Alexei’s POV

There were bodies everywhere, some were mine but most whereof those protecting Mia. Once we took care of all the people outside I looked at the door, contemplating what I was going to do next. My eyes caught movement from the window.

It was Emily being dragged backward, away from the front door. My mind went blank and I ran for the door. I heard Oleg and Adrian behind me shouting at me to stop but there was no way I was going to do that. Emily was in this mess because of me.

I bumped into the door with my shoulder and it slammed the wall. In front of me was a smirking Mia and a tired-looking Emily. Emily was held against a man with a hand clamped over her mouth and Mia had a gun pointed at Emily’s head.

“You came,” Mia stated with a smirk on her lips. “It took you longer than I thought it would.” I kept my eyes on Mia, trying to get her to focus on me and not Emily. “Mia, don’t do this.” She smirked at me before facing Emily and moving her finger to pull the trigger.

With speed I didn’t know I had, I rammed into Mia, causing her to reposition the gun seconds before she pulled the trigger. Everything moved in slow-mo as I looked up at Emily and saw her eyes grow big as the bullet hit her in the shoulder and pierced through to the other man behind her.

Oleg and Adrian come into the room during this whole proses. I had Mia pinned to the floor and Oleg hand his gun pointed at another man in the room while Adrian fell to the ground next to Emily. She was bleeding a lot.

Mia was on her stomach with her hands behind her back. “Yes, keep me in this position.” I could practically hear her smirk. A shiver runs down my back in disgust. “Keep talking Mia. You mean nothing to me.”

Her shoulders sag and she stayed silent. I looked up at Emily and saw that Adrian was tending to her shoulder. The man that held her was on the floor not moving and by the look of the blood bleeding through his shirt it looked like the bullet hit close to his heart.

Oleg had the other man, whom I believe to be Roman, roped against a chair and moved closer to me to take over with Mia. Once she was in his capable hands I stood up and moved to Emily. Adrian's hand wrapped his jacket over her shoulder to stop the bleed.

I crouched down in front of her to see if she was still awake but her eyes were unfocused. I pulled out my phone and made a call to my mother’s home doctor. He answered and said that he could be at my mother’s house within the hour.

This wasn’t how I hoped my mother would meet Emily, not that I’ve thought about it. But it looks like my mother was going to meet the girl that I’ve been casually sleeping with while she was being tended to a doctor.

I bend down once more and picked Emily up. She rested her head against my shoulder and her wounded shoulder was pointing away from me. Adrian followed close by and I ordered Oleg to get someone to take care of this mess and bring Mia back to Moscow. I’ll take care of her after Emily is safe and out of danger.

« • x • x • x • »

“So the first woman you bring to meet your sweet mother isn’t even Russian and has a hole in her shoulder.” I glanced up at my mother as she entered the living room. Her Russian accent was strong and it was hard for many to understand when she ever spoke English. She preferred not.

I nodded and glanced up at the stairs that would lead to the room where Emily was currently being tended to. “And who is this girl?” A heavy sigh left my body and I rubbed my hands over my face. “Her name is Emily.” My mother glared at me as if the fact that I spoke English to her while she was speaking Russian to me was an insult.

“Mama, she’s a girl I’ve been seeing. Not a relationship, just casual.” My mother’s eyes soften and she shook her head. “Does she know what you do for a living?” I shook my head before speaking, “If Mia didn’t tell her she probably thinks she knows now since I shot people and she was kidnapped.”

My mother took the seat next to me and placed her hand on my shoulder. “You know that anyone you date would be in danger. You should date someone that knows what you do and how that would affect them in their daily lives.”

Before I could nod I jumped out of my seat at the shouting that came from the second floor. I sprinted to the stairs and took them two at a time. I ran into the first door on the left and saw Emily’s body bent in pain as the doctor poured Whiskey on her wound.

I went to the opposite side of the doctor and grabbed her hand. She squeezed my hand and her eyes at the same time while the doctor sews the stitches in. “Emily, hold on. The good doctor is almost done.” I glared up at him when she whimpered once again and he shrugged his shoulders.

My eyes caught my mother standing at the door with a knowing look on her face and I just shook my head, thinking that if she was like any other traditional woman she wouldn’t have that look on her face. A look that told me she was already planning our wedding and ways to convince Emily to name our kids after our forefathers.

If my mom was a traditional woman she could have counted the seconds it took the doctor to finish so she could get the foreign woman out of her house and away from her son. I glanced back down at Emily and my heart contracted at the tears that were slipping from her eyes. She was looking up at me while biting her lip to keep herself from shouting.

I was going to make sure Mia regretted this. Regretted hurting someone I cared about.

**Copyright © 2020 by Grace Write**