As I ripped it out, I already felt whatever the fuck was in there starting to take effect.
Weakness.
It was the syringe he’d had over by the sedan earlier. He’d managed to hide it in his pocket. I’d figured it’d been left there and blown away like everything over there.
“That was meant to knock Natasha out for hours. Fast-acting, powerful shit. Strong enough to take down even a stubborn shit like you,” Nik told me, as he used my shock to kick me off him.
I rolled onto my back.
As I tried to get back to my feet, the weakness worsened and a nauseating light-headedness took me over.
Shit. I couldn’t get up fast enough.
Nik’s boot slammed into my side.
Once. Twice. Three times.
He kept going, beating on me all over.
The pain should’ve been jarring. But it was little more than an uncomfortable agitating sensation. That shit he’d injected me with was masking it, pulling me from an aware conscious state and dragging me down into the undertow.
I knew if I succumbed I’d die. He wouldn’t stop until he killed me.
I’d never been afraid of dying until now.
Because of them. Tasha and my kid.
I couldn’t let it happen, I couldn’t leave them all alone. They needed me.
The kicking stopped then Nik stood in front of me, glaring down at me.
My limbs were so heavy, but I still tried to reach for my gun in my hip holster.
But I was way too slow and weak and he thrust his boot at my hand, knocking it away from the weapon.
I saw his mouth moving, his irate expression and jerky movements. I couldn’t make out what he was saying. It all sounded like a jumbled, fading mess of words.
He drew his gun, cocked it and took aim with both hands.
And then he jerked wildly.
Blood spurted from his chest, trickling down his shirt.
He opened his mouth, spitting up more blood, his eyes wide in shock.
What the hell?
Someone had shot him?
Who? Everyone had been busy with their own shit.
Mason. He must’ve finished up with Liam and come to my aid.
Yeah, it had to be Mason.
24
~Natasha~
HE SLUMPED TO HIS KNEES.
Very slowly, he turned his head.
I’d never seen him so shocked in all the time I’d had the displeasure of knowing him. I hadn’t even thought it a possible reaction from him.
Then again, being the misogynistic asshole he was, he’d always underestimated me.
That’d really bitten him in the ass now.
I watched him choke, his body shaking violently, the shock of getting shot setting in.
It wasn’t a fatal wound.
I’d missed in my panic when I’d seen him about to kill the man I loved right before my eyes.
But he was down.
And I planned on keeping it that way.
“Natasha,” he managed to eke out. His eyes dropped to my belly and he cursed. Obviously putting two and two together, he gritted his teeth, then snapped up his gun that he’d dropped when I’d shot him.
He started to shift toward Cole, slowly in his wounded state.
I fingered the trigger. No way. No way was he gonna take my love from me.
A shot cut through the night, jarring me.
I cringed as a bullet tore through Nik’s temple.
He hit the ground like a ragdoll.
Dead.
A familiar rumbling voice sounded. “It’s over, darlin’.”
Fighting to swallow down my shock at the majorly up close brutality I’d just witnessed, I turned to see Slade striding over to me.
To add to the shock, he wasn’t alone. Rick was walking beside him.
I looked around.
All was quiet on the battlefield.
All the Strikers members were either dead or incapacitated. Groaning came from a couple of them and Liam who was being helped along by Mason, a makeshift bandage wrapped around his shoulder.
It was majorly eerie.
I moved past Nik’s corpse and went to Cole. I tried to kneel down, but I couldn’t in my heavily-pregnant state, not right down on the ground like that.
“Wait,” I heard Slade say, and the next thing I knew, he was hauling a barely-conscious Cole up. Tank was there in the next second on Cole’s other side, both of them sharing the brunt of his almost deadweight.
I reached out and grasped Cole’s hand.
I wasn’t sure if he was really seeing me. His pupils were so dilated, his gaze so unfocused, it was doubtful.
But I told him anyway, “He’s gone. You’re safe. We’re all safe.”
He mumbled something incoherent.
“Let’s get him to the club doc. Who knows what the fuck was in that shit he was stabbed with,” Tank said, picking up the pace.
As I walked alongside them, Slade eyed me, what looked like pride shining in his eyes. “You saved his life, you know that?”
I shrugged. “I did what I had to do.”
He smiled. “You got my respect.”
They were words I’d never thought I’d hear from any Steel Titans member outside of Cole, let alone the President.
I was honestly a little choked up by it and only just managed to eke out, “Thank you.”
As we reached the bikes, I told the boys, “I’ll take him and Liam in the truck. They can’t ride right now. You do what you need to do here.”
And, crap, did they have a lot to take care of.
To cover their tracks with the mess I was seeing all over the area would take one hell of a major cleanup. Fortunately, I knew that Slade was well-connected in that area. He had people who knew exactly what to do and who could do it fast. Disturbing, but in this situation, more than a little comforting.
“Wait,” Mason said, when I pointed to the truck in the distance. “Is that—?”
He didn’t get to finish his sentence as Lucy saw him pointing at her and hurried out of her truck and bounded toward him.
“Fuck,” he groused. “What the hell are you doing here? Both of you put yourself in serious danger by coming here and—”
“Hey!” Lucy snapped, cutting him off. “Do you
