Page 72 of Pretty Little Game

“Ellie!” Bianka screams.

My eyes meet Bianka’s for one fleeting moment as I make up my mind. “Keep running,” I command, pointing in the direction she should hopefully find Lucca and her brother. “We’ll be right behind you.” Then I turn and drop inside the wall once more to help Ellie.

25

BIANKA

I run like hell, sprinting until I can no longer hear the shouts of the Russians following us. Lungs burning and feet screaming in pain, I come to a stop and turn to look behind me. Ellie and Cassio can’t be far behind. They at least have shoes and long legs that should make it easy to catch up.

But as I wait, gasping for air and expecting them to appear, no one does. I hear nothing.

Horrified, I realize they might have needed my help, that I shouldn’t have left them. I have to go back and find them. I just pray they haven’t been caught. Ignoring the agony in my feet, I retrace my footsteps as quickly as I can.

The phone rings in my hand, startling me to a stop. I had completely forgotten I was holding it in my desperate need to escape. Lucca’s name lights the front, so I answer it and hold the phone to my ear.

“Lucca?” I ask tearfully as I press on, heading back toward the place I last saw Cassio and Ellie.

But it’s Ilya who answers me. “Thank god you’re okay,” he rasps across the line, his deep voice immediately soothing me.

Crying uncontrollably, I explain our attempted escape, our sudden need to flee, and how I lost them after Ellie fell trying to climb the wall. “Cass told me to run, that they would be right behind me, but they’re not,” I sob. “They need my help, so I’m going back for them.”

“No,” Ilya growls. “If they aren’t behind you, they’ve been captured. You’ll only make things worse by going to look for them. You need to meet me at the location Lucca sent to you. Follow it, and come find me. You shouldn’t be far away.”

I hang up to look at the location Lucca sent. I’m probably about a mile away from Ilya, maybe less, but I’m much closer to where I would find Cassio and Ellie. Torn, I know I should follow my brother’s directions. He will be able to help far more than I can.

But I’m so close.What if I could stop them from being captured if I go back now, but finding Ilya first sentences them to death?That thought solidifies it. I can’t leave without being sure that Cassio and Ellie were taken.

Hobbling, I retrace my steps as quietly as I can to find the broken part of the wall. Each time my feet find snow, my soles burn from icy exposure, and every time they find a rock, my bruised flesh throbs with fresh pain. The coarse ground has opened countless tiny cuts across the bottoms of my feet, making tears stream from my eyes in silent pain.

But I keep going, determined to find Cassio and Ellie and help them in whatever way I can. It only takes me a few minutes, and I tuck the phone down the front of my dress, securing it between my breasts before I start to climb.

This side is harder to scale without the vines to help me up. But I use the crevices between the stones as fingers and toes hold and climb the wall one foot at a time. Reaching the top, I peer cautiously over. Though I can’t hear anyone, enemy Russians might be waiting for me to appear.

But no one’s there. Confident I’m alone after several scans of the gradually lightening forest, I hoist myself onto the top of the wall and look down at the ground where Ellie fell.

It’s easy to find. Part of the wall lies strewn across the forest floor. And clear evidence of a struggle marks the scuffed footing. One of Ellie’s emerald shoes sits abandoned in the disrupted undergrowth.

Worst of all is the considerable amount of blood staining the pine needles, leaves, and snow. Whose blood it is, I can only guess, but my mind goes straight to the worst as I fear one or both of Cassio and Ellie might already be dead.

Distraught, my shoulders slump as I concede. They’ve clearly been captured. I’ll need to find Ilya in order to rescue my best friend and the man who saved me. Dropping back onto the far side of the wall, I pull out Cassio’s phone and follow the shortest path I can toward the pin Lucca dropped for us.

The minute I spot Ilya’s imposing frame through the trees, he’s sprinting toward me. His long strides carry him across the frozen ground with impressive speed, and then he scoops me up off the ground as he folds me in his strong arms and holds me fiercely to his chest.

“Ilya,” I sob, burying my face in his neck as the tears come forcefully.

“Shhhh,” he soothes, shifting to carry me back toward his men. “You are safe now,” he assures me gently, his deep voice vibrating through my body.

“Thank you for coming for me,” I breathe as my sobs slowly subside. I feel like a little girl cradled in his warm, secure arms, but that doesn’t stop me from pleading with my brother for Cassio and Ellie’s sake. “But we have to go get my friends,” I insist, looking up at my brother’s strong, masculine face.

His expression belies an anger that his soothing voice hadn’t warned me to expect. Tense fury etches lines around his stubbled mouth, and his eyes remain focused ahead of him as we rejoin his men, who have come to save me.

“You disobeyed me,” Ilya states flatly as he sets me down on the edge of the open trunk that belongs to one of his three rented four-wheel jeeps.

He shrugs out of his winter jacket and wraps it firmly around my shoulders, covering my exposed flesh as his eyes chastise me. “They might not be in this mess if you weren’t so hardheaded and dead set on being independent,” he growls. “I warned you about getting too close to the Marchettis, and you thought you knew better than me. This is why you should have stayed away. This is where it ends up when you spend time with men like that.”

“You mean men likeyou?” I snap, lashing out as my anger gets the better of me.

Ilya’s dark eyes flicker with fresh ire, but he doesn’t deny my accusation. “I came here for you, and since your safety is my only concern, we’re going home. Now.”

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