JACKSON

 

"WHO ARE YOU?" the younger version of Katya asks.  They could pass for twins if they were a little closer in age.

Wraith aims his weapon for Senga, and I take a few steps towards Katya.  There are tears in her eyes when she locks her gaze on me.  There's so much I want to say to her in that moment, but it will all have to wait.

When I heard the gunshots before we made it to the barn, I thought I was going to find her lying on the ground, bleeding…or dead.  I'm so relieved to see her alive and holding her own.

That's my girl.

"Don't take another step!" Senga calls out to me, and I halt in my tracks.

I don't have a gun, so I simply put my hands up and decide to rely on Wraith's uncanny skills with these types of situations.

When Wraith first told me in the car on the way here not to worry, I worried anyway.

But when we arrived and he took out two huge guys without so much as breaking a sweat, I started to worry a little less.

No wonder Lucien hired the giant bastard.  He's fucking incredible, like Liam Neeson in all those Taken movies.

"Don't do anything stupid.  I will shoot you," Wraith spits out.  And then he turns toward a man on the ground bleeding from his thigh and trying to crawl out the door.  It only takes a second for Wraith to swiftly kick him in the head, effectively knocking him out and rendering him no longer a threat.

So we're at a standoff with two guns trained on Senga.  Three against one, really, but I'm practically useless without a gun right now.

Senga swings the gun around to Katya once again.  With tears in her eyes and her trembling hands wrapped around the metal, she whispers, "Did Pavel really hurt you like you said?"

Katya nods with tears streaming down her face.  Her hand is steady on the trigger, unlike her sister's.

"I believe you, Katya.  I believe you."  Senga nods slowly, lowering the gun for only a fraction of a second before raising it once again.  "But you have to understand that if I don't deliver you to them, as I promised, they'll kill me," she says with conviction.

Katya shakes her head.  "I'll protect you.  I'll make sure they never find you."

Senga gives her a sad smile.  "You can never hide from the Bratva."  Then she whispers, "I wish things could have been different.  I'm sorry, sestra."

Two shots ring out almost simultaneously, and Katya and Senga both collapse on the ground.

"No!" I scream out, running to Katya and falling to my knees on the floor beside her.  Blood is blossoming onto her white shirt, but I can't find the source.  Tearing the fabric, I see the wound — it's only a graze on her left arm.

"Oh, thank fuck," I whisper as I tear off the remainder of the sleeve and tie it around her arm tightly over the wound.  She'll be fine until we can get her stitched up.

Opening her eyes slowly, Katya blinks up at me.  "W-what happened?" she asks me.

"You got shot, but you're gonna be fine.  The bullet just grazed you."  I hug her close and whisper in her hair, "Fuck, if I would have lost you…"  I allow the words to linger in the air.

I didn't lose her.

She didn't leave me.

We're together.

We'll always be together.

"Senga?" she pulls back and asks.

I raise my eyes to glance over at Wraith, who is standing above the girl with his gun still drawn.  He meets my stare and gives me a sad shake of his head.

"Senga?" Katya calls, sitting up quickly.  She crawls over to her sister's lifeless body.  A growing pool of red is in the center of her chest, spreading out on her light blue shirt like a rose bloom of death.

"No!" Katya sobs, pulling her dead sister into her arms.  "No!" she cries, rocking her back and forth.  "I'm sorry, sestra.  I'm so sorry!"

I stand and join Wraith near the back of the barn, and we allow Katya some time to grieve her sister.  It's clear that Senga didn't want to kill her sister.  She missed on purpose.  But Katya reacted just like anyone else would in that kind of situation.  She thought her sister was shooting to kill, so she did the same.

Katya couldn't have known.  It's not her fault.

After a few minutes, I gather Katya in my arms and pull her away from her sister.  "No!" she protests.  "I can't leave her!  I can't leave her here alone like this!"

"We have to go.  The Bratva could be here any minute."

She fights against me, beating her fists against my chest in anger.  But I just hold her tightly and allow her to take her anger out on me until her hits become softer…and then she's pulling me closer instead of pushing me away.

"I'm not going to lose you again," I whisper in her ear.  "I never want to lose you."

Her trembling fingers grab the lapels of my jacket as she sobs against my chest.

Wraith gives me a worried look, and I nod.  "We have to go," I tell Katya.

She nods, and I reach down and scoop her into my arms, cradling her against me as I carry her to the car.