Natalia’s POV

There was a gun pointed to my head.

The fear and adrenaline which was already flowing through my body increased as I looked into the barrel of the gun, the silver which I had seen many times before, but never like this.

The fact a gun was to my head was what scared the most, but what hurt the most was the fact that it was my brother who was holding the gun.

Erik.

My brother and I were never close, but I had never expected it to end like this, for my own blood to be the one who pulled the trigger, ending my life.

My mouth was half open in shock as I stared into the dark, dead eyes of my brother whose finger was ghosting on the trigger which, if pulled, would end my life.

‘Step away Natalia, this is no business of yours’ my brother’s icy voice flowed through my ears and I gulped nervously. I needed an end game, I needed to get out of this situation.

I held my ground, knowing all too well what my brother would do if I stepped away from Dexter.

Dexter hadn’t moved from behind me, and I wondered whether or not he had his own gun on him. If he pulled his weapon now, then Erik would surely kill us both, but we might need that gun later.

My brother had this determined look in his eyes, and I knew instantly that he would shoot to kill. My own brother would kill me, under orders from my father. I think that it’s safe to say that I will never be going to another one of those awkward family reunions again.

‘Erik, leave now,’ I told him, holding my ground.

My brother laughed in my face, a cold hard laugh that sent shivers down my spine and had me wishing that my own gun was in my hand.

‘Or what kitten? You’ll make me shoot you both?’ He choked out between laughs. The nickname sending anger through my veins, ‘Step away so we can be done with this.’

He was speaking to me like a child who was refusing to take a nap, but I wasn’t some spoilt child, I was a woman. A woman who would protect those she loved with her life.

Dexter’s voice came from behind me as he placed a hand on my arm, and I could tell that he was going to try to pull me behind him, ‘I am a police officer, put your gun down, now.’

‘Haven’t you heard detective? I am the law now,’ Erik spoke, his deep voice haunting my mind as he spoke.

Dexter’s grip tightened on my arm, but Erik looked down at that moment, seeing the action before it happened.

‘I wouldn’t do that Detective,’ Erik warned.

Dexter stopped, his hand hesitantly dropping from my arm, ‘What do you want from us?’

‘I want your head, now sister,’ His eyes met mine, ‘If you don’t mind.’

Erik reached out, grabbing my shoulder and pushing me to the side, my legs giving out at the force of it. I landed on the ground with a thud, my shoulder taking most of the impact. Realising that Dexter was now standing unarmed in front of my brother I tried to get up, attempting to get closer, but I was hardly standing when I saw it.

Leo was suddenly behind Erik, something in his hand. Leo put his hand around Erik’s mouth and plunged something into his neck, Erik going slack in Leo’s arms.

Dexter watched, wide eyed as Leo let Erik’s body drop to the ground.

Dexter ran in front of me, trying to protect me from Leo.

‘Dex!’ I got his attention, ‘Leo is on our side.’

‘What is going on Natalie?!’ Dexter practically yelled, but I ignored him.

‘Thank-you Leo,’ I said as I stepped towards my brother.

‘You two need to get out of here, now. Dominika told me that you have a backup plan, put it into effect now.’

My brother was all business, but I still pressed a kiss to his cheek, ‘What are you going to do about him?’

Leo looked down at Erik’s limp body on the flood, ‘He will wake up in an hour or two, I’ll tell him that he was like that when I got here and you two were no-where to be seen.’

‘Ok,’ I looked over at Dexter, who had his phone out.

‘No!’ I yelled, grabbing the phone from his hand.

He looked up at me with shocked, wide eyes, ‘I have to call this in.’

I gave the phone to Leo.

‘You can’t-’ Dexter began but my brother just gave him a glare that shut him up.

‘I have to go now,’ I said to my brother.

‘Don’t be a stranger Kitten’ he smiled and I decided that maybe being called kitten was alright when it was the right person saying it.

I grabbed Dexter’s hand and ran back onto the street, pushing him into the closest cab I could find.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_

The back-up plan was set up to accommodate numerous scenarios, and as I arrived at hotel room with Dexter a few hours after the confrontation with Erik I was eternally thank-full for setting up the plan. We took the cab to where we had a car stashed, money and safe phones stored in the vehicle, which I then drove us to a store to get some new clothes and basic necessitates to cover us for the next few days.

Dexter was now wearing dark pants with a dark navy shirt, while I was wearing a black dress. The entire way to the hotel he was silent, not asking questions, just silent.

I wondered why Dexter wasn’t freaking out? He had heard what Erik said, he knew Erik was my brother, and he knew Erik, he had arrested him before.

We walked into the hotel room in silence. I tried to send a smile to Dexter but he ignored it, walking straight into the bedroom and sitting on the bed. The hotel room was small, pastel colours and dark wooden furniture. There was one bedroom off to the side, with a lounge room and kitchen in the main area. The room gave nice views of the surrounding areas. We were an hour outside of the city, in a room payed with cash under a different name.

I followed him into the bedroom and sat beside him.

I had to tell him everything, and I was about too, but he looked so disappointed and confused.

‘Dex?’ I drew his eyes up to mine, but my disposable phone rang and I gave him an apologetic look, ‘Sorry, just a second and I will explain it all.’

I pulled the phone from my bag and pressed it to my ear, ‘Dominika? Hey, Dex and I are safe, we are at the hotel room, we-’

Dominika’s shaky voice came from the phone, ‘Natalia, answer yes or no, is Dexter in the room with you?’

I knew what she was doing, but why she was doing it was still at large. ‘Yes,’ I said casually.

‘Can you get somewhere where he can’t hear you?’

‘Yes,’ I said before turning to Dexter.

‘Hey, I have to take this, I’ll be right back.’

He nodded absentmindedly and I went into the next room, closing the door behind me. I walked nervously over to the window of the main room, looking out at the area below us as I spoke to Dominika.

‘What’s going on Dominika? What are we keeping from Dexter?’

‘Nat, I called Leo before to get him to look into Molly to see what was going on there.’

‘Dominika! I told you I was going to handle it.’

The memory of seeing Dexter having lunch with Molly was another shot to my heart as I turned to look at the closed door which separated Dexter and I. Was he cheating on me?

‘Natalia, you don’t understand, Leo gave me the number of this girl, Bri, who works with Oleg. Bri just called me and said that she was with Alexander at Oleg’s apartment when I first called, and so she used his computer and it came up with nothing about Molly, just the expected employment records and tax records, normal information about her patrols, but then when Bri went home and used her own computers there she found all this stuff. She thinks that someone had hacked into Oleg’s computers to change what he could view. Somehow it got past him’

For someone to outsmart Oleg with computers, they must have been very intelligent and have a lot to gain. 

‘So what did Bri find?’

‘After some vigorous digging she found that Molly is a part of a task force of undercover FBI agents who have been placed into the local police forces to investigate corruption and organised crime. Molly’s job was to figure out which cops were corrupt and report back to the FBI, but when she got an in with Oleg they changed her mission.’

This was going to break Olegs heart, he loved this woman but she was just using him. Thinking about it, it did seem awfully close to what I was doing with Dexter, but it was different, I protected him with my life, Molly just mislead Oleg. 

‘Does Oleg know?’

‘Yeah, he’s with me and Alexander now, but we are going to work all of that out-‘

‘She’s after Oleg and the whole company, you have to think of a plan Dominika!’

‘Don’t worry, we have a plan, but it doesn’t involve you ok?’

‘Ok,’ I said defeatedly, as much as I loathed my family right now, there were people who I loved that would be hurt if Molly was able to do her job. I thought about Leo and Alexander, about Dominika. Could I just leave them even though they were in danger as well? I guess I didn’t really have a choice. 

‘Nat all you need to know is that Molly found out who you were, she’s known since the beginning, even before she was in the café that day.’

‘S-She knows who I am? Did she tell Dexter? Is that what they were doing at the restaurant the other day?’ The realisation hit me like a truck, and I felt instant relief that Dexter wasn’t cheating on me, but then the next realisation hit. Dexter must have known who I was, Molly must have told him who I was. That was why he was so weird on the phone today and why he didn’t want to come over last night. He knows that I lied to him and he probably thinks that I was faking my relationship with him. I gasped as I realised what Dexter must think of me and wished I had the chance to tell him myself.

‘Bri thinks that Molly did tell Dexter, but there’s no record that we could find of him agreeing to do anything or be a spy for her.’

‘Ok, I have to go talk to him.’

‘Wait! Natalia, he might be dangerous, we don’t know exactly what Molly told him, so be careful.’

‘He wouldn’t hurt me, just wait for my call to figure out the next step of the plan, ok?’ I hurried to end the call before she spoke again.

I walked back over to the door, my hand ghosting over the handle as I summoned the courage to face him.  

I took a deep breath and turned the knob, opening the door to see Dexter standing by the window of the bedroom. I walked over but stood a fair distance from him. The afternoon sun flowed through the room, illuminating it with its soft glow.

‘I know who you are Natalie, or should I say Natalia?’ His harsh voice cut through the room causing me to jump slightly.

‘I know that Molly told you who I am, but please hear me out.’

‘I never fully believed her,’ His words were quiet and gentle, the complete opposite to the last words he had spoken.

‘What?’ I asked gently.

He turned around, revealing bright eyes rimmed with unshed tears, ‘I never believed that it was true, that you were using me, that you had only dated me because you were a spy. At first I didn’t believe her at all, I thought that she was crazy, but she had a badge, she had documents, she knew who you were and I didn’t. She told me who your father was, she told me who your brother was. She told me what your whole plan was. Get me into bed so that you could get information out of me, then what? Then kill me?’ he was almost yelling now, tears streaking his cheeks.

‘Dex no-’ I reached out but he flinched from my touch.

‘Stop lying to me Nat, come on, we both know who you are. Today I was going to ask you to explain it all, to give me a reason not to just walk away from you. I thought that you would have some great reason that would prove Molly wrong, or maybe you would explain it all, but then your brother shows up to kill me and you don’t let him, what? You want to kill me yourself?’ His voice held enough desperation and hurt to break my heart.

‘No! That’s not it at all!’ I rushed, this was why I wanted to be the one to tell him, all these assumptions, this was what I was trying to avoid.

‘Then what are you doing? Why are we here? Why didn’t you let him kill me?’ He questioned, his arms flying around his body as he spoke.

‘Because I love you! Yes, ok, It started out about information, but I love you, that’s why we are here! We are running from my father and my brother now!’ I exclaimed, ‘I saved you from being killed Dexter! Why can’t you just trust that I love you and that even though this started out as a job, it became so much more than that’

‘I don’t even know you!’ he said sadly, grief radiating from his body. He was acting like we couldn’t be together, like I wasn’t the same person I was a week ago.

It felt like I had been slapped. ‘You know all the important things, you know that I love you.’

‘Who loves me? Natalie or Natalia?’ he said, his voice filled with anger.

‘Me! I love you!’ I screamed and the anger left his features.

‘Who are you?’ he asked quietly.

Who was I? Wasn’t that the same question that I had been asking myself over and over again since this all started?

‘I-I don’t know, all I know is that I am nothing without you,’ I told him, my voice nothing but a whisper.

He didn’t say anything, just stared at me, his mouth half open and his eyes wide. I didn’t say anything either, just let myself sit on the bed, my head resting in my hands. I felt the bed dip beside me.

‘What are we doing Nat? We are just going to hide from your family for the rest of our lives?’

I shrugged, my head still in my hands before looking up at him, ‘I wanted to get out, I was going to tell you everything today, at lunch actually, I was going to tell you who I was and why I started dating you, I was going to tell you that I fell in love with you, that I wanted us to get away from my family from the cops and just live out normal lives together.’

‘You really wanted that with me?’

‘Yes’ I told him, my voice quiet.

‘The first time you told me that you loved me, in the car, did you mean it?’

‘More than I’ve meant anything in my life,’ I told him, hoping he could hear the truth in my words.

He huffed, getting up from the bed, and I lifted my eyes to see the frustrated look on his face.

‘I loved you Natalie! I loved you so much that it hurts! And yet, I didn’t even know your name until yesterday, I don’t know what about you is real and what is fake.’

Hearing him say ‘loved’ instead of ‘love’ felt like a bullet to my heart, tearing at the last slivers of hope I had.

‘Do you still love me?’ I asked him and he turned to face me. 

‘I thought I did, but Natalie, you aren’t even a real person, you’re fake, your personality, your life, it’s all made up. We could never have that life you were talking about before because you aren’t real, the woman I fell in love with isn’t real.’

‘I am real,’ I tried to tell him, but he only shook his head.

‘You aren’t what I thought you were.’

Tears fell from my eyes, ‘A-Are you breaking up with me?’

He walked back over to me, extending his hand which I hesitantly took. I stood up so that we were standing face-to-face.

‘Natalie Craig,’ he said, his eyes holding my gaze, ‘I am breaking up with you.’

I gasped at the words, and felt him drop my hand, silently walking out of the room.

I stood still, trying to blink back tears that had already made their way down my cheeks. He closed the door behind him and I sat back down on the bed. My whole body felt it, felt the loss, felt the heartbreak. I pressed a hand to my chest, my heartbeat fast, like it was trying to compensate for the loss of love.

He was done with me, really done. The tears fell and I thought about how stupid I was to think I could have a normal life, to have a life where Dexter would know everything about me and still love me. Who could love someone like me? I had lied, I had deceived those who loved me. I had broken Dexter’s heart with my lies, and in turn he had broken mine with the truth. He didn’t love me, he loved ‘Natalie Craig’ the girl that didn’t exist. My fingers played with the delicate silver braclette which was wrapped around my wrist. I remembered the look of total adoration and love he had on his face when Dexter gave it to me. He wouldn't ever look at me like that again, would he?

I heard a knock on the bedroom door and slowly walked towards it. I wondered if Dexter was back to break what was left of my heart, but when I opened the door he was standing there, a smile on his face.

‘Hi,’ Dexter said casually, like he hadn’t just ripped my heart out from inside my chest and stepped on it front of me. His expression held hope and warmth and I couldn’t help but burrow my eyebrows in confusion as I wiped tears from my eyes. I didn’t make a move to speak so he extended his hand, ‘I’m Dexter Wyatt, but you can call me Dex.’

I gave him a what-the-hell-are-you-doing look and hesitantly shook his hand.

He gave me a nod, ‘I’m Natalia, Natalia Cherkesov,’ I said, confusion clear in my tone.

‘It’s nice to meet you Natalia Cherkesov,’ he smiled, squeezing my hand lightly, ‘Would you like to go on a date with me?’

I couldn’t stop the startled laugh that came from my throat, drying my tears and confusing me greatly, ‘What?’

‘I, Dexter Wyatt am asking you, Natalia Cherkesov on a date,’ He smiled at me, a true, pure, bright smile that I never thought I would see again.

I stared at him in awe, a smile stuck on my face.

‘What do you say?’ he said and I saw a tear drop down his cheek and onto his smiling lip.

‘Y-Yes I would like that very much.’

His arms suddenly came around me and I was pulled into his chest. Once the shock wore off I pressed my face into his neck, tears staining his shirt.

‘What are we doing?’ I pulled back to ask a smile on my lips.

‘I want you, I want to be with you the real you, not you pretending to be someone you’re not but who you really are, so what do you say Natalia? Want to run away from the Russian mob with me? I know we haven’t even had our first date or anything, but how about it?’

‘I would love to.’

‘You know, that Russian accent is quite sexy, I wish my last girlfriend had a Russian accent, it would have been cute on her,’ he teased.

I laughed, realising that I hadn’t hid my accent since we entered the hotel room.

‘Should I be jealous of this last girlfriend?’ I teased, knowing full well that there was no way I was going to be jealous of my alter ego, Natalie. Dexter was right, there were aspects to being Natalie that I enjoyed, but she wasn’t me. She had a different history, she spoke differently, the only thing that connected us was our love for Dexter. In that moment I let Natalie go, content with never putting on a fake accent and pretending to be something I just wasn’t. I wasn’t a banker, I wasn’t Natalie, I was Natalia and I was ok with that.

Dexter leant forward pressing a soft kiss to my forehead, ‘Nah, she’s long gone, now, all I want is you Natalia.’

He leant down again, this time to press his lips to mine, our lips meeting in a passionate embrace that slowly rebuilt my broken heart. Hands roamed my body and lips covered mine. This kiss wasn’t like the others we had shared, it was better. There had always been a twinge of guilt that rose up in moments such as these, the feeling that I was deceiving him, that he deserved better. It seemed that a wall was build that separated me from really feeling what was going on because I wasn’t really me, I was someone else, living another life. This kiss, however, wasn’t like that, we were both there, fully and whole-heartedly, sharing a piece of ourselves that we had held back. When I pulled back slightly, I looked into his eyes and saw pure love and I knew that the trust we had lost would return in time.

Yes, we were running from my family, yes, we were in danger, yes, our lives wouldn’t be the same again, but we were together and somehow everything was right in my world.

Only Two more chapters left! I hope you are all enjoying this story, I can't thank you more for your support!