CHAPTER 22
Anna
Five men had entered an area where Ray and I were trying to get through, because of this we got split up. We never decided on a place to meet. So, the only thing I can do is just keep looking for one of my brothers or Ray. I hope that I find them before Maxim and Booker find me.
I walk quickly up to one of the hallways upstairs and stop dead in my tracks. Three of the Ivanov guards are beating the shit out of one of our lower operatives. I recognized the guy as Harry, he’s a really sweet guy. Harry’s so bad off right now, he’s not even defending himself anymore.
With my knife in hand, I stab the one that keeps kicking Harry in the head right in his kidney. He screams out and drops hard to the now bloodied floor. The two other guards look at me.
They both lunge in my direction at the same time. I throw my knife to my left hand and as they get closer, I punch the one on the right side in the face and stab the other one in the neck.
The guy I punched, I know I broke his nose. I could hear the bone crack. This has to be like my forty-fifth broken nose that I’ve inflicted. I need a sweet ass nickname like bone crusher.
I check on Harry to see if he’s okay. He’s breathing and has a good pulse rate but he’s out cold. I don’t have time to move him anywhere, he can be left alone with all these other guys out for the count.
The man whose nose I broke is still sitting on the floor clutching it. He pays no attention to me and I don’t want to deal with him anymore. I start to quickly move away.
Maybe if I can get to the garage, I could just get a car and leave. I know I can’t do that, I can’t leave my brothers by themselves.
I walk down the hallway, the screaming and yelling is all around me. I have a feeling that both sides are all looking for me. I need to still stay hidden and smart.
I can hear yelling behind me, as two guards start to run after me. I take off down the stairs and quickly turn to the left. There’s a little place underneath the stairs like a storage room that I could probably hide. Not that many people know about it.
I don’t make it far before I slam into a chest and bounce backwards landing flat on my ass. Booker holds out his hand to help me up. I’ve never seen him look this mad. His eyes are squinted, and his breathing is hard.
I don’t take his outstretched hand. I know that it’s his job to secure me. “Let’s go Anna. You can make this easier on both of us, there’s no way in hell I’m letting you out of here.”
“Not gonna happen Booker. I can almost taste my freedom. If you want to restrain me you have to fight me,” I say as I lean against the wall. Booker has extreme trouble hitting women. Kind of shady for me to be using that against him now, but I got nothing else.
He quickly lunges for me. The only house in the world were so many men have come after me. I should feel flattered, but it’s downright creepy.
I keep my hand behind my back, not letting him see what I plan to do. When he gets close enough, I punch him right in the throat. Booker stops and drops to his knees with a shocked expression, “I’m sorry,” I mumble out.
He doesn’t gasp or start panting for air. He must know how to get out of this. He’s blocking the direction I want to go. I know if I try to move past him, he’ll grab me.
“Don’t do this please.” I say with as much heart and emotion as I can to Booker. “It doesn’t have to be like this. I know that you know me being here is wrong.”
Booker doesn’t say anything, he just continues to watch me doing a slow breathing exercise. When I least expect it, his arm reaches out and he grabs my leg pulling hard. I’m flipped up in the air and land on the cold marble on my back. Pain squeezes my nerve endings all through my body.
Booker is getting a tieback for the curtain off the hook. He quickly straddles me, his breathing is still slow. He makes fast work of tying my hands together in front.
He removes his phone from his pocket, his eyes never leave mine, “I got her.” He chokes out to the person on the other line, most likely Maxim. Maybe, I hit him harder than I thought.
My knife was kicked away from me a while ago, it’s too far for me to reach. I’m still sitting on my ass after Booker tied me up. He turns his back mumbling more into the phone. I quickly remove the knife from my boot.
I stick the smaller knife in my hand, slowly working against the tieback. I don’t want him to see what I’m doing, and I definitely don’t want to hurt him, but there’s no way I’m going back to the cell.
Booker lifts me up with a grunt and starts to push me in the direction of Maxim’s room. I can’t go in there. That man has a whole closet full of rope and handcuffs. I’ll never get free; my body also tingles at the thought of being tied down on his bed letting him do whatever he wants.
I keep working the knife as Booker walks behind me, lightly pushing my back forward making me walk faster. I don’t believe that Maxim will be in this room. He’ll be out there fighting with his guys, but this room might become a permanent cell for me.
I know that Booker will secure me somewhere. Somewhere I can’t get free, my bindings will be extra tight. That means that my brothers will be out there fighting by themselves and I can’t let that happened. They’re here for me, so I need to be here for them.
I’m able to cut the last of the tieback off. I still keep my hands in front of me. I look around and there’s nobody else here in this hallway. We’re only about four doors from Maxim’s room.
I drop the rope and quickly turn as I kick Booker right in the front of his knee. Not wasting any time, I jump up in the air and perform a roundhouse kick that hits him right in the head. His body flies into the hallway wall.
Booker grunts and then yells, “damn that hurt.” He starts to get up. The fighting between us will take forever. I’ll never get out of here. I start to run in the other direction, hoping that he’s too dizzy to follow after me. After the test we had with the treadmills, I know I can run faster for longer than him, but once he gets me in his grasp, it’s over.
I quickly sidestep Booker as he tries to grab for me, and I’m able to start running down the hallway.
I turn the corner and go down the stairs looking behind me to see if Booker is catching up. He’s slowly staggering his way towards me with his hand on his head. Turning back around, I slam into another chest that has me bouncing on my ass. What the hell?
Fuck, my ass is going to be one huge bruise tomorrow. I look up to see who I just bumped into. “Ray,” I squeak.