Page 50 of Defiant Devotion

My heart raced. Anticipation built again. The surface of my palm had to be so slick with nervous sweat, but Ben didn’t let go once.

I noticed the slight stiffening of his fingers as they tightened around my hand, though, and I knew at once that something was wrong.

None of my family members were in here but one. Uncle Oleg was alive, if pale and unconscious. Seeing him in the flesh after so long of thinking he was dead should’ve brought happy tears to my eyes. Instead, I narrowed them and braced myself for violence.

Ben urged me to stay back as he ran forward. His target was the man trying to place a pillow over Uncle Oleg’s face. He was going to smother him! But Ben was there. Rushing over, he halted the man from ever placing the fabric over Uncle Oleg at all.

While Ben fought the man back, I didn’t waste a second going for the other person trying to mess with my uncle. A woman in a nurse’s uniform got up from the floor. Dazed and shaking her head, she seemed to be coming to after being knocked over and out. In her hand was a syringe, though, and she wasn’t getting through my uncle’s skin, not while I was here.

“Stop!” I lunged at her, mindful of not letting her lash out and hit my stomach. Fighting while trying to cover my abdomen wasn’t easy, but I did it. We struck out and resisted, facing each other off, and with my experience of self-defense, I got her into a chokehold.

As I fought her, I lost track of Ben in the room, but he was there. Right at my side, he came to take over holding the nurse still.

“What is going on?” I asked, panting from the exertion of the fight. A glance to the side showed the man on the floor. ButI checked another look at my uncle again, alarmed that people would be in here to harm him. Where were the guards? Why wasn’t he protected?

“He’s a Petrov soldier,” Ben said, not tearing his serious scowl away from the woman. “He was here to kill Oleg.”

Was?I took that to mean Ben had killed the guy already and he wasn’t just lying on the floor unconscious.

“Let me go!” the nurse protested as she wriggled and flailed to get free. “I’m just a nurse and, and, and, I’ll call security!”

“Why would you be giving him a shot?” Ben demanded. He didn’t release her. “If he needs medication, they push it in his IV line.”

“This is different,” she argued, her eyes frantic and open wide as she searched for a way to get out of his grip.

I swallowed hard, my mouth so dry, as I calmed down from the fight. Too many things were happening here, and I struggled to stay level-headed. “Different how?” I pointed at the man on the floor before she could answer, asking Ben, “Is he dead? And where are the guards?” Lev couldn’t have had Oleg here unsupervised.

Ben tipped his head toward the opposite wall. Behind a chair, I saw the legs of two men lying down, shoved out of sight.

“I should’ve wondered why the guards weren’t at the door when we came. They usually have them take a break when the family is visiting, so I assumed that meant they’d be in here.” Ben hardened his features at the nurse again. “What the fuck were you doing?”

“I’m a nurse,” she protested.

Ben got his gun out and held it up to the underside of her chin. “Tell me.”

Tears leaked from her eyes. She trembled with the gun aimed up at her head. “I’m— I—” She sobbed. “I was told to give him a medicine to make him weak. To weaken his heart further, but slowly, so he’d pass away naturally.”

“Fuck,” I muttered, scowling at her. As I’d expected, people wanted Oleg dead. My uncle had been alive all this time, but it seemed enemies were trying to change that after all. “Who? Who paid you?”

“A man. I don’t know who he is, but someone…”

Ben jammed the gun up harder, forcing her to tip her head back. “Try again.”

“Someone named Ilyin.”

Ben and I shared a glance. A Petrov was in here to smother Oleg. The Ilyins were bribing a nurse to drug him.

Right then, over the sounds of the nurse crying, the Petrov soldier got up. He wasn’t dead, but knocked out. Cursing in Russian, he quickly advanced again. “The Ilyins won’t get this kill. Igor will claim his death, and the Petrov name will be respected as holding all the power and?—”

Ben didn’t let him finish. Before the man could come at us or my uncle on the bed, Ben hurried at him to fight once more. He’d dropped his gun in the flurry of action, though, and I didn’t waste time lowering to grab it.

“Please. Please, I beg of you, let me go.” The nurse flinched when I grabbed her arm, torn between retreating to get Ben’s gun or keeping a firm grip on her.

Digging my fingers into the flesh of her forearm, I fought to keep her close. And I did, almost. She played dirty, flinging out her fist to punch my stomach, and I had to arch back to avoid that impact. Once more, we were engaged in a wrestle, with slaps, strikes, and elbows, but in the scuffle, I managed to get the gun off the floor. With the silencer, it made no noise. Aiming once, at her brow, I fired a single shot, planting a bullet right between her eyes.

Heaving hard and hating how out of breath I felt, I leaned over and pressed my hand to my side. If this wasn’t a stitch from the exercise of fighting, it was a cramp. Wincing, I breathed through it and waited for the ache to fade. It did, slowly, but I felt so winded.

“Sonya?”

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