27. Kelly
27
KELLY
T he man who snatched me off the sidewalk was the man who followed me that one night. It felt like so long ago when he’d stuck with me as I walked home to my apartment. When he pulled up behind the administrative building I thought I would never have to see again after this week, he dropped me to the pavement.
Pain shot up my arms from where I’d put my hands out to break my fall. Tumbling and rolling, I tucked into a ball the best I could. Then once I stopped, I tried to slide into a jump and spring away.
He was faster, catching me again and hauling me in with an arm around my waist. While he wasn’t as tall or built with muscles as Rurik or any of the Baranov soldiers, he was still taller than me. I’d never cursed my lack of height as much as I did now, overpowered by even this asshole.
“Let me go!”
He raised his arm to strike me, but I deflected his hand at the last second. The slight struggle didn’t get me a chance to escape, though. Kicking and flailing, I resisted his dragging me into the same rear door to the basement access where another jerk had tried to cause trouble with me.
“Shut the fuck up, you Baranov bitch.”
My blood turned cold at his words. So word had spread. Everyone knew I was a married woman now, not a single person, defenseless on her own.
His insult didn’t stop me from trying vainly to get away. I had to. I couldn’t be killed or captured or transported. I’d spent far too much time away from Rurik to miss him ever again. I was just looking forward to starting a family with him, not wanting to waste a single moment.
He moved me into the familiar hallways that led to the dean’s office. Since it was so late, though, probably similar to the time when he’d followed me that night Rurik was supposed to have been here recording a meeting, I wondered if that was what I was being taken to, another meeting with these people the Mafia families were either trying to court or spy on.
He’ll find me. He has to. There is a whole crew nearby. Rurik will find me and he’ll bring friends to help.
I stuck with that mantra of hope and optimism as this thug shoved me into the assistant dean’s office. Jessica Nolan occupied this space, but that bombshell of a redhead wasn’t here. Two other men were.
“Fuck you,” I greeted Jerome Parson.
He wound back his arm to punch me, stepping forward. I flinched as he approached, bracing for the hit as his buddy held me back. At the last second, he feigned and stopped the intention to hit me, laughing maniacally like it was some strange fun to threaten me with violence.
Nothing had changed. It was the same cruel kind of crap he’d pulled years ago. He’d lost weight, and the gaunt appearance made him look haggard, but no less evil. Stringy hair hung over his ugly face, but his smile was so smarmy and sleazy I was sure he thought he could always get his way and be scot-free of punishment.
“And fuck you, little whore,” he replied.
“This is the woman who’s going to bring the Baranovs to heel?” the other man in the room asked. He was suited and had an air of dignified manners, so it was clear he wasn’t in the same socio-economic circles as these two druggie thugs.
“Yes, Benson. I told you.” Jerome rolled his eyes. “She’ll help us.”
“I won’t do anything for you,” I snarled.
“Oh, so you want me to tell the world what you did to Officer O’Malley?” Jerome taunted, pretending to inspect his cuticles.
“Fuck you!” I screamed. Of all the people in the world, it had to be him walking near the spot where Officer O’Malley tried to violate me that one night. Of all the assholes in the universe, he had to be the one to witness me at my worst.
The memory of Rurik and the Baranovs asking me if Jerome could have anything to hold over me came back to me, and I cringed that I hadn’t been truthful then.
“But she married one of the Baranovs,” the lawyer-like man said.
Benson. Eric Benson. He was the one Oleg wanted to follow and get more information out of. I tried to focus on that instead of the threat that Jerome would use my most protected secret against me as leverage.
“That makes her all the more interesting, doesn’t it?” Jerome said. “You wanna know what stakes the Baranovs have in this business, and she will tell you. She’ll tell you whatever you want to know so long as we remind her that we’ll expose her secret.”
“I’m not telling you anything.” A moment of stark irony hit me. This was exactly what I was afraid of, being targeted because of my association with the Baranov name, but this was worse. They could hold my secret over me too. I wasn’t safe no matter who I tried to be with.
“I’m not sure she’d even know anything,” Eric said. “Not if she just married the family.”
Jerome shrugged. “Never know until you try. If you’re uneasy about the Petrovs and Ilyins fighting too much, or whatever drama you’re worried about coming back to bite you in the ass, then what’s there to lose?”
Irina had asked me that question, and it felt like déjà vu to hear it being used again.
I reached into my pocket to record what they were saying, determined not to let these men win. If I could glean any usable intel, I would, and I would be proud to deliver it to the family that had welcomed me into their arms.
“I won’t tell you anything,” I repeated.
“I bet you will.” Jerome smiled. “If I remember correctly, you don’t respond so favorably to when men make advances on you.”
When it was a thirty-year-old-cop trying to rape an eight-year-old, no. No, I did not.
“Kelly here will do whatever it takes to survive. If you want her to turn rat and spill secrets from the Baranovs, she will. She only ran to them like a little desperate whore so she could pretend she’d found a family.” He sneered at me. “But she’ll never be worthy of being in any family. No one’s ever wanted her.”
I rolled my eyes, already aware of how damn wrong he was.
I lost the chance to respond to his harsh words because my family was here. Rurik and Vik burst in through the doors, ready to kill. Another soldier followed them into the office. And in an instant, shots were fired. Eric shot the soldier, alarmingly accurate with his aim. Vik handled the thug who’d snatched me off the sidewalk, and Rurik fought back Jerome.
Eric turned to run out the back door, and I lunged forward to stop him.
All of us fought, each of us locked in a battle of our own, but it was immediately clear that I couldn’t keep Eric from bolting. He hadn’t hesitated to shoot that soldier, but it seemed he didn’t want to risk being caught by the Baranov spies.
“Stop!” I grabbed at him as he squirmed and fought me back, shoving me into the hall with so much force that the air was punched out of my lungs when I slammed into the surface.
In the time that I’d tried to prevent Eric from running, knowing I could count on Rurik and Vik to handle the other two, the thug was dead. Vik had tried to stop him from running, too, but when the idiot got a knife out, Vik eliminated the threat.
Rurik waited to kill Jerome, though. I caught my breath, wheezing from the rushing adrenaline that fueled me, and stepped closer to where my husband held my nemesis’s head between his hands.
“Fuck you, Baranov.” Jerome squeezed his eyes shut tight as Vik punched his gut.
“What do you want with her?”
I strained to swallow, so nervous that Jerome would tell my secret that I was still so ashamed of. “I recorded it all.”
Rurik nodded at me without taking his eyes off Jerome.
“She was an easy target. I knew her. I knew I could use her for whatever I needed.” He strained to speak past the pressure of Rurik’s hands on his head.
“The fuck you will.” With a grotesque snap of bones, he twisted his head and killed him with his bare hands.
I breathed through the shock but didn’t let it rule me. It couldn’t. How could I be stunned by someone being killed when I’d managed that feat myself? When I’d watched others die elsewhere? Hardened by the reality of death and murder, I steadied my breaths and fought not to react. I would only scream so loudly in my head and will myself to lock this moment away, never to revisit it.
“You’re safe, Kelly. You’re safe.” He whooshed out a deep breath as he let Jerome drop to the ground.
Vik was already on his phone, calling for men to help clean this up.
I nodded, staring at my strong Mafia man, knowing my husband would always do as he promised. This brave fighter would never neglect me or leave me. He had shown me over and over how worthy I was. Of his love, of his protection.
Even though I haven’t told him my secret.
Threatened by how close the truth had come to the surface, I went to him and needed the comfort of his arms around me. Without a word, he accepted me and gathered me close. He sighed, embracing me and setting his chin on the top of my head.
As I closed my eyes, I prayed to whatever god that might be listening that I would never lose his love.
I don’t think I can survive without it.