With This Ring

“Freya,” I heard him call out as I weaved through the crowd, but I didn’t respond.

A big hand grabbed a hold of me and in annoyance I jerked my hand from the grasp.

“Let me go!” I screamed, as I kept moving, but I was grabbed again and this time so firmly, I couldn’t dislodge it. I whirled around. At first I was so wired I didn’t feel the steel of the blade lodge itself into my back. Those few seconds before the pain could get past the haze of fury and adrenaline gave my attacker those precious seconds to slip into the crowd. I opened my mouth to tell Maxim, who was only a few steps away, to fuck off. Instead a shocked gasp came out.

Maxim’s eyes widened. “What is it?” His voice was urgent.

My knees gave way and I felt myself falling. His reaction was lightning quick. He caught me and pulled me towards his body. He must have felt my blood flowing like a river over his hands, because his eyes changed as his gaze left mine and lifted up into the crowd.

“Get him!” he roared.

A flurry of panicked movement began around me as people began to notice what had just happened. I tried to push his hand away but the tears had already gathered in my eyes, as the pain reverberated through me. I felt his hand press against my wound.

“You’ll be fine,” I heard him say, but my gaze had rolled up towards the sky. It began to dim quite rapidly before me, and then his face came into sight again.

His eyes… struck me. They were just as vibrant as the sky had been just a moment ago. Something caught in my chest as I stared at him making it impossible for me to breathe. I felt the tears roll down my face just as I registered my hand rising. It was all his fault. All of it. I wanted to hit him, but he instead grabbed my hand as my world… was lost.

Chapter Ten

Maxim

She had nearly died in my arms.

If that blade had punctured an organ, or my men had not been carrying a bleed kit she would have fucking died on that boat. I stopped pacing the room restlessly and stood for a moment in the center of it. My nerves felt frazzled. I wanted to kill someone, but what I needed to do was to calm the fuck down.

I took a seat next to her and watched the light dusting of freckles across her nose. She had been stitched up and bandaged and now her arm was strung with an IV. There were wires hooked up from her chest to the machine that monitored her heartbeat.

At first, the damp squid of a doctor expressed the opinion ‘that level of care is quite unnecessary’ but I took a step forward into his personal space and quietly told him if anything happened to her I would hold him personally responsible. I can’t imagine he knew who I was so it must have been the tone of my voice, or the look in my eyes, because he did the usual. Turned as white as a sheet and dedicated himself to his own survival in the short-term.

Her hair was tangled, silky strands spread out over the pillowcase like rivers of red, lit ablaze by the early morning sun filtering in through the window blinds. I couldn’t stop myself. I reached out and touched the fiery silk. I let the soft wavy strands slide through my fingers.

She was unconscious to the world, but she sighed softly, as if something deep inside her, that even she had not yet recognized, felt my touch. At the sound I exhaled my first proper breath in the last twenty hours.

Her eyelids fluttered and I immediately leaned away. Giving her a heart attack the moment she awakened was not one of my goals for that day. I felt my phone vibrate and I pulled it out of my pocket. It was my brother, Levan. Her chest was rising and falling peacefully so I quickly slipped out of the room into the corridor to take the call.

“Is everything alright?” I asked.

“I should be the one asking you that. I just heard from Makhail. He can’t understand why they tried to get to her now.”

“Instead of tattling about it, Makhail should be unravelling it,” I growled.

He sighed. “Let him be, man. He told me because he knew I’d be worried. Any ideas why this happened?”

“About a thousand,” I said dryly.

“I can’t believe Fedorov lets her live alone and without protection in that city.”

“Do you really believe that Fedorov would let his daughter go about without protection?”

“Then where were they when all this happened?”

“They would have shown themselves if I was not there. They could see my men had everything under control almost instantly.”