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With the sheer size of this SUV, it doesn’t take long before the riders catch up to us - flanking and boxing us in.
“Get down!”
Katya does as I ask. She slides her slim frame into the limited space between the dash and her chair. She angles herself so that if I were to roll the armored windows down, she would be able to shoot at them.
“They are going for the fucking tires.” I hiss and shift all of my focus into defensive driving. We skirt around other cars and I don’t even see the other SUV come up behind us until it’s too late. A body pops out of the top, a much larger gun aimed right at the back window and with a loud pop and a shattering of glass - they are in. Something metal scrapes in the back of the car.
“Call Dario!” I command to the speaker. I can barely hear the phone ringing over Katya’s alarmed shriek as the glass in her window cracks but doesn’t break. Bullets are raining in through the back window - shattering the glass from the inside so that my visibility is practically nothing at all. Fuck. Shit. Fuck.
I hear Dario pick up the phone at the exact same moment that the car in front of me slams on their breaks and skirts away from a barrier that I can’t see - a barrier that slams into the car so hard the rear tires lift clean off of the ground and the entire hood crunches. The airbags go off and Katya’s scream is cut off in a sharp clip of sound.
Panic floods every bit of my adrenaline-soaked limbs as I ignore the pulsating in my head and the blood warmly trickling down the side of my face. I shoot the airbags to force them to deflate and in some feat of rage manage to rip the fabric out of the way long enough to see the small little compartment that miraculously Katya is still in. I have no idea how it didn’t crush her to death and I don’t care.
“Come here, we have to go. We have to go now.”
I’m going to deck one of those men and steal the motorcycle. It’s our only chance of getting out of here alive at this point. I have no idea how they found us, or what happens next but I know that I have to get Katya out of here.
Katya worms up onto the seat, her eyes crazed and her pupils blown. She pulls herself free and then the pain seems to catch up to her all at once. She screams in pain and doubles over, clutching at her ribs.
I never thought that people who said their life flashed before their eyes were telling the truth before this very moment. I just got her. I can’t lose her. The thought is playing over and over again inside of my head as the sounds of motorcycles start to fade into the distance.
Behind us, I hear the slamming of car doors. We are almost out of time. My father’s men are going to take us. He will dispose of me quickly, but Katya? I don’t even want to think about what he might do to her. I look at her, blood dribbling down the corner of her perfect mouth. She could have broken ribs. Her lungcould be punctured. She needs to get to a hospital as soon as humanly possible. Even moving her from this car without help could cause more damage than I want to think about. She can’t die here.
Time to do something really, really stupid.
“Luca-” She wheezes. I don’t like how her voice sounds. It’s certainly not the way I want to hear my name on her lips. I give her a wry smile, kiss her forehead and push backward out of the car without another comment. I kick open the car door and head out of it. My vision swims for a moment as I struggle to steady myself on my feet. I gingerly touch the head wound just to see the depth of the injury. I’ve had worse.
Gunshots ring out in time with the sound of angry, screeching tires.
A sleek steel gray Maserati skids to a stop only feet from the black SUV. The door opens and the car keeps running. Out steps Dario looking every inch the one-man army. I don’t waste this opportunity. I run around Alexei’s car and wrench open the passenger door. It’s a struggle but I have to get Katya out. Being crunched up in that position can’t be helping any of the injuries that she’s sustained. Bullets fly. I have no idea who is on what end as I finally get Katya free. She’s not conscious. My heart drops right out of my ass as I gingerly scoop her up into my arms and hustle over to Dario’s waiting car.
I just have to hope that we get to the hospital in time.
The closest one to us is controlled by Alexei’s men. They will kill me on sight if they think that I’ve done this to Katya. There’s not enough time to reach Alexei. I have to assume that if they managed to track me down, then somebody is likely getting Alexei too.
I know where to go. I just don’t want to. The doctor on my father’s payroll the night that my mother died resigned his position and came to work for me privately. He won’t ask bad questions, but I don’t want to explain myself either. It’s risky to just drop in on him unannounced.
Seconds later, Dario slides into the driver's seat and hardly closes the door before the car roars into motion. We are zipping down the street and I can feel the dark edges of my vision slowly starting to close in. I hold Katya to my chest, trying not to cause any further damage while I listen to the wheezing rattle in her chest.
“Hurry.” I urge. Dario is the only person who I show true emotions to. Well, apart from the woman in my lap. She seems to be getting paler by the minute.
The wound to my head is making me woozy.
I need to make it stop. I don’t have time for the world to start spilling.
I barely remember arriving at the ‘hospital’. Somebody in crimson red scrubs pulls Katya from my arms. I have flashes of Dario speaking with somebody. I can’t make out the words.
I see reality through prolonged blinks like snapshots of a camera. Lying on a bed. Needle in my arm. Nothingness. Loud beeping and running footsteps. Alexei bursting into my room, gun aimed at my face and snarling with rage. He looks like he’s seen better days.
A loud nose - sharp bursts of pain and then nothing at all.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
KATYA
Ithought that I knew what it meant to be sore. But I guess I didn’t.
I don’t know where I am. Every breath that I suck in through my pitiful and angry lungs feels like inhaling shards of broken glass. My head is pounding. I’m cold and the lights that surround me are way, way too bright. It’s an effort just to peel my eyes open and look around me.
