Chapter 70 Marlena
I woke up to the sound of boats.
Not the small fishing boats that sometimes passed by the island early in the morning but big engines, multiple of them, coming fast and getting closer, and my eyes opened in the dark bedroom with my heart already racing because I knew that sound meant trouble.
Nikolai was already awake beside me sitting up and looking toward the window with his whole body tense, and when I put my hand on his arm I could feel how tight his muscles were.
"Get dressed," he said quietly, "quickly."
I pulled on clothes in the dark while he did the same and we could hear the boats cutting their engines now, close to shore, too close, and then voices calling out in English and the sound of feet hitting sand.
We went to the window and looked out carefully from the side of the curtain and I could see them in the early light, maybe six men in black tactical gear coming up from the beach toward our house with weapons drawn and faces covered.
"Who are they?" I whispered.
"I don't know," Nikolai said, but his voice told me he had ideas and none of them were good.
A knock came at the front door, hard and official, and a voice called out "Nikolai Volkov, we know you're in there, come out with your hands visible."
Nikolai looked at me and I could see him making calculations, figuring odds and exits and possibilities, but we both knew there was nowhere to run, the island was too small and they had boats and we didn't.
"Stay behind me," he said.
We went to the door together and he opened it slowly with his hands raised and I stood behind him like he asked but close enough to see what was happening.
Damien stood on our porch looking different than I remembered, harder somehow and more comfortable with the gun in his hand and the tactical vest over his chest.
"Marlena," he said when he saw me, "good morning."
"What are you doing here?" I asked, and my voice came out steadier than I felt.
"My job," he said simply, and then he gestured for his men to lower their weapons slightly, not all the way but enough to show this wasn't an immediate execution, "may we come in?"
Nikolai didn't move from the doorway and said "No."
Damien smiled like he'd expected that answer and said "Fine, we can do this outside, I don't mind the view," and he walked past Nikolai without waiting for permission, his men following him into our house and taking positions around the room like they owned it.
We had no choice but to follow them back inside and I felt fear rising in my chest like a wave, cold and overwhelming, because whatever this was it wasn't a simple arrest.
"Let me properly introduce myself," Damien said once we were all inside, "my name isn't Damien Cross, it's Damien Ashford, and I don't work for the FBI, I work for MI6, British intelligence, and I've been tracking you both for different reasons than you thought."
The words hung in the air and I tried to process what he was saying, MI6 not FBI, lies on top of lies on top of lies.
"What do you want?" Nikolai asked.
"I want you to work for me," Damien said, sitting down on our couch like he was a guest who'd been invited, "I want you to use your connections and your knowledge to help us take down some very bad people who are currently beyond our reach."
"And if I say no?" Nikolai asked.
"Then I kill you," Damien said it so casually like he was discussing the weather, "right here, right now, your body goes in the sea and Marlena becomes a widow before she becomes a mother."
My hand moved to my stomach instinctively and Damien's eyes followed the movement and his smile got wider.
"Congratulations by the way," he said, "I wasn't sure if the pregnancy was real or just a rumor but I see now it's true."
"Leave her out of this," Nikolai said.
"I can't do that," Damien said, "because she's the leverage that makes you useful, you'll do what I ask to keep her and the baby safe, that's how this works."
He stood up and walked closer to us and I could see his men tensing, ready to move if Nikolai tried anything.
"Here's the deal," Damien said, "you give me information on every arms dealer, money launderer, and criminal contact you've ever worked with, you testify when I need you to testify, you help me build cases against people who are currently untouchable, and in exchange I let you live here on this island with your wife and child under my protection."
"That's not protection," Nikolai said, "that's prison with a better view."
"Call it what you want," Damien said, "but those are your options, work for me or die, and you have about thirty seconds to decide before I get bored and solve this problem permanently."
He turned to look at me and his eyes were cold and calculating and I realized he was giving me the choice, making me responsible for whatever happened next.
"Marlena," he said, "talk some sense into your husband, tell him to take the deal, tell him that living as my asset is better than dying on this floor."
I looked at Nikolai and he looked back at me and something passed between us, some understanding that we weren't going to let ourselves be used again, not by Damien or anyone else.
I stepped in front of Nikolai putting my body between him and Damien and felt something strong rising up inside me, something fierce and protective that I'd never felt before becoming a mother.
"No," I said.
Damien raised his eyebrows and said "No?"
"We're not doing this," I said, "we're not working for you, we're not spending our lives being blackmailed by another person who thinks they own us."
I reached behind me to the small table by the door where I'd left the gun we brought from the safe house and my hand closed around the grip and I pulled it out and pointed it at Damien's chest before anyone could stop me.
His men raised their weapons immediately but Damien held up a hand telling them to wait and he looked at me with something like respect in his eyes.
"You won't shoot me," he said.
"Yes I will," I said, and I pulled the trigger.
The sound was enormous in the small room and Damien fell backward hitting the floor hard while his men shouted and moved and Nikolai grabbed me and pulled me down behind the couch.
But then Damien sat up and I could see the bullet hole in his vest right over his heart and he was laughing, actually laughing while he got to his feet.
"Bulletproof vest," he said, "you really think I'd come here without protection?"
His men opened fire and the windows shattered and wood exploded from the walls and Nikolai covered my body with his while bullets flew everywhere loud and deadly and unstoppable.
He falls but gets up because he has a vest. Guns shoot everywhere loud.
Word count: 1,000