Page 18 of The Enemy's Defector
I didn’t quit.
With one step after another, I stuck with my determination to find Nik.
And there he was. As I opened my narrowed eyes wider at the sight of him slumped in a heap on the floor, I froze.
He looked so still, so bloody and beaten, that he barely resembled a man. His face was turned away from me, but I knew it was him. I felt his presence, just like I always had my whole life. Something about this man made me gravitate toward him, to always mark his location and to forever make me aware of where he was in my proximity.
That dark brown hair looked filthy and bloody, but despite the grime and redness on the back of his head, I knew it was his hair. I recalled gripping it as he went down on me that one night. I remembered threading my fingers through the silky softness as he crawled up my naked body to hover over me and then enter me.
Oh, Nik.
It was him, the boy I used to admire and want to be near. The man I couldn’t tell myself to stay away from whenever we crossed paths.
He was supposed to be my enemy, someone off-limits despite our earlier beginning of friendship before Anton killed my father.
I swallowed hard, hating how raw my throat and lungs felt from the shallow breaths I’d managed in the anxious hurry to find him.
At last, he was within my reach. I’d found him, and I’d damn well get him out of here. I wasn’t going to wallow in shock or glee. It was far too soon to feel happy. First, I had to help get him out of captivity. Then, I’d assist him however I could until he was safe and strong again. It would be the last straw where my uncle was concerned. I’d defy him like this. I wasproudto go against his wishes to save this one man who’d always captivated me.
“Nik,” I whispered, as a warning in case he’d be startled at someone down here and as a heads up that I had come.
He didn’t stir—not physically. His body remained a lump on the filthy floor, but a low moan escaped him.
“Nik,” I repeated, still keeping my voice just below an actual whisper. I hadn’t risked coming this far to give myself away. I wouldn’t dare make it known to any guards or soldiers watching him that I’d come to spring him out of jail.
I stepped closer, feeling the increasing pressure to hurry. So much time had passed already and I couldn’t be sure of how long the majority of the Kozlov forces would be preoccupied at the mansion with the Romanos coming to meet. I had to hurry. I had to move and get Nik away.
But as I drew closer to him, a shadow blurred to my right.
Someone else was down here.
He sneered at me as he charged forward to intercept me, too quickly, too forcefully.
With a panicked gasp that I’d failed Nik and myself, too distracted for a second too long, I held my hand up to deflect hisstrike at my head, his fist a huge mass aimed for me with sinister accuracy.
8
NIKOLAI
The gasp didn’t belong here. I opened my eyes, instantly alerted to the change in this room. No one was ever shocked to be down in these torture rooms. No soldiers would be so delicate as to gasp or react in horror.
It was the first clue that someone else was down here. Another person—not another independent contractor—was nearby.
After the commotion of a masked contractor removing Hayden from the room, I was relieved that he wouldn’t make good on his independent and rogue idea to simply kill me. He’d bucked the orders he had been given. He’d disobeyed, seeming too impatient and taking matters into his own hands.
With too many hits and kicks, he’d nearly succeeded, too. That beating was brutal and lethal, pushing me to my limits.
He had been taken out, though, reinforcing my belief that whoever was in charge of this operation wanted me alive, not dead.
Limp and focusing on doing nothing but breathing, I lay there and willed the aches, stings, and pains to recede so I could fucking think straight.
Hearing that gasp jarred me out of the shock of such a beating.
It didn’t belong.
As I rolled over, riding this adrenaline rush of hearing something different down here, I opened my eyes wide.
This wasn’t the time to pretend I was asleep or unconscious, like usual.
