Page 81 of The Russian's Bought Bride

Pain drags me in and out of consciousness, letting me rise to the surface just long enough to register it before being pulled down again.

I don’t know how long I’ve been lying here like this, cheek pressed against a pile of shards, and none of it makes sense.

One moment, I’m upright behind the wheel, then I’m reaching for Danielle and trying to get my seatbelt undone, which I apparently succeeded at. The next, everything dissolves into noise and flashes of light that refuse to settle into anything coherent.

My head feels split open, and there’s blood in my eyes. There are voices somewhere nearby, but I don’t know who they belong to.

I force my eyes open long enough to see twisted metal illuminated by flashing emergency lights. The windshield is gone as smoke curls into the night air around me, but I don’t see her.

Danielle.

The thought hits with enough force to cut through the haze instantly.

I lurch forward with a groan, trying to crawl out of the vehicle, but pain bursts through my ribs and shoulder hard enough to make my vision swim all over again.

She was just here…just.

Blindly reaching for my phone, my fingers are slick with blood as I barely drag it from my pocket. Everything in my line of sight doubles so badly I can barely see the screen, but instinct carries me anyway.

Roman.

The line rings once before he answers, and his voice is muffled, but it’s his. “Nikolai?”

My breathing sounds wrong, more wet and ragged than it should be. “They…took her.”

Silence answers me immediately, then I catch his concern soon after. “What happened?”

“Malenkov.” I force the words out between waves of dizziness, and black starts to border my vision again. “…took Dani.”

I hear movement instantly on the other end of the line, turning into a mess of voices full of orders being shouted.

Roman’s tone hardens instantly, sounding more worried for me than he has in a long time. “Where are you?”

More than anything, I want to answer, but the darkness pulls me back under before I can.

***

An IV is nearly ripped out of my arm the moment I open my eyes again, and pain tears through my skull all over again.

“Easy,” Roman says sharply, catching my attention.

I blink hard against the bright ambulance lights overhead, disoriented for half a second before reality crashes into me with brutal clarity, and I see everything like a reel in my mind.

The crash, Danielle screaming, and her being dragged from the SUV.

I look around wildly, taking everything in as quickly as I can despite the one thing on my mind.

Roman is beside the open ambulance doors with a grave expression as Mikhail stands near the front speaking rapidly into his phone. A few steps away, Sergey paces outside like he’s seconds from murdering someone. I don’t see Ivan, but I imagine he’s nearby.

Every single one of them looks furious and beyond worried. It’s almost weird to have that concern directed at me, but I push the thought away immediately.

“Where is she?”

The question comes out rough enough to barely sound human, and nobody answers despite the urgency in my voice.

My stomach drops, and I can feel myself shaking. “Roman.”

His expression hardens further, like he doesn’t want to be the one to tell me, but he does anyway. “They got away with her.”