Page 98 of Darkest Desire

The pain is excruciating but I push through it and fire my gun once more. This time, the bullet lands in the guards head.

Liam realizes how good of a shot I am and dashes into another room off to the side.

“We have to get out of here,” Natalya says, helping me stand up but the second I place any weight on my hurt leg, I scream. “Just lean on me. Let me help you.”

We limp out of the nightclub. Liam doesn’t stop us and I don’t know why but now is not the time to worry about that.

We have no car. No cellphone to call for help.

The bullet landed in my thigh. It’s slowly oozing blood. I’m going to die if I don’t get help soon.

Natalya gasps. “We’re close to our house. Our old house.”

“You mean Denis’s house?”

“Yes. It’s not ideal but that’s all we have right now. We go to him, ask him for his help. He won’t let you die. You’re married to his ally. He’ll help.”

“What about you? He might just kill you.”

“Don’t worry about me,” she grunts, helping me walk. “We just need to save you.”

“How can I not worry? You’re my sister.”

“You actually said that as a nice thing.”

I smile despite the pain. “I did.”

“Denis is all we have right now. We have to try. Come on.”

It takes all of my strength and willpower to remain upright as we walk to Denis’s house. I’m slowly losing blood. I can feel my mind getting woozy. I’m not sure how much time I have left.

We reach his house and Natalya pounds on the door while trying to keep me upright. I’m growing weaker by the moment.

The door opens to reveal Denis himself. He sneers down at us. “What do you girls want?”

“Sasha is hurt,” Natalya gasps. “Please help her. Please.”

He flicks his eyes down to my hurt leg and sneers all over again. “Why would I help you?”

“Nico is your ally,” Natalya says. “His marriage to Sasha cemented that. Why wouldn’t you help her?”

“Because Nico and I are done. I’m no longer working with him. So you can go die, Sasha. I have no use of you anymore. Neither of you.” He slams the door shut in our faces.

Natalya screams a scream so savage and raw, it rocks me to my core.

“What do we do?” I whisper.

“We get help from someone else.” She walks me over to the neighbor’s house and bangs on their door. Thankfully, the person who lives there answers. This is our neighbor and I don’t even know them, despite having grown up in the house next door. That’s how sheltered our dad kept us.

It’s a middle aged woman. She gasps when she sees us.

“We need to get her to the hospital,” Natalya says. “Please. She’s my sister. She’s been shot. We don’t have a phone on us. We were kidnapped.”

“I’ll call the police. Wait here.” The woman runs back inside and comes back a moment later with a phone.

Natalya sets me on the ground as the woman calls for help. “You’re going to be ok. Just stay with me.”

“I never knew you cared so much.”