With my plan gone to shit, my mood soon follows it, but I refuse to walk into my death without a fight. I’ll give as good as I’m getting. The odds aren’t in my favor. My captive has a gun, and I’ve got nothing but determination, but I’ve fought with less for longer. My entire life has been a battle I was never meant to win, yet here I am, pregnant to the man I love and willing to do anything to ensure he sees his child’s every milestone.
First smile.
First word.
First step.
I want Dimitri and his daughter to witness it all.
With that in mind, I batten down the hatches and settle in. The storm we created is coming. I can smell the rain on the horizon, feel the coolness of its imminent arrival in the air. It will be a beauty. I’ve just got to survive its wrath. If I do that, I’ll have more than a rainbow to look forward to. I’ll have the entire world at my feet.
7
Dimitri
“Idon’t work for the Feds. Iusethem when it works in my favor.”
Acting as if my tone doesn’t hold half the fury it does, Ellie moves to my side of the warehouse. My entire crew is here, including Smith, so I not only have to be conscious of what I say, I can’t slit Ellie’s throat to stop her speaking the insolent words she’s been spurting the past forty minutes.
“We’re chasing the same men, Dimitri. That puts us on the same team.”
I laugh in her face. Both its pitch and length reveals how agitated I am. Out of all the days the Feds could reach out for my help, they chose today. I’m running out of time. Roxanne has been gone for hours. I don’t even know if she’s alive anymore, but I should stop my search because a ‘friend’ of Ellie’s needs my contacts.
“I. Don’t. Work. For. The. Feds.” I speak extra slow, ensuring there’s no way she can miss the fury in my tone this time around. “And if I need to tell you again, not even Smith will be able to save you. Do you understand me?”
Like a woman without a wish to live, she undoes the cuffs on her belt, unlocks them with a flick of her wrist, then brings them to within an inch of my hand. “Don’t make me do this, Dimitri. I don’t want to force your help, but if you leave me no choice, I will. This is a matter of national security. It ranks higher than your wish for revenge.”
Wish for revenge?That snaps my last nerve.
After signaling for Clover to put Smith in lockdown, I grip Ellie’s throat with everything I have. She struggles in an instant, her hands scratching at mine as her eyes bulge. A wish to live is seen all over her face when my brutal hold lifts her feet from the ground. It’s almost as bright as the gleam on Smith’s face as he fights against both Rocco and Clover to get to me.
He wants to kill me. I don’t blame him. I’d do the same in his situation. Alas, I’m fighting for more than my girl right now. My entire existence is on the line.
“You enter my turf, wastemytime, then threaten to arrest me. I should have killed you before Smith laid his eyes on you, then I would have gotten away with your murder without losing a valued member of my team. Now I might have to kill you both.”
For the first time this afternoon, fright registers on Ellie’s face. She’s fearless when it comes to dying, but she doesn’t feel the same way when Smith’s life is on the line with hers.
“This also isn’t a wish for revenge. If you weren’t fucking the enemy, you’d know that.” My last sentence calms Smith down. Not a lot, but it’s better than nothing. “This goeswaydeeper than that.”
Certain Ellie has gotten the point, I drop her from my hold, then spin around to face Smith. He’s still being held back by Rocco and Clover, and he’s red-faced and real fucking angry.
“Who do you work for, Smith?”
If he says anyone but Fien, he’ll leave me no choice but to take this further. We’ve faced these issues before. Smith came out of it with both his life and job intact. I can’t guarantee he’ll be as lucky this time around. My enemies are always one step in front of me for a reason. Two years ago, we placed the blame for that on Ellie’s shoulders. Now I’m wondering if I made a mistake.
“Whothe fuckdo you work for, Smith?”
“Fien. I work for fucking Fien!” he shouts back, his roar as loud as mine, his anger just as palpable.
After pushing Rocco and Clover away from him as if he is double their size, he storms my way. I slice my hand in the air, warning Clover if his index finger gets within an inch of his trigger, Smith won’t be the only one letting off steam this afternoon. He answered how I wanted him to, and although a heap of fury was beaming from his eyes when he said it, it was barely seen through the honesty.
Smith stops an inch from my face before he growls out, “But once she’s back, I’m done. I can’t deal with your shit anymore. You’re doing my fucking head in.”
He misses the quickest dart of panic running through my eyes I couldn’t shut down because his focus is no longer on me. He’s staring at Ellie, torn between offering her a hand from the ground or adding to the red welts around her neck.
He goes for neither by shaking his head in disappointment before making his way to his beloved van, punching the steel door of the warehouse on his way by.
It’s obvious from the noises rocking and rolling out of his van for the next several minutes that he isn’t taking his anger out on a keyboard. He’s demolishing equipment worth millions of dollars because he’d rather damage the irreplaceable things he loves than the one thing he can’t replace, no matter how hard he tries. He loved Ellie, so her betrayal didn’t just gut him, it changed him. He hasn’t been the same man since.
