping on one leg and that my friend has had enough craziness for today. Surprised to see Maksim there, I asked if he could take Roxy home. Roman and Damien coordinated with Niko and Anton to clean up the leather tannery where we’d been taken. Devin is apparently still alive and will be kept alive by Damien. Something about, and I quote, "a long-awaited skinning," and I clearly don't want to know more.
Aidan was taken to the warehouse Roman uses for interrogations. There won't be any interrogation, just a cleansing of the soul.
Before Roxy gets in the car with Maksim, I hug her.
"Call me when you get home. Or when you need to talk to someone, or if you feel sick or scared or I don’t know…just call me," I whisper.
Roxy is always strong, but even by her standards, this day was too much.
"I promise," she whispers back, and I watch their car drive away.
"How are you holding up, love?"
Roman's voice makes me turn my gaze to him. I hadn't noticed I'd remained frozen, staring at the road down which Roxy and Maksim left.
"I don't know. I don't understand how she doesn't hate me. Anyone who went through what I put her through today would detest me, Roman." I feel every word I speak. "I don't deserve a friend like her."
I look him over, and although he assured me the explosion didn't cause more than a few scratches, I can see today has been long for him too. Between everything that happened with Lev, who's still being held at that barn, Roxy being kidnapped, and an explosion and gunfight, this day has been a nightmare.
"Tell me you don't have to go back to Lev," I plead because, honestly, I think he's going to collapse.
It's not normal for one person to carry so much on their shoulders.
"Not tonight. Anton and Denis have some frustrations to take out on him," he says and grins.
Denis, although not in the best shape after the beatings from Roman and Niko, insisted on taking his revenge for Lev's betrayal. It still seems unbelievable to me how much they trust each other and how he let himself be beaten just to avoid raising Lev's suspicions, who was probably monitoring the warehouse cameras. If Roman had reservations about his cousin before, I feel things have changed radically in the last few days.
"What's the plan then?" I ask.
"Damien needs a doctor and some sleep. I'll call Kai to check us out, and tomorrow, after we've rested, we have some debts to settle. What do you say, love?"
He takes me in his arms. His clothes are dirty with soil and he has some scratches on his hands and face, but when his body's warmth envelops mine, I'm home. I could stay like this and need nothing else. For me, love is his safety and protection. The security of not walking alone in the dark. His promise that he'll always take care of my heart.
"Sounds good, my love," I answer and kiss his neck softly, right where he has a scratch that's bleeding a little.
Because every drop of blood on him was shed for me. And I have forever to kiss every mark left on his body, just as he will always kiss my scars.
Mine .