Page 70 of Russian Rescue

“Don’t, Wes,” I begged while I tried to come up with solutions to our completely shit situation.

“It’s okay, Piper,” Wes said, and his eyes locked with mine. “It’s okay.” There was a look in his eye, a soft message meant just for me. I didn’t really understand it, but somehow it soothed me. Wes had a plan.

A silent conversation passed between us, and I furrowed my brow while I wondered what he’d come up with—or what I hoped he’d come up with.

Wes spun around and started typing away, his fingers blurring across the keyboard. A minute later, he slowed down and spun around in his chair.

“You know, Petro,” he paused and smiled, “or wait, should I call you Mikhail now since that’s the fake name you’re living under? Mikhail Alexeyev or Petro Shevchenko? Which would you prefer I call you, since they’re one and the same?”

“You are good.” He smirked. “Very good. I knew we were right in going to all the trouble to find you.”

“You’re good too,” Wes answered. “So good that the Russian government has no idea who you are. They think you’re some Russian philanthropist funding children’s welfare programs when really, you’re a Ukrainian terrorist using all that money to fund a private army you’re going to use after you steal the Russian nukes and bomb them. Very clever.”

Petro grinned. “It’s working out well now that I have you. You’re going to get me the locations of the nukes and the launch codes.”

Wes clucked the side of his cheek. “Yeah. About that. I’m gonna pass on getting you the codes to kill millions of people.”

“You’ll do it, or I’m going to kill your girlfriend.”

Wes’s eyes moved from Petro’s to mine. “Here’s the thing. My girlfriend, if I can call her that?” He paused and smiled softly at me. I gave a slight nod of my head that made his grin grow. “Well, my girlfriend here is the kind of person who would die before she’d let any harm come to even one innocent child. She’d sooner slit her own throat than let thousands of children vanish in one of your nuclear attacks. Isn’t that right, baby?”

My heart swelled as he stared at me, and I nodded.

“So,” Wes went on, “I’m not going to help you. And I know that means you’re going to kill us both, but better we die and save millions than go on living knowing it was us who helped you finish out your super fucked up plan. Because, if there’s one thing I know, it’s that Piper wouldn’t survive the guilt. It would tear apart her good heart. So, baby,” he turned his attention back to me, “I love you. God, do I fucking love you. But I love you so much I refuse to condemn you to a life knowing I chose you and killed all the women and children, all the innocents, you’d do anything to protect. And there’s no guarantee Petro won’t off us anyway. So, I’m sorry, but I can’t help him, even if it means we don’t make it out of this alive. There’s nothing more I want than to love you in this life, but instead, I’m going to have to love you in the next one. And the one after that. And the one after that, because I’m going to love you for all of eternity.”

A tear slid down my face as I exhaled a breath. He did love me. He loved me enough to save me from a future he was right about. I would never survive the guilt if he chose me over them.

“You’re making a bad decision,” Petro growled, pushing the barrel of his gun to my temple.

“I love you, Piper. Always. And unless you can think of some kickass way to get us out of this, which would be super great by the way, it’s gonna have to be in the next life when we finally, finally get to be together.”

“We will,” I breathed out. “We will, Wes.”

Before I could say another word, the words I was desperate to say to Wes, Dima shouted, “What is that?”

He bolted to the computer and pointed at the glowing red light above the screen.

“Oh, that?” Wes asked. “That’s just the live video feed I’ve been streaming to our friends at the Russian and US governments after I just hacked in there. Give them all a good wave, Petro!”

Wes waved at the screen while my eyes went big.

Holy shit. He did it. He got the information to the people who could stop Petro.

“What?” Petro shouted as he jumped away from me out of the camera view. “What did you do?”

“Just saved the world. No biggie.” Wes shrugged. “So yeah, your plan is fucking shot. I’ve been uploading all the data to their servers, and they’ve been watching us for a while now. They heard it all. You’re gonna have a great time in prison, Petro. I hear Russian prisons are fantastic. Practically Club Med. Oh,” he paused, pressing a finger to his chin. “Wait. Maybe I’m thinking of another country. Actually, Russian prisons are notoriously horrific, especially the Black Dolphin, where they’ll definitely send you. Talk about a fucked-up place.” He sucked the air through his teeth. “Yeah. Scratch that. Better start running, Petro. They’re coming for you.”

The color on Petro’s face drained as he stood in the doorway, then he spun on his heel and bolted out, shouting, “Kill them both!”

Wes shot me a look, and I saw the apology in his eyes. “I’m sorry, Piper. I love you.”

“I love you too,” I finally spit out my truth, then watched his eyes widen. “And no one is killing the man that I love.”

I turned my gaze to the guard standing in front of me and narrowed my eyes.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Wesley