Page 72 of Beautiful Deception

“Damn it.” Once I compose myself, I chase after her. She makes it to her car before I can reach her. Without hesitating, I dive into my own car and follow her.

It’s hard to follow when she keeps trying to lose me but eventually, she gives up and takes me to a warehouse. She’s running inside, on her phone, by the time I pull up.

I run as fast and hard as I can.

“Kill her!” I hear Natasha’s voice saying. “Kill her now, you understand!”

I follow her voice down a set of stairs into a freezing cold basement.

Inessa is on the ground, beaten and bloody, while a man holds a gun to her head. I don’t think. I just act.

I shoot the man in the head, then turn my gun on the other man. They’re both dead within seconds.

Natasha screams and runs at Inessa, kicking and punching her. I wrench Natasha to the side and throw her to the ground where I place my foot onto her throat.

“You fucked up,” I growl, lifting my gun to her head.

“Viktor, no,” Inessa groans. Her voice sounds muffled. “Don’t kill her.”

“What? She tortured you. She kidnapped you. She deserves to die.”

“I don’t want to see you kill another person. Just let her go.”

Natasha smirks up at me, knowing she’s won. I’m not going to kill Natasha in front of Inessa. She’s already been through enough.

I lift my boot from her throat. “Go. And if you try anything in the future, you’re fucking dead.”

“You should have married me, Viktor.” She runs up the stairs and disappears from view.

I hurry to Inessa’s side. “Oh, Inessa.”

She’s bruised all over. Her nose is clearly broken.

“I need to get you to the hospital. This is too much for my own private doctor.”

She grips my jacket as I carry her outside. She seems so fragile in my arms. So broken. All I want to do is protect her. I know that with all of my fucking being.

“You saved me,” she whispers as tears spill down her eyes.

“Don’t talk. Just let me get you to the hospital.”

Inessa cries the whole way there and it breaks my fucking heart. The heart I didn’t even know I had.

A nurse runs to our side the moment we enter the ER. “Can you tell me what happened?” she asks as Inessa is placed on a gurney and wheeled away.

“She was kicked and punched and beaten by a few people. I found her like this.”

“Ok. We’ll help her. But you need to stay here.”

“Like hell. I need to know that she’s going to be all right.”

The nurse gently shoves me back. “Sir, you need to stay here. Let us do our job. The police will be by to question you about what happened.”

Shit. The police. Never a good thing when they’re involved. But for Inessa, I’ll deal with the fucking police. If it means she’ll be saved, I’ll do it.

And then I wait and wait with nothing else to do except worry about her.

A police officer comes by and I make up a lie that I found her in an alleyway like this. They take my word for it, write a statement, then leave.

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