Page 86 of Disguised as Love

Papa paused at the corner of the building. “I’ll be right behind you, dorogaya.”

And then he was out of view, and my heart faltered. I’d just gotten him back, and now I feared losing him all over again. Losing them all.

Cruz

WAITING FOR THE END

“All I wanna do is trade this life for something new,

Holding on to what I haven't got.”

Performed by Linkin Park

Written by Hahn / Delson / Farrell /

Shinoda / Bourdon / Bennington

I saw the terror in Raisa’s eyes as she watched her father disappear around the side of the burning building. Three men burst from the door, and I raised the rifle I’d grabbed off the floor of the club before I realized it was Petya’s team carrying Ilia's twisted and broken body between them.

Gunfire burst out from behind the building. Ito-san and I exchanged a glance before I practically shoved Raisa into the waiting vehicle. She gripped my shirt. “Papa!”

I groaned. We’d barely gotten out of the club alive. We wouldn’t have at all if Petya hadn’t shown up and Ito-san hadn’t planted the bombs. We’d be dead. I knew it in every inch of my soul.

Manya was sobbing, distraught like I’d seen her more often than not since arriving in Russia. I looked at the men who served Petya and were following his orders to take the women home. Finally, my eyes landed on Ito-san, the one person in the group I could trust?which seemed like a strange twist of fate.

“Get them all to the palace,” I told her.

I started toward the rear of the building.

“Cruz!” Raisa’s voice cried out to me, terror and remorse in her voice because she knew I was doing this for her.

I turned back to shoot her a grim look and said, “Go, little one. I’ll bring them home to you.”

And I didn’t risk staying longer because if I did, my feet would take me back to her. Instead, I forced them to pound on the pavement down the alley between the buildings. Sirens filled the air along with more gunfire. I peered around the side and saw Petya and Malik pinned behind a set of crates. Petya was on the ground, clutching his side while Malik hovered over him, pointing a rifle over one of the boxes and firing wildly. Damien and Rurik were raining bullets back at them.

“It is over, my friend. You’ve lost!” Rurik hollered.

I aimed, inhaled deeply, and took the shot. Rurik’s head flew back with the force of the bullet hitting him. His eyes went wide, and then he fell backward, gun and locket tumbling from his grip and clattering on the ground. Damien looked down at his father in shock. I stepped forward.

“Put the gun down, Damien,” I said.

He raised it at me instead. I clicked my gun. Nothing. Fucking out of bullets.

I wished I’d kissed Raisa one more time. I wished I’d called Mom the night before. I closed my eyes in pained acceptance before they opened up again, and I watched as Damien’s finger started to depress the trigger just as a shot rang out from the direction of the Leskovs. I ducked out of instinct, and Damien’s bullet went wild as he clutched his chest, and blood started to seep through. He took a step, tried to raise the gun again, and then fell atop his father.

Three men dressed all in black filled the space behind me, and I raised my useless gun to fend them off before realizing they were already rushing to Malik’s and Petya’s sides. Malik and one of the team raised Petya to his feet. He was awake, but there was blood oozing from a side wound.

The small group left the alley toward the front and the cars. I hesitated, eyeing the Volkovs for one moment. I jogged toward their dead bodies, picked up Raisa’s locket from where it had fallen, and then followed the Leskovs.

They loaded Petya into the one remaining SUV with Malik at his side. One man got into the driver’s seat and another in the front passenger seat. As the last man went to take the seat next to Petya in the back, Petya halted him. “Stay. See what the Politsiya say. Malone needs to come with me.”

I looked about me at the debris and chaos. The visual of the world reflected my insides. My world had literally fallen apart, and I didn’t know how I was going to put it to rights. The only thing I did know was that this man was heading toward the woman I needed. The woman I had realized I loved right as she’d lifted her chin and defied Rurik Volkov to his face.

How could you not love a warrior princess like that? I was hopeless against the feelings she raised in me. I either accepted them or spent the rest of my life fighting myself. So, I did what I would never have done even two weeks ago. I got in the car with Petya Leskov and hoped he’d not only let me live but that he’d hand his daughter over into my care.

If he didn’t kill me…if he granted me a spot in her life…I’d protect her with every last breath while finding a way to love her at the same time. I wasn’t sure what that would look like yet. I wasn’t sure how to do both, but I swore to myself that I was going to make it happen.

As soon as I shut the door, the car jerked into action, racing down the street past arriving fire trucks and police cars. No one stopped us. No one even seemed to care that we were fleeing the scene.

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