He jumped up, cut the ropes, and grabbed her. He retied the ones behind her back as she struggled to breathe. She hurt everywhere.
He shoved her along with him as he drew a gun and looked out the door in the hallway. In the distance she heard shots being fired but couldn’t be sure. What was going on?
She struggled to get free from his grasp. She rocked to the right and he yelled at her then shoved her head to the wall where there was a sharp sconce. It shattered against her temple and cheek. She felt the sting and the cut instantly. Her vision blurred and she no longer fought his hold as she feared falling on her face and losing consciousness. She was in the middle of some kind of war as bullets whizzed by her and what sounded like rapid gunfire echoed outside.
“This way, Nicolai. We have the truck ready,” someone yelled. It was one of his guards.
As they headed down the next flight of stairs, she moaned in pain and felt like vomiting. Her head throbbed.
As he got to the end of the staircase, gripping her tight, she heard the yelling. She heard Randall say, “I give up. Don’t kill me.”
She saw two men in black and then an SUV with tinted windows.
Men got out the vehicles.
She didn’t know what was going on and then Nicolai was pulling her back into the house and then shoving her into a room. He paced in front of her, looking like a wild animal. She was bleeding and all she wanted to do was lie down and sleep.
He jerked her toward him.
“You. This is your fault. It has to be.” He struck her across the mouth and she fell to the floor.
“Get away from her now.” She wasn’t sure if she were imagining it or not, but she heard Kurt’s voice and then saw him and Warner. They were dressed in black. Her vision blurred, her eyes closed, and then opened as she tried
to remain conscious. She couldn’t. She heard bits and pieces of the exchanged words. Did Warner know Nicolai?
“Get her out of here,” Warner said to Kurt. She felt Kurt’s arms go around her and scoop her up into his arms. In the distance she heard nothing. It was silent.
“Kurt?”
He said nothing. Maybe he grunted, cursed, complained about her injuries and wanted to kill. It was all mixed up. The words, her vision as she passed by a brick wall, heard a door slam, saw darkness, smelled woods then felt the cold seat beneath her and the scent of leather.
Then she heard two gunshots. The door closed.
“We’ve got you. You’re safe now, Mercedes. We’ll get you to the hospital just hold on.”
A moment later a door opened and closed.
“Good?” she heard Kurt’s voice ask.
“Good,” Warner said and then she felt the motion of the car and her head throbbing, her belly aching before she lost consciousness in the safety of Kurt’s arms.
Epilogue
Mercedes woke up in bed to the smell of soap, cologne, and she knew where she was. The safety of her men’s home as she had been for the last several weeks.
They’d made her rest and catered to her every need. She was getting stronger and stronger, and each day she wanted to press for answers as to what had happened to Nicolai, and how Kurt and Warner knew how to find her. But then she would remember that conversation from a month ago. How Warner had explained that if they still did the jobs they had before meeting her that they could never tell her about them and she couldn’t ask. She had a feeling that somehow Warner knew Nicolai and had been responsible for bringing down Randall’s operation, ending the sick business the man had as well as ending Nicolai’s life.
They thought she was sleeping, or so far gone when they were getting her medical help so they talked freely. Warner and Kurt. They mentioned doing the final job and being free, and how things worked out after all and how relieved they were that she was alive and they saved her.
She’d thought about that and realized that none of it mattered. She wasn’t going to die. They’d saved her and she loved Taylor, Kurt, and Warner with all her heart.
“Hey, beautiful, you’re awake,” Taylor said, walking into the room.
She smiled softly.
“What time is it?”
“Who cares,” he replied like he did every time she asked what time, what day, wanting her to just relax and heal and have no worries even about the simple things.