WANTED

решения (Decisions)

Chapter 45

Marry Me?  Those words ran through my head several times before I shook out of shock at Barsotti's proposal. You have got to be kidding me.  A couple hours ago, he said he wouldn’t marry me. Now?  Fuck, I can’t deal with this right now. “Seriously now? You do this now?”

“I am serious, Phoenix. Marry me.” Barsotti was looking me dead in the eyes with determination.

“Get on the bus now.” I gritted through my teeth.  I slipped my hands out of his and grabbed a hold of his jacket.  “We will discuss this later.  Right now, we-have-to-leave!!!”

“We will discuss this later.”  Barsotti agreed, stepping onto the van.  

“Jack get us out of here.”  Jack didn’t waste any time.  He seemed like the only one that felt the urgency of leaving the deserted street.  We were carrying more passengers than we started with. The captive women that I freed from the gang were all the way in the back. They were still in their tight-knit group sitting silently. Then it was Kasey, leaning against Irina’s shoulder and surrounded by the girls. Barsotti was receiving cautious and angry looks from the guys from behind him and to his side, as he sat on the front seat near me.   "We don't have a lot of time. When we get back to the hotel, we load up. Then we head to the venue and get your equipment. We will drop the women off at the police station in the next town. Then we will head to Aktobe. Where is Alex and Peter?" I directed my question to Jack.

“They are at the venue, they will let them know we can’t perform tonight and start getting our gear together.”  Jack informed me. The ride to the hotel was done in complete silence.  I couldn’t even look at Barsotti. Handing him off to his family may not be so easy to do.  I will have to deal with that tomorrow.  Right now, all I can think about is getting to the cell phone Vik gave me.  I am going to need some serious help to get Vik out.

We pulled up to a side street next to the hotel. I had been riding in the passenger seat. I told Jack to turn off the van and stood to address everyone else. “Ok Yuri and Jack, you will get the stuff from the guys room.  Me and Katya will get the stuff from the girls room.  Stefano and Sergey will stay in the van and protect the women, in case anything happens..”

Sergey jumped up immediately from his seat. “Нет! Я не останусь с ним здесь! (No! I will not stay here with him!)" He pointed at Barsotti and glared at him. “Ваш мужсумасшедший. (Your husband is crazy.)”

Barsotti gave him a bored look and addressed me.  “What is he saying?”

“Nothing, I just told him that I need you and him to stay in the van to protect the women.” I responded. I was surprised I didn’t get any push back from Barsotti.  He just gave me a nod and looked out the window.

I made my way to Sergey to calm him down. “Сергей, послушайте, мне нужно, чтобы вы остались здесь и защищали их. Вы и мой муж - единственные, кто может их защитить. Я понял.Он осел, но сейчас речь не о нем. Это про них! (Sergey, look I need you to stay here and protect them.  You and my husband are the only ones that can.  I get it.  He is an ass, but right now it is not about him.  It's about them!)”  I turned his head towards the women, Kasey, and Irina. He looked back at me with resolve and nodded his head.  “Спасибо. (Thank you.)”

I moved back towards the front of the bus and Jack had already vacated his seat and was waiting outside.  “Ok let’s move, we have 5 minutes to be back here.” I turned to leave and stepped off and waited for Katya. Barsotti was the first one off and pulled me off to the side.  “Barsotti, I need you to stay in the van.” I knew it, he was going to shovel his male chauvinistic bullshit on me and tell me it's too dangerous for me to be exposed.