Page 86 of Darkest Desire

I almost lose my breath when I see that the shooter is… Mikhail. He has a large machine gun in his hand – easy enough to take down multiple guards.

Super easy to kill Nico with.

But what about me?

“Mikhail,” Nico sneers.

“You tried to kill my wife, you motherfucker.”

“I didn’t try to kill her. I didn’t kill her. You’re making a big deal out of nothing.”

“Nothing?! My wife could be gone from this world if you had pulled that trigger. The fact that you thought you could go after her in the first place…”

“She was trying to take my wife from me. I had to stop her. But I didn’t kill her. It was just a little warning: stop trying to take Sasha away. Simple as that. No one needed to get hurt.”

“Sasha is hurt,” Mikhail says. “Being married to a man like you will ruin her. Natalya told me everything. How you made Sasha kill a man with her own hands. I’m sure you beat her. A man like you – a Mafia man – definitely beats his wife.”

Nico curls his hands into fists. “I do not beat my wife. I have never beat her.”

“He’s right,” I blurt out. “Nico has never beat me. He’s…” Spanked me. But I’m not going to tell Mikhail that. It will only make things worse.

Mikhail’s eyes flick to me in surprise. “He made you kill a man and you’re… defending him?”

“I want my family to be safe,” I say. “That is true. I want Natalya to be safe. But… Nico, to his credit, has never beaten me.”

“See? Sasha is safe with me. Now leave Mikhail. Before you make things worse.”

He raises his gun higher. “You still threatened my wife and that cannot stand. I’ve come here to kill you and to save Sasha.”

“If you shoot that gun, there’s a good chance you end up shooting Sasha too. Can you live with yourself if you killed your wife’s sister? The sister Natalya cares about so much?”

“Shut up,” Mikahil growls. But he’s hesitating. He doesn’t want to accidently kill me.

Which means I have the chance to make sure both of these men make it out alive. Mikhail for Natalya’s sake.

And Nico… for my sake.

I run forward, planting myself in front of Nico.

“What are you doing?” Nico hisses.

“Saving your life,” I snap back. “Mikhail, take me to my sister. Save me. But… don’t kill Nico.”

Mikhail’s eyes widened. “You don’t want me to kill him? Why the fuck not? I thought you didn’t want to be married to him. That you hated him.”

“I… don’t hate him as much as I thought I did. Just take me to Natalya. But spare Nico’s life.”

“No. He’ll just come back after me and try to kill Natalya again. I’m sorry, Sasha, but I can’t stand for that. I don’t care if you have feelings for him. He’s dead.”

“Run,” I say to Nico, while still keeping myself planted in front of him.

Nico scoffs. “I am not running.”

“You will die if you don’t. Go out the back gate. Just run. Mikhail will not shoot if I’m in the way. Right?”

Once again, Mikhail hesitates, telling me that he wants to shoot Nico but he doesn’t want to kill me. It would ruin his relationship with Natalya if he did.

“Get out of the way,” Mikhail says to me.