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“I’m glad you’re happy,” she says softly, and I feel all the tension drain out of me at once.
“I am,” I tell her, hating the lie, but glad beyond reason that her suspicions seem to have been mollified. She hugs me once more, and then Mikhail opens the front door for her, and she slips outside.
The moment it’s closed, I turn back to him, all of my nerves fraying once again. “Is she safe?” I ask him, my voice higher and more breathless than I’d like for it to be, but I can’t help it. “She believed us, I know she did.”
“Shh.” Mikhail reaches out, smoothing his hands over my upper arms. “Yes, it’s fine. You were my good girl,kotenok. You played your part so well.” He reaches for me, pulling me closer. “And now you get to show me how appreciative you are that I played mine.”
I know what he expects of me. I’m still buzzing with anxiety from the evening, but a part of mewantsto show him how grateful I am that he’s let Ruby go, that he’s trusting that nothing bad will come of it. And I can still feel the lingering effect of the kiss in the living room, the way I swayed towards him as his mouth brushed over mine.
I don’t have a choice, anyway,I tell myself.I can unpack how and why I feel this way later, and what that means. For now, what’s the harm in enjoying it?
I lean into him as his arm wraps around my waist, tilting my face up for his kiss, wanting to lose myself in it. To forget all my conflicting feelings, and give in to what Mikhail always makes me feel, whatever that means.
That’s a problem for me to deal with tomorrow.
His mouth is a breath away from mine when we hear the scream.
Mikhail
Ijerk away from Natalia in the instant that I hear the shriek from the front yard, every one of my senses on alert. “Stay here,” I snap at her, momentarily forgetting that there could be a cab outside still with Ruby, that Natalia could take this as an opportunity to escape. All I can think about is that Natalia might be in danger, that whoever this fucker is that’s been following her, that wants to take her from me, could be outside.
She’s mine.The thought pounds through my head, a possessive fury filling me as I stalk towards the front door, grabbing for my gun. The thought that anyone other than me might make the choices about what happens to her makes me feel murderous, and I glance back once to see her frozen to the spot before I rush out of the front door onto the steps.
The instant I’m outside, the lights illuminating the front steps and the beginning of the lawn, I see him. A tall, masked man, his arms wrapped around a struggling Ruby, her squeals barely able to be heard now under the heavy hand covering her face.
“Mikhail!” Natalia gasps from behind me, and I have to resist the urge to turn around and throw her bodily back into the house. I don’t have time to spare–the man is dragging Ruby back into the trees, and the cab meant to pick her up is nowhere to be seen. I have no idea if it sped off after seeing her being attacked, or if it hasn’t arrived yet. The former is the better option–most people wouldn’t involve themselves in something like this, and would pretend they hadn’t seen anything. If someone else arrives as I’m dealing with this, though–
“I told you to fucking get inside!” I snarl as I rush down the steps. I don’t hear her retreating inside, but there’s nothing I can do. If this man takes Ruby away, he’ll be able to get information out of her about Natalia, about me, about what’s happening here. I can’t even stop Natalia as I hear her following behind me, trying to keep pace as I move towards the retreating figure.
“Stop right there,” I snap, raising my gun. “I’ll shoot you, and I don’t care if I hit her.”
Something in that last resonates with the man, I think, because he stops. His face is invisible behind the mask, but I see now that he has a gun in his hand as well, shoved beneath Ruby’s chin.
“I’ll shoot her,” he calls out, and I laugh, shrugging.
“Go ahead. She’s not my concern. But if you try to run, I will shoot you. I don’t particularly care about getting answers out of you either, which is lucky for you, because a bullet is the better option–trust me.”
I hear Natalia panting behind me, and I can see her out of my periphery, looking frantically between me and the man holding Ruby. “Mikhail, please don’t kill her,” she whispers, and I shake my head, not taking my eyes off of the man.
“The only thing that matters to me is what happens to you. No one else.”
The words come out without my meaning for them to.Because I want my justice, my revenge,I reason, but I can see her visibly react to it, her eyes going wide as she freezes, staring at me.
“Step away from the girl,” I order the man, who shakes his head.
“If you trade me, I’ll do it,” he calls out. “I’m here for the blonde. This one is just bait.”
“Over my dead body,” I snarl, and the other man laughs from behind his mask.
“Fine with me.”
He starts to shift the gun, and my finger curls around the trigger in the instant before I see a flash of movement, and realize with a bone-chilling terror that I missed Natalia moving away from me. I’m a hairsbreadth from pulling the trigger when Natalia flies at the man from behind him, throwing all her body weight–such as it is–into him.
He stumbles to one side, likely out of shock as much as anything else, but it gives me a momentary advantage. His shot goes wild, and he loses his grip on Ruby, who jerks herself free of his grasp as he tries to catch his footing.
“Run!” I shout towards Ruby and Natalia, and I hear Natalia scream the same thing as she launches herself at the man.
“Run, Ruby! Get out of here!” Her shriek carries across the front yard as she leaps onto the man, fingers clawed as she scrabbles at him. He grabs for her, wrestling to get ahold of her, but she’s already torn his mask off by the time he manages to get his arms around her, pulling her into a chokehold.
