Chapter 27 #2
Liam pressed himself against the side of the wall at the opening and waited.
“Syuda!” One shouted. “She crossed here.” His accent was unmistakable.
Russians. Were they the one’s Grayson warned me about? Was it Volkov that hunted me?
I could hear the two men skidding down the bank of the stream and splashing into the water.
Just when they appeared before the mouth of the tunnel, Liam shot out towards them.
He pushed one of the unsuspecting men into the tunnel.
The man tried to right himself but lost his balance and fell deeper into the tunnel, then immediately shot up onto his knees.
For a second he froze, dazed by the darkness before him—the darkness where I waited.
“Looking for me?” I asked, kicking the gun from his hand, and slashing the knife across his face. The man screamed and fell forward. I stepped back as he swung wildly, hitting nothing but air.
“Ved’ma!” he screamed loudly to his buddy, trying to scamper to his feet.
He caught sight of his gun glinting in the water, near the mouth of the tunnel, but I was faster.
I stabbed the knife into the back of his ankle, and ripped it backwards, severing his Achilles heel.
Something Grayson had mentioned doing to one of the men that had killed Dianna and Abby, so he couldn’t run away.
The Russian man screamed like a baby when I grabbed hold of his shoe and dragged him away from the gun, deeper into the darkness. He tried to grab hold of something under the water, but the bottom was slippery with algae.
I was a little surprised by his fear. He was acting as if I was the predator.
The scuffle outside caught my eye. The second, much bigger guy, was on top of Liam, blood dripping from his abdomen where Liam had stabbed him. He pushed Liam’s face down to the side, into the water. Liam was struggling to get out of the man’s grip, not able to breathe.
My stomach dropped, and I lurched forward, screaming my defiance. I jumped on top of the man’s back, and in a moment of blinding fear and rage, I slit my knife across his throat, like Grayson had done in my nightmare.
The man grabbed me by my hair and flung me off his back. My body crashed into the water, my head hitting a rock that jutted out of the stream.
I laid there, dazed, unable to move.
I blinked, and saw the man crawling to me, blood pouring out of his neck.
I blinked again, and he was closer, fury contorting his face. I knew he was coming to kill me, but I couldn’t find the will to move.
A gunshot rang painfully through my head, and I forced my eyes open again.
I stared right into the man’s unseeing eyes, as he held my knife in the air, ready to plunge it into my chest. But the knife slipped from his hand, and he toppled over next to me, the icy water splashing over me, as his body hit the ground.
I closed my eyes again, letting the darkness pull me in.
I didn’t want to be here anymore. I wanted to be in the forest, the campfire light dancing on the side of the tent.
Surrounded by a strong, warm body, keeping me close and safe.
I wanted to be in Owen’s car, driving with the windows down, on the quiet country road, him laughing at my stupid jokes, as if they weren’t stupid at all.
“Ava!” A voice pulled me back from the peaceful darkness. “Wake up!” it screamed at me again.
I felt a sharp sting on my cheek, and I groaned as the floodgates opened —all the pain in my body registering all at once. I squinted my eyes open and found Liam’s face staring down at me. “Did you just slap me?” I rasped, my throat feeling like it was on fire.
He laughed, relief in his voice. “You hit your head. Stay awake, okay?”
“Did I kill him?” I kept seeing the man’s vacant eyes in my mind, his body going limp and dropping next to me.
“Technically, I did. It was my bullet that killed him. But A for effort.”
I looked around me. I was no longer in the water, but on the grass, under a willow. The willow’s branch softly brushed across my forehead.
“You did good, Ava. You’re one badass bitch, you know that? Both your boyfriends would be foaming at the mouth if they’d seen you now.” He chuckled mischievously and winked at me.
I frowned at him, closing my eyes against the throb in my temples. “Liam, why…”
“Beck’s coming,” he cut me off. “I have to go. You need to stay vigilant for just a few more weeks, okay? It’s almost over.”
“Liam,” I protested, but he had already disappeared into the darkness.
I tried to push myself off the ground, but my arms felt boneless.
“Ava!” Owen came skidding to a halt on the ground next to me. “Jesus, Ava,” he murmured as his hands roamed over my body, checking for any injuries.
“I’m okay,” I tried to reassure him.
His fingers grazed over my skull and when he pulled them back, there was blood on them. He scooped me into his arms and lifted me off the ground with a flinch of pain.
“O, your shoulder. I can walk,” I tried to protest, but he ignored me.
Another agent came running and Owen motioned with his head to the stream. “There’s one trying to get away.”
I turned to the stream and saw the man hobbling and falling over the rocks, clawing his way up the bank. The agent quickly apprehended him.
“You did this?” Owen asked, looking down at the gruesome scene beneath us.
I flinched and looked away. “I had help.” I looked up to him. “Liam.”
Owen blinked in surprise and looked around, as if he might see him, but Liam was probably long gone.
He carried me back to the entrance of the park, to where an ambulance stood. He lowered me onto a gurney, and a paramedic took over, asking me questions and flashing a light into my eyes.
I looked to the left and found one of my protection detail agents on a gurney next to me, bloody compression bandages around his torso. His partner was unscathed, but squirmy. My gut twisted. I hated that he got hurt because of me. I didn’t even know their names.
I looked up from his abdomen to find the agent staring at me, a sheepish grin on his pale face.
I returned his smile. “Did you get ‘em?”
His grin widened. “Yeah. You?”
“Yeah.”
He held his fist out to me, and I bumped it, as they loaded us into the ambulance.