When he tried to grab the railings, I kicked him again, throwing everything I had at him. He stumbled backward and fell. I cringed at the sound of his heavy body smacking and rolling and tumbling down the metal steps. He hit the pavement hard and didn't move.
Was he dead? God, I hoped not. The idea of killing a man made me sick.
The grunts and the slap of skin on skin as Dimitri defended himself spurred me into action. I ran down the steps, hopped over the unconscious man on the ground and searched for something, anything, to use a weapon.
The sight of a bat shocked me. Where the hell did that come from?
Not caring about the details, I picked it up and rushed into the fray. Two of the men held Dimitri's arms while another one came at him with a knife. Already he had blood dripping down his arm and neck. The sight of the man I loved bleeding enraged me.
With the familiarity of a girl who had played softball since second grade, I swung that bat like a champ and connected with the back of the man nearest me. The scent of lighter fluid saturated the air. This was the one who had sprayed my bakery and the one Dimitri had squirted with his own weapon of destruction. The man lurched forward in pain. I hit him again, this time taking out his knees and dropping him like a sack of rocks.
Dimitri stared at me in shock but didn't hesitate. He grasped the jeans of the man on his right and swung him toward the guy holding the knife. The dude I'd taken down with the bat tried to get up so I hit him again. Groaning in pain, he got smart and kissed the pavement.
Facing off against both men, Dimitri showed exceptional skill. Even so, I knew he needed help. I reared back with the bat, ready to swing at a moment's notice. My chance came when Dimitri kicked one of the men my way. I slammed the bat into his shoulder. The knife he'd been holding clattered to the ground near my foot.
I kicked it out of the way and put the bat against his jaw. "One move and you'll be eating out of a straw for the next six months!"
The pop of gunfire shocked me. I glanced up to see the only gang member standing aim his weapon at Dimitri. Clutching his arm, he dipped forward. Blood oozed between his fingers. My body slackened with horror at the realization he'd been shot. "Dimitri!"
Always a damn hero, he stepped into the line of fire, protecting me with his huge body. "Benny, run!"
"No!"
"Benny!"
"Houston PD! Drop that weapon!" Detective Eric Santos burst into the alley, just behind the shooter. Gun aimed at the man trying to kill Dimitri, he shouted forcefully. "Hands in the air! Now!"
Dimitri slid to the side, blocking me totally with his body, so I couldn't see what happened. I heard scuffling and cursing and could only guess that Santos had taken down the shooter.
When it was safe, Dimitri staggered toward me. He grabbed my hand and jerked me around the moaning bodies on the alley pavement. "Hurry, Benny. This place could blow at any minute."
"Get her to the street," Santos shouted. "I've got Fire and EMS on the way."
The bat slipped from my shaking fingers and I gripped Dimitri's hand tightly. We hurried out of the alley and nearly ran into the two officers who rushed around the corner. Dimitri put his hand up and pushed me aside, ready to bear the brunt of whatever mistaken violence we might catch.
"They're victims! Let them through!"
With Santos' help, we got the hell out of there. Dimitri led me across the street to safety. He backed me up against a wall, trapping my smaller body between his and the brick masonry. He had a fierce look on his face. "What the hell were you thinking? Why didn't you run? You could have been killed!"
Breathless, I said the only thing that mattered. "I love you. You wouldn't have left me behind. I wasn't going to leave you."
"You stubborn, beautiful, brave woman." With a rough exhale, Dimitri touched his forehead to mine. "Lyubimaya moya. What the hell am I going to do with you?"
"Love me?"
A ragged sound escaped his throat. "I do, Benny. I love you."
Our lips met in a passionate, crazed kiss. The feel of his slick blood under my hand ripped me out of the romantic moment. He winced when I pressed my hand to his worst wound. "We have to get you to a hospital." I shot him a warning look. "A real hospital."
He snorted with amusement. "I won't argue with that."
Sirens grew louder and louder. Fire trucks, police cars and ambulances poured onto the street. Side by side with Dimitri, we watched the drama unfold. The backseats of the cop cars were quickly filled with the villainous thugs who had attacked and tried to kill us. The one I'd pushed down the stairs was carted out on a backboard. The sight made my gut twist.
"He'll be fine." Santos must have seen the worried look on my face as he approached us with an EMS crew and two police officers in tow. "You broke his collarbone but he's not paralyzed or anything." He flicked his fingers and pointed at Dimitri. "This one has a gunshot wound."
I stepped aside as the medics descended on Dimitri. He wore an aggravated expression as they poked and prodded his injuries. Santos questioned Dimitri first and then me.
"Do you know any of those men, Benny?"
"Just the fat one," I said and pointed to the stretcher where Carl rested. "He works for Jonah Krause. A few mornings ago, he showed up at the bakery to try to intimidate me."
Santos rubbed his jaw. "Krause, huh? Yeah, that's not the first time I've heard his name mentioned in circumstances like this. But never with a Latin street gang," he commented and frowned. "Some strange bedfellows."
"Not really," Dimitri interjected. "Jonah threatened Benny yesterday when she wouldn't accept his offer. He tried to blackmail her with threats of turning Johnny over to the rival gang and calling Immigration."
I replayed the conversation I'd had with the nasty real estate developer. "He did say I was playing with fire."
Santos' pen scratched away at his notebook. "I think it might be time to pay Mr. Krause a visit." He glanced at Dimitri who grunted in agreement. "In my official capacity with the Houston PD," he amended.
Dimitri didn't reply. Would he go behind Santos' back to get revenge on Jonah Krause for orchestrating tonight's diabolical act? I decided then and there I was going to have a talk with Dimitri. With the police department involved, this whole mess could be dealt with legally. I didn't want him to cross that line for me.
"So you kicked that guy down the stairs and then what happened, Benny?"
"I saw the baseball bat. I grabbed it and started swinging."
"A baseball bat, huh?" Smiling, Santos shook his head. "Man, that brings back memories! Remember that time I dragged you down to the park for my home run derby team? Damn, we were so late getting home. I thought for sure your grandma was going to whip off her chanclas and give me a good smack."
The happy memory seemed so out of place in this nightmare I was living but I couldn't stop the smile spreading across my face. "Seems like forever ago, doesn't it?"
"Not that long," he said. "I was, what, a senior? You were a freshman?" He shrugged. "That's what? Ten years?"
"A lot can change in ten years," I said and stared at the inferno across the street.
"I'm really sorry, Benny." Anguish was clear on Santos' face. "I wish I'd gotten here sooner."
"What were you doing here in the first place?"
"I was worried Johnny might try to hide out at the bakery or with Dimitri. I'd heard that some private investigator was shaking down Hermanos members looking for him. When I drove by, I saw the flames and called it in. The gunshot caught my attention damn quick." He shook his head. "I'm glad I was able to reach you two in time."
"Thank you, Detective." Dimitri extended his hand, the skin caked with dried blood. Santos didn't hesitate to grasp and shake it. "You saved our lives. I'm in your debt."
"Just doing my job," Santos replied. He glanced at the crime scene tech who came forward with three white boxes. She opened them to reveal guns they'd taken from the alley. I was stunned by how quickly they'd grabbed and tagged all that evidence but
apparently they worked quickly when the threat of fire and a deluge of water were imminent.
"We recovered three guns in the alley. Is one these yours, Dimitri?" Santos gestured to the weapons.
"That one," Dimitri said with a lift of his head. "And, yes, I have a concealed handgun permit. It's all legal."
Santos' lips twitched. "I didn't say it wasn't."
"You didn't have to," Dimitri replied and then hissed with discomfort. One of the medics palpated his belly. "Hey, take it easy, yeah?"
"Sorry," the medic said with an apologetic smile. "You're going to need scans and x-rays when we get to the ER."
Dimitri grunted but didn't refuse treatment. Probably because he knew I'd raise living hell if he tried to avoid a trip to the hospital. The cut on his arm needed stitches and that awful bruise on his belly scared me.
"What if he has internal bleeding? Shouldn't we hurry?"
The medics and Dimitri glanced at me. "It's fine," Dimitri said. "It hurts but I'm not dying. I've had worse."
"I don't find that comforting, Dimitri."
He held out his hand and I moved closer to the stretcher where he now sat. He didn't have to say anything. The look on his face told me everything I needed to know. As he gripped my hand in his, the medics wrapped his arm and slapped dressings on his other bloody wounds.
Behind him, the blazing bakery lit up the night sky. Tears burned my eyes as I watched my family's history go up in flames. The firefighters battled the blaze and got the upper hand but the damage was done.
I'd been preparing to say goodbye to this chapter in my life but not this way. To lose it all because of arson and revenge and blackmail? It made me sick.
"Oh, Dimitri, what about Yuri? Do we still have a deal? Does he get this awful, burned shell of a building? That's not right! It's not fair to him."
His gaze skipped from my face to the street. "You'll have to ask him."
I looked back and spotted Yuri and Nikolai striding up the sidewalk toward us. Both men wore stony expressions. The cold glint to their eyes would have struck fear in the heart of even the most hardened man. I sure as heck didn't want to be on the receiving end of their wrath.
"What in the world? How did they get here so fast?"
Santos snorted. "The king's eyes and ears, I'm sure."
I frowned. Did he mean Nikolai? It didn't surprise me that Nikolai had a network of informants on the streets but why would they be watching us? Nikolai struck me as the kind of man who believed deeply in protecting his friends. Did he have some sort of tail on Dimitri?
Santos stepped back to speak with his colleagues but I noticed the way his gaze strayed to Nikolai's face. The men shared icy glares but neither formally acknowledged the other. Apparently there was some history there.
"Benny!" Yuri shocked me by engulfing me in a bear hug that squeezed the air right out of my lungs. He set me back at arm's length to look me over. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine, Yuri. Your building—"
He waved his hand. "I don't care about the building. It's just bricks and mortar and money. I can replace any of those easily, but you and Dimitri?" He shook his head. His gaze fell on Dimitri. Carefully, he clasped his friend's shoulder. They spoke briefly in Russian. Whatever Dimitri said put Yuri at ease.
"Sir?" The medic who had been assessing Dimitri gestured to the ambulance. "We need to get you to a hospital now."
Dimitri glanced at me and then at Yuri and Nikolai. Before he even had to ask, Nikolai assured him, "We'll take care of her."
I opened my mouth to protest because I wanted to go with Dimitri. He caught my worried gaze and shot me a pleading look. I finally understood why he wanted me with his friends. At the hospital, we'd be separated and I would likely end up alone in the emergency room waiting area. I could only imagine how anxious he would be about my safety in that situation.
Desperate for him to be patched up and healthy again, I brushed my lips to his mouth. "I'll be fine. We'll see you as soon as possible."
Dimitri gripped the back of my neck and drew me down for the kind of kiss that left me dizzy and trembling inside. "When I'm out of the hospital, we're picking up right there."
All I could do was nod. "Okay."
The medics moved closer to the stretcher and I backed out of the way. Yuri put a hand on my shoulder, steadying me as I watched them load Dimitri into the ambulance. He got the name of the hospital where they were taking him. The doors closed and I experienced the crushing sadness of watching the man I loved be taken away in an ambulance—and it was all my fault.
"No." Nikolai dared to touch my face, using his heavily tattooed fingers to tip my chin. "I know that look. You have no reason to feel guilt."
"Don't I?" I gestured to the ambulances, fire trucks and police cars lining both sides of the street. "Dimitri never would have been hurt if it wasn't for me." I wiped at the tears dripping onto my cheeks. "Look at what getting involved with me has cost him! I'm, like, the worst thing that's ever happened to him."
"No," Nikolai replied with utter seriousness. "That honor belongs to me."
His frank rebuttal stunned me into silence. He tapped my cheek and let his hand fall to his side. "But you, Benny? You're the best thing that's ever happened to him. All this?" He gestured to the backdrop of destruction and mayhem. "It's nothing to him, not when it means keeping you safe and in his life."
Santos cleared his throat. There was a glint of surprise in his dark eyes as he regarded Nikolai. When he extended his hand toward me, I caught sight of my purse. "Is this yours? They found it in the alley."
"Yes." I cringed as I took the soggy bag from his hand. The zipper was firmly in place and I prayed the contents had been spared the brunt of the water damage. A quick peek inside relieved my worries. On my way out the door, I'd grabbed Dimitri's keys and wallet from the floor, where they'd fallen out his jeans, and the phone Johnny had given me. "Santos?"
"Yeah?"
I presented him with the phone. "I'm not sure how much help this will be but Johnny wanted me to give it to you."
Santos stared at the phone. "Johnny gave that to you? When? Where?"
I felt Yuri shift next to me. Even though I hated to lie to Santos, I did. "I can't give you the details. He was insistent I give this to you. He said there's video of the shooting on it. I don't know how the chain of evidence works in a situation like this—"
"It doesn't," he said with a frown. With a flick of his fingers, he gestured for one of the crime scene techs to join us. "Can we get this bagged and tagged?"
I waited for the tech to photograph and tag the phone while Santos took a sworn statement from me on its provenance. Whether it would help his case, I couldn't say but I felt a little better knowing I'd fulfilled my promise to Johnny. I didn't like being on the wrong side of the law and desperately wanted to get back on the right side, where I'd always lived.
Once I was cleared to leave the scene, Yuri took Dimitri's keys from me and Nikolai indicated I should come with him. I didn't miss the unhappy expression on Santos' face. I felt sure the next time we saw one another that he would give me a stern lecture on getting mixed up with the wrong crowd.
Suddenly, I felt so conflicted. The wrong crowd? What was that exactly? Was it Nikolai and Kostya? Were they really as awful as their reputations? I thought back to high school and the way nasty stories were repeated and exaggerated. I'd seen so many young women crushed by those ugly rumors—and God only knew how many of them were untrue.
Was that the case with men like Nikolai and Kostya? Were they as dark and dirty as their reputations would have me believe? I considered Johnny. Oh, he'd done some stupid, stupid things. He'd done dangerous and reckless things. Was he a bad person? No. He was misguided and he'd pay for the mistakes of his youth for the rest of his life.
What about Nikolai? I sneaked a glance at him as we rode through the streets of downtown Houston in the back of one of the private cars in his personal fleet. The two SUVs guarding us hadn't escaped my
notice.
Was Nikolai as terrible as his reputation would have me believe? Was he like Ivan? Had he come here to start over but been unsuccessful in making a clean break? Was he slowly reforming his bad ways?
I honestly didn't know. I wanted to believe that it didn't matter but I wasn't that naïve. It did matter but I just wasn't sure how much anymore.
My jumbled emotions unsettled me. Dimitri's absence affected me deeply. In the last few days, we'd grown so incredibly close. Admitting that we loved and needed one another had been the most natural thing in the world. Now, being separated from him felt like the most awful, terrible thing imaginable.
At the hospital, the car pulled up to an empty space along the curb. I followed Nikolai out of the car and onto the sidewalk. Surprise filtered through me at the sight of Ivan, Erin, Vivian and Lena waiting for us there.
Lena was on me in an instant, flinging her arms around me and hugging me tightly. "Are you okay? We wanted to go to the bakery but Ivan convinced us to come here."
"I'm fine. Dimitri was hurt but not too badly."
She released me and rubbed my back. "You want me to come in and sit with you? The waiting room is crazy busy. They're a little grouchy in there about having too many family members waiting on one patient."
Family members? With a thud, the revelation that I wasn't actually alone hit me hard. Yes, I'd lost Johnny tonight. My brother would be on the fringes of my life for the foreseeable future but that didn't mean I didn't have family. It wasn't always about blood connections. Dimitri, my friends, his friends—we were all connected in varying degrees.
Smiling at Lena, I accepted her offer. "I'd like that. Thank you."
After exchanging hugs with Ivan, Erin and Vivi and assuring Nikolai I wouldn't go anywhere alone inside the hospital except to rejoin Dimitri, I entered the waiting room with Lena. As she'd described, it was a madhouse.
With some difficulty, I made my way to the registration desk and asked to have Dimitri notified I was here. The nurse didn't seem in any rush to get on it but I didn't hold it against her. I could only imagine what kind of wear and tear she experienced working night after night of shifts like these.