Midnight Sanctuary (Bugrov Bratva #2)(96)

Boris shrugs and pulls out a large blade with a gilded hilt. “Guess I’ll just have to cut them out of her stomach.”

Is this what it feels like to go mad? Because I feel as though my sanity is holding on by a fraying string right now. If he brings that blade any closer to her, there’s no telling what will happen.

“I swear to God, Boris, if you—”

BANG!

The gunshot comes out of nowhere. For a second, I actually believe that Boris has shot Alyssa in the head. Then the gun falls uselessly out of his hand as blood gushes from his arm.

“What the fuck…?” Sobakin gasps, looking down at his injured hand in pure disbelief.

Dominik rushes into the room with a combination of my men and his. Boris takes one look at Dominik and tries to make a grab for his gun. But he doesn’t reach it in time.

Grigory does.

Despite his pale face and his constant shivering, the man moves pretty fast for a traitorous coward. He’s only a foot from Boris as he raises the gun.

“Give it the fuck here!” Boris snarls. “Give it to—”

BANG!

He did it. Grigory actually pulled the trigger.

Boris flops to his back on the floor, his eyes wide with shock as blood blooms across his chest in ugly spurts. Dominik charges Grigory, taking him out with a punch to the face and ripping the gun out of his hands. Meanwhile, my men release the three of us from our cuffs.

The moment I’m free, I rush to Alyssa. Her eyes are fluttering half-open but there’s no light in them, no awareness.

“Alyssa,” I say desperately, grabbing her hand. She’s so sweaty it almost slips right out of my grip. “Alyssa, can you hear me?”

She doesn’t answer apart from a low moan rippling with pain.

“Uri, you want me to kill the bastard?” Dominik asks with his gun pointed at a whimpering Grigory.

“P-please,” Grigory begs from the floor. “I k-k-killed him for you…”

I place my hand on Alyssa’s forehead. She’s burning up. “You killed him because you knew it was over. You were trying to save your own skin.”

“Please d-d-don’t kill me…”

“I’m not planning to,” I say harshly.

Nikolai and Dimiv both look at me like I’m insane. I ignore them. “Get over here and do whatever you can to save her. And the babies. And remember that if one of them dies—so do you.”

Dominik hauls Grigory back to his feet and shoves him over to Alyssa’s bedside. His eyes scan her body hopelessly. “The babies need to be delivered s-soon,” he stammers. “But if they do, they’ll need machines to help them breathe. They’re too premature to survive on their own, outside of a fully functioning NICU.”

I glance towards Nikolai. “Get an SUV ready and call Emily. We’re moving Alyssa out.”

As my men get ready to shepherd Alyssa out under Nikolai’s supervision, Dominik gets my attention. “Uri, you’re not gonna believe this… but the fucker’s still alive.”

As much as I want to bleed Sobakin dry and crush his bones to ash while he begs for mercy, I can’t think about anything other than Alyssa. Her safety and the safety of our children is my only priority.

“You’ll take care of him?”

Dominik raises his eyebrows. “Definitely.”

“I have only one request: make his death as painful as possible.”

A slow smile spreads across Dominik’s face. “Consider it done.”





58





URI





Dimiv floors it to the hospital. I stay in the back of the van with Alyssa, who’s burning up. “Nikolai, have you contacted Emily?”

“She’s waiting for us at St. Mary’s Memorial with an O.R. prepared for the C-section. As soon as we get there, we’re good to go.”

I want to take some relief from that reassurance—but until Alyssa looks me in the eye like she recognizes me, I’m not going to feel anything but dread. There’s too much blood staining her thighs, soaking through the hospital gown she’s wearing in oceans of red.

I grab her hand as tight as possible and lean in against her ear. “You’re going to be okay, baby. You’re going to be okay.”

Her head twists to the side as though she’s listening, but when I meet her eyes, they’re closed. Gritting my teeth, I look up and check our progress. “How much longer? We’ve been on the road forever.”

Nikolai laughs bitterly. “We’ve only been driving three minutes.”

Blyat’. Three minutes? Is that all? It feels like ten times that long. I turn my attention back to Alyssa as she moans and grimaces, fresh sweat beading on her forehead. Is that just the pain or did they give her something? Drugs? An epidural? Either one of those things would be preferable to the devastating reality that she just might be losing too much blood to survive this delivery.

“Approaching the hospital!” Dimiv yells from the driver’s seat.

When the doors of the van are thrown open, Emily is standing just outside, already in her scrubs. The nursing staff accompanying her haul the gurney out of the van and start checking her vitals. I can hear the medical jargon flying, but I try not to pay attention to it. There’s no point—it’s out of my hands now. I just need to be there for her.