42 determination

✨Yuri✨

'I can't lose you' why was Angel crying? 'Hold on. Stay with me' Where was I supposed to go? I have to tell her something important. 'Yuri. Please wake up.'

I shot up, cringing in aching pain from my chest. Shìt! What the hell happened?

"Whoa! Easy there" Kolya's voice confused me. He was actually here, beside me and I'm in my room in New York. My best friend help me sat up, there was pain all over my body but I had to see Angel.

"Where's Angel?" My throat ached with those two words. Kolya handed me a glass of water that immediately soothes the dryness in my mouth but made me cough, so bad that it hurts.

"What's the last thing you remember?" He took the chair from my desk and sat, leaning his back against it.

My memory was a blur, I remember the strip club, the boat, and the attack. Angel was screaming my name before she rushed in my direction but I was already on the floor with my hands over my chest. She stabbed the man who stabbed me too many times. Blood splatter was spurting out of the man's chest before Angel cradled my face in her blooded hand. She was crying, I've never seen her that vulnerable. She kept calling my name, I remember liking the sound of it but I hate seeing her cry. After that, darkness swallowed me.

"I was stabbed. Is she okay?"

Kolya hummed before handing me two blue pills. I downed them with water and waited for his answer.

"They brought you here in a chopper. She stayed until the surgery was done. When Ken and their resident doctor Scott announced it went well, she left without a word." My best friend narrated.

"Did you check where she was headed yesterday?"

Kolya frowned. "You're asleep for four days, Yuri. She even donated her blood because you have the same blood type." That took my full attention and my best friend seemed to get what I wanted to ask. "I had your blood and her's compared. You're not related to her. Can you believe it? You're both AB Negative. Dyadya wasn't able to donate his blood because of his high blood pressure and Natalie was in Russia at the moment."

It surprised me actually. We had always kept bags of our blood with Ken but since after Alex's accident, Dad decided it would be best to stay close to each other than prepare a bag for us.

Why did Angel leave me again? That question swirled in my mind as the days passed by. It was hard enough that I can't go and find her but it was even harder when I thought of all the reasons she had for leaving. Was I really nothing to her? Did she just play me? Why can't I just move on with my life instead of thinking about her?

My wound was healing pretty well. Faith had been a good distraction for the past couple of days. She gets good at playing guitar, she'd join me for breakfast every day with Nat, Kolya, and Dad when they are not that busy with the workload I left with them because of my absence. I went through therapy just like what Ken instructed. The knife missed my heart by an inch, I was lucky, that's what Ken said.

A silly part of me wishes that it cut deeper though, maybe Angel would have stayed a little longer. No matter how much effort I put into forgetting her, my stubborn mind and heart just won't follow my will.

Three weeks have gone, still no sign of her. It was as if she was never in my life. The only evidence that she once stayed with me was her friends. They stayed in the estate, fulfilling their end of the bargain. There was also one message in my phone from a secure line that says one-word 'STAY'. I knew it was from her, she's the only person who can make a simple word to mean that damn much.

"Let's celebrate?" E chirped while we had our wine after dinner. My wounds are now perfectly healed, although it left a white scar almost two inches long in my left chest.

Sin rolled her eyes "you can find any reason just to go clubbing eh?"

E glared at her but my sister butted in "I like that idea. Right, milaya? I think it would be fun to go out, unwind a little." She looked at Zion beside him. (Sweet)

Zion nods "it will be good for Yuri. Let's find him a chick tonight. Probably with gray hair."

"Brown eyes" Kolya butted in "and good with knives."

They both laughed knowingly. I shook my head but was smiling at the thought of going out with them. It's been a while since we had fun actually. "We'll do it in LA, after the meeting with Sanchez."

The girls started planning their shopping escape.

"What do you think Sanchez is going to offer us this time?" Kolya refilled all our glasses of red wine.

"Black Rose is on the move again" Zion declared "it's high time to offer Sanchez a good deal for his gun trade in Santa Barbara."

"This life is boring" Nueve pouted his lips like a two-year-old. Dad allowed these three to be on hand with our business. His trust in Isiah was beyond this deal. I knew they went way back and honestly, I felt at ease with them around us. They are a big help with the strategic side of security but they seemed to have no interest in business, at all just like now. "I hate babysitting."

"Really?" Kolya taunts playfully "I think you're enjoying your stay here with Tina."

Nueve choked on his wine. "H-how did you?"

"Who's Tina?" Sin asked, wrapping her arms around Kolya's bicep.

"Duh, the naughty nurse" E rolled her eyes. "You're too busy fooling around with Kolya that's why you haven't noticed Nueve blooming to a man."

"As if" Sin retorted "I knew you and Ivan liked to run around the forest in the middle of the night."

Their banter continued.

"Are they always like that?" Zion asked Nueve.

Nueve nods "Andi was the only one who can shut those two up. They once burned down Isiah's cottage in Siberia and all of us had to sleep outside in a cold December night because of that."

I shook my head as Sin and E walked outside the house, probably to settle things again. Dad banned those two from fighting inside the mansion when they broke one of Faith's paintings trying just to prove who's better in combat. In my opinion, both of them are good just minus their temper.

We heard them screaming in Latin before thuds and groans filled the night.

"Where is Andi anyway?" Kolya murmured almost to himself.

"She's always like that" Nueve replied "when she's troubled, she'd go MIA. There was one incident when she was 16, she was gone for three months and we found out that she took down one assassin clan on her own."

"She's that good?"

"She's better," Neuve proudly said. "Her determination and focus is the toughest one to break. She had never failed a mission so far…."

As he continued to praise Angel, I grew more and more anxious to see her again. I have to accept the fact that I was swooned by that girl. My determination to look for her was being fanned by how Nueve described my Angel. I have to make her mine, no one should have her but me.

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