Page 71 of The Bratva's Bounty

Fucking hell, there are so many men. There's no way Lev stands a chance against all of them, not with—ah hah!

It was right in front of me, and I was too stupid not to take any kind of notice. I wanted to slap myself in the face for being so blind in my frantic state.

Rushing over to the table and wall of weapons, I grabbed the assault rifle and disengaged the magazine, grumbling to myself when I saw it to be empty. "Why the hell wouldn't you have a ready weapon," I complained to no one in particular as I quickly loaded it.

Pulling a handgun off the rack, I quickly checked and loaded that as well before grabbing a knife and exiting the safe room. Of course, Lev wasn't too happy to see me again, which I didn't blame him for.

Before he could scold me, I held a finger at him to wait. "I'm not staying, promise. I just wanted to give you some stuff to even the odds." I set all the items on the ground and slid them over to him. "There's at least fifteen out there on the other side, all armed like some Call of Duty game. I don't know how much help the extra weaponry will be to you, but it's better than the single handgun you have."

Taking out a lighter and some of my bombs, I slid those over to him as well. "Don't use them unless you have to or if we're outside."

Then, with one last look and a wary smile, I blew him a kiss. "Be careful. I love you."

At least he managed to smile at me reassuringly, so I was thankful for that. "I love you,zhizn moya." Picking up the items, he quickly stashed them away on his body and held the rifle. "Now, go. I'll see you in a bit."

Believing him, I went back into hiding and watched the gunfight go down behind the screens until the cameras got taken out by bullets. All I could do after that was sit there and wait with bated breath for Lev to open the door so that I could run into his bloody arms like some fairytale.

I wish I had some way of knowing what went on beyond the heavy metal door. The walls were so thick, and probably soundproofed, that I couldn't hear anything happening on the other side.

It was torture to sit there in a dimly lit metal box that was too silent for its own good. The silence was deafening after what felt like forever—it was only ten minutes (I checked my damn phone). It was so quiet that my worries about how Lev was out there sounded like they were outside my head.

Another stretch of silence trudged on before a clicking sound made my head snap to the door.

The breath I'd sucked in dizzied me when I let it out with my wide grin. Excitement filled my racing heart when the door slid open, and I was about to run up to Lev until…

"No…"

For once, I wasat a loss for words because I was too consumed by shock.

This wasn't how it was supposed to turn out.

Lev and I should've been embracing each other and celebrating his bloody victory, not forced away into separate cages after an apparent defeat.

We were supposed to be either on the road home or safe at home, not here at some unknown place located somewhere only the high Heavens knew.

All of this was bullshit!

The fight wasn't fair!

Lev should have won! He would have!

He nearly killed everyone in that damn hallway, and we would have gotten away if it weren't for the flashbang that was thrown his way. He could have gotten away if he'd jumped out the window, but he didn't want to risk leaving me.

That was what he told me when we were stuck in the back of the van together for the ride here.

…It's my fucking fault he got taken down…

"Grah!" My fists slammed against the metal bars of my prison cell with my angry outburst, rattling the rusty things.

Letting out a livid sob, I slumped against the bars and looked at Lev with apologetic eyes. My poor Lev was all beaten and bloody, and he was tied to a chair a few feet from my cage. "I'm so sorry." My cracked whisper barely cut through the air to his dazed self.

Wincing, Lev did his best to smile at me. "Zhizn moya, no. You have nothing to be sorry for. I made the stupid decision to stay. I should have been smarter. I could have jumped out of the window and jumped back into the room after the flashbang went off." He sounded regretful about his split-second decision that put us in this situation.

"Lev, what are we going to do?" I didn't see how we would get out of this.

I was locked up, and Lev was halfway to Death's door from the looks of it. They stripped both of us of our weapons and anything that could be used as a weapon, so we had nothing on but pants and a shirt.

His strong smile wavered for a second before he firmed it back up. "I don't know, but I'll figure something out, promise." If he was worried or anything, then he sure did a good job hiding it. "I'll get you out of this if it's the last thing I do."