Page 133 of Fractured Ties

How had—

Maya’s gaze caught sight of a misshapen, blackened tub just ten feet away. Overturned so that it was sitting on its claw feet—although two were broken, now—she remembered.

She remembered everything.

The warehouse was gone—flattened to the ground. A smoldering lump of blackened ruins in the middle of … God knew where.

“Kolya,” Maya breathed. “Kolya!”

That’s what—or rather, who—was on her, she realized. It was still his body keeping her pinned to the ground in an attempt to add an extra level of protection from the blast.

Finally, Maya forced her head up. Kolya hadn’t moved all that much except lower. No longer was her head tucked against his chest, but instead, exposed to the air and breeze. Only one of his arms were still wrapped around her body, but his other was extended straight out, and … bleeding.

Maya blinked again.

She struggled to get her arms free from under his weight just so that she could touch him. She ran shaking fingers through his hair, and over the sides of his slackened, dirty face. Ash that littered his hair, and a streak of it muddied his cheek. She couldn’t see him well enough to discern much more, but she could feel by the way his back moved that his breaths were shallow, and far too fast.

“Kolya, get up,” Maya mumbled. “Wake up.”

Nothing.

“Kolya!”

Pain saturated her body, and something gripped her heart far too tightly.

“Kolya, wake up!”

Why wouldn’t he wake up?

Maya hit his back with her fists and couldn’t stop the sob from slipping past her lips. She needed him to wake up. “Please wake up.”

In the background of her screaming thoughts and panic, Maya heard two things. Sirens, and a garbled ringing. Blood rushed her ears and her fear climbed impossibly higher. She struggled to find where the ringing was coming from, even as voices started yelling all around her.

First responders?

Cops?

Maya found the ringing phone in Kolya’s pocket. It took all of her exhausted strength to pull the device out and hit the answer button. She couldn’t, however, get the phone back over Kolya’s large arm to bring it to her ear. She could see the screen, though, and despite it being half blacked out with a crack, she saw enough of a name.

Kon.

“Konstantin,” Maya mumbled hoping to God it was loud enough for the man on the other end of the call to hear. “Help us. Please help us.”

• • •

There was something uncomfortable about hospitals, although Maya couldn’t quite put her finger on exactly what it was that made her feel that way. Maybe it was the fact that they all smelled the same, and in a way, looked similar, too. Never mind the fact that it was never a good thing when someone was stuck in a hospital.

Maya tried to offer Konstantin a thankful smile when he dropped a blanket around her shoulders, and then his hands squeezed her gently before he sat down in the chair next to hers. The first thing she noticed about the blanket was the fact it was warm—and hospital issued. After all, it was the same style as the ones the nurses had tucked around Kolya earlier.

You know, right before they’d asked her to leave his room.

“Thanks,” Maya whispered.

She didn’t have much of a choice but to whisper, really. Her throat was raw from smoke inhalation, crying, and shouting. Not to mention the two-hour long interview with detectives that ended the same way it began: with Maya saying she couldn’t remember anything while a lawyer hired by Vadim stood at her back with beady eyes trained on her.

“No worries, yeah?” Konstantin gave her a smile. “Stole it from a cart down the hall.”

Maya laughed. “That’s for the patients, Konstantin.”