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“Stay here,” Mikhail said. Didn’t he get tired of it? “I’ll get him. If anything happens, get the hell downstairs. Do not try to help me, understand?”
I couldn’t take my eyes off the way the chair wobbled at the edge, as if I could keep it from falling over with the sheer force of my mind. I let Mikhail move slowly closer to Leo, determined to stay put and keep using my invisible twin powers to keep him safe. But I couldn’t stand the suspense and scrambled after him.
Up close, I could see that the psychopaths had tied the chair to a rope connected to an old air conditioning unit near the stairwell. The rope scraped over a rough concrete block so that it began to fray every time Leo moved or the chair shifted. It was already halfway to snapping. I had never been so glad to see my brother unconscious because any more struggling to free himself would have been his certain demise.
Mikhail got to him before me, reaching for Leo when there was a scuffle behind me. Whirling around, I saw two armed men emerging from behind the stairwell, looking more shocked to see me than I was them.
Their surprise and a single second of hesitation saved my life. I had my gun at the ready, and before the first one could get a hand on his, I shouted to warn Mikhail. At the same time, I squeezed the trigger. The first one dropped with a neat hole through his forehead, and I turned my gun on the second, but Mikhail had already turned and laid him out with a shot through the chest. He stomped over, put another slug in his head to make sure, and then faced me.
“We have to work fast. There might be others in the area who heard the shots.”
We dragged Leo back from the edge, and Mikhail whipped out a knife to cut away the thick ropes and zip ties that bound him. My brother must have put up a hell of a fight to warrant all that. I fervently hoped he broke some bones before they got the better of him, the damn cowards.
I gently patted his battered cheeks, and he groaned but didn’t open his eyes. It was enough, for now, to know he was alive, but he was in terrible shape. With some effort, Mikhail hoisted him over his shoulder and carried him down the stairs. I followed, trying to make sure his head didn’t get jostled too much, but Mikhail was in a hurry.
The sound of gunshots greeted us just as I was about to open the front door, and we dropped down. As Mikhail laid Leo on the ground and readied his gun, I peeked out over the edge of a window. The three SUVs were parked in a line. Mikhail’s men were all hunkered down behind them, intermittently rising up to fire off a shot. Still, they were pinned in their position since the other shooters had higher ground.
“Two on the roof across from us,” I said, dropping below the window. “My gun doesn’t have the range, and I’m not sure I can make that shot with yours,” I said.
Mikhail crawled over and had a look for himself. “I might be able to get one of them, but it’s fifty-fifty, and even if I did, it’d alert the other to our position.”
From behind us, I heard a familiar groan and whipped around to see Leo raise his bloody face. “Give me the gun,” he said, his split, swollen lips curling into a grin as best he could. “God, my face hurts. Actually, everything hurts.”
I crawled to his side and grabbed his hand. “You look like shit, too,” I said, my eyes filling with tears.
With a Herculean effort, he sat up with another pained groan. “Quit acting like a baby,” he said, weakly squeezing my hand. He blinked a few times in Mikhail’s direction before recognizing him. “Oh, hey, Mikhail. It’s been a long time.”
“Lie back down and save your strength,” he told him. “We can catch up later when my guys get us out of here.”
With heaving breaths, Leo dragged himself to the window and looked out. “They’re not getting a shot. I can do it. Give me your gun.”
“We already discussed this,” Mikhail said. “I could probably take one out, but it would give away our position. I won’t risk them knowing your sister is here.”
Leo closed his eyes, and I thought he might have slipped back into unconsciousness again, but he was only gathering strength. “Youmightbe able to get one, but Icanget both. Nobody’s fucking with Evelina today.”
I beamed at him, then reached for Mikhail’s gun. “Nobody can shoot like Leo,” I said proudly. “If he says he can get them, he’ll get them.”
“Your shoulder’s clearly broken, and your eye is swollen shut,” Mikhail argued.
I kept holding out my hand. “He can do it with no shoulders and no eyes.”
Leo laughed, then groaned at the pain. “I don’t remember the last time I ate, and I’m in a lot of fucking pain,” he said, all seriousness now. “Give me the gun.”
I wriggled it from Mikhail’s grasp and handed it over, then asked Leo if he needed any help. He took a few moments to decide on the right place to take aim, and Mikhail helped him move over a couple feet. I knelt behind him to steady him if the recoil knocked him back into his weakened state, even though he told me I was being silly.
“I think you’re drawing things out for dramatic effect,” I said. “Go ahead and finish this if you’re so hungry.”
And just like that, with two rapid-fire and expertly aimed shots, the snipers were neutralized. He slipped back below the window, all his teasing and bravado spent. He gave me another lopsided smile before closing his eyes.
“He’s out again,” I said, making sure his pulse was still strong.
“I’ll be damned,” Mikhail said. “He actually did it.”
A few moments later, Andre shouted the all-clear, and Mikhail took Leo under the shoulders, deciding he could be dragged the last few yards to the car. “He’s as big as I am,” he said when I indignantly disagreed with him.
Andre came in and helped carry him more gently, and I kept my gun up the last few steps to the car in case anyone else popped out. Once they had him sprawled across the third-row backseat, I scrambled in after him, almost expecting Mikhail to ride up front again.
But he got in next to me, and the driver closed the door before trotting around to get us moving again. I reached for his hand and tried to say everything I felt, but I could only smile at him and hold on. He had not only saved me from the Novikoffs, though it took me a bit to realize that was what he was doing, he’d also saved Leo.
