Page 20 of Captive Vows (The Dubinin Bratva #1)

LUKA

K eeping away from Gabriella was supposed to have served two purposes.

First and foremost, I needed that step back to cool it.

After making her come in the studio, going down on her like she was the feast I’d been waiting my whole life for, I knew that more distance was smart.

She tempted me. She taunted me. Walking out of that studio with her taste lingering on my tongue wasn’t easy.

But this would be better in the long run.

I couldn’t let her become too familiar. I couldn’t permit myself to be that familiar with her yet. Once that happened and it was the same old, the allure of having her in my home would fade. I wasn’t ready to return to that nothingness of boredom and only having work to preoccupy me.

Secondly, I had to give her a chance to focus on what she wanted. Oh, there was no doubt at all that she wanted me. I bet she’d sat there stumped and miffed, put off by how I’d walked out of that studio room without a word or another glance.

Maybe she felt rejected. Used and discarded. That couldn’t be further from the truth, but so long as she assumed such, she would be free to concentrate on her rehearsal and practice. With this all-important audition coming up, she didn’t need to be distracted by me, by wanting me.

Her dream was to dance. To be on stage. To perform in the art of ballet.

I wasn’t her dream.

I couldn’t be when I wasn’t sure if she’d even stay in my life for long.

Crossing my arms, I shifted my weight on my feet as I stuck to the back of the room.

Ivan stood next to me, also watching her on the stage.

Other Dubinin men were stationed throughout the building.

Several others were posted outside, to surround the theater.

Even though she’d asked—sarcastically—about my letting her out of the confines of my fortress of a home, I had no worries that she would run.

It seemed to be on Ivan’s mind, though.

“Are you sticking around because you worry she’ll run?” he whispered as she moved from one sequence of graceful and complicated steps, jumps, and turns on the stage.

I shook my head slightly, not lowering my guard and still looking around, too on to relax. “She wants me too much to leave.”

He huffed a wry laugh.

“She wants this audition and all these chances to better her skill to leave.”

I couldn’t be sure that would always be true, but it was right now.

“I’m staying to watch because she’s too breathtaking to miss.”

I wasn’t telling him that in the vein of appreciating how sexy and gorgeous she was on the stage, alone with the spotlight tracking her as she performed for the judges.

I meant it in the manner of admiring her skill.

Her courage. Her cool confidence to prove she was truly this talented.

She wasn’t merely going through the motions of a hobby.

She had real skill and experience, and it showed.

Dancing like this, she was a living work of art in action.

“I won’t claim to be an expert on dancers or anything,” Ivan whispered back, “but she is pretty good.”

Pretty good was an understatement if I’d ever heard one.

She was a master of the music, a ruler of those moves.

Gabriella was a damned talented dancer. Ivan and I weren’t the only ones to realize it, either.

Another glance at the small panel of selected judges showed they nodded along and smiled.

A couple leaned in to whisper, their brows raised in praise and surprise.

She was killing it. Not a single flinch or mistake. No pauses or hiccups.

I exhaled slowly, relishing the steady elation of witnessing her passion coming to fruition. Her skills were honed with my help and what I provided. It always felt good to care for a woman, but I was too stubborn yet to consider her my woman, not in a permanent sense.

She’d gotten better at not locking down in a trauma response whenever something scarier happened at home. Yet, she wasn’t a tried-and-tested Mafia woman I could count on in any other way.

“Almost done, right?” Ivan asked once the hour was almost up. “If so, I’ll have the security detail move into place outside for us to?—”

The sudden burst of gunfire cut him off.

Triggered by the sound, I reached for my gun and scanned the theater.

No other audience was in here. It was only the one row of a handful of judges.

They all screamed and ducked down for cover, their hands up to shield the backs of their heads as if that would stop a bullet.

Dubinin soldiers and guards rushed down the aisles to secure the entrance and exit points that led into the darkened performing space.

But it was only Gabriella on the stage.

She’d stopped suddenly, dropping into a low crouch, as if to make herself as small as possible.

It wouldn’t make a difference.

With only her on the stage and those blinding spotlights on her to emphasize her lone presence up there, she couldn’t have been more of a target.

“Get down!” I shouted, running forward as Ivan sprinted toward the double doors where the armed men broke in.

Too many questions hit me at once. I’d deal with them later. Finding out how they’d gotten in past my guards, why they knew to come here tonight, and who the fuck they were fell under the list of imperative details to analyze later.

Right now, as I ran as fast as I could for the stage before the assassins could reach it, I only focused on getting to Gabriella and saving her.

Breathing hard and fast as the adrenaline rushed through me and fueled me to get to her, I stared ahead with tunnel vision.

All that mattered was saving her. Protecting her. It was too cruel to be taken from the beauty of her dance to this fear of her being harmed, this threat of violence and danger that crept too damn close at the wrong time.

At the edge of the stage, counting on Ivan and the other Dubinin men to have my back amid the continued gunfire, I ignored the echoes of shots. I dismissed the judges screaming and hurrying to escape.

I grabbed hold of the stage edge and hauled myself up.

Leaping onto the polished surface, I skidded into a slide.

The second I was fully on my feet, I ran for her.

Men—Cartel, from the instant first impression I allowed myself—raced forward to reach her too.

I fired at them all. With this close of a range, they had no odds of surviving my hits.

Every time I pulled on the trigger resulted in a man dropping down. Blood was shed. Lives were lost.

No. Lives were taken.

By me.

Powered with the need to kill anyone who would harm this gorgeous innocent, I shot at them as I ran toward her. Yards parted us. Feet.

Then I was there. Clutching her into my arms, I shielded her and blocked her. She tucked against me immediately. Her slender, smaller frame fit against me. As I spun us, still firing at the Cartel assassins who’d trespassed this opportunity, I killed another.

Ivan and the guards were right there with me. They scaled the stage and surrounded me. Practiced training had them forming a solid wall and unit around me, around me and Gabriella.

My chest heaved and my throat burned. Going from a hard run in panic to stopping short as the backup kept us safe, I stared down the men who dared to take something of mine.

“Go. Go, Uncle. Go.” Ivan dismissed me with a hard look. Both hands stayed on his gun as he ordered the men to check the ones who’d been shot.

It wasn’t his place to tell me what to do, but this wasn’t the first time I’d been in the line of fire with him. The priority would be to secure my safety, and at this moment, that meant transporting Gabriella out of here as well.

I didn’t linger. I didn’t wait. Those answers would come later.

Tucking Gabriella into my embrace, I kept my arms around her and steered her to dash off the stage with me. She moved with me, meeting my stride. No argument would come from her now as she fled.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to end. This wasn’t how her audition was supposed to conclude, my whisking her off stage and rushing to safety.

Having to respond to violence like this and giving her a firsthand view of what kind of a ruthless monster I was shouldn’t have happened. Not like this.

But there was no rewind button. There was no redo option. It was done.

She was safe. I got her. The Dubinin men would protect us both.

Yet, with every step of the way to get her back into my car and on the way home, I scolded myself. I damned myself for being so eager to please her and make her happy. I kicked myself for focusing so hard on earning a fucking smile from her that I risked her safety like this.

I never should have risked bringing her out of my secure home. Not before knowing with more confidence that she’d never be a target.