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Just a few more feet…I managed to snatch my phone off the table and with shaky fingers, I called Kristoff.
“Katya. If you’re calling because—”
“We’re under attack.”
I yelped when a hand clamped onto my shoulder. It happened in a heartbeat, though it more felt like slow motion. A burly man made a grab for my phone. I didn’t think and acting on instinct, pulled the trigger.
His eyes widened in surprise as he stared at the bloodstain on his belly. That’s when my training kicked back in. I kicked at his knee, and when he stumbled back, I gave him another kick until he lost his balance and fell into the pool.
“Katya! Katya!”
Kristoff’s frantic voice faded into the background. All I could concentrate on was the man I’d just shot. Had I killed him? I had no time to check.
Then the silence hit me. I took in my surroundings. Where was Yuri? The hairs on the back of my neck rose in warning. A beefy set of arms clasped around me and pinned my limbs to my sides.
I groaned in pain. What the hell was this? Was the asshole half boa constrictor or something? I dropped the phone and the gun.
The second my gun hit the marble tiles, the arms let me go. I ducked to make a grab for my weapon, but the same beefy hand pulled me up by my hair.
They roughly turned me around until I faced my captor. It was a bald man in his forties with a pot belly. Slivers of a memory pushed to the surface. I’d seen him on campus just the other day.
“Kolev,” he bellowed over my shoulder.
A man in a dark suit appeared by his side. Baldy handed Kolev my phone. I heard Kristoff call my name one more time before he went silent.
“Talk to him,” Kolev commanded me.
I shook my head, stalling in the hopes that help would arrive. Or some other kind of miracle would occur, like an earthquake or a meteor hitting Earth.
His hand wrapped around my throat and choked me. My eyes teared up, and I was unable to draw in a single breath. Just when I thought I was going to pass out, he released me. I dropped onto my knees, gasping for air.
He lowered to his haunches next to me and pushed the phone to my ear.
“Talk to him.”
This time I did as he asked. “Kristoff?” I hated the tremble in my voice.
The phone was yanked away, and another guy hauled me up.
“Now that you’ve heard proof of life, let’s talk,” said my captor into the phone.
“Kolev. If you hurt her, I will find you and I will gut you. I’ll fucking torture you like no one in the history of torture has been tortured.”
Despite the baking sun, I shivered at the ice in Kristoff’s voice.
Kolev’s laugh boomed around the pool. “Is that any way to talk to your new partner, my friend?”
He twirled his finger and something sharp jammed into my neck. I gasped from the pain, then everything went black.
***
KRISTOFF
I thought I knew rage, but I’d been wrong. Never in my life had I felt something like this—the rush of black waves crashing over me when I discovered someone had taken Katya.
I slumped back onto the couch, my feet frozen to the carpet. The living room had turned into a war headquarters with the Bloody Ones by my side, making calls, putting out feelers to find the Bulgarian, that soon-to-be-dead fucker, Kolev.
The phone dropped out of my hand. Frost settled over my limbs, while icy rage pounded through my veins, making my head throb.
