I slid out of bed, bare feet silent on the carpeted floor.No time to think it through.I had to move.The scraping went silent, then a grunt barely muffled by the glass.I hugged the wall, crouched low, and crept to my bag to get the zip ties.
The curtain billowed in, rippling like a living thing.I ducked behind a dresser and waited.
A figure stepped into the room, all shadows and menace.Big.Over six feet.He moved like a professional, head on a swivel, hands open and relaxed.He didn’t have a weapon out, which meant he thought he could handle whoever was inside.
I let him make it three steps in before I struck, catching him with a kick to the knees, then my left shoulder slammed into his gut, and together we hit the floor hard enough to rattle pictures hanging on the wall.He made no sound except a grunt as the wind left his lungs.I drove my fist into his kidney and slammed his head against the linoleum.
His elbow caught my jaw, fast and deliberate.He jerked, trying to throw me off, and I grabbed the back of his neck and ground his face into the floor.The man started to twist, using his weight to try and roll me, but I hooked my arm under his chin and squeezed tight.Two seconds, ten, forty, then the fight left him.
While he was out, I secured his hands behind his back.Just as I finished securing the second zip-tie around the ankles, he came to and tried to buck, but I used my full weight, one hand on his head, the other on his shoulder.He spit blood onto the tile, and then started laughing—a low, ugly sound that made me want to break his jaw.
It was only then I heard the door slam open.
Nadya barreled into the spare bedroom in nothing but a tank top and boy shorts, hair wild, eyes feral with panic.She held a kitchen knife out in front of her, but she was shaking so badly I wasn’t sure she could stab anything if she tried.
And then she hit the light switch.
The man’s face was mashed into the tile, but I could see now the blue-black teardrops trailing down from his left eye.Fuck.Of all the people to come after Nadya, it had to be this one.
Nadya stopped cold.The knife clattered to the ground.Her hands went to her mouth, stifling a scream.
The man stared up at her, bloody teeth bared.
Nadya didn’t move.Didn’t speak.Just watched him, as if by sheer force of will she could erase him from the floorboards and her head by sheer force of will.
I kept my hand heavy on his neck.“Nadya, I need you to step back.Go to your room and close the door.”
She didn’t move.
“Nadya.Go.Now,” I said again, adding more command into my voice, needing to protect her even from just seeing him again, from being in the same room with the worst kind of scum.
That snapped her out of it.She stumbled backward, hands shaking, then bolted and locked herself up in the bathroom.A second later, the sound of her retching came.
The man tried to roll his neck and glare up at me, but I kept him pinned as I reached the wire connected to my phone and pulled it to me, then thumbed 911, and gave the address to the dispatcher.“Breaking and entering.Perp is restrained,” I said.
Fuck.I somehow needed to have this guy arrested and locked up without him knowing I worked for the FBI.He couldn't know we were onto them.
The man started humming.Some lullaby or maybe a folk song, slow and strange.Every so often, he craned his neck to look at the bathroom door, as if he knew Nadya was in there, listening.
The asshole was trying to get into her head.
“You're acting funny for a burglar,” I said.“Should I tell the police it wasn't just breaking and entering?Are you a stalker, too?”
“Who the fuck are you?”he asked.
“Just a very good friend.”Who would happily snap this fucker’s neck, but he might have the information I needed.
It took only a couple of minutes for the police to show up.The officers came up the stairs, boots heavy, flashlights cutting through the gloom.I raised both hands and stepped back as they entered.
“On the floor,” the first one barked.
I didn’t argue, lowering myself, hands behind my head.
The second officer advanced on the guy, gun drawn, and pulled him up by the zip-ties.“Jesus.What happened to him?”
“He broke in through the balcony door.I stopped him,” I answered.
The officer looked from me to the man, then back to me.“You live here?”
