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“Fucking idiots,” she said.
It all happened within the blink of an eye. I couldn’t fully comprehend what was happening as she withdrew her gun and pulled the trigger twice. It took me until the men began toppling down the stairs before I entirely understood what I was seeing. I flinched back, unable to breathe as she turned the gun on me. I felt my limbs seize and tremble.
This was why guns terrified me. I’d seen them do too many monstrous things, and I couldn’t ever unsee it. I stared down the barrel, terror coursing through me as I considered what Sean would do without me. Would Viktor be capable of loving him after losing me?
“I understand what they were saying,” Nadia said, clicking her tongue and looking around me. “We definitely need another taro. The last thing I want is your blood staining my house. Theirs is expendable, but if Viktor finds your blood here, I’m fucked.”
She tucked her gun away and turned toward the basement steps, stepping over one of the bodies as if it were no more important than a sack of potatoes. I retched as she left my sight, but nothing came up as I realized how little time I had to escape. I recalled my dad teaching me as a young teenager how to escape ties, and I did exactly as he’d shown me, bending my thumb inward at an almost painful angle and pulling it through the loop gently. I made quick work of it as Nadia rummaged through the basement, and when I slipped my second tie, I bolted toward the front door of the house.
I couldn’t be silent. The floors creaked and the sound of each footstep echoed through the entire place. The moment I took the first step, Nadia came charging. But I could make it. Once I was outside, I’d run in a zigzag and scream for help. Somebody would help me, and if not, I’d continue running until I lost her.
It was my only option.
I grabbed the door handle and twisted it, but it didn’t budge. I made quick work of checking the lock and found it jammed. I twisted hard, finally pulling it free before twisting and—
A body slammed into me from behind, and we crumpled to the floor. I didn’t hesitate to kick out my legs and fling Nadia backward. Her gun slammed into the ground and skidded across the room, and I knew I had two options. I could go for the door again and let her get her gun, or I could get the gun for myself and end this. The second option meant facing my fears. It meant touching the one thing I’d avoided my entire life, and it meant using it to hurt someone.
But it was the only way I’d get out of this.
If I tried to run, I knew I wouldn’t make it far, so I dove, hoping that despite my lack of training, I’d be able to survive this.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Viktor Nikolaev
Damien stayed behind to check the cameras we had around town while Andrei and I took our bikes to check out two separate warehouses. I had my earpiece in as I revved my bike’s engine and wove through traffic, running red lights and stop signs with no regard for any life aside from Ciara’s.
“Damien, talk to me,” I shouted into my motorcycle helmet.
“I don’t see anything,” he said, and I could hear the frantic way he spoke. “They disappeared after they left our street.”
We needed another plan. While Nadia might have taken Ciara to one of our storage facilities, it was unlikely. Nadia didn’t know we were onto her, and she knew our facilities were rigged with motion sensor cameras. But until we had another direction, I had to check wherever I could. I had to find Ciara before—
I wouldn’t even allow myself to consider that something had already happened. Ciarawouldbe okay. I’d make sure of it.
“Check the county webpage for properties under her name,” I suggested. “Anything that she owns that we don’t know about.”
I couldn’t hear the keys typing with the loud engine roaring beneath me, but I knew he was searching for what I’d asked. I pulled into the warehouse and rounded the building, finding no vehicles or signs of life inside. The motion light outside the building didn’t turn on until I ramped onto the sidewalk and veered into the front door.
Locked.
The lights were on a thirty-minute timer, and they would have still been here if she had been here.
“This warehouse is clear,” I said, riding the motorcycle around the sidewalk and peeking through all the vacant windows. A thick layer of dust had gathered along them, and it had been undisturbed. “Andrei?”
“I’m almost to the second one,” he said.
“Damien?”
“Shit, I’m looking. It looks like… she had the deed to an unfinished construction in the city,” he said, rattling off a street name. “I’m still searching.”
“I’m heading there now,” I said, ramping the curb again and taking off toward that street. I hoped beyond all odds that she’d be there—that I’d find her and Ciara in that house. I couldn’t fathom another outcome. I didn’t even want to consider if she’d brought Ciara straight to the new Irish boss. I’d kill Nadia, and then I’d kill the boss and his whole damned family.
I rode in silence, considering the small armory I wore beneath and over top of my clothes. A hunting knife, three guns, and two more hidden blades beneath my clothes. I was prepared to take on an army of people for Ciara, and they wouldn’t see me coming.
“That’s the only thing in her name,” Damien said from the other end of the line. I wove between a minivan and a Corvette, ignoring the horn honk from the sports car. I wouldn’t let anyone get in my way. “That’s the only other place that she may be. I can head in that direction, but it’s fifteen minutes out. I already called the housekeeper to come and keep an eye on Sean.”
“I’m two minutes out,” I said.
