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That decision is the only thing that loosens the band on my chest enough for my first deep breath.
Suddenly, gravel crunches underfoot to my right, and I’m on my feet in an instant. Two men I don’t immediately recognize walk through the hedge from the side garden with assault rifles in hand, so I whip my own gun from my belt and take aim.
They spot me a second before I pull the trigger.
Bullets fly as both men cry out and dive for the cover of the nearest upturned car. Sprinting down the steps, I do the same, but rather than taking cover by a vehicle, I stumble down behind the base of one of the broken statues.
Anger pulses through me like molten lava. I’m going to kill them. I’ll start with them and I won’t stop until the streets of Russia run red with blood and Aleksander is forced to come crawling to me like the dog he is.
Spying movement as one man tries to peek over the hood of the car, I swing my arm around the statue and open fire once more. Three bullets land in the hood, forcing him to retreat immediately.
“Wait!” he yells.
A snarl escapes me, and I fire twice more for his even daring to talk to me.
The second man dives around the car near the rear, and I open fire as soon as his thin face peeks around the vehicle. He’s also forced to duck back behind cover.
“Wait!” yells that voice again. “We’re with August! Kristof, wait!”
I hear the words, but they don’t register over the blind rage that descends over me. Just the fact that they said my name churns up liquid fury inside me. I push out from behind my cover and start running toward the SUV they’re using for cover, firing with each step to keep them pinned.
Reaching the car, I launch myself over the hood and crash down onto the gravel on the other side, ready to kill.
“We have Alena!”
I land hard on my shoulder, gun raised and pointed directly at one of the men. Neither of them lifts their weapons to me, and the man closest, facing down the barrel of my gun, raises both hands.
“We have Alena!” He stumbles over the words, and it takes a few seconds too long to register in my mind fully. “We’re with August, okay? We have Alena and she’s safe, so you need… you need to come with us.”
My eyes narrow.
“August, see?” the second man says and slowly turns up his jacket's lapel to show the gleaming pin there.
The mention of Alena is the only thing stopping me from pulling the trigger.
“You could have taken those off a couple of bodies,” I snarl, slowly shifting onto my knees and then standing. “Plenty of those around.”
“True,” gasps the first man, and he slowly reaches for the collar of his shirt. “But we couldn’t steal these.”
Both men quickly jerk down their collars and display the black dagger surrounded by thorns. August makes all his men get the same tattoo as a mark of their loyalty.
It’s enough to assure me only that these men are a means to an end. I surge forward, curling one hand around the closest man’s throat and violently shoving him back against the SUV.
“Where the fuck is she?”
2
ALENA
“Here. Tea. Drink.”
Alyona appears on my left and holds out a steaming cup of green tea. When I don’t react, she gently presses it into my trembling hands and holds it there until my own grip takes over.
I can’t look away from the roaring fire in front of me, from the large, flickering orange flames to the flying sparks and crackling wood that shifts each time the timber crumbles under the heat. It’s the perfect distraction from the blood bath I witnessed.
The dancing flames slowly overcome the vision of men rushing into my home. The crackle of wood calms the bursting gunfire in my head, and the dancing sparks distract from the glistening pools of blood I had to run past to escape.
None of it distracts from the blood coating my fingers, though. No matter how furiously I wiped my hands on my clothes or the fabric offered when I arrived here, the blood remains. A crimson reminder of the death and destruction we fled from.
