Bound to the Beast: Russian Hitman Romance (21 page)

We kissed like that forever. Our bodies pressed together so tightly that nothing could fit between them, our breaths heaving, our heartbeats drumming in sync.

But eventually, it had to stop. We slowed down, albeit reluctantly. Then, with a tender sweep of his lips across mine, we finally broke apart. He sucked in a breath and when his eyes met mine, they flashed with desire and need. But there was no time for either.

Brushing a strand of my hair behind my ear, he said, “We have to go. Staying here is dangerous.”

I nodded in agreement. I wanted out of this room. It didn’t matter where I was, so long as it wasn’t here and Alexei was with me. His eyes drifted down to Tyler, examining him coolly. After a moment, he looked back to me. “He’s going to be a problem if he wakes up like that.” Considering him for a second longer, he said, “I’ll make sure he doesn’t get to a phone any time soon.”

Before I could ask what he meant, he pulled away from me completely—it was a terrible feeling, the need to be beside him, wrapped up in him, so intense it was startling—and kneeling down to get a grip on Tyler’s feet. He nodded his chin towards the only other door in the room besides the entrance. “Open it, please.”

I nodded and went to it hurriedly. I opened the bathroom door, then stood aside so that Alexei could drag Tyler’s unconscious form into the small, dirty room. I watched him lean Tyler’s head against the porcelain of the toilet, then come back out into the main part of the room. He jerked out the cord for the telephone and made sure it was detached from both wall and phone. Then he proceeded to tie Tyler up, his hands coming together on the opposite side of the toilet, so that it looked like he was hugging the cold porcelain, his head leaned against the top, cheek pressed to the side.

I thought Alexei was done, but then he stole a pillow, too, and wadded it up. He shoved it into Tyler’s mouth. Then he stepped back and admired his work. Satisfied, he turned back to me. Raising a single eyebrow, he asked, “Are you okay with this?”

There was little today that I was okay with, but Tyler tied up to a toilet—alive, breathing, and in better shape than they thought they’d left Alexei in—was one of them. I could live with it. I nodded.

He relaxed a little. “Good. We need to go.” He grabbed my arm—the third man to do so today, and by far the gentlest—leading me out the door. He frowned at the broken door he’d kicked in, and released me long enough to pull it back to a standing position. It was definitely still broken, but if you weren’t looking too closely, it looked almost just like the other doors next to it. Hopefully it would be enough to escape attention, for a while at least.

We started walking away from the Ranch Hand Inn. I noticed that Alexei’s car wasn’t in sight. “Where are we going?” I asked.

He held my hand as we walked along the side of the road, staying a little farther into the woods so the trees helped to hide us from view. “I parked about a half a mile up the road, just to make sure no one spotted my car.” He offered me a wry smile. “I’m glad I did, though I don’t know how much good it did me in the end.”

I didn’t answer. I wanted to ask him what had happened, but at the same time, I knew enough to know that I didn’t want to know any more. I stayed silent.

We walked until the woods opened up to a clearing. It was a parking lot for a building that looked rundown and boarded up. It didn’t look like anything. When we got around the shack, I spotted his car, hiding in the shadows.

“Good. It’s still here.”

He opened the passenger door for me and then got in on the driver’s side. I shivered and immediately he started up the car in response, turning the heat on full blast. It took only a moment for it to heat up, but when it did, I felt better. The heat seeped into my bones, relaxing my body until I finally felt safe and warm and just better.

Alexei looked over at me. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but I need to find your brother.”

I nodded. Alexei looked surprised, but I offered him a small, sad smile. “I know.”

After everything my brother had told me, I understood now that he wasn’t who I thought he was. And while maybe I wasn’t ready to consider what Alexei would do to him—he was still my brother and no matter what he’d done, I didn’t wish for him to die—I knew that my brother couldn’t be left to his own devices. He’d done something horrible.

I was hoping that maybe I could talk Alexei into calling the police. It seemed pretty improbable, but maybe if I told him I would make the call—anonymously—and be sure not to mention anything about Alexei and his employers, then maybe he would go for it. Chris needed to be punished, but I wasn’t yet convinced that he needed to die.

I knew I’d have to talk to Alexei about it before we reached my brother, but I also sensed that now was not the time to bring it up. Not yet, though it would have to be very soon.

“I’m not sure where he is,” I admitted to Alexei, frowning. “I know he’s meeting up with Jason, though.”

He nodded, thinking about it. “That’s good to know. I’ve got a location for Chris; I just wasn’t sure if this Jason character would be there, too.”

I was surprised to find out that Alexei knew already where Chris was, but I thought maybe I shouldn’t have been. After all, he’d found him at the Ranch Hand Inn. Biting my lip, I nodded. “What are you going to do? Won’t it be dangerous with both of them there?”

Alexei gave me a wry smile. “Don’t worry about it. I can handle them.”

I frowned at him. He looked badly beat up, bruised, and his lip was a little bloody. He was covered in dirt, too, and I knew he’d been beaten severely enough that Chris was convinced he was dead. If it had gone that way the first time around, why would this time be any different?

As though reading my mind, Alexei offered me a more genuine smile. He put his hand on mine, sending sparks of electricity running up my arms. “They got the jump on me before. But not this time. I won’t give them the chance to fight dirty twice.”

I nodded, though I was still scared and worried for him. This was going to go badly; I could feel it.

We drove towards a warehouse that Alexei had apparently been directed towards. He insisted that we stop at a store on the way to pick up a disposable cell phone and to get me some ginger ale and Mentos, the only things that kept my stomach calm, but aside from that, we didn’t stop at all.

He seemed a little on edge with me being there. “I would drop you off first,” he explained as we drove through the quiet night. “But I can’t be sure that nothing will happen. What if Christopher leaves before I get there? What if Tyler manages to get out? No, I can’t leave you alone. This is the only way I can protect you.”

A warm feeling flooded me. After the way my brother had so carelessly dragged me into this, after Tyler had pointed a gun at my head and then forced himself on me, it was nice to have at least one person thinking about my safety.

I smiled at Alexei, relieved that we were finally together again.

Alexei

I drove with purpose towards the warehouse. After getting the disposable cell phone from the market, as well as a couple of things to ensure that Susanna’s morning sickness didn’t suddenly rear its ugly head, I made a point to call Yegor and check to make sure that the truck was still there. It was, he assured me. I felt a little bit better this time around, having a few things working in my favor. The first was that Christopher felt certain I was dead. It was his own stupidity that had ensured he hadn’t finished the job of putting me to rest and it served him right that he would feel falsely secure. The second was that I knew Jason would be there, too. Susanna had provided me with that bit of information and it was helpful, because I knew what to look out for.

My eyes glanced over at Susanna in the passenger seat. She was quiet, thoughtful. Up to this point, she had been pretty adamant about her brother, sure that he wasn’t capable of the things for which he’d been accused, but tonight she was strangely silent.

I think it had to do with the confession of killing me, ironically enough, that swayed her opinion of him. After all, if he was capable of killing me, then wasn’t he just as capable of having murdered someone else? It didn’t matter that he actually hadn’t managed to finish me off, only that he’d intended to.

Still, I was surprised she was going along with this so willingly. Perhaps she was still in shock after what happened in the hotel.

I gripped the steering wheel tighter until my knuckles were turning white. What sort of monster tried to rape a pregnant woman? I should have killed him right then and there, and probably would have if Susanna hadn’t been in the room. But she was, and though smashing his face in helped a little bit, it didn’t really quell the licking flames of hatred burning in my gut.

At least she’s safe. At least she’s with me.

It was the only comforting thought I had, really.

After a while of driving, Susanna finally spoke up, her voice small and hesitant. “You’re going to kill my brother, aren’t you?” she asked, her gaze ahead of her instead of turned towards me.

I frowned, not sure what to answer with. Of course I was, and I had the feeling she already knew that. Not wanting to lie to her, I nodded. “Yes.”

She fell silent again for a moment, then, “And that’s the only way? I mean, is it about the money, or something else?”

I wasn’t sure what she was getting at. I thought she had realized what sort of man her brother was. After thinking for a moment, I said, “It would be a lie to say it isn’t about the money. Even for those who love what they do, it is still, in some part, about the money. But that is not the only thing I take into consideration.”

“And what else do you consider then?”

I mulled the question over for a moment before answering, realizing how important it was. “It’s a little bit about justice, in a strange sort of way. Some people just need to die. They’re dangerous and have proved themselves to be nothing else. I can’t let that go, but I would be lying if I said I was only being noble or righteous. Because I’m not. I work for some dangerous people, Susanna. And these people are a big part of why I do what I do. I owe Vinny—” I slipped up, I realized, saying his name, but she was going to be a part of my life now. I’d already made up my mind on that, so I glossed over it and kept going. She needed to know who she was getting involved with. “—a lot and if he asks something of me, I won’t ask too many questions before I do what I do.”

There was a long pause filled with tense silence before Susanna spoke again. I was worried as she did, her next words a clue as to how all future conversations might go. “So you wouldn’t consider getting the police involved?” she asked timidly.

I glanced at her sharply and said in a flat tone, “No. Not even remotely.”

She frowned, turning in her seat so that she was facing me. “What if it was reported anonymously? He could be locked away and you wouldn’t have to—”

I interrupted her before she went any farther. “Vinny won’t let the police be involved. Christopher’s death warrant has already been issued. Now, it need only be served. And if not by me, then someone else will take the job.”

She fell silent at that. We didn’t say anything else for the rest of the drive. I knew she wanted to find another way, one in which her brother survived, but there was nothing I could do about that. She loved him, yes, but he’d already wasted too much time and messed up in too many ways. There was no more lenience to be offered.

***

We arrived at the warehouse a little while later. It was still light and the first thing that I noticed was that the street lights in the immediate vicinity were out. None of them worked until several blocks down. I didn’t think it was a coincidence.

The second thing I noticed was the red truck parked out front. There was a second vehicle there next to it, a beat up Chevy that I hadn’t seen before, but I imagined that it belonged to Jason. Other than those two cars, the place looked deserted.

I had the lights off on the car, though it was still running as I carefully crept around the warehouse looking to see what I could find. I noticed a broken window that could probably serve as my way in, and a back door that looked to be sealed shut. The front door seemed to be open, like they entered that way and didn’t bother to close it up after, but I didn’t want to risk going in the same way. Too dangerous, too obvious. No, I’d use the window.

Driving down the street a little ways, I finally turned off the car, but I left the keys there. Checking my gun, I spoke to Susanna who was sitting in the passenger seat, trembling. “Alright, I’m going to go in. You’ll have to stay here—I won’t risk you in there if things go badly.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but I fixed her with a harsh stare. She closed her mouth without saying a word.

“I’m going to leave the keys here, just in case. If anything goes wrong, if anything seems wrong, I want you to run. Don’t go to the police,” I cautioned, sensing what a young woman, wholesome and sweet, might do in this type of situation. “It’s not just a matter of justice with the people I work for. If they figure out you gave them up to the police, the price will be on your head.” I didn’t tell her that I wouldn’t be there to save her, either. “Instead, keep your head down. There’s spare cash in the glove compartment. Don’t go home. Get out of town, use a new name. Start over.”

She looked terrified by all I was telling her. Tears pricked at her eyes as her hands overlapped her stomach, not yet swollen with the baby growing inside. The baby I now knew was mine.

Pride and sadness alike swelled within me at that thought. There was a chance I might die tonight without ever even seeing my child, but I pushed that thought aside, focusing on what I had to do. Pulling Susanna across the seat to meet me, I pressed my lips to her in a searing, passionate kiss. One that I hoped told her everything I was feeling in that moment.

I hoped it told her that she was mine.

When I broke it, her lips were swollen and her eyes fluttered. “Hide in the backseat,” I told her seriously. “If I don’t make it back, take the car and the money and run. And Susanna?”

She looked up at me with those huge, bright blue eyes.

Taking her hand, I moved it so that it was palm up and put one of my two spare guns in the palm of her hand. “Protect yourself. Protect that child.”

Before I left, she grabbed me and whispered, “Please come back.”

I nodded once, then I was gone.

It was impossibly dark outside, so it took me a long moment to let my eyes adjust and get my bearings. Once I did, I spotted the broken window and made a beeline for it. Heaving myself inside, I dropped down quietly, my fall barely making a clopping noise. Even so, I ducked down behind a stack of crates three tall, waiting.

When silence carried through the entire place and no one made a move as though they’d heard me, I peeked around the corner of the crates. It was empty. Frowning, I straightened up and pulled my gun, searching the lower floor of the warehouse. Cursing quietly, I was about to reconsider my options—perhaps they’d gone somewhere else, maybe it was a different warehouse, maybe they’d dumped the truck—when I heard voices. Swiveling around, I found a set of stairs leading to an upper floor. Floating down those stairs were voices.

One of them I recognized as Christopher’s.

I headed up the stairs as slowly and silently as possible, gun at the ready. As I moved closer, I caught pieces of their conversation. “I don’t want to do that,” said Christopher.

The other man answered in an annoyed voice. Jason. “We don’t have a fucking choice, man. This is your goddamn fault.”

There was a pause, then Christopher demanded, “How the hell was I supposed to know she’d show up at the hotel?”

I frowned as I continued my way up the stairs. She? I had a sinking suspicion that I knew who they were talking about and I was thinking that I didn’t like why they were talking about her.

“Doesn’t matter,” Jason again. “She
did
show up and now she’s a goddamn liability.” There was a long pause, then Jason sighed and said, “She’s gotta die, man. You know it and I do.”

I tensed. This was a moment of truth for me. Jason was willing to kill Susanna—which meant there was no question in my mind that he had to die, preferably in a horrible way—but Christopher was her brother. Would he really go along with this?

There was a lengthy pause, but finally Christopher spoke and sealed his fate. “I know. But… I don’t have to do it, right?”

My blood ran cold. I thought of two little blonde children running around on a farm together. I thought of Susanna’s bright, sweet smile. I thought of my child growing inside her. Taking a steadying breath, I reminded myself that I got to Susanna first. She was safe and they wouldn’t touch her.

Not now, not ever. Tonight, I was going to kill them both and there would be no mercy for either of them.

I was about to enter the room, when I heard the creak. It was the step just below me. Before I even had the chance to turn around, I felt the barrel of the gun digging into the back of my skull.