Sasha returned Jamie’s glare with a knowing smirk and reached inside his jacket. My lungs seized as Sasha’s gun came into view and was aimed at Stefan. The rest of Sasha’s men mimicked their leader, pulling out their own pistols and turning them on our men. Jamie shot to his feet, reaching into his jacket, but froze when the barrel of a gun was placed to the back of his head. He was shoved back down into his chair by one of Sasha’s guards.
The sound of something plonking onto the table pulled my focus and I glanced at the man sitting next to me. He had taken out his pistol and set it on the table with his hand lazily resting on top of it. In the corner of my eye, I caught his other hand coming at me. I held very still. I was proud of myself for not jumping when he put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed. He didn’t hurt me. It was a warning: Don’t do anything stupid.
Sasha’s men made quick work of disarming our security, including Jamie and Stefan. Our guards were pushed down to their knees and made to face the window walls with guns held to their heads.
“I’m going to ask again and let’s answer truthfully this time, Stefan. Your men took a man hostage yesterday, yes?” Sasha questioned.
“If you already know the answer, why are you wasting your breath?” Stefan shot back. He sounded so calm, bored even, all while staring down the barrel of Sasha’s sleek black pistol.
If Stefan’s challenging tone rubbed Sasha the wrong way, it didn’t show. “Where is he?”
Stefan’s mouth stayed shut. He wasn’t going to tell him. If he did, we were dead. As I looked from him to Jamie, I came to the gut-wrenching conclusion that there was a big chance we weren’t going to get out of this alive. We were outnumbered. Knowing all of that, a rush of determination surged through me.
“Maybe one of your children knows where he is?” Sasha moved his gun away from Stefan’s head and placed the barrel against my temple. “Would be such a waste,” he murmured. Next to me, the man’s hand dropped from my shoulder. Sasha’s free hand came up under my chin. His fingers forcefully turned my head to look up at him as his gun shifted to my forehead.
His eyes softened before he asked, “Do you know where he is?” Like my father, my mouth stayed closed. “Your father took someone very important to me. He’s my blood and I just want to get him back.”
He was trying to gain sympathy from me because he assumed I was a weak female. My unwavering silence made him see his error, which in turn angered him. The fingers cupping my chin tightened and the gun pressed harder into my forehead, causing my head to tilt backward.
“She doesn’t know anything,” Jamie snapped.
“I don’t know about that. I barely know her, but I can tell she’s clever and an excellent liar. If I hadn’t seen you two practically fucking outside my club, I’d believe she was really a lesbian. The women in our lives are not as naive as they appear. They hear things. She could have overheard where he is,” Sasha explained. “Your father has warehouses, homes, businesses. Where do you think he’s hiding my guy?”
The meanest smile I could muster slowly curled my lips. I could think of a bunch of places Stefan could have the man hidden and I’d die happily knowing Sasha would never find him.
Sasha moved the gun from my head and pointed it across the table. “I’m going to count to ten and then I’m going to shoot your lover…” He shifted the gun toward Stefan. “Or your father unless you give me what I want.”
“How am I supposed to answer something I don’t know?” I argued, finally breaking my silence. My heart was beating painfully fast, making my chest hurt. Helplessness and hopelessness were taking root in my soul, making me want to cry or scream out. Why is this happening? I looked to Stefan and then Jamie, the two strongest and most dangerous men in my life, to see if they could fix this, but with just one look, I knew they couldn’t. It wasn’t until that very moment I realized I was scared.
My darkness hummed within me, trying to coax me to let it out, but I felt frozen as I was being reacquainted with a feeling I’d long forgotten.
“One…two…three,” Sasha began counting as he swung his gun back and forth between Stefan and Jamie.
The man in the seat next to me chuckled like this was five-star entertainment. He reached in front of me, intending to take a fry from my plate. I eyed his tattooed hand grabbing the fry and then glanced at his other holding his gun loosely. My paralysis broke and my fingers twitched around the steak knife that was cutting into my inner arm from how tightly I was holding it. Sasha continued to count, up to six now. I only had an instant to strike. My darkness rushed to the surface and I swiveled the knife outward, fisting my fingers around its grip. As the man was pulling the fry back toward him, hovering over the table, I lifted the knife. I slammed it down, stabbing him through the hand and embedding the knife into the wooden table below.
He screamed out next to my ear and he frantically let go of his gun to grab at the knife. I scooped up his gun as I sprung to my feet. My chair fell backward and before it hit the floor, I had the gun pointed at the back of Sasha’s head. He froze with his own gun pointed at Stefan.
I sensed someone step behind me before something hard pressed into the back of my head. I shifted slightly, seeing one of Sasha’s guards behind me, who I assumed had a gun at my head.
With a gun pointed at me, my gun pointed at Sasha, and Sasha’s gun pointed at Stefan, we were in our own unique Mexican standoff. The room was quiet. Well, except for the man I'd stabbed. He had removed the steak knife and was groaning while clutching his bloody hand.
“She fucking stabbed me!”
“Maura?” I heard Stefan say. I didn’t remove my eyes from Sasha.
“You underestimated me,” I said ever so quietly. My voice sounded so cold and disconnected that even I didn’t recognize it. “If you shoot him, I will kill you.”
“If you kill me, my men will kill everyone in this room, yourself included,” Sasha said over his shoulder.
“You still underestimate me,” I droned, void of any emotion. The longer I stood there, the more numb I felt. I'd already accepted death long before this night. However, if I had to watch Stefan or Jamie die, I’d welcome it with open fucking arms. “I’m not afraid to die. Are you?” I pushed the barrel harder into the back of his head. “Because I’m thinking about taking you with me. It’d be quick. We might not even feel it. The next thing we’d know is our two souls being dragged down to hell to pay for our sins.”
“I told you this was a bad idea,” I heard Jamie say. I was too far gone to pay him any mind. I was going to die. There was no other way out, but I could still try to save him and Stefan.
“Maura?” Stefan said gently. I couldn’t look at him. He’d hinder my resolve because this was goodbye.
“I’m going to count to ten,” I said, copying Sasha. “If you don’t drop your gun, I’ll pull the trigger.”
“Maura!” Stefan barked but I tuned him out.
“One…two.”
“Stefan?” Sasha looked pointedly at Stefan.
“Maura?” Jamie called to me.
Nothing else mattered. Not until Sasha dropped the gun. “Three…four.”