CHAPTER 23
Anna
I jump up and wrap my arms around Ray. I’m so ecstatic that this time I ran into somebody that I know. I was afraid we were at the end; my time is definitely running out.
He notices my expression, “are you okay?”
I nod with the huge smile on my face. “I’m very okay, now I get to go home.”
Ray looks up after I finish talking. The expression on his face changes. His hands were rubbing my shoulders as I was telling him how happy I was. I can feel him tense up. Suddenly he grips me hard and I’m flying to the side.
My body lands painfully against the wall. My shoulder connected first, jerking the rest of me to a fast stop. My head slams back into the wall.
I start to rub both my shoulder and my head in the places it hit, as I look back to see what the hell Ray did that for. Booker throws a punch that hits Ray right in the side of the face.
I have to sit for a minute because my head and shoulder are pounding. I don’t take my eyes off the two men fighting. Ray gets mad and charges after Booker like they’re playing a normal game of tackle football.
Both of these men are built but Booker is slightly bigger, more muscles and taller. Ray doesn’t play fair.
Two of our other guys come running up. They both pull out their guns as they watch the scene in front of them. I stand up and yell, “DO NOT kill him.” They know that I’m referencing Booker.
They both nod thinking about how to interject and get Ray out of there. Both of them flipped their guns around where their hands are holding the barrels of their nine mm. They both walk up to Booker and Ray, Booker has his back towards them as the two guards flank him.
Ray senses what’s going on and I can see relief come over his face. Booker is deadly. I know it isn’t easy to fight that guy. Booker pulls back his fist, getting ready to strike Ray in the face again. Both of the guards at the same time lift their guns and clock Booker on the back of the head.
He falls instantly unconscious. Even though I’m happy that we won I still run over there and make sure that Booker is breathing and is okay. Ray bends over and puts his hands on his knees, taking a few deep breaths. I bet he’s thrilled this is over.
Ray gets up and comes over and gives me a hug, “are you okay?” He checks me over to see if there’s any more damage.
“I’m fine, let’s get out of here.” Ray grabs my hand and starts to pull me towards the stairs.
I stop, “where are my brothers? I can’t just leave. I have to help them.”
Ray shakes his head no, “this was our agreement. Whoever found you, we’re to leave as soon as possible. Not stay around and help fight.”
That does make sense. I drop my shoulders in defeat, if I stay and help fight I could get captured again, all of this would be for nothing. When we get back to the house, I’ll be able to see where everybody is with the cell phone trackers. I can make sure they’re safe and out of here.
“Okay, let’s go.” Ray smiles, he probably thought he was gonna have to convince me more.
Grabbing my hand, he pulls me downstairs. A couple times on the stairs we had to stop. Things were flying over our heads. I’m not sure if it was on accident or if they were meant for us.
Glass shatters against the wall just behind us. Plates, anything that could be harmful is thrown through the air.
Ray and the other two guards are flanking me as we slowly make our way down. We all bend down. It’d be so much faster if we just ran down. That’s when you get killed.
I look down the hallway when we first touch the landing. I can see a guy hold up his gun. He shoots one of our guards. A gasp escapes my mouth as Ray mutters, ‘dammit.’
We can hear boots, at least twenty men slightly jogging in our direction. Ray quickly opens up the pantry closet and we all stuff inside. It’s very cramped but it’s bigger than your average size home’s pantry. This is a mansion, so everything’s bigger and better.
I’m just grateful that the pantry is able to hold all of us. If I’m lucky, my apartment pantry might hold one person.
We all are deathly quiet as we listen to the sounds of the boots and men’s voices go right by the door. All it would take is one sneeze or even a cough for us to get caught, then it would be game over.
It’s been quiet for several minutes. Ray slowly opens the door and looks both ways. He nods back to us, empty. We all quietly ease our way out of the closet and start heading in the direction towards the back door.
Whenever we come upon other people, we all hide. Ray gives the other two guards strict orders that he has to get me out of here. They would have to stay and fight if someone were to attack us.
They both nodded in agreement. Jax has probably gone over this with them. We walk through the empty kitchen and that makes me wonder where Martha is. She would be down here running around and helping doing whatever she could to save her boys.
There’s no sign of her. I really hope that nothing happened, but I start getting an uneasy feeling. My eyes dart around the whole kitchen making sure I haven’t missed anything. Maybe Maxim has her stored somewhere safely.
I chuckle, imagining that happened. She would give them a mouthful before she was locked up and not fighting with all of them.
We can hear shoes running after us, we all stop and turn around. Three of Maxim’s guards are heading in our direction at full speed. Ray tells our two guards, “it’s time.”
The men nod and take their fighting positions. Ray and I quickly make our way outside. We both take off in a fast sprint. We run like our lives depend on it.
It seems like we’re running to the edge of the property. It’s all a little weird, why not out the front door?
I’m not getting a good feeling about this, everything is way off. This isn’t how we would normally do things, we get in and we get out. We don’t sneak around and we sure as shit don’t run several miles to a car.
I stop again in my tracks trying to think this over. Ray notices then runs back towards me, “what’s wrong?”
I shake my head, “something feels off, I don’t like this one bit.” My eyes are wide and looking around. I want to say I feel like it’s a trap, but that’s not it.
Ray comes and stands in front of me, “look, it all does seem kind of weird. We have no other choice though. This is what your brothers and I agreed on. This is the safest and fastest way to get you out of here.”
Ray convinces me. This does kind of make sense, nobody would see me escaping. This is not a great thing for Maxim and Booker and the other Ivanov guys. But this is a good thing for my brothers, even they don’t know where I’m at.
I start to lightly jog next to Ray as we continue to make our way to his parked car.
I chuckle lightly to myself, here I am again always overthinking things.
I should’ve been telling myself to rely on my instinct.