CHAPTER TWELVE
1574 Words
ANTON
I studied them. MIKHAIL PETROV, the unstoppable, unrelenting and ruthless force and DANA MONROE, the one who had ever made him act without thinking. The tension between them, dangerous.
“Keep your distance,” I murmured under my breath, but it was too late, because at that moment the predator and the hinged connected.
The Boss was watching, and we all knew it.
Every glance, every subtle movement could start the war that has been breeding for months. And somehow, these two has ignited a fire that no one—not even The Boss—or Sasha could extinguish.
Then outside the ba, the night went calm. For now.
But it's never this calm in Moscow and it definitely would not last long.
“Mr Petrov,” The Boss wants her,” I said. “Alive. For now,” I said to him just as I got to the locked door.
MIKHAIL
Just then I looked at Dana, her face was lit with half smile at the corner of her lips. That looked dangerous.
“Wrong move.” I thought.
I turned the knob of the door open, looked around, being security-conscious, just when I felt the coast was clear, my intuition instructed me to look by my right. One of The Boss’s men stepped forward, his hand drifting to the back of his jacket swiftly.
I moved first.
Fast.
I slammed the table sideways, metal shrieking as it crashed into the bulb. Darkness covered the room.
In a burst, I barked “NOW.”
DANA
The dark exploded.
Not fear—movement.
Mikhail grabbed my wrist and yanked me out just as he slammed the glass into the wall where my head had been a second earlier.
Gunshot.
So close, Thank goodness, he acted fast.
My heart kicked into overdrive…..but my mind went ice-cold.
“Mikhai—left!” I shouted.
He didn't hesitate, he never does.
We moved like it was rehearsed, like we never stopped being who we were together.
The door burst open again, more footsteps. Too many.
“Back corridor,” he snapped.
“Run immediately you hear my call.”
We hit the street hard into his car. Red lights flickering but we didn't stop.
I heared Anton yelling orders behind us.
“STOP THEM!”
Mikhail bent my head with one of his hands, the other firing back forcing them back without killing them.
He was trying to buy time for me.
“Why are you helping me?” I yelled as we turned to a corner.
He kept mute, ignoring my question.
He kicked open a nearby service door and shoved me through just as another shot fired passed his shoulder.
Cold air slammed my lungs.
Outside was snowy.
It was dark and only engines roaring somewhere close.
“Go!” He ordered . I shunned to his face.
“No.” I screamed at him.
His eyes flared. “Dana.”
“They won’t stop,” I said. “Not for you. Not for me.”
A black SUV screeched into view at the end of the alley.
The Boss plates numbers.
Mikhail swore beneath his breath.
This was it.
The choice I wanted him to make.
He stepped in front of me, shielding me fully. Deliberately.
“If they want you, they’d have to go through me.” He yelled with this his hard baritone voice of his.
In that moment, l knew for sure something brewed, something terrible and absolute.
Mikhail Petrov had just declared war on his own empire.
Just as the SUV doors opened.
Guns visible, shots flying in the air.
A voice called through the cold.
“Bring me Dana,” The Boss said calmly. “Let’s see if she can withstand the law as much as her lover can.”
Mikhail tightened his grip on my hand. “Whatever happens,” he said looking at me, “you stay alive.”
I squeezed his fingers. “Then don’t let go.” I said. He then held tighter, not leaving my front even for a second, at that point it dawned on The Boss that before he could take me from Mikhail. The night would see blood. He signalled to his boys, they all dropped their weapons, left and the night held its breath.
DANA
They didn’t take me in front of him.
The Boss left first—slow, unhurried, like the road was in his name. His SUV disappeared into the snow, taking the sound of authority with it. I thought maybe just maybe, we’ve experienced enough chaos for the night.
I was wrong.
I felt strong hands grabbing me from behind. So swift, before I could call on Mikhail, my mouth was shut with a cloth over it. I caught one last glimpse of him.
As I struggled with the men, one of them’s hand slipped while covering my mouth and i shouted, “Mikhail.”
Then they slammed the door. Rage filled my insides, the darkness that swallowed me, Unexplainable.
When I woke, my head was pounding, the air smelled of metal and puke. A chair, I was painfully strapped to a chair,
I scoffed and chuckled softly.
“Bad move Boss.” I said with pains in my voice.
A slap landed across my face, so hard that my vision blurred.
“Welcome back, Dana Monroe,” a voice said calmly. “You’ve been very hard to kill.”
I tilted my head slowly to the left, when he stood. “You should try harder,” I said.
Somewhere in my depth, fear crept on me tight, but it didn’t win. Not tonight. Not ever. Until I’ve settled my scores.
Because if they had taken me after The Boss left, it meant one thing; This wasn’t his endgame.
It was leverage.
Because if they had taken me after The Boss left, it meant one thing:
This wasn’t his endgame.
It was leverage.
And Mikhail Petrov was the weapon they were aiming at.
MIKHAIL
The minute she disappeared, I felt lost once more.
I tore the alley apart, two men down, one running and it still wasn’t enough to calm my rage. It would never be enough.
Anton tried to speak, I had hit him before I realised who I was transferring my aggression on.
“You let her go,” I said quietly, “you let them take her.”
“She wasn’t the order boss,” he said, wiping blood of his mouth.
“She was the message.”
That was when my phone rang.
Unknown number???
I picked.you have until forty- eight hours,” the voice said with utmost joy. “After that,
She starts disappearing piece by piece. ERASED.
The line went dead.
I stood lost after the call ended. Thinking wildly how to answer to this person who trespassed on HER.
The line went dead.
Then Sasha walked in.
She looked exactly the same.
Perfect coat, perfect face.
“Hi Baby,” she said softly, stepping closer. “ I heard you’re back to Moscow.”
I didn’t look at her.
Not once.
She reached for my arm, I steeped away.
She heaved a huge sigh.
“Is it true?” She asked, voice tight. “The rumors?” I finally turned to her, my eyes filled with emptiness. “Sasha leave here pls.”
She was shocked.
And for the first time, I didn’t care.
DANA
After what seemed like hours into interrogations. Questions about Mikhail. About things I refused to confirm.
They wanted me alive. A Good Sign.
This meant Mikhail was still alive. That comforted me. Reason it did, I can’t assimilate.
MIKHAIL
Just when I thought I had it figured out, I was jolted from my thoughts with a knock on my office door.
It was Anton.
“You have guests.” He said.
I wondered as I never fixed a meeting with anyone.
Two men came into my office space, I immediately recognised them and Dana’s colleagues.
Lucky and Andrew.
From their look, you could tell they were dumbfounded.
“We traced a money trail, while searching for The Boss,” Lucky said. “ We discovered Dana’s tracker went off.” Lucky said. “While searching for her we discovered a money trail linked to The Boss.”
“And?” I demanded.
Andrew swallowed. “ Chairman Hudson.”
I froze.
“He’s dead,” I said.
Andrew shook his head slowly.
“No,” he replied. “He faked it.
New accounts, security and new alliances.”
“With The Boss?” I asked.
The room went quiet. It all clicked.
The war. Rumours. Dana.
All of it.
Lucky slid a tablet across the table. “Do we leak it?” He asked.
“Mikhail, if you do what I think you’re about to do,hell will let loose.” Andrew said carefully.
“I will,”I said in utmost anger. “Worse even.”
Fire and brimstones weren’t metaphors where I came from. They were promises.
“Burn Hudson’s empire.” I ordered. “Every asset. Every ally.
I want the ground smoking by sunrise.”
“And Sasha?” Anton asked.
I paused.
“I don’t care.”
I turned toward the window, Moscow stretched beneath me like it was a kingdoms that had forgotten who ruled it.
“They took her,” I said.
“Now I take everything.”I said calmly
- Writer
