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She believed him. She knew he wouldn’t give up or abandon her, and that comforted her in a way. She hung up and turned on the phone location. Putting the phone in silence, she buried it under her bra, pressing the screen against her skin so it wouldn’t light up if someone called.
The two cars hiding theirs suddenly stopped, exposing them to the assassins on bikes. Konstantin rolled down the windows, aiming his own gun at one of them. He pulled the trigger once, and the bike to their right drove into an upcoming trailer.
The second guy shot at him, and he ducked just in time to evade the bullet. He shot back and took the guy down.
“Are you okay?” Konstantin asked, turning his head away from the road to look at her.
Her stomach churned, and bile rose up her throat. She was not okay. How could she be okay when they had some bad guys chasing after them with no idea if they would even make it out alive?
“I’m fine.” She clutched the passenger seat. “Are you injured?”
“Just a scratch. Listen, I need to get us out of here, but in case I can’t, run and don’t look back.”
“As if I would leave you if something happened.” This man hated her the first time he met her, yet he’d protected her and was even willing to risk his life for her. She wasn’t going to be the coward who ran away. They were going to make it out together.
“Fuck!”
Zia looked into the rearview mirror. There were more bikes behind them tailing behind them. Her heart thumped against her rib cage. It fought for space in his chest with the air frozen in his lungs. “What do we do?”
Konstantin didn’t answer. He navigated the car through an underground tunnel.
She held her breath, praying and hoping they could escape. She thought of Lev. He would be devastated if anything happened to her. She thought of the child in her stomach who would never get to be born if she died.
For a moment, it seemed like there was hope radiating at the end of the tunnel. All they had to do was make it through, and they could blend in with the other cars.
And then air stalled in her lungs. More cars and bikes were stationed at the end of the tunnel. Their headlights were on, making it hard to see anything, but she could see the guns pointing toward them.
Konstantin brought the car to a halt in front of the bad guys. He took out his own gun and pointed it back at them, then he turned around to look at her. “You should run. I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you.”
“I’m not leaving you here. I—” She trailed off as more cars and bikes came up behind them.
Someone stepped forward from the light in front of them. She tensed as his silhouette slowly came into her view.
It was Owen, her ex-boyfriend. How was he here? What the hell was he doing here? Her throat dried up and her blood turned cold.
“Drop the gun,” Owen ordered.
Konstantin didn’t. He climbed out of the car and kept his gun pointed at Owen. “I should have killed you then.”
A pang of guilt rushed through Zia. It was all her fault; she should have let them kill Owen then. She shouldn’t have saved him.
“You should have,” Owen agreed, grinning like a monster. Then he looked past Konstantin and peered directly at her. “But you didn’t, thanks to the woman who was still in love with me.”
Konstantin’s finger lingered on the trigger. “It’s not too late. How about we go down together?”
Owen chuckled darkly. “You shoot me, she dies.”
The tension in the air was palpable, and the whooshing of blood in her ears did nothing to distract her from the present.She wished she could hide somewhere deep in her mind, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t be weak, and she couldn’t let a clown like Owen make her afraid.
Cupping her stomach, she muttered. “We’re going to be brave, you and I. Your daddy will find us.”
She pushed the car door open and got down, then cautiously, she walked to Konstantin’s side and held his hand. “It’s okay,” she whispered to him. “Drop the gun.”
A mixture of different emotions flashed in Konstantin’s eyes—rage and self-loathing. Men in the Bratva were prideful, and his pride had taken a hit because he’d not only failed to protect her, but he’d also failed Lev, too.
Zia didn’t want him to think that. He was human—there was only so much he could do, and the night had been a series of chaos upon the other.
Finally, Konstantin dropped the gun to his feet and held his hands up. “Let her go. Take me instead.”
