Page 76 of Forced By the Obsessed Bratva

I turned and ran, crashing into the kitchen table, shoving it behind me in a desperate attempt to block his path. A chair toppled, but the thump barely registered. The only sound I heard was the quick, hard footsteps behind me.

A shot rang in the air, and the bullet tore into the wall to my left.

I dodged and ran faster, knife gripped firmly in one hand as I tore down the back hall.

I fumbled at the back door. My fingers were slick, trembling. The lock gave after one twist, and I burst out into the night.

The icy air sliced through my lungs like shards of glass. The backyard was wild, weeds grasping at my ankles, branches of trees slapping at my arms as I sprinted. The terrain was rough. I fell once, regained my balance, and continued.

Another shot.

This one missed by inches. I didn’t scream. There wasn’t enough time.

I ran past the trees and onto the gravel alley at the back of the house. My feet pounded the pavement. My lungs hurt. But I didn’t stop.

I couldn’t.

I didn’t look back either. My life and my child’s life depended on me, and I had to get away from whoever was behind that mask.

He was fast, running after me like a shadow. Like death itself.

I rounded a corner, swerving into a different alley, heart pounding as if it was going to jump out of my chest. My legs hurt. My body was on fire. I couldn’t keep running, but I had to.

A fence rose up in front of me, too tall to scale. I flung myself against it, nonetheless, grating my palm as I scrambled up and over, falling to the other side.

I did not have time to think as my foot hit concrete once more, and I slammed into something solid. I bounced off it, nearly falling backward, and raised the knife instinctively, ready to defend myself, to stab, to survive.

The masked man was gone. He’d disappeared into the darkness.

I turned around to see who I had bumped into, ready to fight if I needed to—because I sure as hell wasn’t going to die tonight—and I froze.

It was him.

Matvey.

His eyes locked on mine. They were cold and piercing. His dark coat brushed against my shoulder, and his face was an unreadable mask.

Everything in me collapsed at once.

I gazed up at him, blinking amidst tears and sweat. My chest rose and fell. My hands trembled, and the knife fell from my fingers and landed on the ground.

I couldn’t breathe. Not because of fear, but because I felt a sense of relief.

Regardless of the fact that my whole body cried out to struggle, to run, my heart said something else.

You’re safe now.

I reeled forward, and Matvey caught me, his strong arms clamping around me. And I broke.

The sobs that burst from me were deep, raw, torn from a place I didn’t even know still existed. I pressed my face intohis jacket, wetting the fabric with tears, not caring that I was supposed to hate him or escape from him.

I didn’t hate him. I didn’t want to escape from him.

Not right now.

At the moment, he was the sole thing holding the world back from collapsing around me.

His hand traveled up my back, and his other hand curled around my waist protectively.