Page 54 of Fall into Savagery

My cries grew louder.

“Cry as much as you need, sweetheart,” Nikolay said behind me. “That’s it. Good girl. Our sweet, brave girl. You saved Damien tonight. You know that, don’t you? Our girl.”

I focused on his words, the warmth of Mikhail’s skin, and the rise and fall of Damien’s chest every time he breathed.

It wasn’t long before I could feel my heart calming. My tears dried, and I finally succumbed to the exhaustion that had weighed me down.

I moved between sleep and consciousness.

I could hear my men moving around on the bed.

“You’re all sleeping here tonight,” Damien said, his voice rough as he placed me in the center of the bed and laid down next to me. I felt Nikolay and Mikhail shift about until they also lay down on the bed.

I kept my eyes closed, fighting against sleep.

“I know you said we’ll talk tomorrow,” Damien said quietly. “But tell me how she’s been coping.”

I felt someone’s hand on my cheek. I didn’t move.

“She hasn't talked since the moment we realized you were taken,” Nikolay said. “She was nothing more than a shell of herself. Her notebook—the one you gave her—is filled with nothing but your name.”

No one said anything for a moment. Then Damien whispered, “Fuck.”

“I can’t believe I told her to stay strong. I should have told her to break down and deal with her emotions, not keep it bottled up,” Mikhail uttered softly.

“You were just trying to do what was best,” Damien said softly.

“I should have done better,” Mikhail responded fiercely, and it was easy to hear the resentment in his voice.

I wanted to reach out to him, but I didn’t have the energy.

“We were all trying to do our best. We—” Nikolay took a deep breath. “We were all a mess.”

I felt Damien’s body tense beside me. “I’m sorry.”

“Shut up,” Nikolay said forcefully. “This isn’t your fucking fault.”

“I shouldn’t have been so arrogant. I had Luca and Leo. I had them while we were on the road, but the fucking Blood Nation Sinners came out of nowhere.”

“And they’re going to fucking a die a miserable death,” Nikolay voiced, his tone leaving very little doubt in my mind how true that was. Nikolay was going to make them pay. And I didn’t feel bad for them. They deserved everything they had coming for them.

“We rounded up all of the fuckers?” Damien asked.

“Yeah,” Mikhail answered. “They were all at the barn.”

“Hold them for me. I would like to greet them myself. But I can’t do anything right now,” Damien said. I could almost imagine the grimace on his face as he said it.

Mikhail shifted slightly to my left before he spoke. “Of course not. You need to recover.”.

“Have Maxim take a pick at Agnello’s operations one by one. I want him to know we’re coming for him and that we haven’t forgotten about him.”

I could hear the smile in Nikolay’s voice when he replied, “On it.”

Damien made an approving noise in the back of his throat before declaring, “One week.”

“Is that enough time?” Nikolay asked.

“It will have to be. I’m going to take one week to recover and—” He cupped my cheek, his thumb moving underneath my eye. “—take care of her. Let’s just go to sleep. We’ll talk about everything tomorrow.”

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