Page 32 of Savage Surrender

When I arrived, it was clear that I was getting there too late to really be able to notice who had been there. People were leaving, laughing and talking about bar hopping. It was either a lame party or just one of those things where people came and went. As I walked up to the place, more guests left and others came alongside me.

Deep bass of the music thumped and vibrated before I actually set foot in the apartment. Overhead, a disco ball spun in the entryway, its glittering lights competing with the snowflakes falling from the moonlit sky.

It was packed in here, and I tried to orient what was where. I had only come to scope the scene and report back to Lev, but I stopped short at the sight of something else.

Or rather, someone else.

Lev implied that I had to get myself into the position to listen in on or spy on a meeting between members of the Petrov and Ilyin Families, but I only saw one side.

Two Ilyin soldiers were in the corner of the large room. And both of them were in the middle of trying to drag a woman away with them. Fresh rumors about the Ilyins dispersing drugs and raping women would’ve made me suspicious of them, anyway. The fact that they were trying to force Irina to leave with them arrested me mid-step.

What the fuck?

I didn’t think. No plans flew through my mind. Reacting on autopilot and driven on the instinct to reach her, I pushed and wove my way through the crowd to get to them.

I shoved people aside, making them freak out at spilling their drinks. I plowed past couples dancing, earning their shouts about watching where I was going.

I tuned it all out. The noise and chaos of the party faded in my mind’s eye. My heart raced as I chased down the two men.

They’d gotten her outside before I could approach. Both men had their hands on her, grabbing her upper arms to force her out with them. She didn’t go easily. Kicking and yelling, flailing to get free, she resisted them.

And that made no sense at all.

Where are her fucking guards?

Why is anyone even letting this happen?

I didn’t ask any questions. I didn’t announce a single thing. Coming up behind them, I acted swiftly and lethally. First, I pulled back the arm of the man at her right. He fought back, surprised that someone was getting to him, but I was faster.

“Let her go.”

I swung first, getting him in the face and being rewarded with a satisfying grunt of pain. As soon as he flung back from my hit, the other man attacked. Neither of them released Irina until I beat on them some more. Two against one wasn’t terrible odds, and within several minutes and a few lucky hits they snuck in on me, I had them down on the ground, moaning in pain and grimacing. One was only just coming to after I’d knocked him out with a brutal punch to the side of his head.

“Are you insane?” Irina asked, watching me closely as I straightened from the last hit I’d delivered.

The whole fight couldn’t have lasted more than three minutes. It had started and finished with such a blur, but she was still there.

She hadn’t run off scared. She didn’t alert anyone to come to help, not even a Petrov who should’ve been watching her. She was a Boss’s daughter. No matter the details of their family or organization, she was a Mafia princess who should’ve been protected at all costs.

“No.” I winced, shaking out my hand as I staggered toward her. A few more seconds, and I’d be right again. The adrenaline rush of the fight waned, and the pain from the hits I’d received rushed in all at once.

“Those men…” She shook her head. “You can’t just?—”

“They were trying to take you away.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. Even though she’d questioned my sanity, she hadn’t asked it as a shriek or an alarmed shout. She was still cool and collected, almost as though she were numb to this kind of violence. She should be, as a Mafia princess. She wouldn’t have grown up in a sheltered home where she could’ve been spared all this drama.

And I hated that.

She deserved better. Deep down, I knew that without being able to explain it.

“Those aren’t just some college boys, Viktor.” She walked toward me, watching me with a guarded but non-hysterical expression as I shook my hand then rubbed my side where I’d been hit. “They’re dangerous men.”

I played stupid, letting her think I was just an ordinary man, a college professor. Of course, I knew who those guys were. I identified them as Ilyin men right away, but I couldn’t reveal that I was an insider to this Mafia world.

“And more of them are coming now,” I warned, noticing more men filing out of the party.

I reached out for her hand, hurrying to run with her. Tugging her along, I half-expected her to protest. She didn’t. Not once did she open her mouth to speak. No questions, no demands for me to stop.

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