Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 63786 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63786 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
A heavy wave of emotion surges through me when I think of him lying out there, broken and possibly dead, and I can’t hide my panic and fear.
“Please, I can’t leave him out there alone. He needs me. He’s my—” I stop when I realize I don’t even know what Lev is to me. He’s no longer the man who took me from one life and forced me into another. He’s… he’s… “That’s the father of my baby out there, please. We only just found out about the baby. I need to be with him.”
A flicker of empathy crosses Vinnie’s tough features. “Then you need to think about you and your baby, and not what is happening out there. That baby needs you to keep you both safe.”
He’s right.
It’s not just me I have to think about anymore.
I can’t go tearing into the blown-up evening without thought for my own safety. I’ve got precious cargo onboard.
But surely I’m safe inside the hospital.
Then I remember the hooded figure.
He’s still at large.
Am I in danger?
Will he come after me and… oh my God, my baby?
The door at the end of the corridor bursts open, and an orderly hurries toward us, pushing a gurney. But as he nears us, he shoves the gurney toward Vinnie, knocking him to the ground. Realizing the threat, Toby releases me and reaches for his gun, but it’s too late. The orderly shoots him between the eyes, then steps over his body and shoots Vinnie.
I scream, but the gunman hooks me around the neck with his arm and yanks me to his chest.
“When you weren’t in your room, I thought I was going to have to go home empty-handed.” His voice is deep and thick, with a heavy Russian accent. “But lucky me, here you are.”
Fear blasts through me. He went looking for me to…
…to kill me?
With my back to his chest, I struggle against his grip. “Please, don’t hurt me. I’m… I’m pregnant.”
He tightens his hold on me.
“The pakhan has already produced an heir?” He chuckles. “Of course he has. If I had a sweet little whore like you, I wouldn’t come up for air until she was full with my baby, either.”
He drags his free hand down my body.
“It’s such a shame that I’m short on time. I think I would like to sample me some of the pakhan’s whore. Ruin that sweet pussy while it’s still warm.”
I twist my body away from his offending touch. “Please, think of my baby.”
“Can’t say I’ve fucked a pregnant whore before.” He chuckles in my ear, and it’s cold and cruel. “Pity you and your baby won’t live through the night.”
He’s going to kill my baby.
Enraged by the thought, I stomp on his foot and elbow him so hard in the ribs that he’s forced to let me go. And I run. I run so damn fast I practically fly down the corridor and burst through the doors where…
I come to a grinding halt.
The ER is bustling with activity. Machines beep. Rubber-soled shoes squeak on linoleum. A security guard talking to a nurse stops talking and turns to look at me. I run over to him but I don’t get a single word out before the door to the ER bursts open behind me, and I swing around in a panic.
My breath catches in my throat, certain it’s going to be the man with the gun.
But it’s not. It’s a doctor in a white coat rushing into the ER as he talks hurriedly on his phone, obviously talking to the police. “Yes, there are two men dead in the corridor leading into the ER. No, I didn’t see anyone else.”
The man with the gun must have fled.
“Ma’am, are you okay?” the security guard asks me.
“There are two men in the corridor—they’ve been shot. There was a man with a gun—”
“A gun?” the nurse gasps.
I shake the security officer’s arm. “Please do something.”
The security guard talks into his shoulder radio. “We have a possible sighting of the suspect.”
He disappears through the doors while the nurse takes my hand.
“You need to sit down.”
“But the gunman—”
“Don’t worry, the police will find him.”
I doubt it. He wasn’t just a man with a gun. He was an assassin.
She leads me over to a chair by the nurses’ station and leaves to get me some water.
But before she comes back, I hear alarms going off in one of the cubicles across from me. I slowly stand and take slow steps toward it.
The curtain isn’t fully closed so I can see a figure on the bed, but I can’t make out who it is.
Lev?
The nurse reappears with my water.
“Is that someone from the blast?” I ask desperately.
“I’m sorry, but I’m not at liberty to say,” she says, disappearing behind the curtain and yanking it closed.
I’m about to rip the curtain open and demand some answers when a different police officer walks past, and he’s talking quickly on his phone. “Yes, two dead in the blast—”