Rose POV

Well, I knew fully well that being bait in a mission to capture the brutal Moroi blood smuggler could be dangerous, but I honestly didn't expect that it could have so many complications.

For weeks, we've been trying to capture Drew and his entire gang. To do so, Dimitri, several other guardians, and I came to the new city incognito and assumed undercover roles. Dimitri assumed the role of the leader of one of the gangs, and the rest of the guardians pretended to be his subordinates. Anyway, as a guardian of the highest rank, he really was our boss. I approached the task a little more creatively and hired myself as an exotic dancer in one of the clubs crowded by enemy gangs.

Long story short, we had no luck gathering clues and evidence; each of our leads turned out to be a dead end. We had less and less time to complete the mission, and so we decided to take a risky step - to lure him with bait in my person. We intended to place me alone in the bar and wait for him to come and take an interest in me. I had seen his gaze on me so many times that I didn't expect him to pass up the opportunity to hit on me while I was alone having a drink. I was going to wear locating devices. If he took me to his place, my team would show up there and neutralize him.

Dimitri was dead against this plan. He refused so adamantly and stubbornly that we really thought we would have to return to the Court empty-handed. Only when I started up a fight, accusing him of underestimating my abilities as a guardian and of including his feelings in decisions about the mission, did he very, very reluctantly agree to the plan. He intended to take care of the tracking system himself and be on the team that would find me once I was there.

When the final day came, I put on my trusty black dress - one that revealed my shoulders and my back and fell to the ground with a deep split reaching past mid-thigh. I pinned my hair up in a bun, and Dimitri helped me put on a gold necklace, matching earrings, and rings. I hid the GPS transmitters in my stilettos, and in a small purse. I also put my pistol and a silver stake there. I had the other pair of weapons holstered, strapped to my concealed thigh. Dimitri drove me to the bar, his gaze intense and focused as I entered. I winked at him and settled into my position.

Predictably, Drew was already sitting at the bar, sipping his whiskey as he did almost every day. I sat down next to him, asking what he was drinking, earning his slimy gaze up and down my body before I got an answer. My efforts seemed to appeal to him because he quickly engaged in conversation when I ordered the drink he recommended.

Did I feel okay laughing at his off-putting comments? No. Was I comfortable when he placed his sweaty hand on my exposed knee? Of course not. Did I feel a sense of mission to put this man behind the bars? Hell yeah

After some time, I suggested we go to a more private place. I noticed a strange gleam in his eyes but attributed it to his confidence and lust. He escorted me to his car, and I touched my gun through my purse, reminding myself that I was carrying a weapon. I looked around for Dimitri, but just as we had agreed he had driven off somewhere. I didn't want him to drive directly behind us so that Drew wouldn't get suspicious and I would have time to look around when we got there.

I had a bad feeling when we drove in silence, breaking traffic rules. I didn't know if it was Dimitri's doubts that had such an effect on me, or if it was my intuition telling me to be careful. I kept my hand on my purse, hoping that I would have time to reach for my gun faster than my opponent, just in case.

My gun was of little use when we got out of the car in front of an abandoned building, and ten men attacked me. I reached for my gun, but before I could touch it, four men immobilized me against the car. They grabbed my arms, and as I fought wildly to free myself from their grip, Drew reached for my purse. Seeing the gun and GPS transmitter, he smiled wickedly. Despite my efforts, he managed to tear the slit in my dress even deeper, and, noticing the gun and the stake, he snatched them from me and threw them to the pavement.

However, real panic gripped me only when he ordered them to take off my shoes. I don't know how he could have known about the second transmitter, but his intuition did not fail him. I fought as hard as I could to prevent them from removing my stilettos. I knew that as soon as I lost them, Dimitri and the others wouldn't know where to look for me, and by prolonging the fight I was increasing my chances that they would come any moment. However, that didn't happen, and as more thugs held my kicking legs, they removed my shoes and pulled out the transmitter. My heart stopped in my chest as they threw the device away from me.

Drew searched me rather rudely, and when he found no more devices, he had me tied up and thrown into the trunk. I resisted the ropes on my wrists and ankles, yelled at them, and threatened all kinds of revenge, but when I was forcibly thrown into the dark trunk I had no room to maneuver.

I couldn't concentrate on figuring out an escape plan, because I kept thinking of what would happen when Dimitri arrived at the site of my GPS and saw only my scattered accessories. Or enemies waiting for him. In any case, if we survive this, he won't give me peace until I die.

I was thrown into the fucking basement and tied to a metal chair. I yanked, leaving bloody marks on my wrists, and cursed at the guys, who finally tied me up so tightly that I couldn't move. Drew and other thugs came into my interrogation room and he rolled up the sleeves of his dirty shirt. I bared my teeth and growled at him furiously.

"Okay, bitch. Now tell me," he moved so close to me that I could feel his sour breath on my cheek, "who sent you?"

"Your mum," I hissed. He swung and slapped me so hard that I thought some bone had shifted out of place. The skin of my face burned, but I didn't show any pain, just sent him a hateful glaze and bared my teeth even wider. Fury was boiling in my veins, and even though it wasn't the most rational behavior, I was going to put up a fight.

"I'll ask again," he growled at me, grabbing my chin so hard that I had no doubt he bruised it. "Who do you work for?"

"Suck my dick," I spat. He punched me right in the face with his fist. My head flew back, and for a moment I saw stars. Blood ran down my mouth, and when I regained my sight, I saw Drew shaking his fist, as if this blow had caused him pain as well.

The next half hour passed in a similar manner. For every question he asked, I found a completely new, vulgar answer that insulted him, his colleagues and quite often his mother. For each snarky answer I received increasingly severe physical punishment. I heard ringing in my ears. I couldn't see well out of my blackened, blood-soaked eye, and I was speaking less and less clearly through my swollen lips. But that didn't stop me from shouting my threats and curses at them, unloading all the rage burning in my veins. Fury overshadowed everything else - I neither felt fear nor thought rationally.

In fact, I didn't even have time to feel panic or dread, because during my fruitless questioning, we heard gunshots and screams. Drew moved away from me, but didn't have time to react when the basement door opened with a bang, and through it rushed Dimitri and the other guardians, who quickly outnumbered my tormentors.

My boyfriend threw himself at Drew, which was far more satisfying for me to watch than I would have expected. Dimitri grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and dealt him a blow right in the face, growling something I didn't hear over the sounds of other fights. My colleagues quickly dealt with the kidnappers, who, in various states of consciousness, were quickly led out of the basement upstairs.

Dimitri came running to me, handing Drew over to another guardian, and as soon as he saw what state I was in, fury flashed in his eyes.

"I'm going to kill him," he growled, moving his thumb gently across my sensitive cheek. He immediately started cutting my bonds.

"I think I deserved the privilege to be mine. Or at least the chance to repay the favor."

My bonds let go, and I let out a relieved sigh as the rough material stopped irritating my bloody skin. Dimitri moved in front of me and knelt, grasping my face in his hands, but doing it so gently as if he were just trying to brush air around my skin. He was as careful as possible not to let anything hurt me as he analyzed my injuries with his pain-filled eyes.

"You weren't supposed to get hurt," he mouthed in a pained voice. I felt bad, although there was no reprimand or even a shadow of " I told you so" in his voice. He only regretted that this happened and he hadn't been able to stop it.

"Come on, you were the only one who tried to prevent it. I was sooo into this idea, and hell, maybe it was worth it after all, now that we got him and his partners."

Dimitri shook his head slightly. For him, no mission success was worth the sight before him. But well, he was biased.

"I only care that we got you," he leaned toward me and placed a brief kiss on my forehead. As he pulled away, a new thought suddenly dawned on me.

"How did you know where to look for me? They left the transmitters in that parking lot."

Dimitri smiled sadly and tapped his finger on the necklace he had helped me put on that evening.

"You didn't think I'd let you go as a bait without maximum security, did you? I just regret that none of us followed you as soon as you set off."

I looked at the necklace and snorted. The string was so thin and the pendant was so flat that I had no idea where Dimitri could have put the locating tool, but I couldn't help the smile pressing to my lips.

"You are pretty sly, Belikov."

Dimitri also snorted and stood up, reaching out to me and helping me stand on my own two feet.

"You make me push my limits," I laughed, as he put his arms around my waist and led me to the upstairs bathroom. He had someone bring a first aid kit, and while the others were busy tying up and questioning the smugglers, he gently washed and bandaged my wounds as best he could under the circumstances.

I lost myself in his gentle treatments, feeling more and more calm and safe thanks to his presence. In the small cramped bathroom, he leaned me against the countertop and gently flushed the bleeding with gauze, his other hand holding my face in a tender embrace. I closed my eyes, letting him work in concentration. I let my thoughts drift away, knowing that as long as I could hear his steady breathing and feel his warm fingers on my skin, nothing bad could happen to me.