Page 28 of Bloody Lace

28

DIMITRI

I can pinpoint exactly the moment that I knew I had to say something to Evelyn. I’ve been fighting it, day in and day out, for longer than I want to admit. But when I walked into the penthouse tonight and she wasn’t there, I felt my stomach drop, and I knew.

I saw Buttons by the couch, a pet that I didn’t even fucking want, and imagined him gone. I imagined her gone, the penthouse no longer faintly scented with her orange perfume, her side of the bed made up and smooth every morning. And the feeling that washed over me, one of aching, desperate longing, told me everything I needed to know.

I called my driver, went downstairs, and had him take me straight to Pearls & Lace. I hadn’t meant to end up on the floor with her after she gave me a tour, tangled up in her, fucking her like I’d never get to touch her again. Like she was everything I didn’t know I needed until thirty minutes ago. But once I kissed her, I couldn’t stop.

I was going to tell her everything afterwards. What I’d realized. How I felt. How, when I knew I couldn’t fight it any longer, I knew I wanted to let her know that I cared about her in the best way I could think of—by asking her to show me what means the most to her.

And then I looked down, and saw that piece of plastic fallen out of her purse, and my entire world shifted in an instant.

“Evelyn.” Her name comes out strangled, and I find myself hoping that she just hadn’t had a chance to tell me yet. That she was going to. That all the fears that suddenly well up inside of me, fears I didn’t know I could have, are unfounded.

“Dimitri, I—” She breaks off, and the way she says just those two words, the nervous uncertainty in them, tells me everything I need to know.

I push myself to my feet, feeling suddenly dizzy. “You weren’t going to tell me, were you?” I stare at her, wanting to believe it’s not true, but from the way her face pales, her eyes darting from the tests to me, I know it is. “You were going to try to get out of the marriage first.”

“I—”

“This changes everything.” I shake my head. “If you’re having my child , Evelyn?—”

“I knew you would say that!” The words burst out of her, and she takes a step back, her arms wrapping around herself. She’s standing there in her sweater and panties, but she doesn’t make a move to grab her jeans, her head shaking as she stares at me. “I just found out. Just before you got here. I had Dahlia bring me a test, and?—”

“ Dahlia knows, and I didn’t?”

“I needed time to think!” She bites her lip, her eyes going glossy, and a part of me wants to go to her and wrap her up in my arms, tell her that we’ll figure it out. But another part of me is furious that she’s kept it from me, even this short amount of time. That she called her best friend instead of me. That she was going to try to keep it a secret—for how long?

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” she whispers. “I was feeling sick the last few days, and I just realized…I counted and figured out that I was late.” She looks away, her teeth still worrying at her lower lip. “I needed to think, Dimitri. That’s all.”

I can hear it in her voice, that 's not all . That she’s afraid of something. “What did you need to think about?” The words come out harsher than I mean for them to, and I see her flinch. “You’re pregnant with my child, Evelyn—what is there to think about?”

“I’m afraid!” She shouts the words, and it’s my turn to flinch, staring at her as she yells at me, the way no one else has ever been brave enough to do. The way only she speaks to me, the only person in the world unafraid to tell me what she’s thinking, what she’s feeling, who is raw and real with me when no one else has ever been.

It’s why I love her.

It’s why I can’t fucking lose her.

“I’m afraid of being tied to this world,” she says, the words tumbling out of her, one after the other. “Of being tied to you, and the violence that’s around you, all of the time. Of bringing a child into that. Of being stuck in a marriage where…you don’t love me, Dimitri! How can I stay in that forever, even with a baby?”

“The baby is exactly why all bets are off,” I growl. “Why everything changes, now.”

It was the wrong thing to say. I should have told her that I do love her, that it’s what I came here to tell her, but it doesn’t come out. And when her face shutters, I know that I’ve missed my moment.

“This is your fault!” Evelyn cries out. “You lost control, and?—”

A bitter laugh escapes me, but what she says after is lost, as the crack of gunshots suddenly fills the air, and I hear glass shatter.

On instinct, I leap towards her, intent on bringing her down to the ground, to cover her, to make sure she’s safe. I grab for my coat that I tossed over the counter before Evelyn gave me the tour, intending to grab my gun that’s in the pocket as I get her down, but she scrambles away from me with surprising quickness, and I stumble, falling into the counter and hitting my shoulder hard.

I hear Gus shout, and another flurry of gunshots. I spin, grabbing my gun and flicking the safety off as I recover, and I see four—no, five black-garbed men outside, one of them going down as Gus shoots again.

And then, Evelyn screams as I hear boots coming towards us, and I whirl around to see four more men, two of them grabbing her and dragging her backwards as the other two come for me.

It’s happening too quickly. Caught up in the argument, I didn’t hear anyone coming, and there’s too many for even Vik and Gus to handle at once. Several of the men are coming in through the front door, towards me, and I don’t dare fire at the two blocking off Evelyn from my view. If a bullet goes wide, it could hit her.

“Dimitri!” She screams my name, and it feels like it tears something open in my chest. I fire at two of the men to my right, hitting one in the shoulder and another in the gut, and I can hear the volley of fire from outside as Vik and Gus get off another series of rounds. The air is filled with the cracking sound of shots, the acrid scent of it filling the air, and I fight off the men coming at me, throwing out an elbow as I shoot at one in front of me, as Evelyn is dragged away from my view.

I see one in my periphery and pivot, firing and hitting him in the head, ducking as I see Vik coming in and dropping one just to my right. “Come on!” he shouts, and I bolt forward, firing as I go, knocking two more men down with bullets to the gut and leg as I follow him out.

The car is at the curb, blood spilling over the pavement from the bodies there. “They’ve got her up there,” Vik snaps, flinging himself into the passenger’s seat as Gus and I scramble in. “We’ll catch them. Don’t worry, boss.”

I hear boots behind me just as I go to close the door and fire once more, dropping the man on his way towards us. He screams, hitting the pavement, just as the car peels away from the sidewalk in pursuit of the SUV ahead of us that Vik saw Evelyn being dragged into.

“Fucking go faster!” I snarl at the driver, leaning forward. “Don’t let them out of your sight. If you value your fucking life?—”

“We’ll get her.” Vik’s voice is calmer than I could imagine being right now, but that’s why he’s my right hand man. He knows that in this moment, someone has to be.

Our car swings around a curve, following the SUV down a side street, zig-zagging through traffic as my driver does his best to keep it in sight. It disappears for a moment, only for us to catch it again, following it out past the city and into the Bronx as my driver lays on the gas, jolting forward in an effort to keep from losing it.

“Slow down,” I tell him, as we see the SUV turn another corner. “Hang back just a little, so we can catch them off guard.” As much as I don’t want to lose sight of Evelyn for even a moment, I know the smartest thing to do is let them think they’ve lost us. I don’t want them to take it out on Evelyn, or try to use her as a hostage. If we can get even the smallest element of surprise, and get the drop on them, we’ll be in a better position.

Even if everything in me is screaming to throw caution to the wind, this is the moment where I need to remember who I am. The heir, the future pakhan , and if I lose my head in this moment, my father will have been right.

I can’t let love get us both killed. I need to save her, so I can tell her what I know I feel.

The driver pulls into an alleyway, and the three of us spill out, heading for the large, dingy-looking brick building just ahead. We saw the SUV heading around the back of it, and we go around through another alley, slipping in the back just in time to see four of the men hustling Evelyn in through a steel door at the back.

“It’ll be locked,” Gus says. “But I can manage that.” He slips a slim leather case free from his pocket. “Say the word, boss. We’ll get her back.”

I see the grim set to his jaw, and I know he’s come to care about Evelyn, too, in the time that he’s known her. He’s every bit as determined as I am, and I nod, letting him slip stealthily up to the door just ahead of Vik and I as we approach.

Gus is better with the lockpick than I knew. He pops it in less than a minute, nodding to us as he puts it away and draws his gun again. “You wanna go first, boss?” he murmurs. “It’s your woman. We’ve got your back.”

I nod, moving up in front of him. Carefully, I push the door open, sliding into the darkness just beyond, staying pressed to the back wall. Gus and Vik move in behind me, sticking to the shadows, and I can hear voices in the room just ahead.

I hear Evelyn’s whimper, hear the sound of a slap and her crying out, and I stiffen, my teeth grinding so hard that my jaw pops. I glance at Vik and Gus, nodding to them, and then I move forward.

I’m not letting them lay another hand on her. The burning need to get to her sears through my veins, my blood roaring in my ears, my knuckles white from how hard I’m gripping my gun. I edge towards the door, quiet, and then I see, through the crack of it, Barca Valenti holding Evelyn by the shoulder.

Something snaps inside of me. Some last shred of self-control frays completely, and I slam my shoulder into the door, flinging it wide as I open fire on the men in front of Barca.

He shouts, drawing his own gun as he shoves Evelyn to one side. She hits the floor, hard, and my gaze snaps to her, to the red mark on her cheek, the fear in her eyes.

“Get out of the line of fire!” I shout at her, pivoting as a bullet zips past my cheek, burying itself in the wall just beyond me. My ears are ringing with the sound of gunfire as Gus and Vik come in behind me, and I feel a splatter of blood across my cheek as I shoot two men in front of me, dropping them as I advance on Barca.

I can’t hear anything. I can’t hear what he’s saying over the ringing in my ears, the roar of my pulse, the anger that sizzles through my veins like a live wire. I shoot twice, popping him once in each kneecap before he can get a shot off, and then I take two quick strides forward, looming over at him as he looks up at me with all of the blood drained from his face.

“That’s for touching my fucking wife,” I snarl. “And this is for thinking you could come for her, and live another day on this fucking earth.”

I pull the trigger once more, and a hole opens up in his forehead, blood spilling out as he slumps back against the floor, his eyes going sightless.

Slowly, the room comes back into focus. I turn, going straight for Evelyn, seeing Vik and Gus finishing off the last men crumpled on the floor. I get to her in two quick strides, sinking down onto the concrete next to her—and then I see the blood, spreading out across her sweater just below her shoulder.

“Dimitri.” She chokes out my name, and I lunge forward, my arm sliding under her shoulder as I lift her into my arms. Dimly, I hear Gus shout for me not to move her, but I can’t listen. I can’t do anything other than pull her closer, as I feel my own heart bleeding out of my chest.

“You’re going to be fine.” I reach up, pushing a piece of her hair back, sticky with someone else’s blood. “We’re getting help. You’ll be fine. Evelyn?—”

She coughs, her face contorting with pain. “It’s not that bad,” she whispers, her voice cracking, before she starts to cough again. Behind me I can hear Vik on the phone, calling for a car. Calling for help. But it doesn’t feel fast enough. Nothing feels like enough—and in this moment, I know I should have told her how I felt long before it was almost too late.

“I love you.” I reach up, brushing my bloody fingers over her cheek. “Do you hear me? I love you, Evelyn. And I should have told you every single day since I caught you when you slipped on that ice. I should never have let you walk away from me that night…Evelyn!”

She’s slumped in my arms, her face gone pale, her breathing shallow. It feels as if everything is happening too fast, time blurring and bending around me, a low roar in my ears. As if there’s not enough time to tell her what I feel, when I should have said it so many times already. I can hear chaos around me, shouts, someone calling my name, but it doesn’t break through until I feel a heavy hand grab my shoulder, and I lurch to try to knock it free.

“Easy there, boss.” Vik’s voice cuts through the din. “I called 911. There’s an ambulance outside. They’ll be in here in a second. You’re gonna have to let them take her, alright, boss?”

I can hear the siren, dimly, and there’s paramedics, a board, voices all around me telling me that I need to let her go. My body feels stiff, locked, as if that’s impossible. How can I let her go, when I don’t know if she heard me?

“Come on.” Vik’s hand is still on my shoulder. “We’ll get you to the hospital before the ambulance even gets there. We’ll meet her there. I’ll pay off whoever needs to be paid off. Gus will call the cleaners. We’ve got this, boss. Come on.”

I nod, standing with a jerky motion as two of the paramedics move carefully towards me, maneuvering Evelyn out of my arms and onto the board that will carry her up to the stretcher. It takes everything in me not to force them to let me go with her as the paramedics carry Evelyn out. I need to take care of her.

The fear fades. My mind snaps back into sudden clarity, and I nod again, striding after them. “Let’s fucking go.”

Vik was right about beating the ambulance there. I’m in the emergency room before the paramedics even bring her in, going straight to the front desk. “My wife is being brought here,” I snap, finding the first nurse who is sitting behind it. “Evelyn Yashkova. I want her prioritized. I want the best doctor in this fucking hospital waiting when she gets here. You make sure she’s treated immediately. Understand?”

The nurse blinks. “I—Mr…”

“Yashkov. Dimitri Yashkov. Does that name mean something to you?”

She shakes her head, her eyes widening, and I’m about to lose my fucking patience when another nurse, this one considerably older, grabs her shoulder and leans forward, whispering something in her ear.

The younger nurse’s eyes go so wide, for a moment I think they might pop out of her head. “Yes,” she gasps, her voice suddenly trembling. “I’ll get Dr. Ellis. He’s the best on the floor. We’ll get to her right away. There’s an ambulance coming in now—right away, sir.”

She scrambles away, the older nurse going with her, and I don’t realize until a moment later that my hands are curled into fists, every muscle in my body rigid.

“Dimitri.” Vik’s voice comes from behind me, and I shake my head, already walking towards where the ambulance will be coming in. “Dimitri!”

I pivot, glaring at him. “I need to see my wife.”

“You need to hear this, first.” He draws in a slow breath. “I just got a call from Pyotr. The man in charge at the mansion.”

“I know who Pyotr is,” I snap. “Why are you telling me this now?”

Vik looks at me cautiously. “Because Nicci Armand was there just now, meeting with your father.”

I frown at him. “And this matters right now because?—”

“Because he overheard her telling him that the hit on Evelyn was tonight. That she’d be dead by the morning.”