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There are so many of them. They’re everywhere. “I’m so close,” Luca groans, and the chant starts up again until I want to scream. I think I am screaming, but Luca doesn’t care. He rolls me over onto my stomach, thrusting hard into me from behind, and I scream into the pillow over and over because I can still hear them, I can still—
There’s a loud cracking sound, so loud that I sit bolt upright in bed, the dream shattering all around me. The scream wasn’t from me after all. It was either Caterina or Ana, both of whom are sitting up already. Ana’s hands are knotted in the blanket, and Caterina’s hand is over her mouth. She looks ghostly pale.
“What—”
“Shh!” Caterina slaps a hand over my mouth. And that’s when I see it—or rather,him.
There’s a black-clothed figure in the door, with the build of a man, looking directly at the bed. And he has a gun in his hand, pointed at us.
Pointed atme.
“You’re not getting away this time, you bitch,” he growls. “I’ll do the job right.”
He steps into the room, the gun perfectly steady, and I feel myself go cold with fear. I can hear the blood rushing in my ears, my heartbeat deafeningly loud, and I’m terribly, viscerally aware of the fact that if that gun goes off, those beats could be my last. That I might die here in this bed—that my friends might die.
“No!” Ana shrieks and the man glares at her. “Shut up, little Russian whore. I’ll deal with you next. Andyou,” he grins at Caterina through the hole in his mask, the gun still pointed at me. “Viktor has plans for you.”
Caterina gasps softly, and I feel myself wobbling, my vision going dark at the edges as if I’m going to pass out again. I was terrified in the hotel room after the Russians kidnapped me, but this is a new fear altogether. I can see down the barrel of the gun as the man advances towards the bed. I feel nauseated, my stomach flipping wildly as I try desperately to think of what I should do—if I should stay still, if I should run, if I should scream.
Luca saved me in the hotel room, but he won’t be able to save me this time. He’s too far away.
I hear footsteps on the stairs, and just as the man swings around, one of the bodyguards—I think it’s Gio—bursts into the room. The man fires at him, the gunshot painfully loud in the small room, and I clap my hands over my ears as all three of us scream with terror.
Gio recoils backward, and I shriek again, realizing that he’s been hit. “Oh my god!” Caterina screams, and the black-clothed man wheels to face us again, the gun less steady now.
“Shut the fuck up!” he shouts, and I see the gun waver in my direction, his finger tightening on the trigger.
This is it. This is how I’m going to die. Luca is going to come home and find my body. I’ll never know if—
The sound of a shot rings through the air as I squeeze my eyes tightly shut, and I jerk backward as if hit, my body reacting to the noise.
But there’s no pain, and the next thing I hear is the sound of something hitting the floor, the force of it shaking the bed. Next to me, Caterina is almost hyperventilating.
I open my eyes slowly to see Ana staring wide-eyed at the foot of the bed. Raoul is standing in the doorway next to Gio’s slumped body, gun in hand and the man who had found his way into the bedroom is bleeding out onto the carpet.
I leap out of bed, my frozen muscles suddenly working again as I rush towards the two bodyguards. “Is he dead?” I ask frantically, kneeling down next to Gio. His head is lolling sideways, and I can see that his shirt is almost soaked through with blood.
Raoul kneels down next to me. “No,” he says gruffly. “Not yet, at least. We need to get him to the hospital, though. I’ll call the driver. We’ll get him down to the garage and rush him over as fast as we can.” He glances over at the body. “I’ll need to deal with this.”
“I’ll go with him,” I say quickly. “Someone should, and—”
“Sofia, you can’t!” Caterina exclaims. “Luca will be furious if he finds out you’ve left. I can go if someone needs to—”
“That man was going to shoot me.” I grit my teeth. “Gio took a bullet for me—for all three of us. The least I can do is go with him.”
“Sofia—” Caterina starts to say, but Ana is already climbing out of bed.
“We’ll go with you then,” she says decisively. “We should all make sure he gets there safely. And you shouldn’t be alone.” She reaches for the pair of jeans she threw across the chair by the window, stepping into them carefully while avoiding the body on the carpet. Caterina is still motionless in the bed, and I’m a little bit amazed at how well Ana is handling this. I always knew she was fairly tough, but this is surprising even for her.
I can’t believe that I haven’t fallen apart either. The only reason I think I haven’t is that I’m focused on Gio, who is completely unconscious by this point and still bleeding. I can hear Raoul on the phone just outside the door, and a moment later, he steps in, a towel in hand.
“Put this on his shoulder and hold it there,” he says sternly. “A couple of guys will be up in a minute to help get him down to the car. I’ll deal with the body. You girls need to get out of the room. It’s no place for you right now.”
“We’re all going to the hospital,” Ana says firmly. “Come on, Caterina. Get dressed.”
I see Caterina start to get out of the bed, moving stiffly. “She’s in no condition,” Raoul says. “I’ll have a couple of the guys keep an eye on her. But neither of you are going anywhere.” He turns to face me. “Luca would have my head if he knew I let you out of this penthouse. Gio will be fine with the guys going with him, and if he’s not, there’s nothing else you could do.”
Ana visibly bristles, but says nothing as she strides past Raoul and the body, squatting down next to me. “It’ll be okay,” she says quietly, and I don’t know who she’s speaking to exactly—me, Gio, or herself. But it feels good to hear it out loud, even if I don’t quite believe it.
