Page 46 of Innocent Bratva Virgin

The men at the front were otherwise engaged in dealing with the growing fire at the front of the warehouse and the sniper shots from Ivan and Abe. However, one of the men at the back of the group turned in our direction, and his eyes went wide.

Then everything switched to bullet time.

I watched in horror as the man raised his gun, shouting out, “Hey!” across the echoey building. Emory was right in the fucker’s line of sight, and he glowered as the muzzle of his firearm leveled with her.

She was frozen, her eyes flaring, and every ounce of blood rushed out of my face.

No, no, no. No. This can’t be happening.

“Stooop!”

The man’s words rang out in odd slow motion, and then I was moving, my legs burning with the effort to move me faster than the damn speed of light.

She couldn’t even raise her hands to protect herself because she was tied up. Not that it would have done any good. Bullets don’t fucking care about how many bones they have to go through. This asshole was going to fire. He was going to shoot, and I didn’t know if I could get to him fast enough.

She’ll die. Emory will die if you don’t get there. Get there, Vlad! Fucking get there!

Launching myself forward with everything I had, something snapped inside me. I needed Emory. IwantedEmory. After everything, I didn’t want to lose her. I…cared about her, which was a damn miracle in and of itself.

So, when I screamed “No!” it wasn’t a surprise that the entire room dropped into silence.

Chapter 19 - Emory

The rough voice knifed through the air—jagged but sharp, and I looked over my shoulder just as Vlad was sprinting past me toward the thug. He’d screamed. He’d spoken the word “no.”

And it had everything to do with me.

My entire body was rigid and screwed up tightly as if a straightjacket had been strapped around me without my realizing it. I couldn’t move, only able to watch as Vlad barreled forward and into the man who was firing a gun at me.

A loud pop from the firearm echoed through the building as Vlad collided with him, shoving the man’s arm up toward the ceiling. The glass above us shattered, and I finally found my feet again, dashing out of the way and behind the safety of a stack of crates.

But Vlad wasn’t rushing in the same direction, and after a few seconds of hiding behind the shoddy wooden fortress, I stuck my head out. I immediately had to track my eyes downward. Vlad and his opponent were both on the ground, wrestling for control of the gun.

Vlad.

The man had saved my life, had called out like he was terrified and furious, and now he was grappling with an armed thug. God, he could still be shot, and right on cue, the gun went off again. This time, it went somewhere off to the side, but I didn’t like how close the muzzle was to Vlad’s body.

No. No, this isn’t right. Vlad can’t die. Not saving my dumb ass. I…

But my head emptied, my thoughts becoming too scrambled to process as Vlad still fought for control over thatdamn gun. However, just then, he was able to get his knee up into the other man’s ribs, and the attack made the Italian mobster lose focus. He groaned, and Vlad followed it up by grabbing the man’s hand with both of his.

Vlad pounded the man’s fist into the ground over and over until he finally dropped the weapon. Punching the man in the face bought Vlad a few moments, and he leaned back and got to his feet, kicking the gun far away.

“Vlad!”

As I called out, Vlad turned and looked over his shoulder. Unfortunately, the thug took the chance to sweep his leg out in a wide arch, sending Vlad back down to the floor. Panic gripped me again, but I couldn’t just hide here and do nothing.

I searched the area around me and found that dumb pipe I’d kicked. Snagging it, I rushed over toward the scuffle. I raised the pipe over my head as the thug jumped on top of Vlad and began to pummel him with his fists.

Lining up my strike with the man’s head, I swung down with everything I had.

Crack!

The pipe impacted with the man’s skull, and he went down like a sack of potatoes. Vlad looked up at me, his eyes the size of saucers, and I shrugged with a lop-sided grin.

“Well, you saved me first. Just returning the favor.”

I extended my hand, and after a moment of shock, Vlad took it. Helping to pull him up, Vlad stood over the mafioso, and I dropped the pipe to the floor. It clattered loudly as Vlad reached into his waistband and pulled out the gun he’d been holding when he first arrived. He leveled it over the unconscious man.

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