Page 41

Ouch.

My brain slowly dragged itself out of the groggy depths it was trapped in when I banged my head. Someone was patting my cheek and cradling me in strong, warm arms. Instantly, I knew it was Nik and that I was finally safe. And exactly where I wanted to be.

Once I realized that Nik had received my message and had found us on our way to the next destination, there was no doubt in my mind that he would be able to get Arkadi to pull over. After all, he wanted a big confrontation, didn’t he? I slipped my seatbelt off so I could escape the moment the car stopped. I just wasn’t expecting it to stop in such a dramatic fashion, and the airbag felt like a frying pan to the face, knocking me out cold for a few moments.

Other than that, I felt perfectly fine as I snuggled closer to Nik’s chest. Better than fine. Except…

I jerked out of his comforting embrace and sat upright to grab Nik’s jacket. I had to warn him this wasn’t over, not by a long shot.

“Arkadi,” I croaked.

“He’s not going to hurt you again,” Nik promised. “Let’s just say he’s taking a nap.” He patted the gun strapped to his side, and I sagged against him with relief.

“He was just using me as a distraction,” I said, my voice pathetically weak. I cleared my throat, pointing toward Arkadi’s car in the shallow ditch. Nik must have carried me out because we sat under a tree a few feet away. “He’s got a map with a whole bunch of locations.”

Nik didn’t seem surprised to hear about all the mayhem that was still in store for him and his brothers, only pulling me close again.

“Just about everything my family owns has been under siege since you went missing,” he said, kissing my brow. “But don’t worry about that.”

How could I not? “I’m really okay. Do what you need to do,” I urged.

If I swore up and down, I wouldn’t try to run away again, would he be able to trust me enough to leave me at the compound? Why should he ever trust me again after all the trouble I’d unwittingly caused? I hadn’t trusted him enough to believe the very real danger I was in.

“I need to be with you,” he said, kissing my forehead again. “You’re the only thing that matters to me right now.”

I stared up at him, wracked with guilt because I could tell by the sincerity in his clear blue eyes that he meant every word. I had to come clean. Confess everything and beg his forgiveness. Hope he believed me when I swore I’d never do something so foolish again. All I could do was try. Before I could get a single word out, another familiar voice swore at some commotion from the car in the ditch.

Arkadi had woken up from the nap Nik had put him in and took off running. Ivan swore again as he took off after him across a field. Nik and I watched as Ivan tackled him a hundred yards away, in much better shape since he hadn’t been beaten over the head with the butt of a gun. The sounds of grunts and fists hitting flesh drifted back to us in the still night air, and I hoped every single one of them was causing Arkadi the pain he deserved.

Nik gathered me into his arms and picked me up, carrying me to his car to drive me out of the line of any fire. We did hear shots a few moments later, and Nik tensed up, every muscle coiled to go to the aid of his brother, but staying at my side.

“Do you need to help him?” I whispered for no other reason than the tension was thick, and it seemed appropriate.

“I won’t leave you again,” he growled. “Ivan can handle himself.”

There was a long, quiet moment, and then Arkadi’s car headed our way. Nik grabbed his gun, fiddling with it as he muttered that it wouldn’t lock up again this time. As the car pulled up beside us and stopped, Nik stepped out, aiming at the shadowy driver.

“Whoa, hold up, it’s only me,” Ivan yelled, sticking his arms out of the driver’s side window.

Nik immediately lowered his gun, and I found I was holding my breath and on the verge of being dizzy. I let it out and took in a shaky lungful. The relief that it was over— for now at least— made me weak, my hands trembling in my lap hard enough to rattle the cuffs. I forced myself to get out of the car and stand up, struggling to take long, slow, breaths to keep from passing out.

“Where is he?” Nik asked, hurrying over to inspect the back seat.

“He got the drop on me,” Ivan grumbled. “He’s a strong son of a bitch, and fast as hell, even with that huge welt you gave him on the back of his head.” He swore a bit and looked wistfully in the direction of the crash. “Managed to get a pretty good shot off, too, and took out one of my tires.”

“Good thing he didn’t take you out,” Nik said, clapping him on the shoulder.

Ivan shrugged and started making phone calls, promising he’d have people swarming the area to search for him. “He can’t stay hidden for long,” he said.

Nik and I exchanged a sour look. All those times his surveillance teams thought they had eyes on Arkadi, and all those times, he’d managed to give them the slip.

“The man’s a fucking ghost,” Nik said, shaking his head in frustration.

“Not a ghost,” I told him, explaining how he’d bragged to me about using makeup and doubles to throw them off the trail.

“That’s good information to have,” Ivan said. “Now we’re aware of his ploys; they’ll be much less effective for him.” He looked down at his phone with a frown, sighing as he read the newest message. “Another building’s gone,” he said. “My new karaoke bar over in Westwood.”

“Go,” Nik told him. “We’ll be fine on our own now.”

Ivan nodded, clearly concerned for his property, but they took the time to search Arkadi’s car and send the map coordinates from his tablet to their guys. Hopefully, they could stop much more of Arkadi’s destruction.

“What about you?” I asked Nik. Surely, some of his properties were on that map.

“What about me? Do you think I’m going to chase after those dots on Arkadi’s map? The whole world could burn for all I care, now that you’re safe.”

Ivan snickered. “I doubt Aleks will agree with that,” he said. Exactly. I’d brought down all this havoc onto Nik’s family. He should have been raging at me. “It’s going to be a long night,” he said, getting into the car.

“Not for us. I’m taking Emerson home,” Nik said, giving me a look I wouldn’t dare argue with. I was done arguing when it came to my safety.

After Ivan took off I watched the car disappear down the deserted road, suddenly feeling exposed in the eerily quiet night.

Nik sensed my discomfort and helped me into the car, tutting over my face, which must have looked pretty bad after being pummeled by the airbag. My cheeks felt like they were sunburned and my nose throbbed. He gingerly touched the bridge and shook his head.

“I don’t think it’s broken.”

If it was, it would have been deserved. I’d brought all of this onto myself, and worse, onto Nik and his family. I swallowed hard, struggling to find the words that might absolve me of the guilt that had me in a chokehold. When I couldn’t say a thing, Nik crouched down beside me and gathered me into a comforting embrace.

“It’s over now, Emerson. Let’s go home.”

I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and held on tight. “There’s nowhere I’d rather be,” I said.

And I meant it, with all my heart.