Page 69 of Claimed By Desire

Down below, Lev sprints like a man possessed. At least he knows better than to stop and start shooting too. The Italians are surprised and pissed that their ambush didn’t work, but they’re already regrouping under Adriano’s leadership.

Once I’m sure Lev’s on his way out of that death trap, I shove myself up and start sprinting along the top of the containers. It’s dark where I am and I have to hope the Italians aren’t very good, otherwise I’m beyond fucked.

Sparks burst from the metal all around me. I feel something sharp rip through my shoulder and arm, but I keep going. There’s yelling and screaming and more shooting, and I keep going, running as hard as I can.

That’s when the real pain starts. I grunt and stumble as fire burns through my thigh, just above my knee. I try to push through it but my pants are soaking wet, and I realize it’s blood.

“Fucking shit,” I growl as I stagger and fall. I nearly slam my face but catch myself at the last moment. I manage to shove myself back to my feet, but I’m stumbling and staggering like a drunk, and I don’t know how much further I can go. I’m bleeding from a few wounds, and while the pain isn’t that bad, the blood loss is going to finish me off.

Lev got out. I know he got out. Even if I’m dead, at least Lev escaped. He’s getting the second chance his brother was never given, and I’m thankful for that.

But a deep mourning fills me.

My baby. My child. I’ll never get to know them. Girl, boy, whatever, I’ll never see my kid grow up.

As I finally trip on gap between two containers and go down again, all I can see is Natalya’s face in my mind.

Her beautiful smile. Her frustrated frown. The teasing way she rolls her eyes. Her gorgeous body as she gets out from the pool, water dripping from her hair and lips, those big, vulnerable eyes looking at me with a mixture of fear and desire.

I’m going to miss her most of all.

“You stupid bastard!” Lev’s voice. Even though I’m dying, I still imagine him insulting me. “You shouldn’t have come back for me.”

Then he’s grabbing me, and I realize it’s really him.

“What are you doing?”

“I got you, big guy.” He helps me to the edge and swings me down onto the ladder. Agonizing pain lances up my leg. “Come on, you strong bastard, you gotta climb.”

“The Italians,” I murmur.

“Our guys are here, but we still got to hurry.”

With one last surge of adrenaline, I stagger down the ladder. I make it nearly to the bottom before my strength gives out and I let go.

I fall a few feet before Lev catches me.

“Got you,” he says, wrapping something around my leg. “Just keep it together a little longer.”

I’m lifted in the air and everyone around me is speaking Russian, and I think I ask if Natalya knows where I’m at, before the world goes black.

Chapter 27

Natalya

He’s so pale when they bring him in. I’ve never seen him looking so weak before in my life. It’s like the big, perfect monster I grew up with has been broken down into his component parts, and it’s terrifying.

“Just stay out here for now,” Lev says as a doctor and a team of nurses get Alex into bed and start giving him a blood transfusion. “They need to work.”

“Why isn’t he at a hospital?”

“Gunshot wounds attract attention, and we can’t afford it right now.” Lev steers me downstairs. “Just trust me. The doctor knows what he’s doing.”

I pace across the kitchen. How could this have happened? I don’t understand how a man like Alex can go from walking around like a god dominating mortals to nearly dead in only a few hours.

Lev pours me some wine and tries to get me to drink, and I have to remind him that pregnant women aren’t supposed to have alcohol. That makes him stare at me for a long time before he throws it back himself.

I don’t know what I’m going to do if I lose Alex. It shocks me how much I feel like I need him. I thought I came into this fake marriage purely to get myself out of an even worse situation with Adriano Marino. I kept thinking it was just a few years at most, and then we’d get a divorce and I’d finally have my freedom.

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