Page 112 of Essence of Fear

He didn’t smile.

Didn’t blink.

Nothing.

“Don’t talk to her,” Boris snarled.

He pushed the gun harder against Viktoria’s head. She swallowed hard but didn’t look away from her brother. There was something in Konstantin’s eyes—a glimmer of calm that she had never seen from him before. A resolute understanding that he was in control here, even if it didn’t look like it.

Maybe that was what calmed her the most.

She couldn’t be sure.

“I never forgot,” her brother said. “How standing next to Boris, you seemed so small. I would think … he’s not a good match. He would swallow you whole, and there you would be, shadowed against him. You were far too brilliant to be hidden by any man, Viktoria. Do you understand me?”

She nodded.

Boris’ arm tightened around her throat. “I said don’t talk to her.”

“Or what?” Konstantin asked, his gaze snapping to the man. “Or what?”

Boris jerked forward.

Konstantin smiled.

It was just enough—just beyond the doorway a little. A few inches, maybe a foot, if that. But the gunshot that echoed, shattered through the glass of the window behind Konstantin’s desk, and then plugged into the side of Boris’ shoulder had Viktoria freezing in place.

All the air left her lungs.

Her body stiffened.

She felt the blood splatter the side of her face. She knew she could finally breathe when his arm loosened around her neck. Her entire body screamed for her to move away from him as he fell to the floor with a shout, and the gun in his hand clattered across the floor.

She didn’t move, though. She didn’t know what to do. Konstantin moved, instead.

He was quick to come around the desk after grabbing his own weapon, which he apparently had hidden somewhere. Pointing the weapon at Boris, he looked to her.

“You okay?”

She shook her head.

His blood was on her.

She wanted it off.

“Sniper shot—courtesy of the Albanians,” Konstantin explained when Viktoria looked at the ruined window. “We were owed a favor … or two. I knew I couldn’t trust this bastard if he was working with Vadim. How many other men of mine would be working with them, too? I had to go outside the organization for help.”

She dragged in a raged breath.

It literally hurt to breathe.

“You had to think like Vadim,” she whispered.

Konstantin nodded. “But just enough … I can’t be him, too.”

“I know, Konstantin.”

“I’m sorry.”