32. Rurik
32
RURIK
A t the first report of a gunshot, I stopped beating on the security guard who was in need of a lesson about disrespecting the Baranov spy stationed on campus grounds.
With my fist halfway through the air, I stopped and glanced at the other Baranov soldier in the room with me. “Was that what I thought it was?”
He furrowed his brow and nodded.
“Shit.” I dropped the front of the man’s shirt, letting the idiot fall to the floor. Before he could gather the energy and breath to groan in pain, I jumped over him and ran out the door.
A gunshot wouldn’t be good news. Not if it came from my men or anyone else. I wanted no gunshots at all when Kelly was nearby.
The man with me cursed when we came to the guard I’d left with Kelly. He was alive, struggling to sit up and pressing his hand over a wound on his stomach. “She went that way.” He pointed. “She ran to safety as soon as he showed up.”
I nodded, spotting another Baranov running down the hall to assist us.
“As soon as who showed up?” I asked as I started to jog away with the one man as my backup. The new arrival lowered to his knees to help the wounded man compress the wound on his stomach.
“The mayor. O’Malley. He was walking with Benson,” the shot man said, cringing.
“Fuck. What the fuck?” I looked at the soldier who’d stuck with me. “Why would O’Malley be here?”
Kelly had assumed he was dead all this time, and only now he suddenly shows up and resumes his hunt for her?
“Maybe he was visiting Benson?” the soldier guessed. “All those politicians getting together and whatever.”
I doubted it could be that easy, but I ceased whispering with this man. We tried door after door, searching for Kelly. It was on the tip of my tongue to call out for her, but that would alert O’Malley or Benson to our location if they were looking around here.
It was too damn quiet. She had to be here. She had to be alive and hiding. And if she was, I would find her again.
Please, Kel. Please be safe and wait for me to save you again. Please.
I refused to let my mind go to the darker matter of losing her. Like she’d reminded me when I promised her she would be safer as a Baranov, she was capable of using her survival skills to stay safe until I could rescue her.
Please be doing that now. Hide and wait and be alive and well.
Doors merged and blurred into the same thing as we tried them all. More men showed up, helping me remember that we weren’t searching for her on our own. With this many Baranovs here, all alerted to be present and assist, we had to find her!
Halfway down the hall, I opened the next door. A tablet was lit up, face down on the carpet, and I narrowed my eyes at the difference. All the other rooms had been empty, sans people and with the computers asleep.
“Rurik!”
Kelly stepped up from under the desk, and I groaned in relief.
“Kelly. Oh, thank?—”
She jumped up into my arms, crushing her lips against mine in a hard kiss. I was happy to see her too, but she was really excited and focused on my mouth. When I pulled back to look her over, she shook her head and protested for me to kiss her again.
“Kel—”
She frowned as she reared back. “He came back. He was here. O’Malley. He said he saw my picture shared in the police department coverage and he wanted to come here and visit Eric Benson then ask around to find me. He still thinks he has unfinished business with me, and he won’t quit.”
“Shh. Okay.” I brushed her hair back from her face. “Slow down.”
“I can’t.” She exited the office with me, and I lifted my hand to show the men that she was fine and accounted for.
“He chased after me, telling me how he’d found me after all these years. It’s all because Jerome spread the word that I knew something about Marcus James’s death, which I don’t. But now I do!” She held up her phone.
“Easy, Kelly. Take it easy and breathe.”
“I can’t do that. That office I hid in had a tablet showing footage of the office Marcus was killed, the night he was killed! I took a video of it to show you back at the house.” She grinned. “I don’t know who killed him, but I can see the person. Now I have intel. So if you guys can figure out what to do with it, no one will be looking for me for questioning.”
“We will definitely look into it,” I promised, leading her outside with me. I couldn’t let go of her hand, addicted to keeping her close after yet again, another scare. And yet again, she handled it like a brave Mafia wife would. “But first, we need to get you to safety and make sure that fucking O’Malley isn’t near?—”
A Baranov soldier jogged up to me, shaking his head. “He’s gone. We’ve checked the area several times and he’s not here. Someone suspects he drove off in a rental, and we have a man following the vehicle.”
“Good.” It wasn’t good that he’d gotten away. “Never mind. It’d only be good if the asshole were dead.”
She frowned and nodded as we hurried toward my car.
“But I am pleased that he is nowhere near my wife at this moment.” I kissed the top of her head as we went. “Good job hiding, Kel. I love that I can trust you to be smart like that.”
She smiled, leaning against me. “And I love that I can trust you to be quick to come to my rescue.”
“You can always count on me for that. Like right now. I’m getting you home.”
“We can’t stop at the store on the way?”
I shook my head. “Not now. Not when we know O’Malley is in the area and fixated on getting to you.”
“But he’ll be taken care of, right? Soon?” She looked up at me with desperate hope in her eyes.
“Yes. Soon. Lev thinks he’s got a way to contact the hitman who’d be perfect for this job.”
“Good. Because I want nothing to stop me from living my future at its fullest. With you. And… a family someday.”
I wanted that too, so damn badly that I almost wished I could talk Oleg into letting me chase down and kill the man who’d almost taken advantage of Kelly when she was younger. I understood his caution about killing a potential governor, though, and I wouldn’t disobey him now.
All I could do was get my wife home and keep her safe until the threat was removed.
And I would do just that with pleasure, passing the time with more practice to start this family we so badly wanted. A family we both deserved and would cherish with each other, no matter the risks and dangers that would always surround us.