Page 83

He goes down instantly and the gun clatters somewhere on the floor. I land hard on my injured shoulder and the pain from the dislocation flares up like bolts grinding together in my joints. It's enough to take my breath away for a moment, but I force it away, roll over, and pick myself up.

Leo tries to follow but he stumbles, disoriented from my punch.

I need to get him away from Illyana. Grabbing him by the collar of his shirt, I haul him up from the floor and drag his tripping form away from the bed and toward the door. Halfway there, he gets his feet underneath him and he slams his shoulder into my gut. Momentum from the shove sends us both crashing into the hallway with the door clattering loudly against the wall.

"You motherfucker!" Leo yells. "I'm going to kill you! I'm going to kill you for real this time!"

Fire ignites in my limbs as Leo gains a second wind and attacks with fury. Punches rain down upon me and I block as many as I can with my forearm and hands, but my weakened shoulder puts me at a disadvantage and two of his punches collide with my face.

I ram my knee into his gut, slam my elbow down onto his shoulder, and shove him off with a growl, then I scramble to my feet just as Valentina rushes out of Sabina's room.

"Illyana's in there!" I yell, pointing, then I turn and charge at Leo with a loud roar.

We collide like a crack of thunder and I slam him into the wall, sending plaster and debris raining down around us. Leo throws his elbow down on my busted shoulder, and the pain is blinding. I choke and can't block him fast enough. Two solid right hooks to the face and I'm dizzy.

My brain rattles around my skull, and Leo lifts his leg, kicking me blindingly hard in the gut with more strength than I'd expect from a man his age. Stumbling backward, I collide with a door and topple back into a dark room. Dust clogs my lungs on my next breath in through a bloodied nose, and I try to stand.

I almost get there until Leo throws himself at me with a snarl. We collide and crash down onto the floor, only we don't stop there. Weakened wooden supports immediately snap under our combined weight and the floor caves in, sending us both down into the next floor, only there is no floor. Construction has the entire floor ripped up, so we collide with a single wooden beam that splits us apart on impact.

I try to grab it but my nails carve through the soft wood and I'm falling again, colliding with soft insulation and even softer wooden paneling that completely crumbles under our combined weight. It momentarily slows our fall, giving me a second to catch my breath as pain racks my body. Then the paneling breaks. Leo and I plunge into bright light to a chorus of alarmed cries and screams and I crash down onto the podium at the top of the curved staircases.

Everything goes black.

Then white.

My ears ring.

Pain blooms through my body in warmth radiating from my joints and limbs. Every breath is like trying to gasp through broken glass and blood floods the back of my mouth.

I can't move.

I can't see.

The screams and cries ripple around me and somewhat die down as a voice suddenly booms through the crowd, but I can't understand what is being said. Then a foot nudges into my gut and I'm kicked until I roll over.

The gaping hole above me is blocked by Leo's severely bloodied, grinning face. He holds one arm around his body as if trying to hold his ribs together and then he steps forward, his weight landing on a shard of wood from the railing that's become embedded in my leg. The moment he twists it, my stomach lurches upward and agony splits me in half.

"You see?" Leo gasps and he lifts his head, blood streaming from his torn lower lip. "These bastards are supposed to protect us but this fucker tried to kill me because he's jealous?"

"Jealous," agrees a different voice I know.

Who is that? Wait… is that Boris?

My entire world blurs as pain racks through my body once more and Boris's dull tones cut through the ringing in my ears.

"Suit or no Suit, no one is allowed to kill without reason and least of all because of jealousy. And to bring this shit to my gala? To disrespect my daughter and me? How dare anyone think this is acceptable?"

"An eye for an eye," comes Leo's grinning sneer, and I weakly lock eyes with him.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," comes a much calmer voice that seems to cut through the crowd like a blade cutting through water.

I know that voice.

I know him.

Oh, thank God. Bradley.

"Of course," Bradley says, his voice distant and yet somehow so clear. "If you want to continue, then by all means, but I'll come up there and kill you myself before your finger even touches the trigger."