He hauled the two girls along with him and ran. Behind him, I could see the door crack down the center and Seventeen’s arm reach through, fumbling for the lock.
“Turn right!” I yelled to Alexei. “Onto the balcony!”
“That’s a dead end!”
“There’s a fire escape.”
I watched as he burst out into the open air and then hustled the girls down the fire escape. “No sign of Nikolai?”
I couldn’t see anyone around the house but them. “None.” Then I saw something on the far side of the house—Luka, together with a man in his fifties. “Luka’s out, with his dad!” I heard Arianna give a groan of relief. “We’re at the security station—come get us.” There were cameras throughout the forest—I’d be able to watch his back the whole way.
I saw Alexei nod. Then he must have spotted the camera I was watching through, because he looked right into it. “Thank you,” he said into his radio. “I love you.”
My heart melted. Then the three of them were off and running and I slumped back in my chair in relief.
I heard the noise behind me just too late.
Gabriella
The back of my head exploded into pain, a cloud of red agony shot through with white spikes. I half-fell out of my chair, close to throwing up. When I managed to get my legs under me and turn around, I saw a man in his forties standing there, his suit disheveled and stained with mud. Behind him, through the doorway, I could see Yuri’s crumpled body lying on the ground—dead or unconscious, it was impossible to tell.
The man was pointing a gun at Arianna and me. I realized that he must have slugged me with the barrel. And I realized there was only one person he could be.
“Nikolai.” I croaked.
He might have been handsome, once, but bitterness had etched deep lines across his forehead and jaw, giving him a permanent scowl. In the gloom of the bunker, his eyes seemed to be the brightest part of him, two circles of dirty gray ice, without any of Alexei’s hint of blue.
“Alexei is coming,” I managed. Every word, every movement, made my head throb. “He’ll be here any minute.”
“No he won’t,” spat Nikolai. He grabbed the radio I’d been using and switched the channel. He kept the gun on us, but started glancing at the screens and speaking in Russian into the radio. I didn’t need Arianna to translate what was going on. He was talking to Seventeen. He was using the cameras to lead him right to Alexei and the cousins.
Alexei
Progress was slow—Irina still had Lizaveta in her arms, and she was getting tired. “I’ll take her,” I offered, holding out my arms for the child.
Lizaveta shook her head wildly, clinging desperately to Irina. “No!”
I sighed under my breath. She knows, a little voice in my head whispered. Even a kid knows you’re a killer.
A bullet whipped past my ear. I spun around, firing blindly into the trees, but I couldn’t see anyone. I hustled the girls on, choosing a different path through the forest, trying to be quick but quiet.
A moment later, another shot whistled past my shoulder. I fired again, but I still couldn’t see anyone...and I was almost out of bullets. How does he know where we are?
A twig cracked in the trees behind us. I dived at the girls, pushing them out of the way, and the bullets missed us by inches. As we sprawled on the ground, Seventeen emerged from the trees, lazily reloading his handgun. I managed to get my gun pointed at him just in time to have him kick it out of my hands.
He turned towards the girls. As he raised his gun, Irina pushed Lizaveta behind her, spreading her arms defensively. Seventeen hesitated, cocking his head as if he found her self-sacrifice to be a curious, alien concept.
That hesitation was all I needed. With a guttural yell, I dived at Seventeen, wrapping my arms around his legs and slamming him to the ground. I was already punching him as we landed.
Seventeen tried to rise but I pinned him down, absorbing his punches on my face and chest and focusing on beating him into submission. I had the size advantage and I was powered by raw, desperate fear. I will not let this happen! Not Irina! Not Lizaveta!
It looked as if I’d win. He started to go limp. I drew my arm back to deliver the final blow….
But I’d never fought anyone like him before. All the people I’d fought had been sane—they had personalities, with all the doubts and insecurities that came with them. Faced with defeat, they went fearful and weak.
I didn’t even see Seventeen reach down and pull the knife from his belt. He shoved it into my side with such expert, surgical precision that I barely felt it go in. I only felt it as a weakness, my arms losing their strength, my weight slumping sideways….
Seventeen rolled out from under me as I fell to the ground. My eyes were open so I could see things unfold, but I couldn’t do a thing to stop them. My whole body was going numb.
Seventeen got to his feet, staggering a little, and looked around. He’d dropped his gun when he went down and it was lost amongst the leaves and twigs on the forest floor. He picked up my gun, instead.
I stared helplessly at Irina. She wasn’t crying—brave until the end. Behind her, Lizaveta was sobbing and clinging to her leg.
I could barely feel my legs, now. I knew that I must be bleeding internally. On some level, I actually admired him for how perfectly he’d done it—the wound would take a long time to kill me, but it took me out of the fight completely. I had nothing left to give.
Seventeen didn’t even bother to hurry as he retrieved my gun. He checked the clip, sighed, then cocked it. He walked over to the girls. Lizaveta immediately hid behind Irina.
“Show me your sister,” Seventeen told Irina in that flat, emotionless tone.
Irina’s eyes widened in astonishment. “What? No! Fuck you!” She spread her arms wide again. “You want her, you’re going to have to come through me!”
Seventeen showed her the gun. “There’s only one round left,” he said calmly. “I can make it quick, but only for one of you.”
Irina stared at him in horror and shook her head.
Seventeen tilted his head to the side, confused. I think he was making a genuine attempt to be humane, even if it was only based on what he’d heard was the right thing to do. “Don’t you want it to be quick for her?”
Now Irina did start to cry. Seventeen just waited, as if he had all the time in the world. Lizaveta was howling, big heaving gasps, her face red with tears.
I could see the straining tension in Irina’s body as she slowly pulled her younger sister in front of her. Lizaveta resisted and Irina had to use all her strength to drag her heels through the mud. “Shh,” she said. “Shh, it’ll be okay.”
I’d failed them. Irina and Lizaveta, and then, shortly after, Luka, his dad, Arianna, and Gabriella. They were all going to die because I couldn’t even do one thing right. I stared at the red-faced, screaming child and my eyes started to get hot, then wet. You pathetic fuck, Alexei. Killing’s all you’re good for and you couldn’t even do that.
And then I saw it: Seventeen’s gun, half-buried under the leaves. But it was three feet beyond my reach and my body wouldn’t move at all.
Irina turned Lizaveta around. “Put your head on my chest,” she told the girl, tears running down her cheeks. “And close your eyes.”
It started as a smell—the strawberry scent of her hair. Then I could feel her under my fingers, that creamy, smooth skin and the warm press of her breasts against my chest. I heard her breath in my ear, the moist air tickling. “Alexei.”
I knew I must be hallucinating from the pain and the shock. My heart must be barely pumping, by now, my blood pressure crashing. I was hallucinating…
...or maybe there was more to me than there used to be. Maybe I’d gained something, since that day in the coffee shop. I’d always been grimly proud of living on my own, in solitary pain, thinking that it made me strong. But maybe this, this thing I was feeling right now, made me stronger. And maybe it made me more than just a
killer.
Irina stroked Lizaveta’s hair, then put her hands over the child’s ears. “Do it,” she sobbed. “Do it, you bastard.”
Seventeen put the muzzle of the gun against Lizaveta’s temple. She screwed her eyes shut.
It wasn’t anything logical or rational that powered me—there was none of that left. It was pure, stubborn rage, fury at the injustice of it all: that Seventeen was going to live, that these innocents were going to die, that Nikolai was going to come to power. Most of all, that Gabriella and I wouldn’t be together.
All in one movement, I heaved myself up onto my knees, threw myself forward, and grabbed for the gun. I felt my strength plummeting and the world grew dark around the edges. But I could see Seventeen in front of me, turning in surprise. And I had just enough strength to pull the trigger.
Alexei
I was lying on my face, sliding rapidly into black warmth. Then someone was on top of me, grunting and—
Something deep inside me began to move. Ow! No, don’t do that! That—
I yelled into the leaves and dirt as the knife slid out of me. A second later, something pressed into my side and the pain got even worse. My whole body was coated in sweat and I was shaking.
“Hold that in place,” said a voice. “Press hard.”
I pressed against the wadded fabric The pain doubled but the world got a little brighter. I blinked and rolled over on my side.
Irina was crouching next to me. Her dress was torn at the bottom and I realized that’s where the fabric came from. Behind her, Seventeen’s body lay on the ground. It looked as if my bullet had clipped the back of his skull. I wasn’t sure if he was dead, but he wasn’t going anywhere.
“Lie still,” Irina said. “I can go and get help.”
I shook my head. “Radio,” I croaked. I’d figured out how Seventeen found us so easily...but I prayed I was wrong.
Irina pressed the radio into my hand. I called Gabriella again and again. Nothing.
He had them. That bastard Nikolai had Gabriella and Arianna.
Pressing on the wound was working, slowing the internal bleeding and letting my blood pressure come back up. I still needed a hospital, but I could survive like this for a little while. I picked up Seventeen’s gun. Unlike mine, it still had a few rounds left in it. Standing took all my effort and I wavered, unsure if I was going to fall. Irina quickly put her shoulder under my arm.
“Security station,” I said determinedly. We must be only a few minutes away, by now.
But just then, we heard the distant roar of a car engine starting up. Irina and I looked at each other. I knew how Nikolai’s mind worked. If he’d just seen my fight with Seventeen on the cameras and knew he’d lost, he’d take hostages. He’d take Gabriella...and I’d never see her again.
“The road curves around,” said Irina, pointing. “We can cut him off. Hurry!” And she scooped up Lizaveta again.
We ran. I was fueled purely on adrenaline now, close to collapse, one hand clasped to my side. Luckily, most of the route was downhill.
As we burst out onto the road, the SUV shot around the bend. I could see Nikolai at the wheel. I just had to hope Gabriella and Arianna were in the back seat, and not lying dead back at the security station.
I stepped out into the middle of the road and put three bullets into the front tires. The car swerved as it flashed past me and my guts tightened as I saw it head straight for Irina and Lizaveta. The sisters jumped out of the way, fleeing in different directions...and the car slammed into a tree.
Gabriella
I shook my head, trying to clear it. The pain from the blow to my head was still there and now the crash had thrown me around again...but at least Arianna and I had had our belts on. Nikolai, in the driver’s seat, was slumped over the wheel, blood pouring from his forehead.
I turned to Arianna. She seemed unhurt, but she didn’t seem to know I was there. She was staring straight ahead of her, at the seat in front. “Arianna?” I asked.
She still didn’t look at me. “Mom?”
Shit. I heaved open my door and climbed out. My heart lifted when I saw Alexei running towards us...but then Nikolai started to wake up. I hurried around the car and hauled open Arianna’s door. She finally turned to look at me, but her eyes were distant.
“Come on!” I said. “We have to go!”
She just stared at me. I had to lean in and unfasten her belt, then drag her from the car. I started backing away, pulling her with me. Alexei was close, now, but Nikolai’s door was opening. He stumbled out, gun drawn. His forehead was dripping blood down his face and he was panting in fear and anger. All his plans had unraveled in just a few minutes.
Luka and his dad burst from the trees and started closing in on us from the other direction. I kept backing away from Nikolai. We were safe, now, too far away for him to grab. Then I saw Irina on the other side of the road. She was safe, too.
Too late, we all saw Lizaveta. She was standing on her own, tears streaming down her face, far too close to—
Nikolai ran forward and grabbed her, just as Alexei, Luka and his dad arrived. He put his arm around her neck. “Back away!” he yelled.
The men slowed to a stop, glancing fearfully at one another.
“I’m walking out of here!” Nikolai yelled. “Don’t try and stop me!” He cinched his arm tighter under Lizaveta’s chin, almost lifting her off her feet. “Be good,” he snapped at her.
I learned two things about Russians that day. Firstly, they're stubborn creatures who never, ever do what you tell them.
Lizaveta grabbed Nikolai’s arm with both hands and bit his bare wrist as hard as she could. Nikolai swore and flung her aside.
Secondly, don’t mess with their families.
Alexei, Luka and his dad all raised their guns and fired until they were empty, their faces set into masks of cold fury. Nikolai fell to the ground.
Then Luka was running towards me, scooping Arianna from my arms and pulling her close. She mumbled incoherently into his neck. Irina and Luka’s dad descended on Lizaveta, completely engulfing her in hugs. And then Alexei was picking me up and lifting me, pressing me so close to him that it was as if he wanted to melt right into me.
I knew the feeling. I wanted to melt right into him, too.
“Careful,” said Irina. “He’s hurt.”
“Hurt?” I pushed Alexei back. That’s when I saw the blood staining his shirt, the sticky pad that was pressed against his side. “Oh, Jesus!”
“I’ll be okay,” whispered Alexei, sagging a little against me. “Everything is going to be okay, now.”
Gabriella
The police arrived, closely followed by the ambulances. At first, guns were pointed at Luka and his dad—Vasiliy, I learned his name was. I thought the whole family were going to be arrested. Then, quite suddenly, all the guns went down and everyone was shaking hands. “What happened?” I whispered to Alexei.
“The right cops showed up,” he told me. When I looked blank, he said, “The ones on Vasiliy’s payroll.”
Paramedics inspected Alexei’s wound and told him he’d need surgery, and that I would need checking over for concussion, but that there were more critical cases they needed to get back to Moscow first. More guards had survived the explosion than we’d thought, though many of them were seriously injured.
The first person to be shuttled to hospital, though, was Seventeen. The police found him in the forest, close to death but still breathing. Luka argued with Vasiliy about it, making the case that they should quietly finish him off, but Vasiliy told him the whole investigation would be over sooner if someone could be sent to jail—and, this way, Seventeen could be blamed for the whole thing. None of the other families needed to know that Nikolai had betrayed his employer. Such a thing might be seen as a weakness.
While the other ambulances shuttled back and forth to the hospital, a few were left to serve as field hospitals. Alexei sat on the doorstep of one, his side swaddled in bandages, hooked up to a bloo
d pressure monitor and an IV bag. I sat beside him. The forest seemed very still and calm...which made no sense at all, because the place was swarming with cops and paramedics. It took me a while to realize that the calm was coming from within me. The Dread was gone, at least for now. Now that we’d finally stopped running and with Alexei firmly by my side, the world didn’t seem so big and scary anymore. In fact, it was kind of beautiful, now I could really look at it.
Lizaveta appeared, pushed from behind by Irina. She muttered something in Russian, looking mostly at her feet.
“In English,” said Irina, poking her. “So Gabriella can understand.”
“Um...thank you,” Lizaveta said. “For saving us.” Then, to everyone’s surprise, she threw her arms around Alexei’s neck. “Irina’s right,” she said. “You look evil. But I don’t think you are.”
Alexei and I looked at each other over her back. I nodded at him, blinking away tears.
Vasiliy walked up. “Next year,” Irina asked, “Can we please holiday in New York instead?”
Vasiliy swore in Russian. “Always with the New York, with this one,” he told us. “All she wants to do is go to this Tenthook Academy.”
“Fenbrook Academy,” said Irina through gritted teeth.
Vasiliy rolled his eyes as he led her away. “What is wrong with the Bolshoi?”
Luka and Arianna were next to stop by. Luka shook Alexei’s hand...then pulled him into a bear hug that set all the medical monitors beeping. “You will always have a place in our family,” he told Alexei. “Here, or in New York.”
That was it. Exactly what he’d been wanting to hear, since this whole thing started. I held my breath.
Alexei nodded. Then he looked at me. “Thank you,” he said. “But no.” And he pulled me close.
When Luka had walked away, Arianna put a hand on my shoulder. “Sorry I freaked out,” she said. She looked better, now—still shaken, but her color was back. “I was in a crash, once.”
Kissing My Killer Page 26
