Chapter Nineteen

“N ik!” Mia screamed. “Let me go!”

The moment Chadwick loosened his grip, she jerked free and ran over to the wooden box. Dropping to her knees, Mia placed her hands on the rough lid and tears fell from her lashes.

“Nik, please hold on,” she cried. She knew the panic must be consuming him, and she was near her wit’s end, but she steadied her voice for his benefit. “I’ll find a way to get you out.”

“Mia,” he rasped. The desperation, the raw terror she heard, made her heart break.

“Focus on my voice, Nikolai,” she ordered firmly. “Remember what I told you.”

“Don’t leave me,” he whispered raggedly.

Emotion made her throat tighten.

“Never,” she whispered. A strong set of arms yanked her backward and onto her feet. “You can’t do this to him!” she screamed at Chadwick, twisting and turning in Salinger’s iron grip.

“That’s where you’re wrong,” he informed her coldly. “Let’s go. We need to make contact with Anton Petrov and set up a swap.”

She glared at Chadwick, wishing the most horrible things on him, but too upset to find the words.

There would be no bargaining or exchanging her for Zaitsev. Petrov was dead and she wanted to yell the truth, rub his smug face in it, but she didn’t dare. As long as he didn’t find out Nadia had the chemist, Chadwick wouldn’t get his grimy hands on the man.

“It’s too bad we can’t bury him,” Grendel murmured in that too-soft voice of his, eyeing the coffin like a cat watching a canary. “Imagine the screams we’d hear as the dirt buried him alive.”

Mia’s stomach revolted at the thought. “You’re a sick fuck,” she hissed.

“Let’s do it.” Salinger grinned, his voice taking on a terrifying tone of excitement.

She wanted to punch him in the face. Maybe knock a couple of his crooked teeth out.

“The ground is too hard,” Grendel said, the admission laced with regret. “We’d need some kind of digger to break through it.”

“We don’t have time,” Chadwick interrupted brusquely.

Thank God for that.

As Salinger roughly escorted her out the door, she swore to herself she’d find a way back there so she could release Nik. She knew his team was on the way. Back at the cabin, she’d discreetly grabbed the burner phone, hiding it beneath her T-shirt, and then called Pharaoh while she was supposed to be getting dressed in the bedroom.

But would they make it in time? She had no idea, and it tore her up inside.

Mia remembered how frantic Nik had become while they’d been crawling through that narrow ice cave. But being locked in that box might be his undoing, his breaking point.

Her man was in his own personal hell right now and there was nothing she could do to help him.

It absolutely killed her.

◆◆◆

Breathe through the fear.

Mia’s words flooded Saint’s brain and he did his best to follow her advice. But the reality of the situation had him bowed and bent like a branch in a storm, and blinding, irrational fear crippled him.

“ Fuuuck ,” he mewled, scratching his fingernails down the wooden lid holding him hostage. After slamming his balled-up fists against the lid several times, he tried to angle his body and hit it with his elbow, but it was too cramped. His lungs constricted and it felt like he was going to suffocate. It wasn’t airtight, so he wouldn’t die of asphyxiation. But, he would perish eventually.

The rational part of his brain which held all of his training and his ability to think strategically and logically fucking disappeared. Panic and terror infused every cell in his body as he squeezed his eyes shut and reverted to trying to claw his way out.

Of course, he knew it would never work, but his brain was in the throes of a first-rate fucking panic attack.

Breathe through the fear.

Mia. He forcibly shoved the fear down and instead pulled up a mental image of her. He couldn’t deny the truth any longer—he was falling hard for her. So hard and so fast it could only be one thing.

Love.

He never thought he was capable of the emotion. Hell, no one had ever loved him growing up, so he didn’t think he could love anyone else. Never fully understood how the emotion worked, how it hit like a fucking freight train, until he’d picked Mia up, tossed her over his shoulder and carted her through the parking lot last week.

Goldilocks had challenged him every step of the way, and he’d loved every smart-mouthed comment she’d delivered. Somehow, she’d reached deep into what he believed was his empty chest and reactivated the organ he’d thought was dead. She made him feel so damn much. Whatever magic spell she’d cast had helped heal parts of himself he had refused to admit were broken.

Now his fierce kitten, so loyal and determined, was in trouble. The truth was out and Carlisle wasn’t bothering to pretend she was his daughter any longer. That meant one very big thing—he’d consider her an inconvenience, a loose end that needed to be eliminated. Especially since Salinger and Grendel both knew the truth of her parentage.

He couldn’t fall apart when his kotyonok needed him most. Forcing himself to keep his eyes closed so he couldn’t see the lid in front of his face, he pulled in several deep breaths and hoped to Christ his team would find them soon.

Breathe through the fear.

Otherwise, he had no idea how long he would last before he gave in to the terror threatening to slowly eat away at him like acid. Once that happened, he’d spiral into a mental breakdown.

Like he’d had in the closet at the orphanage.

Like he’d had in the hole in prison.

“Mia,” he whispered over and over again, his body rocking as much as it could in the tight confines of the box. Repeating her name gave him an anchor, something to clutch in the panicked chaos of his mind.

The question was, for how long?

◆◆◆

“How the hell are we supposed to make contact with the leader of the Russian Bratva?” Salinger demanded.

“I’m calling Cross.” Chadwick pulled his phone out.

Mia swiped a hand under her nose and sniffled, wishing instant death upon all three men. They were in some kind of office and she sat in a chair in the corner, trying not to cry. She focused her energy on Nik, sending him soothing vibes and the strength he needed to keep it together and hold on.

Help was on its way. The GPS tracker in the phone would bring his team.

Unfortunately, life wasn’t always perfect, so if Nik’s team didn’t drop in to save the day soon, she would have to take matters into her own hands.

Yes, some days the bad guys won. Not today, though, she vowed.

And that meant it was up to her to figure out how to defeat these three evil assholes and save her man. Her attention moved to the gun Chadwick had laid on the desk. It was out of her reach, but if she could get her hands on it…

“We have a problem,” Chadwick announced, presumably to Cross. Whoever he was. Probably a part of The Agency, she surmised. “The Bratva has Zaitsev. How the hell are we supposed to get him back?”

Mia smothered a smirk. At least they had the upper hand for the moment while he was running around on a wild goose chase.

“What?” Chadwick turned his attention to her, eyes narrowing, as he listened to whatever the other man was saying. “Interesting.”

That one word sent a chill down her spine. Well, they’d had the upper hand. He was looking at her with so much hate glowing in his eyes, squeezing the phone hard enough to crack it. And her hopes plummeted.

“I’ll take care of them,” Chadwick stated ominously and hung up. He stalked toward her, face turning a mottled shade of red. “You are so much like your mother. A lying, conniving, little bit—”

The entire bunker rocked as though God himself had struck it. Or, maybe the Devil. Mia grabbed onto the armrests, trying to figure out what the hell was happening, when a series of distant pops filled the cold air.

The brief distraction was exactly what she needed and she hopped up, lunging for the gun. Chadwick spun at the same time and grabbed it first. Screw that . She threw herself at him and tackled him at the knees. They both fell to the ground, the force of her body causing him to release the weapon and it went skittering across the floor.

As she wrestled with Chadwick, using all her strength to keep him away from the gun, she saw Grendel run. Salinger stood there like a deer caught in headlights, and she had a fleeting fantasy of grabbing the gun and putting a bullet between his beady eyes.

A moment later, two people in head-to-toe military gear swept into the room. Their faces were covered from the nose down, they wore protective vests and they each carried a pistol.

POP! POP! Salinger dropped, a bullet neatly delivered to his chest and then one between his eyes, just like she’d imagined. The utterly precise and smooth delivery made her jaw drop. They had to be part of Nik’s team.

Ex Nihilo.

Distracted by what was happening, Mia let her guard down and Chadwick wrapped a forearm around her neck, dragging her up, and using her as a human shield. The gunmen turned, aiming their weapons at his head, but didn’t fire as he hid behind Mia, towing her along with him.

“You’re such a coward,” she hissed between gritted teeth.

“Let me pass or I’ll break her neck,” Chadwick threatened.

Mia met the intense gray eyes of the first man, who growled, “Stand down,” to the other man who was absolutely huge and staring at her with concern in his amber gaze. Reluctantly, they stepped aside, allowing them to pass.

Shit.

“Get Nik!” she cried, frantically pulling against Chadwick’s hold. “He’s nailed shut in the coffin!”

Once again, the entire bunker rumbled and Mia felt the ground move beneath her feet as an ominous sound filled the air. It felt like an earthquake.

“Avalanche!” someone yelled.

The next thing she knew, the ceiling above her cracked and began to fall. Mia screamed and Chadwick shoved her away as rocks and snow dropped all around them.

“Move it!” he yelled, pushing her forward.

She stumbled and ran, keeping her head down and covered. Debris rained down all around them, but somehow they made it through before being buried alive. Glancing over her shoulder, Mia’s heart fell. A huge pile of rocks, snow and ice now separated her from Nik’s teammates. Once again, she was stuck with Chadwick.

Fear punched her in the gut when he lifted his hand and waved the gun in front of her face. How had he managed to grab it? Furious with herself for letting it happen, she wanted to scream in frustration. Instead, she pressed her lips together and, when he motioned for her to walk, she marched forward, lifting her chin, defiant as hell. Nik would be proud.

The bad news was they’d been separated from the good guys. The good news was she was on the side of the cave-in where Nik was located. As soon as they passed the room, she was going to somehow escape Chadwick, duck inside and get Nik out. But when they reached the doorway, Chadwick grabbed her arm and yanked her inside.

“You want to be with him so badly?” he snarled, shaking her so hard her head rattled. “Then be with him, you lying, cheating, deceitful whore!” His voice cracked and, with wild eyes, he turned the gun and opened fire at the wooden box.

The box that held Nik.

A scream tore from Mia’s throat as chunks of wood splintered and cracked. Even after the gun had emptied, he kept pulling the trigger.

Click, click, click.

“No!” Mia cried, her knees buckling. There was no way Nik hadn’t been hit and as she dropped to the floor, her world plunged into despair.