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The rattle of gunfire sends my mind into a spiral. We have to get out. I refuse to die here in this pit. We’ve fought too hard, struggled for so long. I’m not going to let anything happen to my child or Mikhail. No matter how much my muscles scream and my lungs burn and the coil in the bottom of my stomach threatens to drag me under, I can’t give up.
I throw one of Mikhail’s arms over my shoulder and help him up the stairs. It’s chaos. I can’t tell which guards are on our side and which ones want to kill us. Catherina and Charlotte are ahead of us, screaming at us to hurry. My ears ring, my heart pounding too loudly to hear anything else.
Just when I think we’ve climbed far enough to start and see daylight, someone grabs me roughly by the hair and yanks me back. I scream, tumbling back a few steps. I luckily manage to catch myself, but not before the hard edge of one of the stairs slams right into the side of my ribs. Pain lances through me, so sudden and overwhelming it knocks the breath from my lungs. I look up in a panic, struggling to see who the hell has me in their clutches.
The Bear.
“Where do you think you’re going, pretty lady?” he seethes. Red stains his chest. I can’t tell if it’s his blood or someone else’s.
My scream gets caught in my throat. The Bear grabs me by the ankle, his grip so imposing that no matter how hard I kick and squirm, he refuses to let go.
“Aurora!” Mikhail roars, moving to come to my rescue.
Before he can, a gunshot screams through the air.
Blood splatters my face.
“Aurora?” Mikhail rasps, grabbing me by the shoulders. “Fuck, Aurora,talk to me!”
I can’t. My brain is blank. In front of me, the Bear slumps forward, dead. Behind him, stands a man with the smoking gun.
“Alexi?” I whimper.
My bodyguard stands on one of the lower steps, quickly sprinting forth to help Mikhail and me the rest of the way up.
“Calling it kind of close, Alexi,” Mikhail grumbles.
“Less talk,” the guard barks. “Let’s focus on getting out of here first.”
It’s a mad dash to the top, Konstantin’s men not too far behind, the barrage of gunfire between the two groups nearly nonstop. I’m not sure if Konstantin is still alive, but I really don’t want to stick around to find out.
When we finally make it to the top of the stairs, I almost burst into a fit of tears. A car is waiting, a black cargo van with its sliding door wide open for us. Hanging out of the passenger side window is a familiar face, one I haven’t seen in months but am nonetheless relieved to see.
“Hurry the fuck up!” Dimitri shouts, slapping his hand on the outside of his door.
Catherina, Charlotte, Mikhail, Alexi, and I all jump in. It’s cramped, but I’d take having no elbow room over being dead any day. Luka who slams the door shut. Pyotr is the one who’s behind the wheel. He doesn’t even bother waiting before he slams on the gas. We peel away in a hurry, tires screeching as we make our hasty exit.
“What the hell are you guys doing here?” I snap.
Luka scoffs. “Nice to see you too, Foster.”
“Mother brought us here,” Pyotr explains as he merges recklessly into traffic. I’m starting to realize their shitty driving skillsdefinitelyrun in the family.
I frown, glaring at the woman. “What? I thought—”
She rolls her eyes, holding onto one of the roof-mounted handles for stability. “Did you really think I was spending all this time getting my nails done?”
“I mean, can you blame me? You were living the high life over here.”
“I was playing the part,” she argues. “I’ve spent the last few weeks smuggling my sons into Russia. Konstantin has eyes on all the major airports. I couldn’t very well go around broadcasting my plans, now could I?”
I look at Alexi. “And what about you? How do you and Mikhail know each other?”
Mikhail takes a deep breath, grunting as he settles into his spot beside me. “He’s one of Nicolai’s men.” He wraps a protective arm over my shoulder. “Nicolai Stokayevski. I was supposed to kill him for my first phase of initiation.”
Alexi rubs his jaw. “Konstantin believed the deep fake video of my boss’ execution.”
“You’re welcome,” Luka grumbles from his corner in the back of the van.
