The Russian Billionaire's Fiesty Serb

We grab our assault rifles that flew out of our hands in the blast and reupholster them. We head off in the direction of the covered path. I grab the radio to tell our team we're making our way to the rendezvous point, when I notice that Igor is no longer behind me.

'Fuck sake' I grumble, knowing exactly where he's scurried off to.

I run back to Dimitri's SUV, and get to Igor before he reaches the passenger door, slamming Igor against the side of the car.

Holding him by his bulletproof vest I grind out, 'You know the protocols Igor,' 

He stares back at me with defiance, 'I'm not leaving him behind Nik.'

I scowl, 'So what, we save him then where does he go? You want him to be a prisoner of war back in Russia. You think that's any better than us leaving him here?'

Igor frowns at me, 'Who says we have to take him back to the motherland?'

I let him go and glare at him with my arms folded across my chest not keen on this idea at all.

'Come on brat, you know he's the same age as Avgust. It would be like abandoning my own child.'

I pinch the bridge of my nose knowing that there's no way of talking him out of it when our time is stretched thin as it is, especially with his hero complex. 

Another bomb fires off to our left and takes out one of the buildings in the square, 'Fine hurry up and grab him. I'll cover you.' 

He smirks, 'I knew you wouldn't disappoint, brat.'

I give him a dark look that would've made most grown men shrink.

Igor just chuckles, finding my expression amusing. 

He heads over to Dimitri's SUV, while I sit in the bush and train my rifle on the access points of the road.

The hairs on the back of my neck stand up as if someone is watching us. I scan our surroundings in all directions to see if I can spot the source of my discomfort but I see nothing. Then I quickly turn my back to check on Igor, and see that he is pulling out a very pale Dimitri from the SUV. 

'Hurry the fuck up Igor.' I shout at him, my senses still spiking and scanning for threats.

'Oh shut u—', the sound of ammunition raining down from the sky cuts Igor off. I grab my gun and make a run toward them to help, but before I can reach them a helicopter rises from overhead and Igor's smile is the last thing I see before the bullets sink into his flesh. They both collapse to the ground in slow motion, lifeless. The military unit must have noticed me because the helicopter circles back around to finish the job. I have a clear shot and shoot the pilot square between the eyes, he loses control of the helicopter and it falls out of the sky in a massive explosion.

When the coast is clear I run over to Dimitri and Igor and check their pulse points. Dmitri's is non-existent. 'No, no, no, yebat!' I then check Igor's, surprised to find that his pulse is still beating, even if it was faint.

Blood is seeping out of his bullet wounds, so I rip off pieces of my shirt and press it against his wounds to staunch the bleeding. He groans in pain, but his pulse gets a little stronger.

'Brat' cough, cough. He lifts his arm up placing it on mine, to stop me from applying pressure to his wounds. 'It's useless,' cough, cough, 'you know I'm going to die.' I growl out, 'Not on my watch.'

He grabs my cheek to force me to look at him instead of his wounds, 'Listen to me' cough, cough, 'Look after my family for me please.' He rasps out the last few words as he gurgles and suffocates on his own blood.

I tap his cheek with my hand trying to rouse him awake, but no response. I sit back on my heels in shock as his life quite literally slipped through my fingers. Leaving me with the smell of iron, from the drying blood on my cheek, and his hollow lifeless eyes pointing at the sky.'"

I turn my body around in Nik's arms to hug him from the front, my ear pressed against his chest and I muffle the sob that tries to break free.

His body is rock solid and clammy from recounting is trauma. I give him grace by not looking up and just squeezing him tight, trying to convey how sorry I am for his loss through my body. No words I could've said felt right in this moment.

My actions seem to speak to some broken part inside him because after what felt like the longest five minutes in history, he wraps his arms around me in a crushing hug and holds onto me like I'm the lifeline in the chaos of his mind.

 We both don't say anything. We stay silent, cocooned in our own world.