Page 66 of Russian Rescue

“I’ve got no eyes in that room, Piper. You may need to go to Wes,” Knox said.

“Roger that,” she responded. “I’ll be ready to move if Wes needs me.”

I heard footsteps coming toward me, so I stopped talking and pushed lower underneath the desk.

Dark black shoes came into sight and stopped short of the desk.

“What the hell?” a man whispered in Russian.

Shit. He sees the files copying.

As I slowly pulled my gun out of the holster, my heart pounded against my chest. Maybe I’d been a little too confident in my newfound special agent skills and hadn’t really thought this through. Then I remembered my family’s lives depended on this, as well as countless others. No matter what the cost, I needed to get that data out of this room and into the hands of the Russians.

Panic pushed my heart to racing as he stepped right in front of the computer, his feet only inches from my hiding place. I carefully aimed my sights at his leg.

His comms crackled to life. “I need help in the—”

I didn’t let him finish the sentence that would bring guards descending onto me. I pulled the trigger of my silenced pistol. He yowled in pain when the bullet tore through his calf, then I launched forward, tackling him to the ground. His walkie-talkie went flying and slid to a stop in the far corner.

I rolled on top of him, pinning him with the weight of my body.

His eyes went big when they locked with mine. “You! It’s you. You’re the hacker I’ve been hunting.”

The other hacker. Had to be. “Are you the one who found me?” I asked as I pressed my gun to his head.

He swallowed hard. “Yes. I am Dima.”

“Well, Dima. We have two choices here. One, I kill you and finish my mission. Two, I tie you up, and you sit there like a good boy while I finish my mission. But no matter what, I finish my mission.”

Dima’s dark brown eyes filled with fear as they stared up at me.

“Pretty Boy,” Knox cut into my ear. “You need to take him out. Too much risk leaving him alive.”

Bile churned in my throat at the thought of killing a man not in the heat of battle. I’d killed once, and knew I could do it again, but to pull the trigger while his fear-filled eyes stared up at me? I didn’t think I had it in me.

“Please, don’t kill me,” Dima begged. “I won’t interfere. Please, don’t kill me.”

His pleading shredded apart my conscience as I weighed my decision. Kill him in cold blood and be certain he couldn’t call for help or try to save his life and be the kind of man my parents had raised me to be?

“I’m like you,” Dima said. “They force me to do what they want. I swear it. I’ll help you.”

“Wes,” Piper popped in. “Men staring at the face of death will say anything to survive. You can’t believe him. I know this is an impossible decision, but you need to take him out. Now.”

“I don’t think I can,” I answered back as I saw a tear glisten in Dima’s eye.

“I’m coming to you,” Piper said. “Just sit tight, and I’ll follow along your path and be there soon to handle this. Knox, get ready to guide me.”

“Roger that,” he answered.

I continued pressing my weight onto Dima while the weight of his life crushed me to the ground. Millions of innocent people depended on me getting that information out of here, but kill him in cold blood to be certain I increased my chances of getting it out? I wasn’t a killer. As I sucked in a ragged breath, I realized that even though Piper had taught me how to fight and kill, and I would do it without question to protect myself and the ones I love, I was missing a key piece that separated me from the rest of my team. I didn’t have what it took to kill Dima, and I knew the rest of them wouldn’t have hesitated.

“You won’t put up a fight or call for help?” I asked.

“No. Please. Don’t hurt me,” Dima begged.

“Pretty Boy, don’t believe him,” Knox said.

I ignored him.