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I step back to avoid the blood pooling on the wood floor, and Arnold McGowan yells and jumps back. “What in the fuck did you do?”
The SUVs are lined up in the grass outside the inn, and men I recognize—men without masks on—are moving towards the inn, guns raised.
I move to step out onto the porch, but there is a hand around my neck, holding me back. I sputter for breath as Arnold McGowan yanks me back inside.
“You are mine. I bought you,” he growls. “You are coming with me.”
He tries to take me back down the hallway, but I can see Grigory moving towards the front door of the inn. I am so close to being rescued. I can’t stop fighting now.
I thrash, throwing my entire weight in every direction so Arnold has to use both arms to hold onto me.
He wraps his arms around my middle, picking me up off my feet, but he doesn’t have my arms pinned to my side, and I still have the scalpel.
He realizes this after it is already too late.
I slash the blade across his neck just as he lets go of me.
I drop to the floor, pain roaring through my tailbone, but it has to be better than Arnold feels. Blood is spurting from his neck, not quite as lethally as it did from Edgar’s, but it still isn’t good.
Arnold stumbles away, clutching at his neck, but his hands grow slippery with blood.
“Eve.”
I turn and see Grigory and four other men standing in the entryway. He gestures me aside with his weapon, lifts it, and pulls the trigger.
Arnold drops to the floor behind me, lifeless.
I run towards my friends, my family. “Luka is in there somewhere. And there are a bunch of women in red and purple dresses. They are innocent. Don’t hurt them. But find Luka.”
Luka, Luka, Luka.
His name is my heartbeat, my only purpose.
I understand how he felt now. When I asked him to save the other women, when I insisted it was important, he told me he cared about nothing but me. I couldn’t understand it in the moment, but I see it now. I feel it.
If I left this inn with just Luka, it would be okay. I would survive.
Without him, though? I’m not sure. I can’t imagine how my body would go on if he wasn’t in the world.
“I need a gun.” I spin around and hold out a hand to the men. “Now.”
Grigory looks from me to the men around him and then back. “We have guns. Stick close to us and—”
“My husband is your leader, and I just gave you a direct order,” I hiss. “So give me a fucking gun.”
Grigory stiffens, then half bows before nodding to the skinny man on his side. I recognize him as a newer recruit. This is probably one of his first missions. He looks disappointed as he hands me his gun and heads back out to the SUV, but I don’t mind. He’ll have plenty more.
As for me, I hope it will be my last.
I tiptoe through Edgar’s blood to grab the keys from his inside jacket pocket. Then, Grigory goes in front of me, listening as I direct him to the small room in the servants’ quarters where Luka and I were being held.
As soon as the door opens, Luka lunges forward, holding the metal table over his head. He swings it, and I see the moment he recognizes the men in front of him as his own.
He throws his weight to the side quickly, barely missing Grigory, and nearly falls over.
“Shit, it is good to see you,” he says, limping to a standing position. “Where is Eve? Is she—”
I step forward, and Luka wraps me in his arms.
