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“Fine, then you die first,” Alexei says simply.
“No!” I breathe, trying to step out, but Ivan holds me back.
“Stay put,krasavitsa. He won’t be able to pull the trigger,” Ivan orders sharply.
“You’re still not taking me seriously. There are snipers surrounding this room!”
“Are there? You talk too much, little brother,” Ivan states, triumph in his voice.
I realize abruptly that all the red beams are gone. Alexei realizes it, too. He whirls around like he expects to conjure his backup out of thin air. Ivan starts to walk toward his brother, and the next few things happen so fast I can barely believe it.
He’s only taken a few steps when Alexei turns around. “Stay back,” he warns his brother.
Ivan doesn’t listen, which prompts Alexei to pull the trigger. My entire world narrows down to only a few moments. I scream as I watch the bullet fly.
I swear Ruslan appears out of nowhere. I’d completely forgotten he was even in the room. He manages to push Ivan out of the way, and the bullet hits him instead. He falls to the ground.
Something cracks in my heart at the sight, and I run toward them. Ivan looks disoriented for only a minute before rage fills his brown eyes. I lean down to look at Ruslan, who has blood rapidly seeping from his wound.
When I inspect it, I realize the bullet is in his arm.
“Oh, thank God,” I breathe, my eyes filling with tears. I hurriedly press my hands against the wound to stop the pressure. “You’re the best, Hulk,” I say tearily, so grateful to him for saving my husband. “The fucking best.”
He grunts in reply, his face screwed up in pain. The next thing I hear is the sound of flesh hitting flesh. I look up to seeAlexei falling to the ground and cradling his jaw. He drops the gun, his eyes filled with shock. Like he can’t believe he actually took the shot.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Ivan roars.
He picks up the gun his brother dropped and points it at his head. The anger in his eyes sends a chill down my spine.
“I should fucking kill you for this. You might be my brother, but you’ve taken it too far. You actually fucking shot at me.”
Alexei doesn’t say a word to defend himself. He looks down, shame brewing in his expression. He looks pitiful in the moment. And despite everything, sympathy for him swirls within me.
But I don’t say a word to Ivan. I don’t have to. I know he’s not a monster.
He lets out a growl before tossing the gun to the ground.
“If Ruslan dies, you’re dead,” he says harshly.
“Ruslan will be fine,” I assure him. “We just need to get him to the hospital.”
The room quickly starts to fill up with his guards, and my family’s guards as well. I fall back on my ass when someone takes over from where I stopped, pressing a cloth to slow the blood flowing out of Ruslan’s arm.
I think I’m in a daze, everything happened so fast. I snap out of it when my husband appears to pull me to my feet.
“Look at me,moya zhena,” he murmurs, placing a hand on my cheek. “You’re fine. I’m fine. We’re safe, my love. I promise, we’re safe.”
His words bind me to the present. I nod once, before exhaling.
“This has to have been simultaneously the worst and best day ever,” I say, burying my face in his chest.
His arms wrap around me and I find solace in his warmth.
“I’m sorry, baby. I promise I’ll make it up to you.”
He really does end up making it up to me. We celebrate our honeymoon a couple of days after the wedding. Ruslan had to have surgery to remove the bullet, but we made sure he was on his way to recovery before leaving.
Ivan takes me to Italy, to a place that means everything to me. I thought it would be heartbreaking, walking the streets of Milan and imagining my parents there before me. But as I stroll along with the man of my dreams, all I feel is immense peace.
