Page 42 of Endless Love

“And he followed us how?” I jolt the barrel against Niki’s throat again, and he coughs.

“It’s hard to disappear now. The whole fucking world is on camera all the time, man.” Ani shakes his head. “Traffic cameras, gas station security—and Lev won’t falter at getting what hewants. He’s fucking violent, and he’ll hurt anyone, threaten anything to get results. You know that.”

I do know that. Lev’s brutality makes him an inefficient torturer, but it yields results in almost every other aspect of the Bratva world. If he needs or wants something, there is no moral code standing in his way. He’ll stop at nothing.

“Well, he’s not with you two idiots now.” I lower the gun slowly, keeping it poised in case either of them gets any ideas. “So where is he? And how did you find us?”

“I’m not a complete idiot,” Niki chokes out, rubbing the base of his throat. “And I’m not fucking telling you where Lev is. It’s not worth my life to do that. But it wasn’t fucking hard to figure out where the two of you would be. Every time we’ve run across you or almost caught up, you’ve been staying at the shittiest motels in existence. There was only one of those in this town, and based on how much time you’ve been making, you were probably gonna stop here. We gambled, and it worked out.” He shrugs.

“Except it didn’t,” I snap. “Because I’m not going to let you two assholes just walk out of here.”

Niki looks at me levelly. “Why not?” He keeps talking before I can answer, his gaze narrowed in on me. “Give us the girl. You’ve got to be bored with her by now, anyway. We’ll take her straight back to Dima, as we’re supposed to. Lev wants to get his hands on her first, but we’ll make sure he doesn’t. We’ll say we’re followingotetsorders, and get her right back to Chicago. And then it won’t be the worst thing. You know what kind of clientsotetssells to. And she’s gorgeous. She’ll end up some billionaire’s toy or in a prince’s harem. She’ll live a life of luxury, and you get to go on your way, writing yourself a new future. That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?” Niki narrows his eyes. “To get out? To leave? Do that, while we’re all distracted getting the girl back tootets. Get the fuck out.”

“Dima will be angry with you for not bringing me back, too. So will Lev.”

“We’ll deal with that. The girl is what he really wants. He’ll believe she’ll lure you back. And when she doesn’t, he’ll sell her and try to find you some other way. But by then, you’ll be long gone.”

Not all that long ago, with anyone else, I would have been tempted to take the deal, even as abhorrent as I find my father’s flesh peddling to be. My efforts to stop my father’s trafficking are an attempt at some small measure of redemption, after all, and redemption never comes without temptation. But in the end, I know I’d still say no. I haven’t come this far and put myself in this much danger to let my father get away with it in the end.

And with Charlotte at the crux of it all, there’s not a chance in hell.

“Ivan?” I hear her voice a second later, far too close for her to still be in the car, and I have a feeling she’s heard more of the conversation than I’d like. My chest tightens at the thought that she might have thought even for a second that I’d turn her over to them, and I move fast as a striking snake, the gun wedged against Niki’s throat again.

“Is this what you really want?” I hiss, grinding the barrel into his skin. “You and Ani both? To be Lev’s lackeys, my father’s spares, used and discarded and only cared about for what small, petty services you can provide for the family? You should be running, too, if only because it’s the only chance either of you have at not being ground up in the disposal of Lev’s whims when Dima dies, and you’re no longer needed.”

I feel Niki’s throat move against the gun, but his gaze is full of disdain as he stares at me. “I’m not stupid enough to think that the brief time we’d be free is worth the death Lev would mete out when we’re caught.”

“I’m running. And you just tried to get me to hand over Charlotte by saying that by the time Dima came after me again, I’d be long gone. So do you think it’s possible to get out, or not?”

Niki flinches, and his gaze flicks sideways. It’s the only thing that keeps me from being taken completely down by Ani rushing me, Charlotte’s cry of warning coming a second too late.

As it is, I’m knocked to one side, my finger bumping the trigger of my gun and sending a bullet into the pavement. Charlotte screams, and I hear the patter of her feet as she starts to run for the car. Ani veers towards her, going straight to grab her, and without a thought, I pivot and put a bullet in his knee.

He drops to the ground, screaming, grabbing at his leg with both hands, even the one I just injured. I see Niki coming for me out of the corner of my eye, a switchblade in one hand and the other pulling a gun out of his waistband, and I swing my arm out towards him, shooting without looking.

I don’t want to kill him. I truly don’t. But in that moment, getting to Charlotte is all that matters. I hear Niki’s cry of pain, mingling with Ani’s, and hear him stagger back and hit the pavement, and I look to see Charlotte almost to the car, flinging herself inside.

I look back, just once. Niki is holding his stomach, blood flowing out from between his fingertips. It could kill him, I know that—and I also know that I could kill him right now.

I could kill them both. I could end one-third of the threat to Charlotte, and to myself. Lev would still be wherever he is—probably already in Vegas—and Bradley would still be after me, but Niki and Ani would be dead.

My finger brushes the trigger. I should do it. But I feel my gut twist at the thought of ending their miserable lives that have been spent as nothing more than pawns, as my father’s knives in the dark, and not even particularly sharp ones.

I could say it would be mercy, but it doesn’t particularly feel like that. And more than anything else, I selfishly don’t want Charlotte to see me kill them.

I don’t know if she would look at me the same, after that. I doubt that she would. Whatever flicker of desire and caring that led her to kiss me back last night, to offer me the bed instead of leaving me to sleep on the floor, would be extinguished by seeing me do something so brutal.

So instead, I turn and jog towards the waiting car.

Charlotte is dead silent as I veer out of the parking lot, leaving the two men as I speed out onto the open road. The truth is that Niki will probably be dead by tomorrow, anyway. But at least she didn’t see me put the final bullet in him.

“We’re going to have to keep going.” I press my lips tightly together, looking ahead at the darkened road. My adrenaline is high, so I don’t feel tired right now, but before we pulled into that parking lot, I was exhausted. It will catch up with me again before long, and I don’t really know what to do about that. “I didn’t want to have to ask you to drive, especially since there’s always a chance that someone will be on our tail, but it might be unavoidable. Niki and Ani will be out of commission for a bit, but Lev might still be out there, and they’ve figured out what kind of motels we’re staying at.”

“So—do we stay at nicer hotels? With like—key cards and security?”

I shake my head. “For one thing, we’re going to be hard-pressed to find anything like that out here. For another, that opens up a whole other can of worms—people who can be questioned about us, cameras, all that shit that can be used to track us.”

“We can’t just keep driving straight through.” Charlotte runs a hand through her hair. “Even switching off, we’ll be exhausted.”

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