NIKOLAI (Her Russian Protector #4) (12 page)

The dull roar of fire in the other parts of the
warehouse had grown so loud now. Metal pinged as the heat warped
its structure. The crashing jangle of metal sheets hitting the
concrete floor told me that I didn't have long. Before the smoke
killed me, the building would probably collapse. Already the thick
cloud of smoke spilling into the room made me cough. Soon, it would
choke me.

Sobbing, I tried even harder to free
myself from the ropes. "No!
Please
."

Jerking and twisting and weeping, I didn't even
hear the shouting voices at first. It wasn't until I heard my name
ricocheting around the warehouse that I snapped my gaze to the
door. I didn't believe it at first. Surely I was hallucinating
now.

"Vivian!"

Awash with desperation, I screamed, "Help! I'm
in here! Help!"

"Vee!"

My heart threatened to burst. There was only
one man in the whole wide world who called me Vee.
"Nikolai!"

A heartbeat after I shrieked his name, the door
burst open and he stumbled into the room. Smoke billowed around
him. With his arm across his nose and mouth, he scanned the dimly
lit space for me. His gaze landed on John's body before hopping to
the cage. "Vee!"

He raced to the cage and dropped to
his knees beside it. Those heavily tattooed fingers reached through
the wire squares to touch my shoulder. The horror of my predicament
appeared on his handsome but very bruised and scratched face.
"S
olnyshko moyo
,"
he said on a ragged breath. "What have they done to
you?"

My sun
. The
tenderly spoken pet name brought tears of utter joy to my eyes.
Relief gripped me as I felt his warm skin against mine. Bound and
battered, I rubbed my cheek against his gentle hand like a puppy
seeking comfort from its owner. "You came for me."

"Always, Vee. Nothing will ever keep me away
from you."

He spoke the words like a vow. Even as the
whole world seemed to burn around us, I recognized that everything
had just changed between us.

"Vivi!" Eric rushed into the room with Sergei
and Kostya following right on his heels. They all looked at the
dead body on the floor, their faces contorting with confusion.
There wasn't time to explain. The warehouse would soon be engulfed
in flames.

Nikolai grabbed the heavy locks on the front of
my cage. "Check the body for keys."

"No time, Boss." Sergei dared to go against
Nikolai. He shoved everyone out of the way, crouched down at the
knees and grasped the sides of my cage. With only a short grunt, he
lifted me and the cage right off the concrete floor. I went rigid
with the fear of being dropped, but if anyone could carry me out of
here with the added weight of the cage it was the
big-as-a-grizzly-bear Russian. "Let's go."

I'd never been more grateful to be so tiny and
thin. Though I'd always envied Lena and Bianca's curves, I realized
now how much added strain that would have put on Sergei. The giant
Russian had the thickest, most ripped arms I'd ever seen, but it
was a long way out of that warehouse and he was booking it because
of the fire.

Nikolai ran alongside us while Kostya hurried
ahead and Eric brought up the rear. By the time we made it outside,
we were all coughing and gasping for clean air. Sergei hardly
slowed down as Kostya popped the back door of the silver SUV. He
hefted me inside the cargo area with a growl of effort.

Not willing to be parted from me, Nikolai
crawled in to the space beside me. From the tense set of his jaw, I
could tell he was in so much pain. After the beating he'd taken, I
couldn't quite believe that he was up and moving around so quickly.
For me, though, he seemed willing to do anything, even risk further
injury.

Kostya hopped in the back with us while Eric
and Sergei piled into the front seats. Nikolai reached into the
cage again and stroked my arm as Sergei hit the gas and raced away
from the burning warehouse.

While Kostya unzipped a black backpack, Nikolai
pushed the blindfold onto the top of my head. His fingertips
brushed my cheek. Suddenly, I was very aware of my naked state. No
man had ever seen me unclothed. Now four more men had seen me like
this, one of them my own cousin.

Nikolai whispered sweetly to me in Russian. His
reassuring voice helped me stay focused. After the hell I'd just
survived, I was fading fast.

"She needs an ambulance." Eric had crawled onto
the middle seat. "She could have smoke inhalation
injuries."

"The doctor is less than five minutes from
here." Kostya produced bolt cutters from his backpack and started
to snap the locks. "Sergei!"

"Already headed there," he shouted
back.

"The doctor?" Eric didn't sound happy. "She
needs a real hospital, not some vet you guys pay to patch you back
together."

Nikolai stroked my arm. "He's a trauma surgeon
with a full staff and operating capabilities. She'll be in good
hands."

"Do you have a burner phone?" Eric's voice grew
distant as he traveled back to the front seat of the SUV. Sergei's
gruff voice answered him. Not long after, I heard Eric calling
9-1-1 and reporting a warehouse on fire.

Kostya cut the last lock and jerked the cage
door open. Instantly, Nikolai slid in front of the cage to reach in
for me. Kostya thrust a knife into his hand. With quick swiping
motions, Nikolai sliced through the ropes binding my limbs and the
leash attached to the collar. I groaned as pain darted through my
feet and hands. My shoulders ached so badly. Pulling a deep breath
into my oxygen-starved lungs eased some of the dizziness I'd been
feeling.

"Let me." Kostya gently shoved Nikolai aside
and scooped me out of the cage. It was clear he wanted to spare
Nikolai the pain and injury of picking me up and moving
me.

Remembering how I'd been sick, I apologized to
the man they called a cleaner. "I'm sorry. I'm getting you all
dirty."

He cracked a small smile. "I've had worse on
me."

Nikolai had shrugged out of his jacket and held
open his arms. Kostya deposited me on Nikolai's lap before climbing
out of the cargo area to give us privacy. Very carefully, Nikolai
wrapped his jacket around me. When I was covered, he unbuckled the
nasty collar squeezing my neck and tossed it across the cargo
area.

Cupping my face, he peered down at me. Voice
cracking, he finally asked, "Did they hurt you?"

When he said hurt, he meant rape. "Not like
that."

He studied my face for any signs of lying. The
grim line of his mouth relaxed when he was assured I was telling
the truth. "But they did other things to you."

I gulped as his finger traced one of the burn
marks on my thigh. Fresh tears prickled my eyes. "Yes."

Gathering me tightly to his chest,
he threaded his fingers through my hair. "Don't think about any of
that right now. Rest." He pressed a tender kiss to the crown of my
head. "
Laskovaya moya.
"

Even as the most painful muscle spasms and
pins-and-needles sensations racked my poor abused body, I delighted
in Nikolai's pet name. The soft caress of his hands made me feel
safe and secure. Though I tried to stay awake, I began to
drift.

The SUV finally slowed to a stop. I hovered on
the verge of passing out now but I could hear Eric arguing with
Kostya. One harsh word from Nikolai silenced them. The back door of
the SUV opened to reveal Sergei's hulking form.

"I'll take her, Boss."

"Be careful with her." Nikolai reluctantly
allowed Sergei to take me.

Cradled in the massive fighter's arms, I
glanced back at Nikolai who slid out of the cargo area to follow
us. As he bent forward, the front of this buttoned shirt gaped open
just enough to give a glimpse of his chest. The overhead light from
the cargo area silhouetted him so oddly in the darkness of the
night. It wasn't until he turned to face me fully that I got a good
look at the tattoo emblazoned across his sternum.

Suddenly, I was taken back to another night, a
night warmer and balmier than this. A night when a man silhouetted
in the shadows had shot me. A man with that exact
tattoo…

Our gazes clashed. In that moment, I saw the
ugly, awful truth etched into the face of the man I loved more than
anything in this world. It wasn't some unnamed thug squatting in a
nice house who had shot me that night.

It was Nikolai.

Chapter
Eight

By four in the morning, Nikolai had Vivian
safely tucked into his bed. He stood in the doorway of his bedroom
and watched her sleep. She'd been through so much in the last few
days and desperately needed to rest and heal.

Their visit to the doctor had taken nearly
three hours to complete because the doctor wanted to watch all of
them for adverse reactions to the smoke inhalation. After giving
Vivian IV fluids, treating her burns and scrapes, and administering
a sedative, the doctor had sent them home with strict instructions
for her care and a number of prescription bottles to treat
Nikolai's own injuries. The pain meds were tempting but he refused
to cloud his mind right now, not when everything was still so
unsure.

He didn't want to think about how close he'd
come to losing her. If Sergei hadn't managed to beat the location
out of the driver they'd finally tracked down through Kostya's
lead, they might have arrived too late. He thanked God they'd
gotten there in time to save her from that raging
inferno.

Even though he still had to work out who the
hell had masterminded the attack and kidnapping, his first concern
was Vivian. He'd seen that flash of recognition on her face when
she'd spied that tattoo he'd kept so carefully hidden from her all
these years. In that moment, he'd wanted to drop to his knees and
beg her forgiveness. He'd wanted to crawl to her and plead with her
to let him explain.

She'd clammed up after she'd made her terrible
discovery and had all but avoided his eye contact. He didn't know
if she'd ever forgive him for what he'd done or how he'd lied to
her. He didn't deserve that forgiveness and if she hated him from
now until his very last breath he wouldn't hold a
grudge.

"Boss?" Sergei's voice dragged Nikolai from his
troubled thoughts. He glanced back toward the hallway to see his
enforcer extending a cell phone. Sergei's busted up knuckles were
swollen and bloody. "It's the detective."

After they'd received their treatment, Santos
had asked to be dropped off a few blocks from the parking garage
where he'd stowed his car. Nikolai sensed the man felt conflicted
about his part in the night's events. Cold as it sounded, the
detective's guilt wasn't his problem, and he wasn’t going to expend
any more energy thinking about it.

"Yes?" He answered a bit gruffly, the stress
and physical exhaustion irritating his already frayed
nerves.

"How is she?"

Nikolai's watched Vivian for a few seconds.
"She's sleeping."

"Good. Look, from what I've heard, the whole
damn warehouse burned to the ground. There's no evidence connecting
us to it yet but—"

"The police are already hounding me for an
interview. My lawyer informed them that Vivian was recovered and is
here at my home. Two detectives have asked to interview us in a few
hours."

"Yeah, I know. I got called about five seconds
after your lawyer informed the station Vivian was safe."

"And what did you say?"

"I acted surprised. Whether Katrina bought it
is anyone's guess."

"As far as I'm concerned, I haven't seen you
since the other morning at Vivian's apartment."

"I was seen going into your hospital
room."

"Where I was unconscious," Nikolai reminded
him.

"You don't need to protect me. I willingly went
with you tonight. I crossed that line of my own accord."

Nikolai's gaze returned to Vivian. "I'm not
protecting you. I'm protecting her. If you get disciplined, she'll
feel the guilt."

Santos sighed. "What's the story you're giving
the detectives?"

"I received a phone call with a ransom demand,
slipped out of the hospital, gathered the money and exchanged it
for Vivian."

Santos grunted with uncertainty. "Let's hope it
works."

"It will."

"I'll drop by later to visit her." Santos
hesitated. "Just—take care of her."

He heard the subtle dig.
Take care of her better than the last
time…

A second later, the phone line went dead.
Nikolai frowned at the phone before handing it back to Sergei. The
behemoth looked like he was about to drop from exhaustion. "Go
home. Get some sleep. Ice your hands."

Sergei shook his head. "My place is here,
guarding the two of you."

"I appreciate your loyalty but Kostya already
has five men on the house. If you won't go home, use one of the
guest rooms and take a nap. I need you rested and
alert."