Flynn
Saturday night Nadia comes with me backstage at Rue’s, which has an even longer line of people waiting to get in than the past two weeks.
Nadia tries to occupy her usual spot in the wings, but I angle her toward the side stairs. “Tonight I want you in the audience. Is that cool? I have a surprise for you.”
“Oh.” She’s nervous, understandably.
“Oleg saved you a spot right up front, and he won’t let anyone touch you. Not even a bumphe promised. LookAdrian and Kat are there, too.” I point to the place just in front of the apron of the stage. There are no longer tables and chairs on Saturday nightswe pack the house too full, but Oleg, Adrian, Nikolai and Maxim have made a wall with their bodies protecting their women in front of the stage. Sasha, Kat and Chelle are there, laughing and sipping their drinks.
“Can you do it?”
Nadia gives me a little nod. I can see her mind is working hard, but I think she’s going to be all right. Showing up at Rue’s after what went down that night was surreal for both of us. I don’t want to say that pulling the trigger and ending a life didn’t change me. It did.
But I’m not gonna overthink it, either. That guy was the lowest of the low. What he did to Nadia is unforgivable. Hell, he tried to take her back into captivity again last night! He deserved what he got.
Besides, if Nadia and I didn’t pull the trigger, Adrian would have. The outcome would’ve been the same.
My soul is tainted now, but I would paint it a hundred shades of black if it meant freeing Nadia from the prison of her past.
Adrian texted my phone yesterday and again today to ask if Nadia was okay, but otherwise didn’t say anything about what happened. Of course, he wouldn’t put anything about it into a text message or even speak of it by phone, anyway.
He did come tonight, which for some reason made me feel safer about returning to the scene of our crime.
Nadia’s been clammy-handed and jittery since we got here, but there’s also a lightness to her that I haven’t felt before. Like she truly did find freedom. Or maybe it’s because we’re officially a couple. I’d love to believe it’s that.
Which is why I want to give her this gift tonight.
In the time between Cadence showing me the real issue between me and Nadia and ending the guy from her nightmares, I finished her song.
It became my answer to her worries.
My response to the idea she had that I was playing rescuer.
Because the opposite was true. She rescued mewholly and truly.
I haven’t had a chance to run it with the band yet, but they know the music alreadythe words shouldn’t change anything.
Lake and I fist-bumped when he arrived, and I thought I sensed a bit of an apology over the whole Cadence debacle, not that any of it was his fault. We both got tangled in her weird web.
Nadia heads out into the audience, and I call to the band. “You guyscome here.”
We huddle up together. I missed the last rehearsal, so I still need the setlist, but I want to make a change.
“I’m going to sing Nadia’s song tonight. I finished the lyrics. Are you cool?”
They all nod. It’s just that easy with them. We have history and love and mad talent. This band is everything to me. I can’t believe I wasn’t giving it my all before.
“When do you want to go?” Story asks.
“You tell me. I missed rehearsal, so I don’t know the plan.”
Story thinks for a moment. “We’ll put it as the fourth song, ahead of ‘Remember’. We’re doing all originals tonight. No covers at all. That’s just what feels right.”
“I trust your instincts.” I put my curled hand in the center of the circle, and everyone bops it and does sparkle fingers out. “Let’s do this.”
We jog out on stage, and the crowd screams. My fangirls are there, screaming my name, but the crowd actually feels more diverse tonight. Like we’ve gained the attention of older patrons, too, not just the barely-legal fans my age.
I see middle-aged guys standing in the back, sipping their beers and watching. Then I see my dad. He’s beaming at us from the back, and he gives me a thumbs up when I lift my chin.
Story does her thingintroducing us, getting the crowd lively. We sing our first three songs, building to a nice crescendo.
“Some of you have been following our Tiktok live streams,” Story says. She points toward Nadia in the front. “You have Flynn’s girlfriend, Nadia, to thank for those. That’s right, girls, he’s taken.”
There are a few boos, but also cheers, not that I’m paying attention. All I can focus on is the beaming face of Nadia, my gorgeous girlfriend.
Yep, girlfriend. Officially.
“You may have caught our first rehearsal of this new song a couple weeks ago. Tonight we’re going to give it a debut. Flynn, take it away.”
Story and I switch positions, and I take the lead mic. “I wrote this song for Nadia. And you can tell everybody, this is your song,” I sing in my best Elton John voice.
The crowd laughs.
“All right, here it goes.” I adjust my guitar strap and start the riff, singing the words that have been playing in my head on loop all day long.
Chained in the dark with the devil
He tried to eat you whole
You think you might need to settle
I know you’ll have it all.
Cuz, you don’t need saving, you don’t need saving, you don’t need anything.
You’re perfect in the sunlight. You’re perfect in the rain.
Girl, when I find you falling, it’s always me you catch.
You, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, yousaved me
Yeah, you, you, you, you, you, you, you saved me from myself
You, you rescued, you rescued, you rescued me-e-e, yeah
You’ve been to bed with a monster
Woke up with your heart intact
Your love is mine to foster
I know that for a fact
But, you don’t need saving, you don’t need saving, you don’t need anything.
You’re perfect in the sunlight. You’re perfect in the rain.
Girl, when I find you falling, it’s always me you catch.
You, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, yousaved me
Yeah, you, you, you, you, you, you, you saved me from myself
You, you rescued, you rescued, you rescued me-e-e, yeah
I sing the song directly to Nadia, and she beams back at me the whole time, a few tears leaking from the outer corners of her eyes, but total pleasure in her stance and body.
When I finish, Nadia and her friends from the Kremlin cheer, bouncing up and down with their hands in the air. I hold her gaze an extra moment before I back up to my usual position.
After the set, I hop off the end of the stage to smother her with love. I push her back against the stage and kiss her senseless until Adrian taps on my shoulder.
“Hey, loverboy. A word.”
“Sure.”
He tips his head toward the stage, and we walk out the back door to the parking lot behind Rue’s. Nikolai and Maxim have come with him. The three of them form a semi-circle in front of me.
“In bratva, we get tattoos to mark our crimes,” Adrian says.
I nod. I’d gathered as much considering how much menacing ink they all wear.
“You honored the brotherhood when you took up arms against our enemy. You protected one of ours.”
I swallow, the image of Nadia’s abuser’s blown brains flashing before my eyes. Yeah, I might have nightmares now over that, but I could handle it.
“If you like, you may choose a bratva marking. As honorary member of the brotherhood. You are under our protection now.”
I go still. They’re offering me…some form of membership? In the Russian mafiya? An honorary membership.
As if guessing at my hesitation, Adrian clarifies. “It does not obligate you. It is more honor. Not a true position.”
I draw in a breath. My sister is already closely tied to the Chicago Bratva. I trust her life with them. And Nadia is, too. The girl I’m all in with. The one I plan to spend the rest of my life with. So yeah, why refuse their honor? Especially when it’s offered by Nadia’s brother, the guy who threatened to kill me on multiple occasions.
“Thank you. I’d like that.”
“Good. It is done in ceremony. Next time you are at Kremlin, I will introduce you to Stepan, our tattoo artist, and he will learn your story to come up with the design.”
The three men clap me on my shoulders and back. “Well done, Flynn,” Nikolai says. “Are you okay?”
I nod. “I’m all right. Nadia’s good. That’s all that matters to me.”
Adrian offers me his hand. I realize it’s the first time he’s given me any sign of goodwill. I clasp it, and he squeezes it firmly and looks me in the eye. “Thank you. I won’t forget what you’ve done.”
“I’d do anything for her,” I tell him.
Just then, Nadia pushes open the back door. “Everything all right?”
I reach an arm out and pull her into my side. “All good, Peaches. Your brother finally shook my hand.”
Nadia kisses my cheek. “He finally sees what I know about you.”
“Yeah, what’s that?”
“That you’re the guy for me.”
Satisfaction courses through me with those words. “Say it again.”
“You’re the guy for me.”
“One more time.”
“You’re the guy for me. Now come inside, there’s a guy from a record label talking to Story and the guys.”