Please let it be a SWAT team!
“Little fawn!”
Tolyan! I strain for the sound of police or backup, but no. It’s just him. Just one pair of feet running on the concrete outside the door.
No, no! Oh my God! Please, Tolyan! You should’ve brought backup. Are they coming in from the back door or something?
“Is that your boyfriend, Angelika?” Roy sneers. “I heard he’s an old loser. I’m going to make him cry like a baby!”
The trio of thugs looks at him. “Want some help?” one of the men asks.
“Nah. You watch her. I don’t need your help carving up that ol’ bag of shit.”
He swaggers out, pulling out a knife. It looks amazingly sharp, like the ones Tolyan keeps in his home.
I lick my bloodied lips, then wince at the pain. Tolyan has tons of guns and explosives at home, but I don’t know if he carries when he’s at work. I’ve never seen him with a gun in the office, not that he would flash it around. But he keeps a gun in his fridge, so he has to have one in his SUV. Hopefully one with a lot of bullets.
But there’s no gunshot. I hear some grunts, can’t tell whose.
Please, don’t let that be Tolyan’s!
The thugs laugh. They start betting on how exactly Roy will kill Tolyan.
“I say he uses the knife.”
“I don’t know… Hard to win a knife fight, if the other guy knows you’re coming.”
The driver nods. “He’ll use the gun.”
I shudder. He has a gun? But he hasn’t fired yet, which means he’s doing fine with just the knife. If Tolyan were winning, Roy would’ve pulled the trigger by now. My palms grow damp.
Please! Universe, God or Buddha or anybody up there listening! Please, help Tolyan!
“How about if we bet on how long it’s gonna take before her boyfriend’s dead?”
“You been timing from the beginning?”
No, no, no.
With every breath I take, with every beat of my heart, the hope that’s been shining in my chest since meeting Tolyan grows darker. Roy enjoys doling out pain. And he said he wanted to make Tolyan pay.
This is my fault. If I hadn’t been such a stubborn bitch and stuck to Tolyan tighter, I wouldn’t have been kidnapped, and Roy wouldn’t have gotten the upper hand.
So what if I was supposed to be bait? Tolyan would’ve made sure I was safe.
Now I’ve messed up everything. If anything happens to Tolyan, it’ll be my fault. If I die, that’s my fault, too.
Stupid. I’ve been so damn stupid!
Grunts. A strangled yell. Then silence.
My heart pumps adrenaline. I can’t stop shaking. Tears bead in my eyes, and I blink them away. Crying would only make Roy happier. On top of that, Tolyan wouldn’t want me to cry like a helpless damsel. He would want me to look for an opportunity to escape.
Rings glances at his phone to check the time, then make a rough sound in his throat.
“Man, what’s takin’ so long?” No Rings says.
“How am I supposed to know? Maybe Roy’s taking his time kicking the other guy’s ass.”
“Maybe I should go see.”
Rings starts to move forward; the door bursts open with a bang. I flinch, then muster the courage to look.
Relief rushes through me. Tolyan is at the entrance, his shoulders impossibly wide, his strong, large hands on his hips, booted feet braced apart. No bruises, swelling, cuts or blood on his face. No tears or bloodstains on his clothes, either. His features are set in a mildly bored mask that taunts his opponents—Is that the best you’ve got?
The trio of thugs make little sounds of confusion. Then they start to pull out their guns from the waistbands of their low-slung pants.
Tolyan throws a knife at the driver, the blade flashing as it spins through the air, and then suddenly it’s protruding from his throat. He makes a gurgling noise, then pulls at the knife. Blood spurts, falling on my calves and shoes and the area around his body. I jerk back—or try to while tied to the chair.
A gunshot rings out. I cry out in terror.
Something crunches, and No Rings drops. From the unnatural angle of his neck, I think he’s dead, too. Just without the bleeding.
I jerk my head up to see Tolyan. He’s still standing, no gunshot wound that I can see. The blood on his pants is from the driver, the one who’s dying—or maybe is already dead—from the massive hemorrhage.
Rings tries to aim. Tolyan kicks up, connecting with the thug’s right arm. He drops the gun, then pulls a knife with his left hand.
“Fucker. I’m ambidexters!” The thug’s scream rings with a gleeful “gotcha.”
What?
“I’m gonna skin her, bitch!”
He tries to lunge closer. Tolyan kicks again. The thug scrambles out of range. Now Tolyan’s between me and Rings. My angel of protection and retribution standing like an impenetrable shield.
Hot tears gather in my eyes. I can’t decide if they’re from relief, remorse, gratitude or love. Maybe all of the above.
“You fucker! I’m gonna kill you!” Rings is screaming, but there’s a shakiness to his words that betrays his fear.
Tolyan has a hooded, almost sleepy look, like he’s bored. “Less talking, more fighting.”
The thug swings his knife. Tolyan twists, but the thug drops a little, shifting to his right. The blade sinks into Tolyan’s torso, and I scream.
Tolyan grabs Rings by his hair and drops his whole weight on the man while at the same time sweeping his leg and destroying the thug’s balance. The thug falls, his face hitting the concrete floor hard. There’s a wet, crunching sound and Rings quits moving, blood pouring out of his now-crooked nose and mouth.
Tolyan slowly rises to his feet. The blood continues to seep from his wound. The knife’s still buried, to the hilt. My vision blurs.
“Hello, little fawn.”
My breath hitches. His thumbs brush over my face. I realize I’ve been crying. He glances at the handcuffs, then searches the thugs’ pockets until he finds the key and frees me. My arms tingle, and my fingertips feel like a million ants are crawling over them.
“Oh my God, Tolyan… You’re hurt.” I start to reach for him, then stop. I don’t know if he has other injuries that I can’t see. I don’t want to inadvertently touch them and hurt him. And I still don’t know what to do about the knife. If I should pull it out or not… “I’m so sorry.”
He smiles. “It’s okay. Don’t cry.” He dries my tears again. “Everything’s going to be fine.”
Then slowly, like a folding ladder, he collapses in front of me. I kneel by his side and hold his hands until the quiet of the warehouse is broken by the approaching police sirens.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Tolyan
The police questioning is tedious. But it’s their job to dig, and they follow me all the way to the hospital to do so. Lizochka freaked out when she heard from the sobbing Angelika that I had been stabbed. I hope a doctor here gave them both something to calm down.
Lizochka sends a lawyer to stand by my side while the police get my statement. I cooperate with the cops, since it’s part of the plan.
See? I’m not the bad guy, officer. I’m the good guy who went out and saved a girl.