Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 86238 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86238 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
“Feo? From Maksim’s crew?” I cuss more from rolling Ghost over than Yev’s head bob confirmation.
Ghost saved my life again, and now his is at risk.
“Fuck,” Yev murmurs under his breath when he spots the bullet hole a couple of inches across from Ghost’s spine. It is just below his bulletproof vest. “Was it a through and through?”
I shake my head before digging my fingers into the wound. His chances of dying are higher if we leave the bullet in. He won’t get lead poisoning. That shit is rare. But if fragments impinge on his nerves, he has an increased risk of an embolism.
Trust me, something so insignificant can kill you.
“Fuck, man. You’re really digging right in there, aren’t you?” Yev sounds like Ana did when she struggled to finish the meals I prepared for her at two in the morning. She knew she was going to bring it all back up, but she didn’t want to seem ungrateful.
“I have to—” I stop talking when a coolness colder than Ghost’s body temp brushes against my fingertips. “Come on, you son of a bitch.”
Yev looks on the verge of bending in two when I yank out the bullet. It isn’t the goop coating my fingers, making him green at the gills. It is the squirts of blood now pissing out of the hole.
“It nicked a fucking artery.” While aimlessly hunting for the vein responsible for the whitening of Ghost’s skin, I stray my eyes to the ship I can barely see before swinging them back to the port. “If we don’t get him help now, he will bleed out in minutes, but I need to get back to the ship.”
Aware I can’t place Anastasia last no matter how fucking dire the need, Yev makes the decision on my behalf. “Get us back to the docks now!” he yells before he drops his focus to me. “Feo will keep her safe. I promise…” His words fall short as his eyes fall on my lips. They’re coated in blood. Mine not Ghost’s. “Alek…”
“I’m fine,” I mutter, my sways undermining my assurance.
Yev takes a moment to ponder before he barks out orders like the captain of a ship. “What is taking so long. Move this fucking piece of shit… now!”
“We can’t get past a couple of knots,” replies the young guy behind the wheel. “We’re carrying too much weight.”
My skull is pounding so loudly, I can’t confidently declare that Yev doesn’t say something, but a second after he spins to face the troops, they commence dropping like flies.
He doesn’t kill them. They dive into the frigidly cold water voluntarily, stunning me that they’re willing to risk death for two men they hardly know.
“Just hold on. A few more minutes, all right?” Yev pleads when obvious signs of a blackout presents.
My brain is swelling, and my blood pressure is too high not to flood it with blood. I’m seconds from passing out, but I hold on for dear life because the last time I blacked out in the middle of a war, I lost everything I’ve ever wanted.
I refuse to do that this time around.
“We’re almost there.” Yev’s voice wavers in and out with the rolls of the waves before they’re eventually replaced with Ana’s.
“Think about anything else. My breathing. The flutter of the air conditioning vents. The splashes of the ocean when its lolls rock you to sleep.”
As I pinch the vein flooding my fingers with blood, I lean in the direction Ana’s voice is coming from. I have no idea it is Yev’s thigh until he mutters, “We’re here. You made it. We’re back at the docks.”
I’m blinded by the sun peeking out from behind a cloud when the boat is once again swarmed with people.
“Are you still with us, big boy?” asks a familiar yet still strange voice. After peeling open my eyes enough I can see him, Asher Yury signals for his men to get a medic.
Although I’m almost certain my brain is about to explode, if Ghost hadn’t charged for me, I wouldn’t be here to say this. “Gh-Ghost… artery.”
When Asher follows the sluggish movement of my eyes, he cusses under his breath. Ghost and I are close, but I wouldn’t keep my fingers shoved under the scarred skin on his back for no reason. “I knew we stayed for a reason.” He looks me dead set in the eyes while saying, “And although you’ll probably want to kill me for this, from what Ghost told me, it’ll be for the best.”
After clamping his hand over my mouth, he stabs a needle into my chest and squeezes down on the syringe until the murky liquid inside races through my bloodstream, and I black the fuck out.
32
ANASTASIA
With my feet bound because the men don’t want to risk another foot to the face, the man who taunted me before I was seconded to the stern of the ship cockily approaches. I’m in a similar lower-level room as I was yesterday, but there are more women filling the rooms surrounding mine. I’m no longer alone, although from the gleam on the man’s face, I wish I was.