“I got it,” Nikolai replied in a hushed tone. We kept moving forward, all three of them surrounding me like a body shield. I was grateful but also didn’t like they were putting themselves on the line for me. They had already done so much for me.
Another explosion blasted, the ground shook and I fell to my knees. My ears rang, the buzzing in my brain intensified. Glancing around me to see if the guys were okay, I noted their lips moving saying something although I couldn’t hear what. Finally Dimitry lifted me into his arms, his one hand still held the gun as he ran, Nikolai and Sergei alongside, towards the woods.
When we got closer, I saw there was a row of five vehicles and we got into a large black Ford Expedition.
Dimitry put me in the back seat. “You good?” Thank God, I could hear him.
“Yes. You?” A small smile came to his lips and he shocked me when he kissed me. Our first kiss occurred in the midst of a war zone with explosions and guns blazing around us. Not exactly romantic but I liked it, returning the kiss. I didn’t care that he killed a man point blank earlier today; I didn’t care that he’d just snapped those men’s necks. He was truly protecting me and although he might be one of the most dangerous men I had ever met, he wasn’t dangerous to me. In order to protect us all, he had to go back to the man he’d been for so long in order to survive. And who could ever fault him for it? Certainly not me, and I wouldn’t allow anyone else to fault him either.
Nikolai helped Sergei to the back seat, right next to me, and I immediately leaned over to help him.
“I’ve got him,” I told Nikolai. He nodded with a worried glance at his friend, and left him with me, hurrying to get into the front seat next to Dimitry.
I sat him upright and started taking his shirt off.
“How bad is it, princess doctor?” Sergei asked, even managing a weak smile.
“Nikolai, give me the medical kit.” I met Sergei’s eyes and smiled. “Nothing I can’t fix. But I’ll need you to talk to me.” His eyes closed and I got closer to his face. “I want you to talk to me, Sergei. Okay?” It was so hard to see in the dark of the vehicle.
“Okay,” he agreed. “Such a bossy princess.”
“Why do you keep calling me princess?” I asked him, although I didn’t really care. I wanted him to keep talking while I looked through the medical kit Nikolai was able to grab. I might be able to work with this, I had the basics of everything but it was everything I needed.
“You remind me of a princess,” Sergei answered softly. “At first I thought you were a pampered, spoiled brat. But now I see you are beautiful and strong. While you give people the impression your life is easy, it is anything but. You have it all, but you want none of it.” I raised my head and met those brown eyes of his. “Am I right, princess?”
I was aware of Dimitry glancing in the rearview mirror, but I focused on disinfecting my hands so I could work on Sergei. He’d lost quite a bit of blood.
“There are people that have it much worse,” I answered him. I wanted to move the subject away from me. “So do you have a girlfriend?”
He chuckled. “Why? You want to be my girlfriend?”
I glanced back at Dimitry and Nikolai. “Can we turn on the lights back here?”
They both nodded in unison then Nikolai turned them on. He looked worriedly at Sergei. “I got this,” I told him with a smile. The ultimate trust in Nikolai’s eyes hit me right in my heart.
I looked back to Sergei, his eyelids heavy. “Sergei, seriously?” I told him out loud. “You are going to ask me if I want to be your girlfriend and then you are going to fall asleep on me?” His eyes opened. “Way to make a girl feel special.”
He actually chuckled. “You are Dimitry’s girl.”
I kept focused on cleaning his wound and stopping the bleeding then applied the pressure of the patch against his hole.
“I must have missed that memo,” I glanced at him to make sure he was still awake. “When did it come out?”
“Not sure.”
“So do you all live in Moscow or somewhere else in Russia?” I asked, as I examined his wound and cleaned up the area.
“Dimitry and Nikolai now live permanently in the States,” Sergei replied weekly. “I go back and forth.”
“So how come you stayed in Russia?” I hoped to get lucky and find that the bullet did not enter his organs.
“For the same reason you tried to learn Italian,” he answered. “A woman in my case though.”
“Excuse me?” I was a bit confused at his response but didn’t stop working on him.
“We came into the kitchen and listened to your conversation with Sonia,” he mumbled. “But just a little bit of it.”
“I see.”