Page 18 of The Enemy’s Defector (Ivanov Syndicate #3)

NIKOLAI

O nce more, we hurried away.

I hadn’t suggested that we relocate for any specific reason. I’d wanted to err on the side of safety and not risk becoming a sitting duck, too vulnerable for anyone to find.

“I thought you said you didn’t see anything,” Katerina hissed as we snuck out a side door, avoiding the front where someone seemed to be snooping.

“I didn’t,” I whispered. I really hadn’t. But I was damned glad that I was more or less proven right about the need to stay mobile.

Especially then.

Right when she was asking me to more or less commit to her. She had put pressure on me to say whether or not our time of hiding together would have an expiration date or if we would keep this up for good.

As we crouched and snuck away, holding hands and having each other’s back like this, it seemed ridiculous to ever think we wouldn’t be partners. Being with her made too much sense to consider the opposite.

“Get them!” someone shouted from behind us, further back in the alley.

Fuck! I didn’t waste time to mutter it. I reacted only with speed.

Katerina heard it too, and she sprinted right alongside me.

This woman wasn’t dainty and prone to panicking at the worst times.

She wasn’t fragile and weak, unable to withstand the need to push herself.

Because of that, among so many other reasons, she was the ideal woman to be my other half.

Katerina wasn’t an outsider like Sloane, who’d need to learn the Mafia lifestyle and accept our risks. She knew them already.

She was perfect. For me. But pressed to tell her how I’d plan to keep her as mine forever, I was stuck without any words.

And I couldn’t focus on forming a reply now.

Together, we bolted as fast as we could. With the sounds of multiple footsteps behind us, the race was on. The need to flee was urgent. Fucking again.

For them to be on us this quickly, they had to have placed men around the block.

Because of that, it was pointless to think about slowing to get into the stolen car we’d left behind.

Running like this wouldn’t last long. But we had to rely on the maneuverability of slipping around corners and leaping over boxes and other obstacles in this alley.

“This way,” I said, praying she heard me over the panted breaths I managed.

This wasn’t an ideal occasion to chat. I was fit, despite my time in captivity.

She was able-bodied to run hard too. With my heart racing this fast and adrenaline fueling to me a panic-worthy urgency, it seemed impossible to draw a full breath and speak.

I didn’t need to worry about giving her directions, though. She matched my stride and was so clued in to my actions that we really did move as a team. As one.

Guiding her around more dumpsters and parked cars, other odds and ends of debris and garbage shoved into this narrow streetway, I risked glancing over my shoulder.

Just one look. And it pissed me off that there were more men than I figured.

A team of five or six were catching up. All of them were unidentifiable, strangers I didn’t recognize or men mostly masked up and covering their faces.

More independent thugs.

More hired contractors.

I wished against all wishes that whoever was so determined to get me would reveal themselves.

All I wanted was to know who to pay back.

I had to know which man or men were waiting for death because of their attacks on my family, their decisions to poison my father, and their action of having me kidnapped.

Wait. That’s not right.

Tuning out the worst of the adrenaline ramping me up to sprint and evade these men, and ignoring the sounds of our hurried footsteps as we went, I realized a critical difference.

Last time when we’d been found and had to relocate, they’d shouted out to get her . They were targeting Katerina by singling her out with their orders to each other. This time, they had said to get them , meaning both of us.

Why would Anton hire out thugs to get his niece? It would’ve made more sense to send Kozlov soldiers after her—and to retrieve me.

This layered question of who was responsible for what bothered me, but I couldn’t begin to analyze it when we were on the run and dodging them through this grimy alley.

The only thing that mattered now was getting Katerina away from these men. We ran and ran, not giving up, but before we could reach another building that I knew of on Ivanov territory, they caught up to us.

I still wasn’t fully healed. Recovering from the long ordeal I’d faced in captivity would require more time and rest. While I wasn’t one hundred percent, the need to keep Katerina safe propelled me not to quit or slow down.

“We’re trapped,” Katerina worried aloud when we seemed to face a dead end. In front of us, a tall brick wall prevented us from going any further. To our right was a chain-link fence that barricaded us from the metal stairwell we had to reach.

“No.” Arguing with her was instinct. But she was right.

If we didn’t figure out something fast, we’d be caught—both of us at once.

That wasn’t allowed. I couldn’t let her face any harm or more danger.

Regardless of whether I’d verbally claim her as my woman.

As far as I was concerned, I’d claimed her physically, and that wasn’t something I would take lightly.

“They’re going—” A gunshot cut her off. Without thinking, without looking, I dragged her close and yanked her down.

In the same fluid motion that I used to remove her from anyone’s line of sight, I hunched over her and got my gun out.

Only one was available at that safe house, but it was better than nothing.

Aiming quickly, I fired back at the closest man who’d reached us. Our position was terrible. We were outnumbered and surrounded. But that wasn’t going to persuade me to leave her or let her dash off without me. Her odds would always be better with me, dammit.

Two men fell from my shots. I’d hit them at center mass before roving my gaze to check on the others.

As they all skidded to stops on their run after us, I catalogued who was where and which ones posed the most harm.

With them taking up spots with cover to fire at us again, I realized the circumstances were shifting.

If they were comfortable firing at us like this, we were no longer important enough to be kept alive.

“Stay down,” I told Katerina unnecessarily. She wouldn’t do anything stupid. She knew how to survive a shootout.

“But—”

Again, she was cut off by a gunshot. This time, she paired her words with a sharp intake of air and a lunge upward. Instead of obeying what I’d just told her to do, she stood and knocked me to the side as she shouted, “Look out!”

The impact of her body hitting my side didn’t hurt. She hadn’t knocked me down, but that whistle of a bullet whizzing too close for comfort wasn’t good. Falling back sharply toward the side, she whipped too quickly, as if she’d been hit.

I caught her, holding my breath as shock claimed me. I wasn’t frozen, numbed by the violence, but I was stunned that she’d actually done that.

She disobeyed my order to stay down and safe while I stood over her and protected her. No. This stubborn woman spotted a shooter from the side, one I hadn’t noticed, and she’d taken it upon herself to intercept the bullet meant for me.

“Katerina!” I hauled her close to me as she cringed and crouched forward, one arm over her stomach and the other lying over it. Blood spilled from her upper arm as she lifted her hand to cover the open wound.

What the fuck!

Goddammit!

Numerous other reactions filed through my mind, but I didn’t linger with the surprise of her taking a bullet intended for me. If I hadn’t witnessed it myself with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have ever believed she’d be shot protecting me during another fucking ambush.

“You—” I gritted my teeth, holding her against me as I turned one last time to fire at the remaining men. With anger lacing my blood and giving me more motivation to be as lethal as possible, I aimed and fired until no man stood living.

It wasn’t wise. I could’ve kept one breathing to question them and get answers. But the fury at seeing Katerina wounded… I needed them all dead as quickly as possible. Head shots ended them all.

I didn’t hesitate. Without waiting to see that they’d all fallen to the pavement, I spun and picked up Katerina as she closed her eyes and winced. Her fingers were covered in crimson as she covered the injury, but she leaned into me, using muscle memory as I hoisted her into my arms.

“I can’t believe you fucking…” I gritted my teeth and growled out my frustration as I carried her from our hiding spot where we’d been cornered. Not even pausing to look at the dead men, I doubled back toward another metal stairwell that was accessible and entered the Ivanov-owned building.

With every step I took, holding Katerina in my arms despite the bulk of her backpack strapped to her, my rage increased. I became more and more incensed that she’d dare to do something like that. That she’d put herself at risk like that for me .

“I can’t believe you?—”

“Shut up,” she argued curtly, but weakly.

I didn’t. Reaching the door inside the empty building, I kicked it and entered a small office space. A couch collected dust along one wall, and that was where I sat with her, nudging her to show me her arm. “I can’t believe you fucking took a shot for me.”

“Well, I did,” she huffed sassily.

“Why the fuck would you put yourself at risk like that?” I demanded as I tore my shirt off.

Pulling apart the ripped part of her sleeve, I inspected the gash on her arm.

It wasn’t a through-and-through. Only a grazing—fortunately.

But it was still her blood that spilled for me.

It was a wound she’d acquired because she hadn’t wanted me hurt.

“You can’t be reckless like this,” I snarled, hating this terror that gripped me at the idea that she could’ve been hurt more than this. She mattered this much. She was too important to me to bear the idea of her being hurt at all, and especially because of me.

“Do you hear me?” I snapped as I pressed my shirt to her cut.

“You can’t fucking scare me like that. Fuck!

” I gritted my teeth as I jerked my head up to face her.

Staring into her eyes, I tried to infuse how unforgivable this was.

“Do you understand me? I can’t let you risk yourself and be hurt.

That was fucking stupid, Katerina. Don’t you know better? ”

Narrowing her eyes and keeping her brow furrowed, she used her other arm to lift her hand and grip the back of my neck. “I will risk whatever I want for you, Nik. It’s not the first time, and it’s not the last. So get over yourself and fucking accept it.”

She crashed her lips against mine, robbing me of the chance to have the last word. Bickering with her was pointless, anyway. Because she was alive. It was just a scrape. And we were together.

Rage thrummed through me, and because I had all that adrenaline that hadn’t stopped yet, my heart was racing, too revved up with the fear of losing her. I was prompted to fight or fuck her, and with her mouth so needy against mine, I could tell I wasn’t alone.

She felt exactly the same, greedy to feel me and know that we were alive and together despite the danger on our heels.

Nothing could be normal about this. It had to be a sick perversion to be turned on by this push to bicker and clash like this.

But what was normal, anyway? Nothing about being in the violent life of the Mafia was “normal” in any way.

Charged with this need to ground myself with her, I wasn’t gentle or slow in stripping her.

In the barest moments of breaking our kiss, we were like animals trying to remove the layers between us.

Kissing her was more important than breathing air.

Feeling her soft, smooth skin bared for me was more critical than slowing down and being considerate of her wound.

She couldn’t pause either, rabid for me as we made out and groped, harsh and hasty to get to the basic union we excelled at already.

I couldn’t tell her and wax poetic about how much it scared me that she’d risk herself for me. But I could match her need and show her. I’d give her what she wanted.

Letting her lie back on the couch, I lost myself in staring at her lidded eyes, heavy and shining with lust. As she maneuvered my dick toward her pussy, I leaned up on my haunches and didn’t look away.

I wanted her to feel free to take me. I wanted her to have the permission to know I’d be hers. Because I really was.

“Take it,” I growled. “Take that cock in your pussy, Katerina.”

She moaned, lifting her hips and giving me a better angle to slide all the way into her.

Without needing much foreplay, probably just as twisted and turned-on as I was, she was soaked and slick for me.

Her juices leaked from where my cock entered her, and seeing those pink lips, bared and stretching to accommodate me, tempted me to take over and sink into her faster.

“Get a pillow,” she said, gasping with her panted breaths.

I didn’t think twice. Grabbing one to slip it under her ass, I groaned and reveled in the tight fit of her pussy wrapped around me.

Back and forth, she urged me to fuck her, but before I could settle into a faster rhythm and pound into her so hard like she favored, she scooted back and adjusted the pillow again so she was canted upward.

“No. Here, Nik. I need more.” She grabbed my dick, slick with her arousal, and lined it up to her other entrance. Her rear hole. We’d teased and played there. But this was the first time she wanted my cock in it.

I arched one brow, mesmerized and so entranced with her guiding my dick to that small rosette.

“More,” she begged.

Wet with her cream, I was lubed up and slick for her, but it still took a few pushes into that tight ring to get in. Watching her as I rammed in, inch by inch, I moved my thumb and finger to her clit and kept her on the edge of coming.

It was a shame to see her come too soon.

Fucking her ass and pleasing her with anal wasn’t something I wanted to rush.

But I couldn’t last. So soon after the dreadful fear of losing her or seeing her wounded, I had to relish the opposite.

Seeing her alive and pleased, closing her eyes and tensing before the relief of her orgasm hit her, was the perfect remedy to the horror of thinking she’d sacrifice her life for me.

Because as I followed her a moment later and shot my cum deep into her ass, I knew that wasn’t possible.

She couldn’t sacrifice her life for me. Her life for mine.

My life wouldn’t be worth living without her in it.