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Will kept his gun trained on their target, but took a moment to move back toward where he’d left Hannah, desperately needing to see that she was safe. He hadn’t heard anything from her while he’d been fighting with Darkshade.
The spot behind the green van was empty though, and he whirled around, finding her on the far side of the SUV standing with her feet firmly planted, gun in hand. The look on her face was equal parts fear and determination, and dang if he didn’t admire her for it.
He turned his eyes back to Yuri while speaking to Hannah. “Whoa, whoa. Put the gun down, honey.” He was a brave man, but there was nothing so terrifying as a novice with their gun pointed in your direction.
He glanced back to confirm that Hannah had lowered her weapon. “I wish I could have started with the gun, but the pepper spray was already in my bag. One of the PureBeauty reps gave it to me.”
Will chuckled. That explained Yuri’s initial disorientation.
Yuri swore at Hannah in Russian, colorful language that was not at all complimentary of the amazing woman standing in front of them. Will fired a bullet just to the right of the man’s head, into the concrete pillar behind him, pleased when he flinched.
“Don’t even look at her. You look at me. Hands on your head.”
Yuri stared at him. Will repeated the command in Russian, louder.
“Just kill me,” Yuri said. “I’m dead anyway.”
“Not yet you’re not. I’m afraid the United States government has a few questions for you.”
Yuri scoffed. “You have no idea who you are dealing with, do you?”
Will kept his face masked and glanced at Tank. Ryder and Pierce had joined the party now too.
He lowered his weapon and grabbed a zip tie from his pocket, stashed there for this exact purpose this morning. “Why don’t you enlighten me while I make sure you’re nice and comfortable on our ride back to the airport?”
With the confidence of knowing his team had his back, Will stepped in and grabbed Yuri by the shoulder, forcing his arms together behind his back. Then, he frisked the man thoroughly, a choice that proved worthwhile almost immediately when Will found two small knives tucked in the rear waistband of the man’s pants.
He tossed them in the van and continued his pat down. “Any more?”
Kuznetsov shook his head.
Will paused and found another blade strapped to his ankle. He removed it, then told the man to remove his shoes.
Yuri scoffed. “Are you crazy?”
Will shook his head. “Nope. But I seem to recall seeing a theory that you smuggled a weapon past Buckingham Palace security by hiding it in your shoe. So, off they go.”
Yuri rolled his eyes, but kicked off his shoes, one-by-one. Will tossed them in the van, too. He wanted to look at them closer. After he was relatively sure the man was free of weapons, he grabbed his shoulder again.
“You sit up front again, Hannah.”
He shoved Kuznetsov into the back of the van, opening the other door so Tank still had a clear shot. Then he bound the man’s ankles with a chain of zip ties, nice and tight to make it impossible to get away. Will wasn’t taking any chances. Not with the most wanted man in America.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-TWO
Hannah rode silentlyin the front seat of the van, Jackson once again driving as Will, Tank, and Ryder sat in the back, guns trained on Kuznetsov.
They’d really caught him. And she’d really pepper sprayed him.
Now, they were headed to the airport. Which left her with so many questions. What happened now? She was thrilled that they caught him and that she didn’t have to run anymore. So why did she feel a bit disappointed? She glanced back toward Will and found his eyes on hers.
She desperately wished there weren’t four other people in the van right now. She needed to talk to him and find out where his head was. She should be taking notes and writing down everything that happened so someday she could tell the story.
Instead, all she could think about was how much she was dreading seeing Will and the rest of the team get on that airplane and leave her behind. She shouldn’t be. It wasn’t as if she and Will had made any promises, and she certainly wasn’t anyone someone tended to stay around for.
“Could you just drop me off up here?” She pointed at the Walmart just ahead to the right. It was as good a spot as any to try to start over.
“Don’t even think about it,” said Will, when Jackson started to change lanes.
