Romance: Wanted by the Alpha Lion (A BBW Paranormal Suspense Romance) (Heroes of Shifter Creek Book 2) (42 page)

IX.

“Do you think this will work?” Leo asked, his hands clammy and weak as the disguised Jones led him into the woods. He’d never been so scared in his life, not even when he heard his father screaming at his mother so long ago.

“It’s going to have to,” Jones answered. “We can’t let this keep going. We’ve already caused collateral damage.”

“Are we approaching this too reactionary? Should we have made more of a plan?”

“Headquarters and I have been coming close to this. It is quick, but we have to do what we can. One of our informants saw Vasily get taken, so we know where to go.”

“What if they shoot at me?”

“We’ll worry about that if it happens.”

Leo never imagined they’d move so quickly. With the help of headquarters, as well as what Minka and Anatoly had to say, they’d figured out exactly where to go; yet, with how the last casing of the area worked out, Jones decided to take more serious steps. The commander would pose as a guard taking in a new prisoner. Back-up would be waiting, ready to storm the place once they found Vasily.

“It’s good you look so scared,” Jones commented. “It’s more realistic.”

“I’m going to hit you.”

“That sounds like insubordination to me. This is really no time for jokes.”

A group of men clothed in the dreaded tan clothing described by Anatoly (which now also clothed Jones) approached them, saying something to the commander in Russian. Leo could understand some of it, but he didn’t want to; however, he listened for the word ‘shoot’ or ‘kill’ just in case.

Jones responded to them with ease and forcefulness. He sounded very much the guard and even carried himself like a Russian. If Leo didn’t know he was an American, he wouldn’t believe it. One of the men nodded to Jones and led him through the woods to a large tree. The other man grabbed Leo’s other arm with a death-grip, digging his nails into the skin. The leading man pulled a branch and a door within the tree opened. Leo couldn’t help but open his mouth in astonishment.

“We are happy to have finally found you,” the leading man hissed. “We have your boy downstairs – you’ll get to watch him die before we kill you.”

Leo’s blood froze. He, of course, didn’t want to die, but if he had to die in order to keep Vasily alive, so be it. He’d have to figure out something – distract them with something. Jones laughed with the other man and said something to them in Russian. Both guards began to laugh harder, seeming to not suspect a thing. Then, the group threw Leo into a cell filled with other prisoners and spit on him.

“We’ll be back,” the leading man said, his breath so sour and stagnant, Leo could smell it even from the cement floor.

“Leo!” Vasily ran forward, hugging Leo with all his might. “You came for us!”

A deathly thin woman who had Minka’s eyes and her scowl stepped forward. “You know Vasily?”

“Yes, I know him and his mother. We have English and Russian lessons,” Leo answered, hugging Vasily back tightly.

“I am Minka’s sister, Natasha. I prayed I would never see my Vasily here. Where is my sister?”

“She’s safe.” Vasily hugged him tighter with this revelation. “She’s safe.”

“They think you Vasily’s poppa. They kill us all.”

A small woman wept in the corner, holding a piece of bloody fabric and whispering things Leo couldn’t hear. Everyone in the room looked like skeletons, devoid of life. Some wept, some stared into nothingness, and some slept. Buckets full of sloshing, smelly liquid sat around the room – the prisoners’ toilets. Leo’s stomach started to do circles, wanting to retch out all the misery around him. He looked out the barred doors to see the endless tunnel before him – there had to be many, many people hidden away in there.

He looked around, looking for some kind of escape route. He stepped forward to the door, seeing if there were any vulnerabilities to it. The lock looked like it could be picked – his father had been a locksmith, and knew the way to get open any lock. He pulled a pocketknife from a hidden pocket in his jacket. Some of the prisoners looked up at him interestedly while others didn’t move at all. Some of them had lost hope, and now only waited for death.

“How did you get knife?” Natasha asked. “They beat you if they find that.”

“They can’t beat me if I’m not here,” he answered, picking the lock cautiously. “Just keep watch.”

She didn’t say anything more, but she did watch. He twiddled with the lock, praying it would come open. At the very least, he had to get Vasily out of there. He couldn’t let the boy be murdered for nothing.

“Does anyone know where the exits are in the compound?” Leo asked. “I don’t think we can get out the entrance.”

One of the prisoners watching whispered to Natasha, asking what Leo had said. Natasha told him in a hushed voice. He rose, revealing a large man now worn down to a mere ghost of himself.

“He’s been studying the exits if he could ever get out,” Natasha translated. The man said something else. “He said his father helped build these tunnels – he knows them.”

Leo felt the lock click open, then said, “You lead the way,” in Russian to the man. Many of the prisoners rose, while others just stared wide-eyed. The ones who slept didn’t move.

“Someone should wake them,” he said to Natasha as the group went through, whispering in Russian to each other. The guards were nowhere in sight as they escaped.

“They are not asleep,” she answered.

Leo stared at the unmoving bodies for a moment. A few of them were children, huddled around their also unmoving mother. He closed his eyes, then rushed to take off the bulletproof vest they’d outfitted him with.

“Put this on, Vasily.” He put the thing around the boy. It looked huge. “Tuck yourself into it if you hear any gunshots, okay?”

The boy nodded, somehow understanding. Leo then instructed him to get on his back. Natasha guarded them from the back. He moved to the front, bring out his gun just in case.

He spoke softly into the ear piece nestled in his ear, “I have the target and a group of the prisoners. We’re looking for an exit on the east side.”

“Roger that,” a voice answered. “We’re coming in.”

Almost instantaneously, loud noises came near the entrance and all around them. The large man at the front gestured for them all to follow and had them duck into a secret alcove. Guards ran past them, screaming at each other in Russian and not noticing the escaped prisoners. One slightly tripped in front of them, then turned to look. Before he could say anything, the large man kicked him in the face, knocking the guard unconscious.

That worked.

They waited a moment before exiting the alcove again. Leo motioned for them to stay close to the walls and looked past them to make sure no one was coming. He kept looking behind him as he turned a corner, running right into a guard. He raised his gun and prepared to fire.

“Stop!” Jones’s voice stopped him. “Don’t worry, they aren’t down this way.”

The prisoners looked at Jones fearfully.

“Friend,” Vasily soothed them from his position on Leo’s back. “He save us.”

Jones smiled. “That’s right, Vasily.” He then spoke to them in Russian and moved with the big man down the hallway. As they turned down another hallway, the big man saying an exit was there (as far as Leo could understand), voices came from down an adjoining hallway. The guards were on their way to them.

Leo removed Vasily from his back and handed him to the big man, “I’ll go and distract them.”

“You aren’t wearing your vest. That’s suicide,” Jones answered.

“I am the one who got us into this mess. I am the one who will get us out.”

Leo took a deep breath and raced down the hall. He waited at the edge for a moment, peeking to make sure it was Russian guards and not the back-up. His stomach dropped as he saw the wave of tan, but he kept his calm. He could do this. He had killing in his blood.

He cocked his gun and turned into the hallway, firing and dodging bullets. He went back to the corner, catching his breath and reloading. He could hear the remaining guards running toward him. He prepared again and turned in.

The gunshot hit him right in the chest, knocking the air out of him. He felt like hot fire had entered him and a rush of excruciating pain came over him. He swallowed and kept standing somehow, still firing. He stood with only one guard and one bullet left as he felt one side of his body start to become numb.

The guard raised his gun. Before Leo could see what happened, he blacked out, the gun slipping from his hand as another shot ripped through the air.

XI.

Soft fingertips touched Leo’s face. He thought he could be dreaming, or perhaps even dead, and wasn’t sure what he felt. He’d been swathed in a white light since he’d lost consciousness – he figured he had to be dead, his mother had to be comforting him now.

“He’s waking up,” Minka’s voice said excitedly. “Leo, can you hear me?”

He flitted open his eyes, but only the shapes of figures came into view. He tried again, but the more he came back, the more he could feel the pain. A sharp slap woke him up completely. He wanted to shoot up, but the pain stopped him.

“What the hell?” he stammered, holding his face.

Jones smiled at him, “You’re awake!”

“Where am I?”

“You’re back at the apartment. We had to set up a makeshift medical station because… well… something’s going down at our hospital,” he answered.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s getting handled, don’t worry. All you have to worry about now is keeping conscious.”

“Am I dying?”

“No, we got the bullet out of you. You’re fine. You got lucky. You got really lucky.”

“What happened?”

“It was you faced off with another guard, and when you passed out, the gun went off. It shot him.”

“Where did I get shot?”

“In the chest. Clean in and out. Didn’t hit anything important, but it sure hurt like hell.”

“Yeah, it did.”

Jones nodded, a smile still brimming on his face. Suddenly, Vasily appeared and jumped on top of Leo, who grimaced.

“You saved me!” he cried. “You saved me and Aunt Natasha.”

“I taught him how to say that,” Jones grinned. “He doesn’t really know what it means.”

“Vasily, we have to let Leo rest, okay?” Minka said softly. “You can thank him later.”

Vasily frowned, whining to her that he wanted to do it then. She shook her head. Jones took the boy out of the room and closed the bedroom door. Leo felt strange lying in his own bed with a wrapped up gunshot wound in his chest. He realized he lay without a shirt on and felt embarrassed, for whatever reason.

“I thought they were evacuating you,” he said softly.

“I couldn’t leave. Everything happened so quickly,” she answered. “I couldn’t leave you.”

“It did happen quickly,” he sighed, laying back with a wince. “Wow.”

“I apologize for what I said,” she whispered, sitting on the bed next to him and grasping his hand. “I thought you used me.”

“No, I would never do that. I love you.”

“I know.”

“Minka, I don’t want you to stay in a place like this. It’s not good for you.”

“They are going to send us to refugee camp.”

“No, I want to marry you. Then you can get a green card, and you can go to the United States.”

She stared at him for a moment, the tracks of tears dried on her beautiful face. Though his body ached, just looking at her made his blood start to bubble and become excited. When she insulted him earlier, he thought he’d lost her. Maybe when she saw him on the bed, she thought she lost him too.

“Not a romantic proposal,” she answered very softly. “You have ring?”

He chuckled, “No, I don’t have a ring. I guess I didn’t think this through.”

She looked down. “I talked to Vlad.”

“Did you?”

“He said he wanted to die. He knew about Natasha being taken, and he thought she was gone. He wanted you to shoot him.”

“Really?”

She nodded. “I apologize for…”

“No, I apologize. I should have told you. I shouldn’t have brought you or Vasily into it.”

“But if you didn’t bring me into it, then I never would have fallen in love with you.”

He smiled, finding nothing else to say.

“Okay?” she asked.

“Okay,” he answered.

“I am happy to have been brought in.” She crawled to him, straddling him. “But I would like ring.”

He laughed. “I’ll get you the biggest ring you’ve ever seen, baby.”

She laughed too, leaning forward to kiss him. His body felt on fire with the pain, but also with desire. She kissed him like he’d never been kissed before – with a full wave of passion and love. He wrapped his arms around her as she moved the blankets to get closer to him. He hadn’t noticed the pretty floral dress she was wearing; yet, as she pulled at his pants, he did notice the underwear she did not wear. Lusty adrenaline filled his system, making the pain not matter anymore.

“I ask Vince to leave us alone for a while if you wake up,” she said softly, positioning herself on top of him as she ran her hand over his member.

He only nodded, finding nothing else to say. Her hands made pleasure fill him, filling in the wounds. His head leaned back, and he bit his lip – he had to be quiet, but sound wanted so desperately to moan from his mouth. She put her hand over his mouth with a smile as she slid on top of him. She felt warm and wet – he almost lost control in the first instant, but he knew that would kill the mood.
An unromantic proposal indeed
.

She rocked on top of him, taking control but still answering when he moved his hips under her. Her breath tingled his ear as she moaned softly into it, so softly only he could hear. It felt more intimate than their rushed activity before; he felt even closer to her, even more in love with her. She knew exactly what to do to make them both fill with ecstasy.

She started to move quicker, sliding along the entire length of him and making his mind lose all reason. He bit his lip harder, trying not to make noise as her breathing became more erratic. Then, with a final thrust, they came together. She let out a loud moan,though she didn’t mean to, and they both laughed.

“Hopefully no one heard,” she whispered.

He shrugged, “Who cares if they did?”

She smiled, kissing him again. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her for as long as she would let him.

“When do we get married?” she asked. “Soon?”

“Probably when I’m able to get out of bed,” he answered. “Of course, it would be so nice to just stay in bed with you.”

She laughed, nuzzling his nose. “I believe I am poet now. I am in love.”

He looked deeply into her eyes. “You were always a poet. You just hadn’t realized it yet.”

She slid off of him and lay down next to him. They fell asleep together in each other’s arms, their futures in front of them instead of their pasts. Sure, there would be paperwork and debriefing to go through, but Leo decided not to think about it. He risked his life for the woman he loved and her child – nothing mattered except for their secured safety. He knew nothing would ever matter more than that again.

***

THE END