AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The door slammed behind her and she nearly jumped out of her shoes.
Will must have heard her gasp. “Hannah? What is it?” He didn’t even give her time to respond. “Ryder, get up there!”
“Hold up. I’m fine. Just a little jumpy. The room is empty.” She looked closer. “In fact, it doesn’t look like anyone has been here at all.”
“Ryder, head that way. Just in case.”
The bed looked pristine.
“Maybe housekeeping was already there?” Pierce offered.
“Maybe…” she said hesitantly. This felt odd. She looked in the closet, but there was no suitcase to be seen. No clothes hung up.
She opened the drawers. Nothing.
“There’s nothing here,” she relayed to the team. “No clothes. No toiletries. No rumpled bed sheets. Either he checked out, or he isn’t staying here.”
“Pierce, you keep an eye on the lobby. Ryder, I want you up there. Now.” Will’s orders left no room for argument.
“What do you want me to do?” She fingered the small recording device in her pocket. It didn’t seem like placing it would do any good, but she wasn’t the expert.
“It’s not him!” Tank’s voice was louder and more forceful than she’d ever heard before. “Slippery son-of-a. The hat wasn’t him. Or it was and he arranged for a body double. I do NOT have Yuri in my sights. Repeat, Yuri is unaccounted for.”
“Get her out of there!” Will yelled.
Hannah turned and headed for the door of the hotel when the door to the adjoining room crashed open in front of her. She screamed at the sight of Kuznetsov, gun pointed at her.
“You’re done now. Where’s the video, you nosy little–”
Hannah wasn’t going to wait for his little speech. Instead, she rushed him, ducking low enough to slip under the gun he pointed at her. He grunted at the impact, falling to the ground of the adjoining room. She immediately spun away and clawed at the door to the room, flinging it open. Noise exploded as an impact to the center of her back thrust her forward, scrambling into the hallway. He must be inches away. She sprinted toward the elevators, ignoring the intense knot of pain in her spine.
Should she yell? This man wouldn’t hesitate to gun down innocent bystanders. But more witnesses meant he couldn’t slither away unseen.
She took a deep breath and yelled at the top of her lungs for help. “A man attacked me!”
She heard a few doors open behind her, but she kept running. “Call the police!” she hollered. The sound of a gunshot reverberated through the narrow hallway, plaster exploding ahead of her.
She glanced behind her and saw Yuri stalking down the hallway toward her, gun raised. Shrieks of surprise and horror came from the few hotel guests who had opened their doors. They immediately slammed them closed.
No one was coming to her rescue.
She kept running, air coming in short gasps against the pain.
Suddenly, the door ahead to her left opened. “In here!” It was Ryder, holding open the door to the stairwell. “Go down,” he ordered. “Don’t stop.”
Ryder followed her, exchanging gunfire with the assassin as her feet flew down the steps as fast as they could without tripping. Conversation continued in her ear, but she couldn’t follow it. She could barely hear it over her pulse pounding. And maybe a bit of shell shock from the gunshots. Then, she realized that there was no more gunfire. Yuri wasn’t chasing them. Still, she kept her feet moving as fast as a rattlesnake strike.
On the sixth floor, Ryder had her duck into the hallway. Will, Pierce, and Jackson were there. “What happened? How did we miss it?”
Will shook his head. “I don’t know, but he’s still one step ahead of us somehow.” He looked at the others. “Tank’s waiting at the van for you. Hannah, I want you with me in the SUV.”
She nodded, feeling her heart rate lower just hearing him take the lead. Will was steadfast and calm, despite everything that had just happened. How did he do that?
Ryder pointed toward the stairs. “Let’s go get him, Will. It’s four against one.”
“Three, because I’m not leaving Hannah’s side again. And he clearly planned for this. I don’t know how, but he knew we were going to be here. He knew we would get that room number. Joey? Figure out the name on the room next door.”
“On it,” came Joey’s voice through the comms.
