26. Amy

26

AMY

D iego tightened his arm around my neck, and it ramped up my fear. I'd never been this scared in my life. Even the kidnapping ordeal paled in comparison. I hadn't known what to expect then. I hadn't realized what was at stake.

Now, I did. He would kill me, then the man I was falling in love with. He'd hurt my new friends and all these brave men fighting for our safety.

It wasn't only a matter of living or dying. It became something more. This standoff was a symbol of the power between these men.

Diego would buy a woman to keep her like a possession. He'd participate in trafficking humans.

Nik and his Bratva brothers didn't. They'd released that girl. They'd cared and provided for me without question.

Diego couldn't win, and it was that firm and staunch conviction that helped to keep me from locking up in terror and going numb. I remained alert, thinking back to all those self-defense lessons I did back in high school. How to turn my head for air. How to move my foot and place my hand for the optimum strike.

With all the gunfire, I was too hesitant to move. Nik didn't lower his gun, aiming it at Diego. Alek, too. He remained braced to kill. Between them, they'd end this monster's life, but I was so close. He had his gun at me.

I stiffened, lying in wait to act.

"You won't have her." Diego snickered that creepy sound again, lowering the gun to my belly.

No! I went still again.

"And you won't have your bastards."

I didn't want to know how he knew. I wasn't showing. Word traveled differently among these crime families, but I dreaded anyone knowing about my babies. They didn't deserve to be targeted.

He tightened his hold on me more, and the tremor in his grip was familiar. Diego was pushed to his limits, on the edge of cracking like this. His muscles shook from the strain, and it reminded me of how I'd dealt with wild and uncooperative animals at the vet office. This Cartel freak wasn't a canine. He wasn't a feral cat. But the logic remained the same. He was no longer human to me, just another animal, another thing to safely evade or put down.

Diego could linger in that limbo of insanity. I wouldn't. Fear wouldn't paralyze me now. As I locked eyes with Nik, I prepared myself to defend my babies until my last breath.

Mila! Without looking down, I noticed her crawling beneath the table. She'd hidden beneath the behemoth of wood, but Diego didn't seem to notice her. His gaze was on Nik and Alek as he taunted them and ordered them to let him leave with me. All that he shouted sounded so hysterical and unhinged, but it worked in my favor .

With the thick tablecloth hanging down and blocking Mila from sight, no one could see her but me and Diego. We were the only two at this side of the room. Men fought and shot at each other throughout the house, but no one came close enough to be near Diego and interfere.

Mila lifted her hand, and the flash of light confused me. In the shadows under the table, she wasn't clear. I refused to lower my gaze and look at her directly, either. I couldn't give away her hiding spot, and I could only watch through my peripheral vision. Tuning out Diego and straining to see her without moving, I caught on to what she had. What she was doing.

The knife!

She'd grabbed hers just when the gunfire had broken out. This fierce woman told me to hide, but we'd dropped low at the threat of a bullet finding us. It all happened in such a blur that I'd lacked a chance to take my knife, but she was coming through for me, trying to give me her blade.

Shit. How can I get it? Diego held me close. If I tried to move, it might startle him. He might think I was trying to run, and I couldn't risk him shooting at my belly.

I flinched as someone burst through the room, firing at someone else in the hall. The longer we stood here in this standoff, any one of us could be shot.

That's it! The idea came so quickly, I latched on to it without taking a moment to strategize. Time was of the essence. I couldn't risk being shot. I refused to let Nik be wounded.

I gasped as theatrically as I could, placing my hand at my side opposite of where Diego aimed his gun at me.

He jerked aside, staring at me, but I didn't face him. I couldn't. I groaned and tilted over, acting as though I'd been shot .

"Amy!" Nik shouted and stepped forward from the opposite side of the table.

"Stop!" Diego shouted as I hunched over. He didn't try to stop me. He didn't care about me or my wellbeing.

I leaned low enough to grab the knife from Mila.

My fingers slid on the handle, wet from sweat, but I held it firmly as I spun. Standing and twisting, I growled and gave this maneuver all I had. I planted my foot to the ground and lurched forward, driving the steak knife into his side. The blade met resistance, and all my training and education about anatomy and physiology had me guessing I'd sliced into his ribcage.

He screamed, bellowing a mighty roar of fury and agony. As he faced me, his eyes wide with crazed malice, I pushed harder and twisted the knife the best I could. It was slick before from my sweaty hands, but now, it was slippery with his blood.

My attack distracted him. He'd taken his sights off Nik and now focused on punishing me.

"You filthy fucking whore!" he screamed.

More men entered the room, and Nik and Alek tried to fend them off. Wounding Diego seemed to attract more of the Cartel men, but I couldn't allow myself to be distracted. I lost the chance to look back at Nik and know that he was okay.

I had to fight. For me. For him. For us.

Diego no longer aimed the gun at my belly. He strained to target the end of his weapon at my heart. Then higher, at my head. The tip of his gun never aligned with my body, though, because I kept fighting and wrestling to get away.

He kept me close, and I punched and dodged. His arm reached out to grab me, but I kicked and twisted. Holding his arm and pushing it away, I prevented him from bringing the aim back to me .

I didn't know how he could still be breathing and fighting so well with a steak knife in his ribs. He had a beefy torso, but a blade was a blade. Blood leaked from him.

With the fast blur of avoiding his gun, I lacked the opportunity to hit harder. I couldn't grab the knife and use it again, and as I smacked into the edge of the table, I tried to find another. Groping the surface of the table, I sought another knife. Hell, a fork. A spoon. Anything. My fingers slipped over the cloth, finding nothing.

As I tried to blindly find another weapon, I lost my concentration on holding his arm away. The gun slid closer and closer. The metal shone bright as he almost succeeded in pushing it toward my neck and head.

"No!" I shouted, bringing my foot up to kick him. I missed, but the full-body pivot gave me a little more leeway to dodge his gun.

No. Fucking. Way. He wouldn't get away with this. He was not going to kill me and take away my chance of seeing my dreams come true.

I had a man who cared for me. He fought valiantly from the other side of the room to reach me. Each time his shouts for me rang through my ears, I was reminded of how damned determined he was to see to my safety.

I had my babies who would depend on me.

My family.

Even all these criminals and their staff. They were mine now. I would be one of them and proud to be within their organization.

It wasn't a conventional group, but in this fight to the death, resisting the danger and threat of this madman, we came together. Blood was thicker than water. But in my case, this deep, bold love that coursed through me was the strongest bond of all.

"Amy, get down! "

Nik's shout sounded louder, and the vibrations of his footfalls led me to realize he was on my side of the room now. He'd escaped the men at the door. Alek was likely fending them off, killing them one by one.

I didn't know how to drop without giving Diego a free range to shoot me.

But I trusted him. I counted on Nik to tell me what to do in this war, and I obeyed his order.

Holding my breath, I slid to my knees. Mila's hand gripped me as she pulled me to hide under the table with her, but I was locked on the events unfolding.

Diego snarled like a feral beast, lowering the gun to me.

"No!" Nik shouted as he hurried closer.

Diego looked up, keeping his gun trained on me.

"Amy," Mila said, panicked but full of authority. She shoved another knife into my hand from the depths of the table's shelter.

As Diego reached for the holster at his side, keeping the gun aimed at me, he raised a second firearm to point at Nik as he approached.

No! I leaned forward, stabbing the knife into the top of Diego's shoe.

Mila pulled me back as soon as I accomplished the hit. Tugging me back under the table with her, she was so forceful and quick that we rolled beneath the wood together.

He shot. The bullet pierced the floor, right where I'd been a second ago.

Another shot. Then another. Another.

I clung to Mila under the table, and she wrapped her arms around me in just as tight of a vise. Shaking and panting, we hugged each other as suspense chopped at my heart .

Nik?

Nik!

Staring at Diego's feet, zoned out on the knife standing upright in his shoe. Blood spilled over the shiny surface. I blinked, willing him to move. To speak. To do anything. So many shots had been fired, but who was hit?

Then his other shoe slid. He pushed one leg back. His knee dropped down next. With a thudding impact that I felt from the vibrations rippling through the floor, he dropped.

Still and dead.

He gazed at us unseeing, the single bullet hole between his eyes pronouncing him dead. Three more bloody holes leaked crimson on his chest, dead center over his heart.

He was dead.

Diego would never hunt for me again.

I wasn't his. I'd never been his.

I belonged with Nik.

"Nik!" I whispered it, urgent with the need to see him alive.

No reply came. Mila scanned the view we had under here, shaking her head.

What was she saying? No, he hadn't made it? No, don't speak? The sounds of fighting faded. No more guns were fired. And it was too quiet.

"Nik?" I said louder, frantic. I released Mila as we both tried to crawl out from under the table.

"Nik!" I repeated a third time, desperate to see something out there .

He had to be okay. He had to live.

We had to survive and bring these babies into the world.

We belonged together, dammit!

I didn't dare catch my breath as I crawled out on my hands and knees.

I couldn't slow my racing heart, not until I knew that the man I loved wasn't dead from the grisly end of that standoff.