Blaze: Kings of Hell MC (19 page)

Julia

Dimitri came back in, saving me from my wandering thoughts. Unfortunately, it meant having to deal with him again.

“What time is it?” I asked him, curious enough to finally say something about it.

“It’s about four in the morning,” he said. “It’s still dark out. That’s all I really know. I haven’t checked the time. Time changes when you spend as much time locked away in a cell as I did, don’t you think?”

I smirked. “I think it does,” I agreed. “It doesn’t feel like it’s that early. It doesn’t feel like anything really,” I added, realizing for the first time that my internal clock was on its own time. It wasn’t trying to calibrate with clocks, just with its own natural rhythm and timing. Also, I started wondering how long I’d been on the boat, and if Dimitri ever slept. Surely sleep changed with this sort of detachment as well.

Dimitri pulled out the knife he’d taken from me back at HQ and ran it down my neck. I closed my eyes and swallowed hard.

“I can’t wait to stick you,” he said in my ear in a strained whisper. I could hear the almost sexual desire in his voice

“Then don’t wait,” I told him. “Do it. Kill me, Dimitri. Kill me and enjoy it.” I knew I was playing with fire by calling his bluff, but I was also pretty confident he wasn’t going to do anything. It seemed like he was just teasing himself with me at this point.

I opened my eyes and looked down at his crotch for confirmation. The obvious lump in his jeans was just as nightmarishly massive as the rest of him. I hoped he didn’t plan on doing anything with what he was packing other than jerking it in his hand. If he wanted to kill me, all he had to do was stab me with that massive piece of manhood a couple of times. It was truly terrifying to imagine what it must have looked like out in the open.

None the less, I continued taunting him. “Cut me, Dimitri. Draw out my blood. You bled at Gage’s hand. Let me bleed at yours. I owe you that much.”

His hands grew shaky as his desire grew.

“You want to see it, don’t you? You want to see my blood.” I was disturbed by how much pleasure I was getting out of talking shit to him. Gage was definitely going to have his hands full with me when all of this was over.

“Shut up,” he growled, regaining his composure and pushing the blade of the knife against me. “I don’t need your permission to do anything. I’ll cut you if I want to.”

“Then do it, or are you scared?” I challenged him.

“I’m not scared. No one scares Dimitri.”

“Somebody does.” I laughed. “So, did Ivan tell you not to touch me? Is that why you can’t do it?”

“I can do it.” He grabbed the back of my neck and leaned back into my ear. “I can do whatever I want to you.”

A shiver of revulsion ran through my body.

“Does that make you wet?” he asked. He ran the knife down my arm to where my forearm and wrist were tied to the chair. “I could cut you free so you could help me out of these jeans,” he threatened.

I decided it was best to stop encouraging him. Gage had been right, and I should have listened, and I would have to be satisfied to leave it at that. Now was not the time to provoke this man who was already on edge. But if I had just touched him, he would have exploded.

“I can’t wait until this is over,” he continued. “I’m going to have so much fun with you. You’re going to be my little prize once we are successful in murdering your boyfriend.”

“You’re really making me uncomfortable,” I finally told him, though I knew it wouldn’t do any good. I just couldn’t take listening to this kind of talk from him any longer. He could threaten me with his knife all day and I wouldn’t feel as threatened as I did when he started acting like he wanted to sexually assault me.

“Good,” he groaned with delight in my ear. “I can’t wait to have the opportunity to make you enjoy what I have in store for you, Dr. Danvers. You’ll forget all about Gage Noll.”

There was nothing desirable about Dimitri. He was freakishly massive and tall. He looked like he had climbed out of
Lord of the Rings
to serve Ivan. I was not turned on by him at all. In fact, I was as turned off by him as I could imagine being. Listening to the sexual desire that dripped from his voice was enough to make me not want sex ever again.

“Just stop, please,” I said flatly. “You’re beginning to bore me.”

“Oh, you won’t be bored,” he promised. “I’m pretty confident you haven’t been with that many men, and I’m sure you and Gage haven’t had enough time for him to explore you the way he should.” His knife traveled up the inside of my thigh, along my jeans.

I closed my eyes and tried to block him out. I knew he wasn’t going to do anything because he would have already done it. If he had been able to, he would have already raped and killed me. I didn’t know how much longer I had to sit and endure this, but all I had to do was listen to him until Gage and the Kings of Hell arrived.

“I’m going to appreciate all of you,” he continued. “Your whole body is going to be mine to enjoy.”

I took a deep breath, steadying my nerves against his voice.

“Do that again,” Dimitri whispered in my ear.

I couldn’t explain why I did it, but I did. I took another slow, deep breath. I listened to him shudder next to me, and all I could think was that he’d just lost himself in his jeans.

Just then, I heard what sounded like a gunshot, but it was just one.

Dimitri’s breath caught in his throat and he stood straight up, hitting his head on the low ceiling of the room.

“What was that?” I asked him.

“Be quiet,” he ordered me, cocking his head and listening.

It was quiet outside, but we could hear voices and footsteps as more men ran outside. I barely dared to breathe, and Dimitri held a finger up to remind me to keep quiet. We sat and listened, but we didn’t hear anything other than the occasional footfall of security moving around outside.

“Something’s not right,” Dimitri said, mostly to himself it seemed.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” he answered absently, still trying to hear whatever was going on up on deck.

Then, more shots rang out. Many more shots rang out. We heard shouting and people running around above us. A frantic knock came at the door.

“They’re here,” the guy told Dimitri in Russian.

“No shit, really? Come on, help me out in here.” He grabbed the young man by the back of his button-down military shirt and pulled him in. He looked like a soldier in the army, and I started to realize just how bad things had gotten since the collapse of the Soviet Union—yes, I was
always
doing research, so if anything relevant happened at any time, I was going to plug it into my understanding of Russia.

“What do you want me to do?” the soldier asked.

“Help me get her outside. I want her to see what happens to the men attacking us when we fight back. I want her to watch her boyfriend die, and I hope she gets caught in the crossfire in the meantime. That would just be a bonus.”

Both men grabbed my chair and started dragging me outside and upstairs. I heard and felt the wood creak, threatening to finally give, but it held as they took me through the door and up the stairs.

The gunfire grew louder and louder until it surrounded us. I couldn’t believe it. He really
was
putting me outside in the middle of the fight, where I was sure to get hit by a stray bullet at some point.

“What are you doing?” I asked Dimitri. “Why are you taking me outside?”

“I want you to have a front row seat for all of the exciting action,” he answered. “Plus, I want your boyfriend to see you and get distracted. You’re going to watch him die, Dr. Danvers, and for that, I’m truly not sorry. You’ve both earned the misery that’s coming to you.”

I wasn’t prepared for the shift from his sexually charged threats to his usual stony voice letting me know in no uncertain terms exactly how he expected things to go down. That shift in his demeanor meant shit was really going down. He wasn’t just having fun with me anymore, and it was all too real all of a sudden.

“Look, it doesn’t have to go down like this,” I protested.

He laughed dismissively. “You don’t get to decide how things happen at this point. All you get to do is watch us kill your boyfriend and his friends. You get to watch us crush that precious little motorcycle gang. It’s time to usher in a new era,” he told me.

“A new era?” My mouth started working on its own. “You’re just a bunch of damn street thugs. Don’t act like you’re making some great impact on the world at large just because you have some measure of control over drugs and weapons. You’re nothing. Your existence is tolerated by those who could easily crush you if they decided they were done with you, and you’re filled with so much self-importance that you don’t see it.”

I pulled on my restraints. The chair seemed much weaker while they were carrying it. If I could break it while it was in their hands, I figured I would have a chance at getting away from them, but it just wouldn’t give enough to break, and I didn’t have enough time to keep working it before they put me down again.

Even on flat ground, I figured if I threw my weight to the side hard enough, I could knock it over and buy myself another chance to break the chair and break free, but Dimitri’s partner grabbed the chair and held it down.

“Grab some weights,” Dimitri said. “Let’s secure her and keep her from escaping before she can see any action.”

He grabbed the chair while the soldier ran off to grab weights and more rope so they could be secured to the legs of the chair.

“You’re going to sit here like a nice little girl and watch the show, Julia,” he said in my ear. “And when it’s over, I might just let you go so you can fight back when I take you back down to finish you off. And I mean it in every way you can imagine.”

The soldier returned and set to work securing weights to the bottom of my chair, making it too heavy for me to tilt it over.

“You won’t get away with this,” I shouted at him. “Gage is going to stop you, and if he doesn’t kill you, I will.”

“I’d like to see you try,” he said, laughing heartily. “In fact, I’ll even give you the chance to do it if you survive. Hell, I’ll give you back your knife just so you can say you had the chance.” He laughed even harder.

I scowled. He was so confident and so arrogant. He was so sure of himself. There was really nothing else I could say to him at this point. The only thing left for me to do was to wait for Gage to see me and come rescue me. I never should have doubted him, and if he could get me out of here, I would never doubt him again.

“There, we’re done,” the soldier said, standing up. “All secure.”

“Thank you, officer,” Dimitri said. “Now, return to your duties.”

“Yes, sir.” He went to salute Dimitri, but his body stopped suddenly, and he collapsed beside me, his head bleeding on the deck of the yacht.

It was the first time I’d seen anyone get shot in real life. I couldn’t even scream. I just stared at the lifeless body lying next to me, completely dumbfounded.

Gage

“I’ve got eyes on Julia and Dimitri,” I announced through my headset.

“I’ve got Boris,” Chase replied. “Juarez, I need backup. This guy’s huge! What are they feeding these Russians?”

“It’s like they’re breeding them with bears over there,” Ricky agreed. “No sign of Ivan or Aleskei yet. Anyone else?”

The line was silent for a minute.

“Okay, has anyone seen Jorell?” I asked.

“Oh no, are we losing more men?” Juarez chimed in.

“I don’t know, but I think we’re the only ones on the boat now,” Ricky answered.

“Alright, guys, keep your eyes out for the others. You knuckleheads get Boris and incapacitate him somehow. I’m going after Dimitri and Julia.”

I started towards where Dimitri stood with Julia tied to a small wooden chair. At least she was still alive, I thought. At least things hadn’t gone too far south just yet. There was still a possibility that this wouldn’t turn out the way things had with Lisa. I just had to get a good shot.

I raised my gun and aimed at Dimitri.

“Gage, what are you doing?” a voice asked across the headsets. In all actuality, it was probably Ricky, but it sounded just like Angelo. He even asked it the way Angelo would have.

I didn’t say anything in response. I would just have to blame Dimitri’s death on a stray bullet from one of Ivan’s other men.

A soldier stood up right in the way. Apparently, he’d been securing the chair with weights. He was directly in my line of sight and getting ready to salute Dimitri.

I got him right in the head, and he crumbled to the ground right where he had just been standing. The look of shock on Julia’s face was almost amusing in how over-emphasized and cartoonish it was on her face.

Dimitri just looked right at me, as if to dare me to do it again, but someone else caught my eye, running out onto the deck.

“Guys, I’ve got a visual on Ivan,” I announced over the headset.

There he was. He wasn’t anything like the men who worked for him, which probably explained why they all looked like they were cloned between bodybuilders and actual bears. Ivan was slight by comparison, but his features were still stony and hard. He looked like bullets would have bounced off of him, but I wasn’t going to shoot him. I wanted to knock his punk ass out.

I charged after him. I was twice as wide as he was, and maybe a few inches taller. His silver hair was slicked straight back, with his dark roots peeking out here and there, giving his hair a very severe look. It was a dye-job. His hair was as black as the night itself. So were his eyes. His soul probably was, too.

I knew to be cautious when approaching him, though. The only way I’d be able to take him in hand-to-hand combat would be to get behind him and sucker punch him one good time. I’d seen him drop a man with one punch to his chest. It killed the guy right on the spot. Apparently, his fists were made of stone.

I grabbed his shoulder and spun him around, shoving a fist underneath his chin. His feet left the deck for a brief moment before his unconscious body hit the ground. I knocked his ass right out.

“I got him, guys. I’ve got Ivan. Someone tell me we have Boris and Aleskei.”

“We’ve got Boris,” Chase said, speaking for himself and Juarez.

“Still no sign of Aleskei. You know, he may have been at the garage,” Ricky said.

“Good point. Or he might have something to do with why we haven’t seen any of our other guys in a while,” I added. “Get Boris tied up and keep looking.”

I grabbed Ivan by the back of his flashy dress shirt and started dragging him to the steps leading down into the yacht. I saw the other three joining me.

Dimitri clapped loudly for us and turned to say something to Julia.

“He says you’ve done a good job taking down the men on the boat, but you won’t get him,” she called out to us.

I looked at the others and shook my head. I had no idea what he could have meant by that.

“Tell him we have him outnumbered, four to one. Tell him to give up and save himself the trouble,” I yelled back to where they were.

They spoke again, and he laughed.

“This feels like it’s about to go south in a big way. Get ready,” I said over my headset, mostly to myself.

“We’ve got your back, Gage,” Ricky said.

“Yeah, whatever happens,” Chase added.

“We’ll take care of it,” Juarez finished.

“He says you’re going to have to make a choice,” Julia said, and I could hear the fear gripping her voice.

Suddenly, I was back on the street with the guys standing behind me and the street gang in front of us, a gun to Lisa’s head. She looked at me, terrified.

“Do it,” she’d said. “Do what you need to do, baby.”

I had kissed her. Our lips met for the last time, and it felt like every time we’d ever kissed, all rolled into one. Our romantic life together flashed between us. The kiss seemed to have lasted forever, but I knew there was no way it could have.

When I pulled away, tears streamed down her face. I rubbed one away with my thumb and smiled at her. “Don’t worry,” I told her, “I’m going to get us out of this.”

Then, the gunshots. Two guns fired at the same time. Lisa’s head slumped, and the gang’s leader slumped with her. And I ran as other gunshots erupted. They unloaded on us as we tried to escape, without Lisa. I had failed her.

I stared at Julia and Dimitri. Dimitri didn’t even have a gun pulled. He stood with a hand on the back of her chair. He smiled at us, so sure of himself, confident that we wouldn’t do anything to him. I could see the tears streaming down Julia’s face.

“Tell him he’s the last one of Ivan’s men alive,” I called to her. “He should give up now before he has to lose his life, too.” I was bluffing. Ivan and Boris were just out, knocked unconscious so we could tie them up nice and neat for the Feds.

She turned to him and started to talk, but he shook his head and said something in a very angry tone that sounded like a growling bear.

We stood where we were, frozen with anticipation. We knew any wrong move could end it all right then and there. Instead, we waited to see what Dimitri was going to do.

The sun was coming up. Daylight was beginning to brighten the scene before us.

“We probably need to wrap this up, Gage,” Ricky urged. “Didn’t the mayor say he had men coming to clean the boat out of the weapons and drugs below deck?”

“He did.” My body ached as my desire to shoot Dimitri now clashed with my sense of self-preservation. I didn’t want to miss and risk making things worse for Julia. I didn’t want to hit him and have to explain to the mayor why I had chosen to take him out the way I did.

“Well, we need to get out of here before we lose the cover of night.”

“You’re right.”

Julia looked up and repeated what Dimitri said to her. “He says your time is up, Gage, and he’s going to make you choose now.”

What happened next was the stuff of nightmares. Dimitri kicked Julia’s chair, which had weights tied to the bottoms of the legs. He shoved it overboard with his foot, sending her crashing into the water below with no way of getting out.

Time stopped.

I looked at Dimitri. I looked at the falling chair as it collided with the water. I took aim, focusing on the bear’s shoulder. I lowered my aim to his leg. I wanted to ground him, not just aggravate him.

He laughed and started to say something in Russian, and I squeezed the trigger, letting off a round right into his thick, muscular leg. When the bullet hit, it jerked him to the side, and he lost his balance, crashing down on top of the yacht. I was surprised the whole boat didn’t quake when his body collided with it.

“Guys, shoot them in the legs or wherever you need to. We don’t need them being able to get around. I’m going after Julia.”

The clock resumed.

I ran for the side of the boat and dove in right where her chair had splashed down into the water. She was sinking fast with those weights on her chair. I pushed myself down to catch up with her, taking out my knife as I swam. I hurried to cut the ropes around her back, her arms, and her ankles, all while both of us were being pulled down by her heavy chair.

Once I had her free, I draped her body over my shoulder and swam up. I could already tell she was in trouble. She was unconscious over my shoulder. There was no telling how much water she’d taken in after sinking below the surface. When she hit, the force must have knocked her out in the chair.

We broke the surface, and I adjusted her to keep her head above the water behind me. I swam back to the boat with her over me. I had to work doubly fast. I knew it wouldn’t be long before the mayor’s men showed up to claim what was theirs on the boat. We had to get what was ours off.

Ricky threw a rope ladder over the side, and I grabbed ahold of it, pulling myself and Julia’s body up from the water. The whole time, my mind was racing. What was I going to do if I lost her? What was I going to do if I
didn’t
lose her?

This couldn’t be the end for us. It just couldn’t. There was no fucking way I was going to let those bastards take her from me.

“Is everyone else down below deck?” I asked Ricky as we stretched Julia out on the ground.

“Yeah, they’re tying the guys up and locking them in a room they found,” he told me.

“Good. Look, I’ve got her. You make sure any bodies that are just lying around are dumped off in the water, okay?”

“Got it.”

After he got up and ran off, I started CPR on Julia.

“And you aren’t going anywhere, Julia,” I told her as I pumped her chest and pushed air into her lungs.

“You’re staying right here with me, whether you like it or not,” I kept talking to her as I kept working on her.

I lost count of how many times I performed the same routine—pumping her chest and trying to breathe for her—but I wasn’t going to stop until she responded, dammit!

“Don’t do this to me,” I told her. “You don’t get to check out just because I lied to you and tried to protect you from all of this. Damn it, Julia. You weren’t supposed to get this damn involved. You were just supposed to ask that asshole a few questions and report back to me his answers.”

Pump. Breathe.

“Now, wake up, damn you. Wake up.”

Pump. Breathe.

She coughed, and water came up from her lungs. I cupped behind her head and helped her sit up. She coughed up more water and wiped at her mouth as she tried to breathe through it.

“It’s okay. Take your time,” I soothed her. “Take your time.”

She coughed a couple more times and took a good, deep breath. She grabbed my dive suit and pulled me close, kissing me.

Our lips met and mouths parted to let our tongues dance and tangle between us. She continued pulling me to her while she kissed me deeper and harder.

She pushed me away. “Thank you for not giving up on me,” she said. “I love you, Gage Noll.”

I wrapped my arms around her and held her against me. “I love you, too, Julia Danvers. God, I love you.” We held each other like that for a few minutes, until we were interrupted by the voices of my guys.

“We’ve got Boris, Ivan, and Dimitri tied up downstairs. We still haven’t seen Jorell, Aleskei, or any of the other guys who came on board with us,” Ricky said behind me.