Saved by the Outlaw: Motorcycle Club / Hitman Romance (52 page)

“
H
ello
? Who is this?”

“Konrad, thank God! I don’t have much time, I-”

“Wait,
Katy
? How did you get this number?”

I’m pacing around the club floor of the Amber Room. It’s well before opening time, and I texted the staff ahead of time that we’re opening late today to keep them out for a good long while. The only people here are me and Ivan, and he’s pacing around at arm’s length from me, listening to the conversation with hawk-like attentiveness.

“I got your message, Konrad,” I breathe, desperation in my voice. “Oh my God, I don’t know how much time I have before Ivan finds out I know, I-”

“Calm down, Katy, calm down,” his horrible voice tries to coo, trying to sound reassuring and seductive but coming off as nervous and sleazy. “It’s going to be okay, I’m here.” I try not to grimace. He’s been waiting for this call for so long, I realize.

I make a show of trying to take slow, deep breaths. “I...I took your number from Ivan’s phone when he was in the bathroom. I’m at the Amber Room now, he’s away on some kind of business.” Ivan had told me some of his associates would back this story up. “Oh my God, Konrad, I’m so scared!”

“I know, I know,
mishka
,” he tries to assure me, and I feel my blood boil as he tries to use the same pet name Ivan uses for me. “I knew this would be a risk for you, but I couldn’t hold this secret while he was abusing you so monstrously, I had to tell you.”

I have the phone volume up loud enough that Ivan can hear, and I see his face going red at the bile coming from Konrad’s mouth.

“It’s okay, Konrad,” I breathe, “I...I can’t imagine how I might have felt if I’d learned even later. Oh God, I’ve been living with a monster!”

“Don’t worry, Katy,” he says, “don’t you think I thought ahead for this?”

Oh, I bet you did, you rat
.

“What do you mean?” I ask, trying to sound as clueless as I can, going so far as to twirl my finger around my hair innocently. Ivan would be cracking up with laughter if he weren’t trying to contain his anger at Konrad’s brazen acts.

“I’ve had a car ready,” he explains, “and I’ve been skimming money from jobs for months, enough to have a nice little nest-egg stashed away. All cash. And I know a man who owes me a favor; he’s ready to give us new names, IDs, everything — new lives, Katy. We can disappear together. Ivan is a clever bastard, but he can’t catch someone who’s gone off the map.”

The cruel smile on Ivan’s face tells me Konrad’s scheme would have gone off about as well as my father’s ‘interrogation’ did, even if it weren’t a trap.

“A new life?” I gasp, not wanting to sound too pliable, “Konrad, that would mean leaving behind
everything
, everyone I’ve ever known, and-”

“Would you rather stay here and risk the mafia’s wrath?” His voice is suddenly sharp.
Typical. He’s a textbook abuser. Sweep in to save the day, isolate me from everyone but himself, and get angry if any part of that goes wrong
.

“No, no, you’re right,” I assure him, sounding as demure and defeated as I can. “My life is in your hands, Konrad, I...I think you know better than me in all of this.” I know he’ll like that.

“Oh darling,” I hear him rasp, lust building in his voice sickeningly, “I’ve waited for you to realize this for so long. Stay put, I will come over immediately.”

“Please, hurry! I’ll be waiting in the VIP lounge, none of the staff is here. I...I just needed some time alone. But I need to see you, Konrad, please!” I make my voice sound as needy as I can, positively dripping with desire, then end the call. Immediately afterwards, I collapse into Ivan’s arms, shuddering.

He rubs his hands up and down my back, burying his face in my hair. “You did so well, Katy,” he reassures me, and his deep voice is so much more sincere, so much more authoritative in its tone than Konrad’s slimy lies.

I turn my face up to look at him with wide eyes, my fingers curling around his jacket for security. “I just cried for help from my father’s killer.”

“I couldn’t have put on a better act myself,” he says with a smile, taking my chin in his thumb and forefinger.

I smile, despite my nervousness, because I know he’s going to be here for every step of our plan.

To say I’m dressed scantily is putting it lightly. I’m wearing my lacy red top that leaves the whole of my back exposed, and my black miniskirt shows off my legs in their entirety, all the way down to my stiletto heels. I’m wearing makeup, but not enough to make him suspect I’m gussying up for him too much. I have to look distressed, after all. I am, but not for the reasons Konrad thinks.

I feel like I’m putting myself out as chum for a shark.

“It’s okay to seem nervous,” Ivan strokes my back as we make our way to the VIP lounge. “Looking too confident is a rookie mistake. He’s expecting a damsel in distress, he might suspect something if you throw yourself on him without restraint.”

I nod. “And you’ll be waiting to move as soon as he’s...as he’s on me?”

Ivan stops me just as we’ve reached the door to the VIP lounge. “I won’t let him do a thing to you that you don’t want.” His voice has a deadly seriousness to it, and I look down, swallowing hard.

“I don’t know if I can do this, Ivan. To...to actually kill a man.”

Ivan just looks at me evenly, no attempt to persuade me one way or another in his eyes. He’s letting me make this decision, I know. At long last, I raise my eyes again and give a hair of a nod.

“But I need this. As long as he walks free, he could hurt more people.”

Ivan smiles at me, and there’s reassurance dancing in his eyes. “I know you can do what you know to be right,
mishka
.”

Ivan leaves to hide in the storage room, and I take my place on the couch. My heart is pounding harder than ever before.

* * *

I
t feels
like an eternity before I hear a distant door opening, and dread fills my body.

No. I can’t do this. I can’t do this. This can’t be happening. He’s going to kill us both.

But then I remember Ivan, my colossal protector, looming over me with that easy command written on his expression and in his every movement, like a guardian angel with a star emblazoned across his chest. A certain warmth fills my chest, and take a deep breath as I hear the VIP lounge door swinging open.

Then my heart stops again as I hear
two
sets of footsteps.

A moment later, Konrad appears in the hallway, concern and lust intermingled in his expression as he steps into the room with arms wide.

“Katy, Katy, my darling! You’re safe!” My blood curdles as I see the massive form of Nic lumbering in behind him. We hadn’t expected Konrad to come with backup.

“Thank God, you’re here,” I breathe.

Even as Konrad rushes forward to me, he puts a finger to his lips. “Quiet, Katy, we aren’t alone. Ivan may be here.”

My face goes white.

“Wh-what do you mean? He’s away on business!” I stammer.

Konrad shakes his filthy head. “I got a tip from one of my associates that this was a ruse of some kind. I think he knows you reached out to me, my darling.”

There’s terror in my eyes and my heart is pounding, but as Konrad approaches me and gingerly takes my face in his hands and looks into my eyes, he seems to think the terror written on my expression is out of fear of Ivan.

Konrad turns his head to Nic, who’s already searching the lounge for Ivan, and nods. “Go find him. Kill him. You’ll get your payment.”

Nic wordlessly nods and heads out the lounge door, leaving me alone with Konrad. Immediately, he brings his mouth to my neck, his hideous mouth relishing my sensitive flesh. “Oh darling, I’ve longed for you to come to your senses for so long,” he rasps, and it puts goosebumps on my body. His hands explore my form, dancing down my back and sliding around my hips.

“I’m so scared, Konrad,” I whisper into his ear, trying my hardest to keep it together. It’s an honest confession, at least.

“I know, my dear, I know, but you have nothing to fear. You’re mine now.”

His hands are groping my ass now, pulling me closer into him and pressing me against the little bulge in his pants. Suddenly I feel him trying to push me onto the couch, and I feel a lump in my throat.

“I told Nic to give us some time after he does the deed,” he hisses into my ear, “I can’t resist you any longer, and I can see you were thinking the same,” he adds as he fingers my spaghetti strap, sliding it off my shoulder before ripping off my top.

The lust in his eyes is wild as he pushes me onto the couch, licking his lips and unzipping his pants. My heart is pounding its way out of its chest, terrified of what’s about to happen.

Nic is looking for Ivan. He isn’t supposed to be here. This isn’t part of the plan. He’s going to take Ivan unaware, oh my God, Ivan’s going to die and I’m going to be left alone here at the mercy of this monster!

Konrad takes my quick, short breaths as excitement as he penetrates my mouth with his tongue, and I feel his bare cock on my leg. He’s really going to do this!

C
alm
. Cool. Collected.

Those are all the things a killer needs to be when doing a hit. But how am I supposed to be calm when my woman is in danger?

What the fuck was I even thinking using her as bait?

I was out of my mind to give in and settle on that plan. I’d rather have to fight a hundred Konrad’s -- no, a thousand! -- than put Katy in the path of one. Yet it’s too late now. If I burst out now it could be at the wrong moment, and that greasy weasel could have a knife at her throat before I could shoot him.

I hear the sound of someone approaching too late, the first cost I have to pay for losing my cool. This isn’t a job, it’s my life, my love. And that’s fucking it all up.

When the door opens I realize it’s not Konrad, but Nic. That blockheaded brute. That’s about as bad as I feared it could be. I’ve seen this guy take a two-by-four to the head and not be fazed.

And I don’t have a go-ahead to kill him, so my knife and gun are off-limits.

Only Konrad dies today
, I tell myself. And I try to force calm, because whoever dies, it mustn't be Katy.

Nic’s prepared, and as I come for him out of the shadows he reacts first.

He raises his gun and I snap my hands to deflect it, but it’s a rouse. We’re close and that big meaty fist of his strikes me in the gut. A kidney shot. Damn blow hurts worse than a bullet I once took.

But I can’t react. Pain is just part of the flow, I remind myself. It’s to be embraced.

I headbutt Nic, bashing my forehead into his nose, blunting it with a crack. And the big brute barely reacts more than I did.

He’s too tough. The kind of mark I’d be cautious with. But caution has no place when my woman is on the line.

I grab hold of Nic’s trigger finger and twist it away, making him groan in pain, but he punches me again and I am only able to dull it a little with my free hand.

“Time to sleep, comrade,” I growl at him, taking a gamble as he drops the gun with a clatter.

Twisting his finger got him to drop the handgun, but that didn’t help me much, because now he has two free fists to batter me. And he goes to town trying to hammer me with those fists immediately.

It takes all I’ve got to deflect and block his blows as the blood runs down from Nic’s nose and into his mouth. And I know I can beat him. But in a battle of strength and melee skill, it’ll take a while to wear down this brute.

So I have to take a gamble. Offer Nic something to wrap his hands around.

My neck.

I grapple with him until he takes the offer, and I feel him choking off my breathing, strength enough to collapse my throat in mere moments. But it gives me my clear shot.

I nail him in the gut as he expects, but there’s little to be done to that brick of muscle, it just gets him to lean forward more. To open up my real target.

I have no kill order, but Nic does. And his eyes are full of murder as my face flushes with blood and the lack of oxygen begins to weaken my muscles.

Just one more hit
, I tell myself.

Just one more
.

I uppercut him in the jaw, and I hear teeth shatter as his head rockets back from the strike. I gasp for air as he staggers back.

It’s not done.

“
I
’m going
to make you mine before we leave,” Konrad croaks, grinding up against me and jerking a hand up under my skirt, trying to rip my panties off. I’m almost dizzy with fear, and I know I have to act, fast.

I bring my lips up to his ear, brushing against it ever so slightly. “Let me get you out of that jacket, I want to
really
see you,” I breathe, and he’s too lust-ridden to refuse me.

He turns around, and with one hand, I trail my hand up his chest and to his collar, unbuttoning the top buttons and sliding the jacket down just enough to leave his neck exposed.

With the other hand, I slip between the cushions of the couch, searching for what I left there the last time Ivan and I fucked on this very spot. Then my fingers find it.

The black strip of cloth he used as a blindfold.

With every bit of speed I can muster, I yank the black cloth out and take hold of both ends of it, jerking it around Konrad’s greasy neck and pulling and twisting as hard as I can.

There’s a sickening gagging sound as I pull back with all my weight, and his hands immediately go to the cloth, trying to pry himself free.

“I’ll-” he chokes, “I’ll kill you, b-backstabbing
bitch!
”

“If I’d stabbed you in the back, you’d be dead already!” I shout back into his ear, pulling the cloth as tight as I possibly can. His face is starting to purple.
Just a little longer…!

My hand slips.

In an instant, I see my life flashing before my eyes as Konrad uses that half-second lapse in my grip to rip the blindfold from my hands, tossing it aside and spinning around.

It’s the most terrifying face I’ve ever seen in my life.

The next thing I know, I’m being hoisted into the air and tossed like a ragdoll onto the carpeted ground, sprawling onto my back and looking up at the enraged Konrad in terror.

“Fine,” he spits, “if that’s how you want to play it, you treacherous cunt, I’ll
take
what your father owed me!”

He puts a knee on one side of me, and I feel his hands wrap around my throat as he descends on me with murderous rage in his eyes-

CRACK.

I see Konrad’s face go placid for a moment, then his grip lessens, and he slumps off me, and I see Ivan standing over him, my father’s bloody baseball bat in his hand, fury on his face, and a trickle of blood running from a cut in his forehead.

Konrad rolls over on his stomach, clearly dazed, and he mouths something before Ivan grabs him by the neck, picking him up like a piece of trash with one arm, hoisting him up in the air with one hand. His eyes are filled with fire, and I’m paralyzed on the floor before the scene.

“I’ll bury you with the rats that birthed you,
sookin syn
!”

Ivan’s arms move like a flash of lightning, bringing the baseball bat over his head and crashing down in half an instant, caving Konrad’s hideous face in with a sickening crunch. I turn away, covering my mouth after catching a glimpse, and a moment later I hear a second crack, and I glance back to see that Ivan has broken the bat delivering a second blow to the side of the bloody stub that used to be Konrad’s head.

There’s a moment of silence, Ivan staring at Konrad’s body, me staring up at Ivan, both of us breathing heavily and petrified.

Then the splintered bat falls from Ivan’s grip with a clatter, and he turns to scoop me up into his arms, embracing me tight as I descend into sobs.

“Shhh,” he whispers into my ear, his whole body warm and comforting as I break down in them, hands shaking and tears pouring from my face. “It’s over, Katy, it’s all over. Are you okay? Did he harm you?”

“Ivan,” I choke out, “Oh my God Ivan, I thought you were...I thought he was going to—”

“He isn’t going to do anything anymore,” that thick, commanding voice states, and he holds me tighter in his arms.

“I had no idea Nic would be here,” I manage, and he starts stroking my hair.

“I thought Konrad might have a friend to tip him off,” he replies, “but I was surprised he would take such a risk. He must have been truly desperate. Nic is unconscious and restrained.”

My eyes flutter open and look up at him in shock. “What?”

Ivan looks down at me steadily, his eyes utterly at peace with his actions as always.

“One life was sanctioned to be taken this morning. Nic aided a traitor, but he was not my target tonight, so I had to restrain myself.” He turns his eyes back towards the lounge doors. “But truthfully, it would be a mercy to slay him now. The mafia’s punishment for this action will be unthinkable.” His eyes look back to me, brow furrowed in concern. “But not so unthinkable as what Konrad almost did to you.”

I nod silently as tears roll down my cheeks. I feel a strong finger wipe them away as gently as though he were stroking my hair. “Thank you, Ivan,” is all I can whisper out, exhausted and shaken beyond belief as I hang limply in his arms.

His lips press into my forehead. “I would go to the ends of the earth for you,
solnishka
. Come, let’s leave this place. The cleaners will be here soon.”

Without another word, my hitman protector carries me out of my club, leaving behind all the baggage of my past and into what my muddled, tired mind thinks just could be a better future at last.