Thick As Blood - Nestor Oceteva

10. Embrace

I was trapped in my nightmare. I could hear a voice trying to call me away but my feet stayed planted as I watched them leave. I was at the airport waving as they walked through the departure gates. Alex turned around crying for me to go with him. I tried to run but I couldn't move, I tried to reach out but he was too far away.

I screamed for my family as they tried to come back through the gates. Security guards grabbed them and dragged them further away. I felt arms around me trying to pull me back, I tried to fight them. I did fight until I started to recognise the voice calling my name.

When I woke I found Nestor pinning me down, his chest was heaving from having to fight to hold me still. I saw blood start to trickle down his chin and I felt terrible.

"Shit, I'm sorry."

He realised I was fully awake and released the grip on my wrists but didn't climb off right away. He sat up, still straddling me, and wiped at his split lip. When he had started to breath normally again he climbed to the side and went to my bathroom. I rubbed at my wrists as I waited for him to return. That was a particularly brutal nightmare. I sucked in a sharp breath as I realised he was only wearing a pair of black boxer briefs.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

I shook my head while looking down, avoiding eyeing up his tempting body. I looked at the clock and it was almost 3am. My heart was still racing and I knew I couldn't sleep I while this wired.

"Go back to sleep Ness. I'm going to go to the gym."

I changed into leggings and a shirt before throwing a thick coat over the top. Nestor had gone back to his room thankfully, since my eyes kept sneaking looks at his toned body no matter how hard I tried to stare at the floor. I left the warmth of the house to enter the large brick building next door.

I was hit by a wall of cold air so I flicked the switches for the lights and the heating. I gave it a few minutes to warm up before removing the thick jacket and hanging it over a chair. I ran my hand along a long wooden bar as I walked through the gymnastic equipment. KJ had been an commander for the Bratva and enjoyed training but his passion had been gymnastics. He could have easily been an athlete in another life. It took more strength and skill to excel at the parallel bars than it did to fist fight and that was why he liked it.

I looked over the at the parkour course KJ had built with his friends. The men had gathered every year and changed the layout, built new components and made it harder. I doubted the track would change from how it is now ever again.

We were just about to leave for vacation in Copenhagen, Tahlia and I had just graduated college and were on break before uni started. KJ, Tahlia and I were travelling with some of his friends. I stuck by KJ's side as I didn't know the men but Tahlia, well, she was right in her element of male attention.

When we arrived the men wanted to hit the bars so I followed begrudgingly. I had been nursing my drinks all night, I didn't want to have a hangover during the trip but the others didn't care. I went to the bathroom and when I came out the door Dimitri was waiting. He grabbed my hand and started dragging me out of the club. When he wouldn't let go and started touching my body I had enough. I stomped on his foot and smashed my palm up into his nose.

"You're going to regret that you fucking cock tease."

He tried to backhand me but I was already moving. I ran down the cobblestone streets and used a street sign to climb up to a balcony. I jumped up the rail and stood on the roof top. Dimitri was already close behind climbing up too. I ran along the rooftops jumping the gaps over alleys and came to a corner that had no easy way out.