The Bratva’s Bounty (Volkov Bratva #3)

32. Lev

Chapter 32

Lev

I'm gonna kill him. I'm gonna fucking kill him!

It fucking killed me to see Nicole like this—broken. My heart broke into so many pieces being forced to watch… Watching her walls be torn down and smashed to nothing, for her to be reduced to…

Forcing the ordeal into a burning pit, I focused my attention back on my empress. "It's okay, I got you, it's okay." But was it? Would it ever be okay? Would we ever be okay after this? Was recovery possible?

"I'm sorry." All of this was my fault. None of this would have happened if I had been more wise back at the cabin. I should have tried harder to save Nicole, too. Yet, I did nothing; I was fucking useless while the damn bastard… "I'm so sorry."

After Igor was done, he threw Nicole back into the cage and left with his men. I managed to struggle myself over to Nicole, and she undid the rope that bound me. It hurt like hell to kick in the cage door enough to budge it open, but I gritted through the pain. Besides, I had no right to complain or give up. Nicole needed me, and she literally went through Hell. So I could endure some nonsense pain .

I don't know how long we stayed in each other's arms; not like it mattered to me. As long as I had her in my arms, that was all that mattered. Also, giving her comfort and being there for her was all I could do for her.

No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn't take her pain away. There was no way for me to erase what happened to her from her mind. Nor could I ever take the trauma away from her body.

A muffled noise from Nicole made me look down at her as I pulled her head back. "You'll still love me, right? You won't leave me, will you? I didn't want him or liked what he did. I only thought about you, I swear." Her frantic words spilled out of her nonstop with her tears that burned my skin like acid when they fell on me.

Immediately, I shot her down and shushed her gently as I held her face in my trembling hands. "Nicole, no, never. I would and will never think or see you any differently because of something like that, ever. I swear on my life and my mother." It hurt me so much to see her in shambles like this.

Giving her a stern look, I kissed her deeply. "And don't you ever question me and or anyone like that after the fact. And if anyone ever leaves you or changes the way they look at you because of something like that, then you punch them in the face and throw them into a landfill." I tried to lighten the mood a little by forcing out a bit of a serious joke at the end, along with a smile.

Hesitantly, Nicole cracked an awkward smile and chuckled very dryly. "I'd rather blow a bomb in their face, but I guess your way works, too." Her words were a little choppy and forced, but at least she was trying.

Although, as soon as it left, it came back. Her eyes darted away from mine to the ground, and her face fell completely. The air around us turned somber again as she slumped against me almost lifelessly. "How can you even see me the same after that?" Her worries reared its ugly face again.

Kissing her temple, I rubbed her arms soothingly. "My love, no, I don't see you the same, and I never will." Curling a finger under her chin, I lifted her face. "You aren't the same, not after that, but not for the reasons you are probably thinking about." Brushing a thumb across her lips, I smiled at her proudly. "I will always see you as better than me, the stronger person."

As I continued to hold her, I slowly brushed my fingers over the marks that marred her once-pristine body. Bruises in various stages of forming littered her extremities and face from where she was grabbed and held. Scrapes and cuts from the ground reddened her joints and face, making her look really battered and battle-worn. To be fair, she fought like a hellion until the very end, so I would've been surprised if she didn't up with battle scars.

God, I hated how she had to fight alone. I was fucking useless, tied to a chair. All I could do was scream and shout helplessly while she suffered.

Taking a deep breath, I kissed her cheek. "You literally got dragged to Hell and left there, but you pulled yourself out without giving yourself any time to grieve. You fought the damn devil tooth and nail throughout it all, despite knowing the end result, and never once did you give up." Nuzzling her face, I gave it tender kisses. "I will always see you as the better between us from now on, and I will always see you on the higher pedestal. I wish I could say I'd do the same in your situation, but I know for a damn fact that I wouldn't."

As much as I wanted to say otherwise, I would've been in a worse state than Nicole if someone forced themselves on me in front of my significant other. I'd be broken, inconsolable, and mentally unaware.

"You are so strong, zhizn moya , and I couldn't be more proud to call you mine," I said against her lips, kissing her deeply. "You are a fucking survivor who crawled out of the depths of hell with a crown of victory."

Hugging her tightly, I swore to her, "We'll get out of this together, and we'll burn the bastard alive."

The only problem now was how all of that would happen.

"Are you sure your body can handle that? You're still pretty banged up." Nicole eyed my various injuries with concerned eyes.

Taking in a controlled breath, I nodded my head in confirmation. "This is the only chance we got. The moment they move us to the new location, we'll be at a huge disadvantage," I whispered in a hushed voice as the two of us sat in the back of the car.

Sighing, Nicole leaned into me. "I just… It's a cramped car. Are you sure we can pull it off?" Her nervous eyes looked out the window, watching everyone scramble about to finish loading various vehicles for the move.

Before I could reply, the door by Nicole flew open, making me scowl. "So pathetic," Igor scoffed, reaching in and grabbing Nicole by her arm.

For a moment, the two of us glared at each other in a silent exchange of anger. "You know, I was going to take my wife back, but considering how your time with her is going to be limited, I'll take some mercy on you and let you enjoy what little time you have with her." If only he left it at that.

Damn bastard had the nerve to grab Nicole's face and plant a nasty one on her. Nicole's muffled scream shook at her thrashing body before a sharp slap rang through the air from Igor backhanding her. "Fucking bitch, you're lucky I don't gag you," he spat at Nicole with a deadly glare while holding his bleeding lip.

I couldn't help the proud and elated grin showing on my face as I watched Nicole spit his blood back in his face and tell him to fuck off in Vietnamese. "Enjoy your last moment with your rabid dog, wife ." Igor seethed at Nicole before slamming the door in her face.

Spitting onto the floor, she wiped away the remainder of Igor from her mouth. "Fucking bastard, I swear, I'm going to gut him and stuff him full of bombs and make a bear chase him," she said with a determined glare out the window. "If he thinks I'm going to marry him, then he's got another thing coming for him. I'll fucking kill him in his sleep or slit my own throat if everything else fails."

Putting my bound arms around her, I held her close. "If only we can revive him to torture him over and over." I sighed disappointedly.

Honestly, there was so much I wanted to do to Igor, all ending in death. Too bad he only had one life and a set of body parts. "As long as you let me get my hands on him, I'd love to rip his puny dick off and make him choke on it while he runs for his pathetic life." I would much prefer to tear him limb from limb, like I said before, but Nicole had the final say after everything.

"I don't know how we're gonna pull off your plan with our hands cuffed." Nicole huffed, wiggling and gesturing at her bound wrists and mine.

Chuckling, I rolled my eyes and took her wrists into my hands. "Cuffs like these are easy to break." After a quick look to make sure no one was paying attention, I gave her a very fast crash course on breaking handcuffs. "But don't start until I tell you to. We don't know how many men are going to be in the vehicle quite yet. I just formulated the plan based on the hunch that there will be a driver and passenger, but if they decide to stick someone back here with us, then I'm gonna need a minute to adjust."

Thankfully, they didn't try to stick a guard into the back with us, so we had to deal with only the driver and passenger. The only shitty part of it all was that our car was more toward the front of the line, so we really had to punch it the moment the plan went into full swing.

I waited until we had driven out of the more remote parts of the woods before nudging Nicole and glancing down at her cuffs. Using my body to hide her attempts. It was probably risky to bank on their stupidity, but their lack of observational skills worked well in our favor. Honestly, all it would take for this whole plan to go bust was for one of them to look back and notice us acting strange. Luckily for us, they were too busy chatting about what they were going to do after payday.

Unlike Nicole, it didn't take me long to snap the links on my cuffs. Not that I was knocking at her skills or anything; I'd been trained to escape cuffs ever since I was a child back in Russia.

Carefully, I looked at Nicole and flashed my eyes at the driver before rubbing my left side to indicate the position of his weapon. Then, I waited for Nicole to nod in response before counting down from three on my fingers.

Nicole's nimble body shot out from the back, slipping up to the front through the space at the center. Ignoring the shouting passenger, she crawled into the driver's lap and fought with him for control over the steering wheel and pedals.

Meanwhile, I reached up and grabbed the passenger, taking his gun from him after he pulled it out and put a bullet through his head, splattering his brains all over the windows on the right side. Then, I turned the gun onto the driver, sending him to the afterlife with a shot to the temple.

Fucking hell.

I thought with a groan as I squeezed myself up to the front and pushed the passenger side door open, causing Nicole to swerve a little from the sudden rush of wind that threw the car off balance. "Shit! Damn it, Lev!" She hissed while jerking the wheel.

"Jerk it to the right," I told her with a grunt as I shoved at the dead body to get him out the door.

The car violently veered to the right, throwing the man fully out with the momentum. With the seat freed, I slipped into it and wrestled the door shut to stabilize the cabin again. "Holy shit! Drive! Drive! Drive!" I rushed Nicole when the sounds of bullets hitting the car echoed in my ear.

"Oh, no, I was thinking of cruising at five miles per hour and enjoying the scenery," Nicole snarked in a giddy and very sarcastic voice, her empty smile flashing at me for a second before her face dropped to a glaring scowl. "The fuck does it look like I'm doing!?"

Hanging onto the grab handle and the center console, I kept myself as steady as possible as Nicole drove like a madwoman down the road, sideswiping and straight-up bashing into any vehicle in our way.

A pained grunt strained out of me from a sudden hit that tilted the car and smashed my side in a little. "Shit!" I grunted again when the car next to us bashed us again.

"Motherfucker…" I seethed under my breath as I kicked the broken door off the car.

It probably wasn't a good idea to waste bullets like this, but like hell would I sit here and let this asshat bash my side in fully. Pressing my legs against the frame to steady myself, I aimed and shot at the driver of the other vehicle repeatedly until the bulletproof glass gave, and a shot went through to his body. The car's tires squealed as the vehicle spun out of control and into another behind us.

"Lev, don't waste your fucking bullets," Nicole told me before letting out a short scream when her side got hit by a vehicle .

"Fuck!" I hissed under my breath, quickly catching and bracing myself using the frame when my body was nearly thrown out from the hit.

Crawling into the back seat, I pulled the handle and kicked the back driver-side door open into the car hanging around Nicole's side. Grabbing onto the rail, I used the door to repeatedly bash the enemy's car until it spun out of the way.

Unfortunately, my makeshift door bat only survived that one car. Some speeding truck tore the thing off its hinges by driving straight into it. Luckily for me, the truck had its windows down because the passenger was trying to take a shot at me. At least I didn't have to waste any bullet to take him and the truck's driver out for the count.

"Lev!" Nicole's shrilling scream made my head snap back up front, where a man had hopped into the car through the doorless passenger side and struggled with Nicole.

The car jerked randomly with the steering wheel being in a game of tug-of-war with Nicole and the man, making it hard for me to keep my balance a little. It was almost impossible to properly aim at the man with how much we were all being thrown around in the car. One jerk and the bullet could end up through Nicole instead.

For a split second, the car steadied, and I immediately lunged for the man, grabbing him by the neck and blowing a hole into his head after digging the gun into the side of his head. Then, out his body went, becoming roadkill after the car next to us ran his body over.

Leaning around to the front, I kissed Nicole's cheek with a victorious smile. "We're almost to the main road." It was right there, just another mile, and we'd be safer with the crowded streets.

Sadly, a clean getaway wasn't in the cards for me.

"Fuck!"

Thwump!

"LEV!"