Page 66 of The Pakhan’s Heir

“Th-There are police,” I hiss at him. “All over the place. We can alert one of them⁠—”

“You know better than that,” he says. “They’ll shoot through them to get to us. Now, stop arguing and let’s go.”

A panic comes over me as he goes to take my hand and I pull away. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

He grabs my wrist and pulls me to him. “We don’t have time to argue, Nona,” he says through clenched teeth. “Do not cause a scene. We need to get out of here fast and quiet⁠—”

“And then what?” I ask him. “You’ll take me back home and Alex will lock me up so I don’t try this again?”

“No one’s locking you up, dammit. Stop making this so hard— Hey!”

I push him away and start to run, leaving my suitcase and everything and running for the gates. My mind spins as to what I need to do. Scream, flag somebody down, tell a cop or something that I’m being chased. I only get a few steps before I’m grabbed around my waist and lifted up off the ground.

I scream. “Let me go! Let⁠—”

A hand goes over my mouth. I scream through it, kicking and flailing as I’m carried backward. “Stop struggling,” he says in Russian. “I’ll break your fucking neck⁠—”

I hear a pop and the smell of gunpowder. The hand around my mouth jerks away and the arm loosens around my waist as my attacker swears loudly in Russian. I look up to see Kostya with his gun trained on us.

Chaos breaks out around us. Someone shouts something like He’s got a gun! And suddenly, everyone’s running. The station is filled with panicking people all around us, people darting away from us and calling for the police. Everyone’s running for cover as quickly as they can.

Except us. The man holding me pulls out his own gun and aims it at Kostya. I think fast and grab at his arm. He tries moving it away from me, lifting it up out of my reach. I manage to grab it and lean in, biting him as hard as I can. He yells and he doubles over, yanking his arm away from me and pushing me to the floor.

As I land on my ass, I see my attacker for just a split second. I know his face. He’s one of my father’s men. One of the ones that used to watch over me when I was younger. He’s still got that stupid mustache and scraggly beard.

Blood spurts from his chest as Kostya unloads two more shots into his chest. As he falls back, I’m being pulled to my feet.

“Let’s go,” he says. We start running back up the hallway toward the main entrance, but we only get a few steps before Kostya’s tackled to the ground. Another of my father’s men. He slams him against the adjacent wall and punches him once. He tries again, but Kostya blocks it with his arm and drives an elbow into his face, smashing his nose.

As they fight, someone grabs my arm and I look up to see it’s another of my father’s men. “Time to go, Nona⁠—”

I turn and slap him over and over. The first one connects, but he puts his arm up to block the next one and grabs my arm, twisting it behind my back. I hit him in the side of his head with my free arm and he grabs hold of it and traps me in a bear hug, shouting over my head at the guy who’s now got Kostya pinned to the ground.

“Wrap it up!” he shouts in Russian.

Kostya’s in trouble. The other guy is straddling him, his hands around his throat. He lifts his head up and slams it into the ground once… then again…

I’m trying to get free, but I’m bound by this guy’s massive arms. I manage to scratch his face and he loosens his grip. Before I can get away, he pulls me in and wraps his arms around my waist, getting a better grip on me. “Stop! You’re killing him!” I shout to the guy on top of Kostya.

Then out of nowhere his body jerks and blood shoots out of his shoulder in bursts of gunfire. The final shot hits him in the side of his head and he falls over.

I look over to see Rikki holding the gun. Next to him is Alex with his gun trained on the man holding me.

“I’m only saying this one time,” he says. “Let her go. Now.”

I feel his chest vibrate against my back as he laughs. “You wouldn’t risk hitting⁠—”

A pop and I flinch, closing my eyes as the smell of gunpowder surrounds me. The arms loosen around me and suddenly, I’m free. I stumble forward, looking over my shoulder just in time to see him fall, a single gunshot to his head.

Alex walks up to me and takes me by the hand. “We’re leaving.”

I don’t object. Rikki helps Kostya to unsteady feet and the four of us leave the train station.

24

ALEX

The ride back was tense. Kostya was hurt pretty badly even though he kept saying he was fine. The back of his head was bleeding down his neck and staining his shirt in the back seat of the car, even through the rag that Rikki gave him to hold against the wound.