Backing away, I turned and raced toward the room. The smoke was even thicker, making seeing more than a few inches in front impossible. I remained close to the wall, still slammed by people trying to get away. I had to cover my mouth and nose, my eyes stinging.
When I was finally close to the room, I heard a crash coming from inside. Prepared to fight, I smashed my way inside, thankful the smoke wasn’t as thick.
There were two men dressed in black. One had Vivian off the floor, trying to drag her to the door. She was fighting him, smashing her elbow into his chest.
As soon as the interior was breached, the second made the mistake of trying to blow my head off. He was too close to Vivian. If the shots went awry, she could be killed. Thank God, I hadn’t lost all sense of my training or my ability to react. With a swift kick, I knocked the weapon from his hand, the gun flying across the room.
He wasn’t daunted, lunging at me while the other was still trying to drag Vivian from the room.
She yelped just as she managed to jerk free, tumbling forward with the man immediately closing in.
I punched the other one in the face, knocking him backwards. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed she grabbed the IV stand, swinging and making a direct contact across the assailant’s neck.
Neither assailant was stopped, both struggling to their feet. I swung around, pushing her to the side and taking a single shot.With the smoke now rolling in and my vision clouded, I was off by a few inches, catching him in the shoulder.
He was flung to the side, colliding with the bed. The melee grew even more violent, one of them managing to grab me around the throat from behind. He was strong, both were. And neither one of them was Mikhail. That didn’t mean he hadn’t developed his own army. He’d had a year to do so.
With Vivian’s sharp cry and the asshole managing to drag her to the door, I was finished with playing a nice guy.
“Fucking asshole,” the assailant blurted out through gritted teeth. The fucker had a distinctive accent, his voice loud enough to carry toward Vivian.
When the asshole punched me in the kidney, pain vibrated through every cell, digging deep into my bones. For a moment I was breathless. Until he pulled out a knife, doing his best to drag the blade from one side to the other. Hell, no.
I struggled for a few seconds, still weak but I had just enough strength in me to lean forward, tossing him over my shoulders. As soon as he was pitched to the floor, I didn’t waste another second, firing off two shots between his eyes.
A ragged growl left my throat as I snapped my head toward the second son of a bitch. I threw myself toward him, managing to grab him by the collar. Vivian was knocked into the door from the momentum, sliding to the floor.
He swung wildly, catching me in the jaw, but I was fully awake and present, pounding him in the gut twice before knocking him halfway across the room with the back of my weapon.
“Eeeerrrr!” My yell was primal and I lunged forward just as he lifted his weapon, prepared to fire.
“No!” Vivian screamed, an object hurtling through the air and smashing into the man’s arm.
He was completely knocked off guard. Before he had a chance to regroup, I threw two more punches, so angry I smashed his head against the wall several times.
Only when he was dazed did I drop him, standing over the bastard with my arm extended. “Ty vybral ne togo cheloveka dlya napadeniya. YA ne v nastroyenii.”
You picked the wrong man to attack. I’m not in the mood.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
I made certain the fucker wouldn’t move again before lowering my arm. Every muscle in my body was on fire and I was completely out of breath.
“Kirill.”
Vivian. Her voice was so small, so full of anxiety.
Spinning around, in two long strides I was crouched down and had her in my arms. “It’s okay,Milyy malysh. I’ve got you and no one is ever going to hurt you again.”
I only hoped I could make good on my promise.
Because it seemed as if all hell was breaking loose.
And the Ghost wouldn’t stop until he was finished destroying the entire family.
He could fucking try, but he wasn’t going to hurt my family. Not again. Not ever again.
* * *
