Eileen
“Something is happening downstairs,” I tell Ciara.
We both hear the noise. The shouting. The incessant popping of automatic weapons. Footsteps thud past our door. My heart races as I look around the cramped office that we’ve been stuck in for who knows how long. Everything happened so fast from the moment they moved us out of that house.
“What do we do?” Ciara asks me. The bruises on her face break my very soul whenever I look at her. “We are not safe in this matchbox.”
“No, we’re not,” I agree.
I try the windows first, but they’re bolted. I grab the fire extinguisher and try to break the glass with it, but it doesn’t budge.
“This glass is most likely bulletproof, dammit,” I curse as I set the fire extinguisher down. My arms feel heavy. My legs are shaking. The adrenaline and fear are doing quite the number on me.
“We could bust open the door,” Ciara suggests with a trembling voice.
“Yeah, but Sergei’s goons—” I pause mid-sentence as the door opens.
A guard comes in with a grim look on his face. His gun is cocked and ready in his hand as he looks at Ciara, then at me. “Boss says we’re leaving,” he tells us.
“Hold on, what’s happening downstairs?” I ask.
He points the gun at me. “Not your business. He doesn’t need you anymore. Just Ciara.”
“Wait, no!” Ciara cries out and lunges at him.
My mind moves fast while Ciara struggles with a man three times her size. I don’t know where her courage or recklessness comes from, but I have to think quickly and act accordingly in order to help her.
He manages to peel her off him and throws her against the wall. Ciara falls on her side with a painful thud while I grab the fire extinguisher again. I roar as anger and fear collide within me, and I hurl the damned thing at his head.
CONK.
To my astonishment, I hit my target.
Hard.
His skull cracks open, blood trickling down his face as he gives me a stunned glare. I approach and kick him in the balls for good measure. He passes out on the floor while I rush over to Ciara and help her get up.
“Are you okay?” I ask her.
“I think so. You?”
“Yeah. I’m high on adrenaline. Come on, let’s go.”
We head out the door, but we don’t get far.
POP.
SMASH!
A bullet whizzes past us, shattering the glass of a fire emergency panel next to my head.
“Oh, shit,” I gasp and freeze, one hand tightly gripping Ciara’s wrist.
“Don’t even think about it.” Sergei’s voice echoes behind us.
I can see the ground floor from here. So many fallen bodies. So much blood.
Gunshots still ringing out.
Slowly, shaking like two leaves in the wind, Ciara and I turn around to face him. He looks terrible. Pale-faced and scared out of his mind. He can barely even hold his gun.
“Eileen!” Anton’s voice has my heart jumping.
I look down and see him fighting his way past a mountain of a man. He’s come to rescue me. To rescue us. All we have to do is stay alive for a little while longer. There are more of Sergei’s men dying down there than ours.
Our men are like stealth hunters, killers in black with precise targets and cat-like movements. Sergei’s goons don’t stand much of a chance. Their only advantage was in their numbers, but those seem to be quickly dwindling.
“What’s the deal, Sergei?” I ask with a calm voice. “You’re not getting out of here alive. Surely you know that by now.”
“There’s another exit right at the end there.” He grins an evil grin, pointing toward the open corridor behind me. “All I need to do is take you out.”
Ciara gets in front of me. “Did you get the marriage license signed then?”
“Not yet.”
“Then you can’t kill her, not without killing me first,” she says, raising her chin in defiance.
“Oh, my God, Ciara, what are you doing?” I blurt out.
She gives me a hard look. “What I should’ve done a long time ago. I’m protecting my sister.”
“You think I’m not going to kill you anyway?” Sergei laughs hysterically.
“Not while you still need me to sign the marriage certificate. You’ve come this far, right?” she replies, fully aware that he absolutely does still need her.
Time is the one thing that Sergei doesn’t have anymore. There’s something off about him; he doesn’t look right to me.
“True, but I don’t need to kill you to get to your bitch of a sister,” he hisses then shoots Ciara in the leg.
I scream as she cries out in pain and drops to the ground.
Instinctively, I cradle my belly, lower my head, and brace for the worst. For a second, I can’t even breathe.
A gunshot rings out.
I’m still breathing. Nothing hurts; I’m not bleeding anywhere.
Slowly, I raise my head and look around. Ciara is at my feet, panting and moaning from the pain while blood seeps through the torn fabric of her jeans.
Sergei falls to his knees, his eyes wide and glassy with shock. His lips part as his last breath leaves him. Crimson spreads across his chest.
“Oh, God,” Ciara manages as she watches him collapse in a puddle of his own blood. “Oh, my God, Eileen, are you okay?”
“Yeah, yeah…” I manage and kneel beside her. “I don’t know where the shot came from, though.”
“Fuck, this hurts. That mother—”
“I know. I am so sorry.”
“Not your fault,” she groans and tears my sleeve off. “I need this.”
I tie it just above the gunshot wound in her thigh. Judging by the blood flow alone, it doesn’t look like Sergei hit an artery, but we still need to slow the bleeding down. I listen to her throng of curses as I tie my sleeve tightly around her leg, then pull it even tighter.
Footsteps approach.
I look up.
“Anton” I whisper.
“Well, at least we know where the shot came from,” Ciara mumbles.
“Eileen, are you okay?” Anton asks me as he rushes over to us, concern etching his features.
“I think so. I’m not hurt anywhere.”
“I am,” Ciara chimes nervously with a pained chuckle.
Anton checks Ciara’s leg, then puts his gun away before wrapping me in his arms.
I cry like a little girl as I lose myself in his embrace, finding the safety I’d missed over the past few days. “I thought I’d never see you again.”
“It’s over, Eileen. It’s finally over,” he says.
I have longed to hear those words for what feels like forever. I hold Anton tight and thank the heavens that we made it back to each other in one piece. My stepsister will live, and we will rebuild our relationship and our lives… We will all heal from the damage that Sergei has done.
“I love you so much, it hurts,” Anton whispers in my ear. “I would rather burn the whole fucking world down than to ever lose you, you hear me?”
I have no choice but to look him in the eye. “I believe you. I love you so much, Anton.”
“Good, because we’ve got quite the shitstorm coming at us,” he bluntly replies.
I feed on the warmth in his gaze. The beating of his heart, his sighs of relief, his loving smile. I feed on his mere presence to stop myself from passing out, from collapsing after the ordeal that Ciara and I just endured.
Red and blue lights flash throughout the building.
“Cops?” Ciara asks, sounding somewhat alarmed. “You called the cops?”
