Chapter 19 #2
Now I can focus on the task at hand, as long as I can ignore the way my gut lurches as I pivot away from the basement.
She’ll be safe.
And I’ve got a job to do.
I owe all these fuckers a one-way ticket to hell.
I take down three men in the hall behind me. The sharp tangs of rust and sulfur assault my nose as blood and gunpower permeate the cramped corridor.
With Trinity out of the way, bullets fly around me, ricocheting off walls.
I use the Russian soldiers as human shields so that they catch their own bullets while I alternate between hand-to-hand combat and raining gunfire through the air.
When I run out of ammo, I pistol-whip the nearest mercenary with the empty weapon in my hand before extracting a fresh gun off one of the fallen.
I can fight, kill, and maim with abandon now that Trinity’s safe, and I need to blow off some damn steam.
For once, my enemies showed up when I’m well-rested and ready to kick some ass.
The combined power of an intense orgasm and a good night’s sleep is no joke.
A sting mars my focus.
One of these idiots pierced my chest with a Swiss Army knife, a shallow stab that did more damage to my shirt than me.
I rip his arm behind him and do one of my favorite martial arts moves, where my opponent ends up face down on the ground with a shattered wrist.
Heat and pain sear my face as a bullet grazes my cheek.
My eyes snap to the person who fired the gun.
Adrenaline numbs the pain so I can concentrate.
Enemies are just numbers.
I pull the knife that cut me and throw it across the kitchen at the latest gunman. The blade sinks straight into the asshole’s heart. He collapses, his blood leaking across the tile and staining the grout.
One by one, each man crumples.
I’m gaining the upper hand, which is nothing short of a miracle compared to how this fight—a near-perfect ambush—started.
A grunt of pained surprise lurches from my chest as Andrei Kruschev barrels right into me, knocking me clean into the nearest wall and forcing the air from my lungs with a hiss.
I drop to my knees from the impact, wheezing.
I better not get a concussion because of this awful asshole.
Standing feels impossible, my legs weakened from the hit and the fading adrenaline. Fuck.
When I glance around and realize Andrei and I are the only two left, my exhaustion makes perfect sense.
“I just took out all your reinforcements, and now you want to fight me?” I spit bloody saliva from the corner of my mouth. “Coward.”
“Only a man who could take them all out on his own would be worthy of fighting me in the first place.” Andrei offers me a cold, cruel smile. “Now, get up. When I drag that girl away, I want it to be because I killed you.”
With my eyes locked on his, I push to my feet. My muscles scream in protest, but I don’t let my shaky joints stop me. “Over my dead body is the only way you’re walking out of here with what’s mine.”
Andrei retrieves an assault knife from his weapons belt.
A standard-issue military combat knife.
Guess I shouldn’t be surprised he’s ex-special forces, what with his reputation and all.
“One round.” Andrei crouches into a fighting stance. “Winner take all. Agreed?”
I draw a kitchen knife out of the wood block by the sink. It’s bigger, longer, and not designed for combat, but if he wants a knife fight, he’ll get a knife fight.
“Agreed.”
The cold clarity of battle floods my mind.
Focus. Watch. Win.
Easy as pie.
Andrei roars, charging with perfect form as he juts his arm at me, his blade singing through the air.
I spin out of his path while thrusting my kitchen knife down toward his shoulder.
He evades, so I swing again.
We trade blows, tiny spurts of blood flying as we attack each other like pitbulls in an underground dog-fighting ring.
We’re evenly matched in our skill and brutality.
After several minutes, I’m exhausted. His advantage isn’t my fatigue, though. It’s his lack of humanity.
He’s not afraid to be hurt or to die trying to accomplish his ends.
My dedication falls short of his.
That’s my weakness.
Andrei swings, and I prepare for his attack by zeroing in on his approach at eye-level. But then he drops out of my sight line.
Searing, blistering pain in my left leg drives me to one knee.
This jackass sliced my thigh.
Fuck.
The muscle’s not totally shorn, but putting weight on it—with all the blood I’ve already lost—is damn near impossible.
Rising to full height, victory painted on his face, Andrei offers me another cold smile. “I do love to see a king kneel.”
He pulls the gun from his belt and trains it on my forehead.
Fear bounces around in my skull, and morbid anticipation mounts inside me.
Is this the end of me?
Right here? Right now?
What a pathetic way to go. In the middle of nowhere, at the hands of Kruschev, while Trinity cowers below us.
I keep my eyes trained on the end of the gun. I won’t give him the satisfaction of closing my—
The tang of metal connecting with bone reverberates through the room.
Andrei’s gun hits the kitchen floor.
He drops like a marionette with cut strings, his eyes rolling back in his head.
Trinity stands above him, a skillet raised over her head like a club. She pants, her eyes wild, her nostrils flaring.
Well, shit.
Did this crazy woman just save my life?
She drops the skillet with a clang. “Come on!” She grasps one of my arms and yanks.
I haul myself up, wincing at the sharp sting in my left thigh. That’s going to be a real bitch later.
We run, half-hobbling down the front steps toward the BMW parked and waiting for us in the driveway.
A hot projectile whizzes past my right arm.
Shit. Andrei woke up a little too soon.
More bullets spray in our direction as Trinity and I throw ourselves into the SUV.
Andrei stumbles to the destroyed front door and trains his gun on the vehicle. “I want that drive!”
He keeps shooting as I start the engine and whip this baby around. I slam my foot on the gas, and we fly down the driveway as bullets puncture the back fender.
Trinity screams when a bullet connects with the rear windshield and sends glass shattering down into the back seat before we squeal around a curve.
We escaped our compromised safe house with our lives intact. Just barely.
But now what?