“You dumb bitch. You actually got to walk out, and this is what you do with your freedom?”
“Let her go.”
I turned and looked, finding Oliver standing there with a busted lip, a black eye, and a small, bleeding cut on his forehead. He’d been beaten up in the few minutes I’d been gone. Just looking at him caused pain to tighten around my body.
“Oh my god,” I breathed, jerking my arm free. For whatever reason, the man actually let me go. With all the strength I wasusing to try to get away, I stumbled forward and nearly fell to the ground, but Oliver stepped up and caught me.
He wrapped his arms around me as he pulled me to his chest. His head dipped forward as he rested his forehead against mine. “What are you doing here?”
“I—I came back for you.”
His eyes closed as he gently shook his head. “You need to get out of here before they decide to keep you.”
“What? No. I’m not going anywhere. Not without you.” My hands moved up to cup his face.
I saw all the pain reflected in his green eyes. “I’m sorry, but I can’t go with you.”
“Yes, you can,” I argued.
“No, I can’t.” He exhaled. “He’ll never let me out of this alive. I was stupid to think he would. But you, he doesn’t want you. You can go. Get out of here and find the life you’ve always wanted.”
“Not without you.”
“You’re so fucking stubborn,” he muttered before pulling me in for a tight hug. “I’m serious, Crash. Go. Get the fuck out of here,” he whispered in my ear.
“I called the cops. They’re on their way,” I said quietly.
He pulled back quickly, and his wide eyes locked with mine.
“If I were you, I’d listen,” Mikhail said, joining the mix.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I threw back as I tried to take a step toward him, but Oliver held onto me and tugged me in the opposite direction.
“Let me handle this,” Oliver said, not breaking our connection even though I knew he wasn’t talking to me.
He took several steps away with me in tow. He cupped my jaw and dipped his head forward, brushing his lips against mine quickly. “I want you to go. I can’t have you here, getting caught up in all this.”
“I’m not going anywhere. This whole time, it’s been us against the world. That’s not changing now, just because things are a little more dangerous. Either we both go, or neither of us does.”
His jaw flexed, and he rolled his eyes as he gently shook his head.
“So fucking stubborn.” That’s when he slammed his mouth against mine for a hard, fast kiss. To anyone else, they would’ve thought it was just a goodbye kiss, but I knew better. I knew he wasn’t saying goodbye. He was showing me that he was holding on. He told me with that kiss that he was prepared to fight alongside me. It was a language that only the two of us spoke, something we’d developed without even realizing it. It was an understanding we both could sense.
Our kiss was interrupted by the blaring sounds of police sirens off in the distance. We broke the kiss and looked at one another as the tension in the room doubled.
Chapter 26
Oliver
Things went from insane to total chaos in the blink of an eye. Things were so similar to how they were before that I got lost in the memory of that night her father died.
The only difference was that there wasn’t a bunch of criminals here, looking to finalize a deal.
It was just them and us.
They wanted to be gone before the police arrived, but we were standing in their way. I didn’t expect Mikhail to tuck tail and run. He never left business unfinished, and I, well, I was unfinished business. He either wanted me under lock and key, only to be released to do his bidding, or he wanted me dead to protect his secrets. There wasn’t much time to decide.
“Let’s go. We gotta get the fuck out of here,” Mikhail said to his lackey.
