Nothing loosened hand restraints like fingering your captive. It was a hard truth that Nikolai Chernov was about to find out.
I woke before him when the windows were stained with purple dawn and realized my hands were loose enough to slip free. His face in repose was so beautiful. His high cheekbones and firm, stubbled jaw, winged dark eyes, brows that were so expressive by day, and those long eyelashes resting peacefully for once.
I lay for far too long staring at him. Committing to memory the man who had stolen into my heart and thoughts when I was seventeen, and I’d never gotten him out. Part of me tried to reconcile that once I was older and more experienced, married to another even, there’d be no more space for my sick little obsession with Nikolai Chernov. But deep down inside, I knew that wasn’t true. His poison was in me. I was fated to live with his presence inside my head until the day I died, whether next week or years from now.
After last night and the epic lapse in judgment and self-control, I knew I had to get out of there before I fell into darkness any further with him. He was as bad for my mental health as my physical health.
Was it embarrassment? Maybe. I certainly had no experience with the white-hot lust that had overwhelmed me last night, and no way to make sense of the feelings that had filled me when Niko had touched me.
It couldn’t be normal to feel like that. The man was like a sweet venom—it killed you slowly, and you died in ecstasy, but you still died.
Worse of all, a twisting black guilt sat in my belly. I’d set the wheels in motion for his recapture, and now, after last night, it was a heavy weight. He hadn’t forced me or hurt me when he easily could have. There was an honor to him I didn’t understand, but a code sat somewhere in his messed-up morals, and he didn’t cross it. I respected that.
Maybe I was as fucked in the head as he was. Even more fucked up was the part of me that regretted giving the trucker my father’s number. If De Sanctis men busted in here now, they’d save me from my kidnapper, but they’d also take Nikolai back to Casa Nera to answer for his crimes.
After last night, I wasn’t sure what to feel.
I carefully detangled my hand from his, my heartbeat so loud I was surprised he couldn’t hear it. My wrists were freed before I knew it, and I stared in shock at my hands. A feeling of unreality followed me as I tiptoed out of bed and dressed silently in my damp clothes. I had no idea how long Nikolai had been awake, but it had to have been over two nights in a row. No wonder he was out.
In the end, it was almost too easy to escape him. I felt odd as I twisted the doorknob and silently edged out into the hallway. Something flickered in my chest when I turned to look at the dark shape in the bed. The fragile intimacy of last night was like a bubble floating above me, perfect and short-lived. As I closed the door, the bubble burst.
The click was much louder than I’d have liked.
As soon as I let go of the knob, I hurried down the hall. I headed downstairs toward the reception desk. The same sleepy-looking employee who’d checked us in was sitting at the desk. He blinked at me when I ran toward him.
“I need to use your phone,” I said quickly and moved around the desk.
He leaped up, seeming more awake than I’d have guessed. His name tag read Larry. “Miss, no guests behind here. I have to ask you to step out,” he exclaimed. Far too loudly.
Panic flooded me. I shushed him and tried to look placating. “Please, I need help. I’m being held captive by that man I came with, and I need to get away.”
Larry paled and reached for the phone. “If that’s true, I need to call the cops.”
“No! No cops,” I hissed, moving toward him and trying to stop him from dialing 911. My father didn’t take kindly to cops getting involved in his business.
The receptionist held out a hand, stopping me. “Miss! I’m warning you not to come closer. I’m armed, and I’m not afraid to use lethal force if I feel my life is being threatened,” he nearly shouted.
Holy crap.
“I have no weapons! I just need help,” I protested, twisting to look down the dark hall where I’d come from. This man was making far too much noise.
“If you need help, you’d want me to call the cops. You must be running some kind of hustle, you and your gangster boyfriend,” Larry said, and tapped the side of his head with a meaty finger. “I watch Dateline. I know all about that stuff.”
“Please, believe me,” I attempted one last time and then froze. My shoulders inched up to my ears as the man reached below the counter and pulled out a gun. A fucking gun. Really? I had to have the worst luck in the world.
“Put your hands up where I can see them. I’m calling the cops, and you’re staying here until they come.”
Urgency beat at me, making me wonder if it was worth rushing him and trying to grab his gun. But I could end up shot, and I was less scared of Nikolai than I was of that.
“Please, listen to me. If the man I came with hears you, if he comes here and finds us… he might kill you,” I said calmly, trying to project my serenity onto the clerk.
Larry snorted. “You might have noticed that I’m the one with the gun, Miss,” he said dismissively.
“The man I’m with doesn’t need a gun to kill you!” My voice was turning shrill, and I couldn’t help it. “Please, listen to me if you want to live.”
A prickling sensation along the back of my neck announced we were no longer alone.
“You should have listened to her, Larry. That was dumb,” Nikolai’s lazy voice floated over my head.
Larry squinted through the darkness past my shoulder. “You should know that I’m calling the police!”
“Go ahead,” Nikolai said, looking unbothered.
Larry frowned at him and turned his attention to the old landline phone sitting on the desk. The bullet caught him in the shoulder, and he spun a hundred and eighty degrees before falling. I hadn’t chanced trying to take the gun when I’d tiptoed out of the room, seeing as Niko had it under his pillow.
Now, I cursed my cowardice as I made a break for the glass doors.
I reached them and pulled on the handle.
It didn’t budge. I rattled it in disbelief.
Nikolai’s chuckle set my nerves on edge. “I think you need to be buzzed in during the small hours for safety and all that,” he called to me, his voice warm.
I spun around, finally seeing the man I was starting to think I’d never be able to escape.
He sauntered over to the desk and peered down at Larry as I turned back to the doors, looking for something to throw at them.
While Nikolai was distracted with Larry, I spied a black SUV pulling into the lot. There was something vaguely familiar about it. When it stopped, four men in suits got out. Headpieces connected them, and they were all carrying.
An old man jumped out beside them, and I recognized him as the trucker who had given us a ride on the highway. My father’s men had arrived. They’d gotten my tip, met with the trucker, and had him bring them to the place where he’d left us. Panic flooded me. Nikolai was about to get caught again, and he’d also find out what I’d done.
The De Sanctis men outside were looking around. Nikolai started toward me, his eyes following my gaze outside. He froze for a moment, his intelligent eyes quickly assessing the situation.
The men in suits started toward the motel. There were only moments before they saw us.
I needed Nikolai to run and leave me behind out of necessity.
“They’re coming. You need to go.” My voice was surprisingly calm, given how panic was spreading like wildfire inside me. A beat passed between us as I backed toward the staircase.
“If you leave out the back now, you’ll get away.” My voice sounded calmer than I felt. “Just go. Leave me here,” I said, taking in the way Niko’s body strained toward mine. It was like we were two magnets desperate to snap together but never allowed to.
His hands curled into hard fists. “Prom queen, this is not how this story ends,” he ground out.
I knew if I waited one more moment, drawn into his spell, we’d both be caught. Frantically aware of the approaching men, I spun toward the stairs and sprinted up them.
Nikolai couldn’t afford to waste his chance to slip out the back chasing me around the motel. He’d have to give up. I felt sick with anxiety as I ran up the stairs, my breath rasping in harsh pants from my chest. I pounded upwards, away from the commotion in the lobby. There was a noise behind me.
No, it couldn’t be. I risked a glance back and stifled a cry of pure frustration.
Nikolai charged like a bull up the stairs behind me.
He wasn’t escaping. He was chasing me. My heart fell and flew at the same time.
Clearing one level, I raced toward another short stair and fire exit sign in the darkness at the top. I put my head down and ran with all my might. I might not be super strong, but I was fast.
I burst through the door and into the cool morning air.
The failings of my plan became immediately clear. It wasn’t a roof like I’d thought. It was a rickety metal fire escape, and my momentum took me barreling over the edge.
A piercing scream left me as my hands scrabbled to hold on to the cold metal, the weight of my body pulling me down. I was going to fall. It wasn’t high enough to kill me unless I was unlucky, but there’d be broken bones. A lot of them.
My hand that gripped the metal rail overhead was slipping, my wrist burning where it was twisted. I tried to find something for my feet to perch on, to take the pressure off my wrists. Another scream left me as I slipped a good five inches. Metal paint and rust flakes embedded in my hand as I held on for dear life. Below me, the screams had brought the De Sanctis men running, but there wasn’t an easy way up, seeing as the bottom of the fire escape was completely blocked by a dumpster.
They wouldn’t reach me in time. I pictured banging my body off the dumpster edge and landing on the broken glass shining inside it.
Then strong fingers closed around my wrist.
“Hold on,” Nikolai said through gritted teeth as he wrapped a reassuring hand around my wrist and held on to me. “Give me your other hand. I’ll pull you up.”
I stared at him, my fear a living thing on my face. I was fucking terrified of falling.
Nikolai’s gray eyes stared steadily into mine, seeing into my very soul. “Sofia, trust me. Hold on to my hand and let me pull you up.”
I swallowed my scream as the entire fire escape shook. The combined weight of Nikolai leaning over the rickety structure and my dangling body was going to pull the whole thing off the wall. I swung my arm toward him and missed, nearly wrenching my shoulder out of the socket. Biting back tears, I swung again. This time, Nikolai lunged down, somehow keeping his feet on the ground, and grabbed my other hand. The pain in my arms lessened as my weight was balanced between both arms.
“I’ve got you. I won’t let you go,” Nikolai said calmly, as if we didn’t both know that De Sanctis men were rushing up the stairs at this very moment.
The truth sat between us, unspoken but undeniable.
If he let me go, he could probably still get away, but I’d fall.
He hauled me up, and precious seconds ticked by as I tried to help, but I swung powerlessly as his superior strength hauled me over the edge of the railing.
He pulled me into his arms as the entire metal railing shifted to the side, detaching from the wall. The screech was deafening. We fell hard to the floor.
I clamped my trembling hands over my ears, squeezing my eyes shut, as I lay in a ball.
After a moment, when the world didn’t fall away under me, I realized that he’d done it. Somehow, against all odds, Nikolai had pulled us inside just in time.
I opened my eyes, searching for him, only to find his gray gaze fixed on me and his arms strong around me. I knew in my bones I’d remember the look in his eyes for the rest of my life.
Then he was wrenched away from me. Twisted and pressed to the floor. His gaze stayed on me, his head in my direction, his neck turned sharply, his body prone on the scratchy carpet. At least three De Sanctis men had guns trained on him, and another was tying his hands together at the small of his back with zip ties.
“Got you this time, Chernov. If the boss was going easy on you before, that’s over now.” One of the men chuckled.
I recognized him as one of Silvio’s men.
He dug his knee into Nikolai’s spine and leaned forward. “Welcome to Hell.”
