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Then it hits me.He fired a warning shot.
Which means he didn’t hurt Francia.
Which means she shouldn’t be lying motionless on the floor.
My dad is moving towards me, leaving the gun behind. I see it all happen in slow motion. He’s holding a hand out to help me up, but behind him, Francia lifts herself up. She doesn’t stand all the way up because she doesn’t need to. She can reach what she needs to while lying down.
She picks up the gun in her hand and, unlike my dad, she isn’t pointing at the ceiling. She’s pointing it at his back.
Without a word, she fires.
Unlike him, she doesn’t start with a warning shot. No remorse. No chance to give up.
Francia pulls the trigger and my dad jerks and crumples to the floor.
“Dad!” I reach out for him, but my head spins. I think I have a concussion, but if I don’t get to him, things are going to be so much worse.
I can’t put one foot in front of the other, but I try anyway. I lift myself to my knees and the world is yanked out from under my feet. I fall sideways with my shoulder pressed to the wall.
Francia’s shadow falls over me. She scoffs. “What Ivan sees in you, I will never fucking know.”
Then something heavy hits my temple. The world goes dark.
The last thing I see is the blood on my father’s shirt.
62
IVAN
I hear the gunshot before I’m even out of the car.
I slam the car into park and throw the door open without turning the engine off.Please, for the love of fucking God, let it be Niles fighting back. Or Marcus. Or a guard. Anyone but Francia.
But the shattered remains of the gates at the mouth of the driveway were enough of a hint as to how this is going to go. The empty guard shack made it a near-certainty.
Francia is here. And somehow, she found her way to Cora.
Knowing that doesn’t change the full-body ache that ripples through me when I make it inside and see Francia with her arm around Cora’s neck… and a gun pressed to her head.
“Don’t take another fucking step,” she hisses.
Cora is alive. Her eyes are closed and there’s a bump on her forehead, but I can see her chest moving. Francia wouldn’t be threatening to kill her if she was already dead.
As long as her heart is beating, there’s a chance.
“Let her go and you can walk out of here intact.” My voice is tight, but it isn’t shaking. A miracle, given the adrenaline pumping through me.
If I don’t save her, I’ll never forgive myself.
Francia cackles. There are dark circles under her eyes. It doesn’t look like she’s slept in days. Actually, it looks like she died and came back from the dead. Whatever happened to her in Moscow before she killed the guards and fled, it wasn’t pretty.
“We’ve been through too much to lie to each other, Ivan. We both know I’m not walking out of here.”
“Fine.” I nod. “If you back away from my wife right now, I’ll give you a quick death.”
It’s way more than she deserves after all of the carnage and chaos she has caused.
If Cora can get the gun away from her head, even for a second, then I can take my shot. But right now, the risk that Francia takes Cora down with her is too great.
