She swallowed the lump of emotion in her throat as she gathered her things and prepared to leave. As she headed out the door, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise. She made her way quickly down the street to the parking garage.
“Nina?”
She heard her name as she walked in front of the entrance to the garage. The sound of tires squealing and someone coming up the entrance ramp could be heard as she locked gazes with Freeman and then saw Atlanta, Jessup, and Corona standing there.
She froze where she was and then turned as the bright headlights bounced when a car came barreling up the ramp.
“Nina!” the men all yelled and ran toward her, and just as she went to jump, the car came at her, swerving.
She fell to the ground and scraped her arm, hitting her head on the side of the railing. The car skidded sideways, and Nina couldn’t even look up to see who it was. She felt the hands on her and the men gathering around her.
“What the fuck?” Corona exclaimed, and another set of tires squealed past as if they were going after the person in the first car that had tried to kill her.
“Nina, are you okay? Oh, my God, she almost hit you,” Freeman said, and she tried to sit up and felt the gash to her temple and the scrapes and cuts on her arm.
“You’re hurt. You need an ambulance,” Atlanta said.
“No. No, I’m fine. Just help me up.” She was scared. So badly, she wanted to lean on them and know why they were here and that they wanted her and loved her, but she knew the truth. She couldn’t make this into something it wasn’t.
“You need help. We’ll get to the bottom of this,” Corona said to her firmly.
“No. I don’t need your help.”
“The person driving the car was Mirella. She just tried to kill you,” Jessup said from behind the
others.
She covered her belly with her hand and calmed her breathing. She had to worry about the baby. She was fine, and she needed to get the hell out of here. She didn’t know why Mirella was trying to kill her. She thought about seeing her coming from Polo’s place. She didn’t know what that was all about. The sound of SUVs coming to a stop behind them had the men pulling their weapons and covering her in a protective shield. Her heart raced. Did they really care, or was this just standard operating procedure because of what had just happened?
The doors opened, and she saw Viktor and his brother Dusty get out, along with a bunch of other men.
“Nina, are you okay?” Viktor asked, and she used the sleeve of her dress to wipe her head where the small scratch and cut bled slightly.
Viktor looked at the men. “We’ve got her.”
“Wait, what’s going on? We came here to talk to Nina and to help. Why did Mirella try to kill her?” Freeman asked.
Viktor pulled Nina close and looked at her. She shook her head, denying the men any further involvement in this. If Mirella wanted to kill her, she wasn’t putting the men in danger, too. One of them could get caught in the crossfire. Even though she’d met with Polo and it seemed the score was settled, something else was happening here, and getting Atlanta, Freeman, Corona, and Jessup involved wouldn’t be right. Even though she wished they loved her and wanted her like she wanted them.
“Nina?” Corona said.
“I’m not your responsibility. You don’t need to put your lives on the line for me. Your job watching over me ended months ago.”
Viktor walked her to the SUV, and they all got inside. She felt the tears fill her eyes, and an emptiness filled her heart once again. She knew the truth. That they didn’t love her, but they wanted a part of her. Her body, the sex, a feeling of control and possession that would eventually make them drift apart. She couldn’t be a kept woman, a lover of convenience, even if she weren’t pregnant with their baby. If she told them the truth, that she’d been a virgin, and that she was pregnant, they would probably hate her and blame her for not being honest and letting them seduce her, and then for not being smart and taking precautions. It was better this way.
* * * *
“I can’t believe this is happening. She hates us,” Freeman said as they stood there watching the SUVs pull away.
Corona felt sick and angry, and he wanted answers.
“She looked so defeated and sad. She really thinks that she’s alone in this,” Corona said to them.
“We’ve made her that way. You fucking paid her off like some high-priced whore. What the fuck were you thinking?” Freeman asked him, raising his voice.
Corona felt his gut wrench with disgust for his actions. “I wasn’t thinking clearly. I just wanted to ensure she was safe and that, if there was danger, she had resources, money to help her get through things.”
“Yeah, well, you should have talked it through with us first. I get your thinking, but none of us had been thinking clearly when we had to leave her and what we had with her in Salvation,” Freeman said to him.