Russian Boss’s Secret Baby by Bella King

Ch 30

SLATE

The mines have clearly been used exclusively for drug running and storage; it doesn’t look like anyone has worked here for a very long time. It’s a little eerie, to be honest. Not quite dark enough to be pitch black, but definitely not light enough to give me confidence about what could be lurking in the grooves and corners of the tunnels.

Katya’s voice carries through the mines for what sounds like miles. I know she can only be maybe a quarter mile away, but the sound of her shrill, petulant voice bounces off the walls, adding to the disorienting and somewhat inhuman feel of the place.

As I’m stepping quietly through the tunnels towards Katya, I listen for any retaliation from Mia. I’ve never thought Mia to be the confrontational type, but knowing what I know about her now, I wouldn’t put it past her to resist .

I wonder if she would fly into a manic rage if she or the baby was harmed, just like the mothers who lift cars off their children when they’re pinned to the ground.

I approach the corner nearest to the entrance of Katya’s strange little lair. Her voice is so clear now, almost as if she’s speaking to me directly.

I haven’t heard her voice in so long that the suggestion of her return into my life hooks into my brain like a tapeworm. Little flashes of our old life together run through my mind. A memory of our apartment in St. Petersburg during a winter storm is the piece of her that chooses to come forward the most prominently.

I could throw up from the thought alone. I couldn’t imagine myself with anyone but Mia, even if I was once afraid to develop feelings for her.

I’m past the point of fear.

I’m close enough now, if I go in prepared to fire my weapon, I’ll have the upper hand. Her goons won’t be nearly sharp enough to anticipate an ambush. Nobody who would let Katya lead a group of armed men is intelligent enough to scare me.

I draw my weapon.

As I step into the room where Katya is keeping Mia, and only one man sees me before Katya turns around and immediately starts firing. Trigger happy seems to be exactly her brand of insane, and I should have anticipated this better.

She misses me by a long shot, firing into one of the lights directly above and behind me. The lightbulb explodes and crashes to the floor in a rainstorm of sparks. From Mia’s perspective, sitting across from Katya in a bondage chair, I’m sure it looked beautiful.

I shoot her in the leg to subdue her. As much as I hate the bitch, I’m not ready to take responsibility for killing her.

Immediately, she crumples to the floor, screaming. “You shot my leg! You shot my motherfucking leg! You goddamn piece of shit!” she screeches from the floor as she works in vain to keep away the burning of the flesh encasing the bullet in her leg.

Not only was I able to disarm her temporarily, the shock of the impact and the sudden noise has completely rattled her.

I fire again, this time at the man standing closest to her, reluctantly at that. Fortunately, my shot lands right between his ribs as he turns around to confront me. Two of the bigger men immediately choose to save Katya instead of kill me; clearly they know where their best interests lie. In a way, they’ve made the decision to trade Katya’s life for Mia’s freedom, a fact that will keep her seething for at least three weeks.

The last man of the group chooses to defy the interests of his peers, drawing his weapon and training it directly between my eyes. I immediately fire again, right in the middle of his forehead. He goes down without a fight, possibly without another thought as his brain matter paints the wall directly behind him.

I hear Katya scream again as the two other men carry her away. It’s an inhuman howling, from pain or grief, I’ll never know. All I care about is getting Mia the fuck out of here.

In the distance, the elevator hums.

Goddamn it, she took it. We’ll have to find an alternate route of escape.

“The restraints,” Mia says nervously, growing more anxious to escape now that I’m here to help her.

I cut the straps with the knife on my keys, and when I finally cut the last one on her ankle, she jumps up out of the chair and embraces me harder than anyone ever has in my life.

“What the fuck is going on?” she asks.

I can only imagine what’s going through her head, seeing me kill Eli, then finding out she’s pregnant, then running away and being taken hostage and then getting into a car crash.

“We can talk later, we need to get out as soon as possible,” I reply, uncertain exactly what the risks of staying here could be, only that they exist, and I don’t wish to find out what they are.

I know there’s another way out of here. There always is because of the risk of partial mine collapses. They wouldn’t build this place into a deathtrap.

“Let’s go,” I say, taking Mia’s hand and tugging her along in the darkness.

“Where are we going?” she asks, her voice shaking with uncertainty and fear.

“We’re getting you out of here,” I reply.

After what feels like an eternity of walking through the tunnels in near silence, Mia speaks up. “Um, there’s something I think I need to tell you,” she begins

I already know what she’s going to say, and while I’m more than excited to raise the baby with her, I don’t want to have this conversation here.

“Let’s wait on it, I don’t want anything else that I need to focus on while we try to get out of here. It’s getting colder, and that worries me,” I say as assuredly as possible. I already have the baby and Mia to worry about, and I don’t need her knowing that right now. I know she’ll try to put on a brave face and wear herself out.

“I am kind of cold, now that you say that,” she says a bit quietly, like she was afraid to admit it.

I take a closer look at her and realize that not only is she cold, she’s absolutely exhausted, probably starving. She hasn’t complained once.

“Here, take my coat, I reply.

She reluctantly does, of course refusing to take it at first.

As my mind races, I’m met with the thought that Mia might be a martyr of a mother, always sacrificing too much and taking too little until she shrivels and dies. The thought makes me feel a deep sense of anxiety. I need to protect her, no matter what.