Lost and Found: A Mafia Romance, page 16
Wrinkling her brow, she smiled at Roman "That's not that old."
That only seemed to make his smile grow larger. "You both heard that right? Isaac, you're my witness."
"No, he is not." By this time Mikhail had shoved his way in front of Roman to stand beside her. "Isaac," his command didn't even need words, Isaac immediately got to work.
"Ok Misha, I am going to put you to sleep temporarily using the same gas you would get at the dentist office," he waited for her to nod before continuing. "After you are asleep I will anesthetize the area and insert this," he showed her a small microchip encased in silicone. "I will insert this in your lower right flank."
With a final nod, she laid down against the cool metal surface. "Ok here we go, it will be over before you know it," he began to lower the translucent green mask onto her face.
"Wait!" she panicked. Isaac's hand paused. "What if I don't wake up?"
"You will wake up." Mikhail looked back up the doctor, "won't she Isaac?" His tone held no room for discussion.
"Of course." Isaac's nervousness was audible.
"Ok," she could feel herself biting her lip in worry without thinking. "Because life is just starting to be good."
"I think I might cry." she could hear Roman's smiling voice from somewhere behind Mikhail's large form.
The muscles in Mikhail's in face twitched violently as he tried to maintain his patience, but he kept his eyes on her. "I will see you when you wake up."
With the green plastic mask over her nose, she breathed normally as instructed.
"Ok now count from ten." Misha could feel the light touch of Isaac's hand on her shoulder as he monitored her breathing.
"Ten," she couldn't help but wish it was Mikhail's hand on her shoulder instead of the doctors. At least, she would always be able to be near him. "Nine, eight, seven..." she could feel her voice fade away as sleep pulled her into it's arms.
"Why isn't she waking up Isaac?" Mikhail's voice slowly filtered into her dreams.
How long had she been asleep? Did they start already? Misha couldn't really feel anything. She couldn't even seem to open her eyes.
"She..sh..she just seems to be responding slowly" the doctor's voice stammered, his fear was audible. "Misha? Misha?" she could feel herself being shaken.
"What the fuck does that mean?" It was Mikhail's voice again, but he didn't sound right, his voice had a frenzied edge to it. "I am going to kill you."
She needed to wake up. She could hear yelling and things crashing all around her along with harsh voices.
With the greatest effort, she managed to open her eyelids. Slowly piercing light filtered through. Blurry images moved in and out of her line of sight. One blur got closer.
"Hey, there we go." A smiling voice said above her.
The scuffling seemed to stop. Blinking a couple more times she saw Roman leaning over her before he was pushed out of the way by Mikhail. She wasn't sure if she was still dreaming or not but Mikhail's face looked alarmed for the briefest second before settling into a fierce anger.
"Say something."
"Are we done?" she was so confused. What was going on? Isaac pulled her into the seated position on the metal table. Misha still wasn't sure if the procedure was over or not. She could not feel anything. She was almost tempted to check her side where the doctor pointed earlier, but Isaac began to talk.
"O..Ok, Misha just look straight ahead." He brought out his penlight to shine in her eyes. He asked her a bunch of questions about how she felt.
But she was focused on Mikhail. He was standing very still by the window with Roman. The other boss was leaning casually against the floor to ceiling window talking in a low tone while Mikhail stood like a mountain off to the side. He didn't look happy. She was trying to subtly hear what Roman was saying while still answer the doctor's questions, but she could only hear bits and pieces.
"Things are going to get worse for you, you do know that right?" despite his odd words Roman's tone was humorous. Misha was sure she was missing some important details for his statement to make sense.
Mikhail said nothing.
Mikhail did not seem like that, the tension in the room that already existed when she woke up intensified. In a matter of minutes, Roman and Isaac were shown the door. Isaac left most of his equipment, but he only seemed too happy to leave. It was just them again like it was every night. But that night was a little off. Mikhail was in a strange mood, he turned from the front door and walked towards his room.
"Now we are kind of like tied together aren't we?" she boldly asked. She wanted to know. She needed him to say that they were linked together forever.
He just stopped and just looked at her for the longest moment. "As I said before, if I need to I can find you."
"And you will come for me right?" she stressed.
He just stared at her, her heart dropped in that moment. He must have seen it on her face because he walked over to her, standing right in front of her. His large rough hand cupped her chin and tilted her head so that their eyes meet.
"I promise no matter where you are, I will find you."
Chapter 20
"Here in a few minutes we will head off." Leo took another look out of the orange plaid curtain before walking back towards the bed. "Then we will be that much closer to our new life together."
A chill went through her at his words. Misha wasn't dumb she knew he wanted to keep moving and he would rather move by night making it harder to track his movements. If they left that meant it would that much longer until Mikhail found her. Looking at Leo, she could practically see his confidence build with each passing minute no one arrived. He was getting comfortable, his usually large ego was starting to tell his brain that he was in the clear, that there was nothing to fear. The fact he left his gun on the TV let her know that. Resolving herself she made a decision, she wasn't going to make this easy for him.
"Ok sweetheart," he started with placating but firm tone. "You can either walk calmly to the car or I can tie you up and carry you. I don't want to have to do that," he sat on the bed next to her again. "But I will if you make me."
She didn't say anything, Misha just stared at the man she thought she knew for years.
"Though I must admit," his long pale hand fingers slowly gripped her leather covered knee. "You did feel perfect in my arms."
One by one she turned off every emotion. The fear, her disgust at his obvious intentions, her empathy she once felt for the man that never fit in with others. Everything. Misha felt her heart go cold as her body filled with a burning anger. Anger at his betrayal, anger at his perverse intentions and above all else anger for trying to destroy her beautiful life. A life she valued above all else.
"Leo," she heard herself whisper, it was as if she was watching herself from the outside.
"Yes?" he leaned in closer to her just as she wanted him to.
"I regret ever forgiving you." for a moment she watched in pure satisfaction as his ego took a direct hit, but she didn't bask in the small victory too long. With all the speed she could summon she kicked out with her tall heeled boots directly at his knee.
The howl of pain he emitted as he doubled over didn't stop her, rolling to the side of the bed she snatched the small wooden lamp on the nightstand. In a quick arc, she swung it around into the side of Leo's head. He grunted in pain and fell sideways, halfway landing on the ground and against the bed.
Though it was seconds, it felt like minutes when she looked down at him remembering what Krill once told her when he had her learn self-defense. "In a fight you get either two advantages. You can bring them down and run or you put them down permanently."
Misha knew Leo's physical capabilities well enough to know that he wouldn't stay down long. Would he go for the gun on the other side of the room? Most likely. So her running wouldn't get her very far.
"I am going to kill..." his words were deep filled with pain and anger as Leo fumbled against the bed to upright himself.
With her adrenaline still raging through her, she did the only thing she could do. She hit him again with the wooden lamp base, hitting yet again in the head this time near the back of his skull. By now she was nearly on top of him as he scrambled against her numerous blows. Leo tried to block her hits while trying to grab blindly at her hands. However, she had the advantage and quickly jabbed wildly in a hacking motion with the lamp, which had lost its shade at some point, using the sharper parts of the square base to jab painfully at his arms. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she could hear herself screaming as she hit him.
During her melee she wound up nearly straddling Leo to gain leverage with her hits. With a surge of strength, Leo yelled as twisted her off of him, slamming her body into the wall. As she scrambled to get back up, she felt Leo's boot connect hard into her stomach. All the air from her lungs seemed to be replaced with fire, vaguely through her pain she could feel Leo pin her to the floor. Misha could feel his rough hands wrap around her neck tightly.
"Why?!" he was yelling at her but his voice sounded so far away. Dumbly she clawed at his hands on her throat with no precision and no strength backing them. Black dots seemed to scatter throughout her vision as she watched his face contort in psychotic rage.
Suddenly a large blurry figure blocked her sight before the grip on her throat disappeared. Vaguely she felt the weight of Leo's body fall on her right leg before disappearing entirely from her senses. Each blink felt like slow motion as she felt her body being slid backward then lifted from the space on the floor between the bed and wall. Numbly she watched a large man and couple of others pile on top of Leo. His yells turned into screaming then there was nothing.
The pain in her neck was so great she could barely move it, all she could do was stare blankly ahead as familiar faces rushed past her while she was carried out of the motel room. The grip around her was strong and warm, but she couldn't seem to find the strength to turn and look up to who was carrying her out.
"I got you Misha." the voice sounded familiar. "I am going to give you to Isaac and my captain Demitri so you can get checked on while I go see if Mikhail left any pieces."
Feeling herself shift uncomfortably from one person to another, her head was shifted for her allowing her to see Roman look worriedly at her once more before running back into the room.
So the blurry figure tackling Leo was Mikhail. He found her. Looking up into the night sky past the worried faces hovering over her she closed her eyes.
Mikhail sat on his bed and watched her breath.
Two hours. Misha was missing for two hours. They tracked them to a city called Miller Falls. Rubbing his hand over his face, Mikhail closed his eyes as he remembered the sounds of her screams from outside the motel room. The sound haunted him. But it was nothing compared to the sight of Leo choking her on that floor. Mikhail lost himself. He couldn't remember what happened after he tackled the fuck. The last thing he remembered was Roman dragging him backwards from the body screaming into his ear not to kill the kid.
No, he would never kill Leo. Roman knew what he wanted and Mikhail was thankful that Roman pulled him off just in time. Leo would not get the luxury of death.
Wearing a white neck brace lying very still due to the medicated induced sleep, Misha looked very serene despite the night's events. Not too long before, his room was filled with people going in and out. Isaac had inspected and monitored her while Vera changed her and combed her hair. Others just hovered either by the door or out in the hall and living area. Krill was kept away from him, thanks to Roman. The man nearly lost it when he saw Misha's condition. Not that Mikhail could blame him but unfortunately since Krill didn't have Leo to take it out on Krill directed it towards the next best option—him.
Why shouldn't he? This was all his fault. Mikhail should have seen the signs of Leo's growing obsession sooner, he should have killed the man when he did finally suspect something. Shaking his head Mikhail closed his eyes, there were so many things he could have done to prevent this. Sensing the impending fight Roman ordered Krill to go cool off before coming back, giving Mikhail a few moments alone with Misha.
Luckily Misha's injuries were minor. Mikhail rode with her in his lap all the way back as Isaac looked her over. They were able to get her to wake up for a few moments to ask her questions. Isaac wanted her try and talk, to see if there was any vocal damage. Her answers were dry and short, Mikhail could easily see she was still out of it. Just thinking about what that sick shit would have done if they arrived one minute later.
"I am so sorry my little Misha." he whispered.
Leaning over her he kissed her before leaving the room.
Chapter 21
Despite the long hot shower, Misha's neck still felt really stiff and sore. She was standing alone in Mikhail's large white bathroom. A bathroom she only been in a handful of times in her life, including the time when she was sick. Since she was still recovering in his bedroom, she took advantage of using the foreign facilities. She woke up a little while ago. The room was empty, but she knew it would not last long. It seemed like she had been sleeping forever. Every time she would open her eyes it would be either Dr. Isaac, Vera or Krill hovering over her always asking her how she felt. Misha couldn't remember when the last time she saw Mikhail. Was he mad at her? Where was he?
Leaning against the long sink counter she stared at her image slowly appear through the receding fog in the mirror. Even through the thick steam, she could see the dark bruises circling her neck like a dark collar. Black circles framed her eyes, eyes that seemed hollow even to her.
It was her fault.
Grabbing the fresh set of pajamas Vera laid out for her on the counter, Misha fought back tears as she slipped on the satin shirt ignoring the pants. Jay was dead because she didn't listen. Jay, who was just trying to do his job, was killed because of her thoughtlessness. Her best friend was dead. A powerful cry caught in her throat as she tried to suppress it. But she couldn't stop the strangled cry as she sank to her knees. She couldn't believe this was happening, she would give anything just to turn back time.
The knocking at the door barely registered until she heard Vera's voice. "Misha, Misha are you ok?"
Swallowing hard Misha opened her mouth to reply, but Vera impatience won.
"I am coming in," Vera announced as she opened the sliding pocket door and came in. As soon as Vera saw her sitting on the floor still clutching the counter above her she ran over.
"What's wrong? Is it your neck? Is it hurting?" She didn't wait for an answer immediately she yelled for Krill.
"No, it's not that." Misha rushed out trying to wipe away the tears, but everything just felt so trance like.
"Then why are you.."
"Misha darling what is it?" Krill's booming voice interrupted Vera. Stepping around Vera, he leaned down and scooped her up without warning, holding her in his massive arms as if she was nothing. Misha had barely any strength to protest and besides she knew it would be futile with Krill. Once he became worried, he was a one track person.
Once she was on the bed again, she sank slowly back into the pillows. Looking at the worried faces in front of her, Misha did her best to swallow the painful sob that threatened to come back up.
"I am not sure how long I have been here," she mumbled as she stared at the wall ahead. "But has anyone told Letisha?"
Krill's large black bushy eyebrows furrowed slightly as he shook his head. "No my sweet but I can if you like, I figured you would want to tell her yourself."
Now it was her turn to be confused. "No, I can't," her voice cracked a little. "I just can't. I know I probably should, but I just can't."
"Wait a minute." Vera interrupted giving her a questionable look as she dug in her purse at the foot of the bed. "You have only been asleep maybe eighteen or so hours since they found you. We haven't had a chance to really talk to you with the sedative Isaac gave you."
Krill's face was dubious for a moment before lighting up with understanding. "Ahh no my sweet Jay is fine."
"Let him tell it, he is not." Vera corrected him with a smirk as she tapped on her phone at lightening speed.
Their words didn't help the dreamlike state she already feeling. However, the look on Krill's face led her to believe he was being sincere.
"Here we are." Vera came closer sidestepping Krill to sit on the space nearest to Misha on the bed. Handing her the phone Misha watched the screen as it rang. The icon for Nico disappeared and was replaced with his face on the video call.
His face looked scruffy as if he missed his morning shave, but his trademark smile flashed at her once he recognized her.
"Hey Misha, how you feeling?" the concern in his eyes and voice made her want to cry for some reason.
