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Natalia smiles back at me. “I have missed you so much,” she declares. “We have a lot of work to do and so many things to go over, but you need to rest, and clearly, I need to shower.” I nod in understanding, and she releases her hand. She backs away, making sure that I can see her the entire time.
The bathroom door is in the corner of the room, still visible from the position I’m laying in. She enters the bathroom but leaves the door cracked. The shower turns on shortly after. I can’t believe this is happening.Am I really safe?My best friend is just feet away from me. Something I prayed for, for over a year. My eyes become heavy, and I close my eyes, my body filling with a feeling of peace. A feeling that I thought would never be mine again.
My eyes struggle to open, and I realize I’ve fallen asleep. I shoot up to a sitting position in bed and look around. Natalia jumps up from the chair she must have been sitting in next to the bed. She is going to think I’m foolish for reacting like this.
She’s at my side in a flash, sitting on the side of my bed and holding my hands in hers. “What happened?” she asks.
“Just lost where I was for a moment,” I reply. She releases my hands, inches forward, and wraps her arms around me.This is what I need. This is exactly what I need.Her arms wrapped around me make me feel warm inside.
We’re disrupted by the door opening and a tall, clean-cut man walking in. My eyes struggle to focus on him as my body goes into fight or flight, and right now, flight is winning. Natalia grips me tighter, calmly telling me, “You are safe. He is with me. You can trust him.”
As her grip tightens, my mind settles, and my breathing matches hers. I look back at the man and realize that I recognize him. Ivan used to show me pictures or short videos of Natalia with different men. He would tell me how happy she was, living her life in Chicago and actively seeing multiple men. This was one of those men. I didn’t want to believe him, but now this man is standing in my hospital room.Did she really move on?I don’t trust my own mind anymore.
“Katia, he is part of the team that helped find you,” she says as she releases me from her hold. She gets up from the bed and walks towards him. “This is Agent Jackson Stryker or just Stryker. It’s what we all call him.” Her eyes light up as she says it.Yeah, she is definitely falling for this one.
He doesn’t hold out his hand, and doesn’t move toward me. I’m not exactly welcoming him with open arms. My knees are folded into my chest with my arms wrapped around them. I know he helped save me, but I’m not trusting anyone except Natalia right now.
“It’s nice to finally meet you,” he says softly. “We’ve heard so much about you and know how much you mean to Nat.” He smiles at Natalia after he finishes speaking, then continues, “We’re leaving in ten minutes. Here are some clothes.” He hands her a small duffel bag with instructions to ’be ready to leave’. He looks at me, giving me a head nod before leaving the room.
“Wow, look at you taking orders,” I tell Natalia.Or should I say, Nat, now?Agent Stryker called herNat.It seems like an obvious nickname, but I’ve never heard anyone use it before.
“Oh, I just let him think he’s in charge,” she says with a smirk. “Men need a little ego boost now and then.” She sets the duffel bag on the end of the bed and opens it. “Looks like they packed you some sweatpants and a sweatshirt, along with some undergarments,” she says, holding up a lacy bra in front of her. “Nice,” she comments.
She lays the clothes out on the bed, and I get dressed while Natalia, I mean Nat, sits back in the chair. I’m not worried about her seeing me naked because it wouldn’t be the first time. I used to be very comfortable with my body in front of others, but now I’m not sure I want to share that part of myself with anyone. Nat must notice my hesitation as I pause for a moment before pulling on the sweatpants.
“What are you thinking about?” she asks. She’s sitting behind me, with my back is to her.
“Will I ever be normal again?” I ask her without turning around but continue before she can respond. “I mean, so much has happened, and I don’t know if I can go back to doing what I did before all of this.”
I can hear the creak of the faux leather cushion as she gets up from the chair. Her arms wrap around me from behind, and she rests her chin on my shoulders.Fuck, I always want her arms around me.“It’s going to take time,” she presses a gentle kiss on my shoulder. “And I will be here with you every step of the way,” she reassures.
Having Nat by my side means the world to me and provides some relief but a lot of heaviness remains. Being with her and having her in my life is everything I’ll ever need. I continue to get dressed, and once I’m done, Nat leads me out the door and downstairs to a waiting fleet of black SUVs.
The second vehicle’s back door is open, and I climb into the empty backseat. Nat climbs in right behind me. She sits right next to me so that our outer thighs are touching, her hand gripping mine as I rest my head on her shoulder. In the front seat are Agent Stryker and another man that I recognize from the videos Ivan showed me. He is the one that told me Nat was here and that I would see her soon when I ran out of the lounge to escape.
No words are said as the vehicles take off.
We pull up to a large home -it’s probably more accurate to call it a mini mansion- about twenty minutes later. Agent Stryker turns in his chair and looks at Nat. She only nods back to him, and both men exit the vehicle, but Nat stays in place. She turns her body to face me more, forcing my head to rise from her shoulder. “Are you ready to meet the rest of the team?”
Am I ready?Per usual, Nat can sense my hesitation. “We can wait out here as long as you need. We can even go somewhere else. Just say the word, and I’ll make it happen,” she reassures me.
“No. I want to meet them. This is your team, people you care about. They helped save me, right?” I say to her.
She scoots towards the door and opens it. Her hand extends as I reach the edge of the backseat, and I take it. She grips my hand all the way into the house. The inside seems like an illusion because it seems even bigger on the inside than it did on the outside. There is a large entry, and she leads me through it along with another room which can only be described as a sitting room with bright-colored furniture. We move to the next room, which has a long table and a group of people sitting at one end.
A face I recognize instantly rises from the table, and we lock eyes. “My sweetest Katia!” Alexie proclaims. My heart is about to beat out of my chest at the sight of him alone. He should be dead!At least, that’s what Ivan told me. He runs around the side of the table and wraps me in his arms. When he pulls back, he presses a kiss to each of my cheeks. “I will kill them all for you,” he whispers, his tone becoming as serious as his gaze. That really is Alexie’s way of saying ’I love you’.
He grabs my free hand, with Nat still holding the other, and leads me to the other side of the table. He releases my hand to pull back a chair for me, and I sit. Nat sits on one side and Alexie on the other. They each resume holding a hand.I take it back, this is everything I need. My dearest Natalia and the one who is like a brother to me, Alexie.
Agent Stryker speaks up, breaking my staring contest with the hands sitting on my lap. “We’re not going over much today. We need to recoup and come back with fresh eyes. My only order today is to get some rest because tomorrow, we’re going back to Chicago. Once there, we’re getting back to work.” His tone is very firm but not cruel or demanding. It is clear to see that he is the leader of this group.
I glance around the table and recognize each person from the photos Ivan showed me. There is the man with glasses sitting in front of a laptop, a gigantic man with long hair and covered in tattoos.He is definitely Nat’s type.There are also two women at the table. This is rare because, in the Volkov BraTVa, women were often not allowed at the table or to have a say in anything. Natalia was a rare exception.
“Katia, I want you to meet the team,” Nat says. “You can trust each of them with your life because I know I do with mine.” She tightens her grip on my hand for reassurance. “You met the man at the head of the table. That is the Boss-man, Stryker. Next to him, on the computer,” the man with glasses looks up from his screen, “is Agent Conrad Stone. Over there,” she uses her other hand to point to the abnormally large one, “is the ultimate alphahole.”
“Really?” He questions her.
“She needs to know the truth,” Nat quips back. “anyway, that is Agent Samuel King. This wonderful woman is Agent Marcela Jerez.” Marcela gives me a shy smile and lifts her hand to slightly wave at me. “And last, but certainly not least, is the benevolent-” the brightly dressed woman interrupts.
