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“Walk." She waves the gun for me to move.
We slip through the shadows of the back hallway, the gun's cold metal against my back. As I fight against rising panic, I consider my options.
I could fight her. Distract her and try to take her down. I’m well trained and in better shape than Nadya, but she’s crazy and has a weapon. That makes her a dangerous opponent.
It may be a long shot, but the only way I have to communicate with Maxim is leaving the test somewhere he will find it, hoping he'll recognize that something is wrong. As Nadya guides me towards the back door, I know this is my only chance.
With a sudden gasp, I cry, "Did you hear that?" I glance upwards as if listening for something far away.
She looks up too, and in that instant, I reach into my pocket and slip the test on the shelf next to me.
Nadya responds with a derisive laugh. “There’s no one to hear your cries, little lastochka,” she sneers, mocking Maxim’s pet name for me.
We emerge into the chilly night, finding a plain dark sedan waiting. I recognize it as part of Maxim’s fleet, but there’s no driver behind the steering wheel. Is she working alone? She pops the trunk, her intention clear.
“Maxim will never forgive you for this,” I threaten. “You know that as well as I do. If you let me go, we can forget th?—”
“Save your breath.”
There’s a sharp pinch at the back of my neck, and then a flood of warmth hits my bloodstream. She drugged me! It shouldn’t surprise me, but somehow it does.
She pushes me forwards into the trunk. I have no choice but to curl up into a ball before she slams the top down with a final thud. The world fades to nothing.
My last thought is a whirlwind of desperation and fear. I don’t know when Maxim’s coming back. I don’t know when someone will discover I’m gone. Hell, I don’t know how deepNadya’s betrayal goes. The only thing I know for sure is that I need to keep myself and my baby alive any way I can.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
MAXIM
We waituntil nightfall to make our move. My men and I have surrounded the Swiss villa where the Black Company's top lieutenants are hiding out. It’s not often that I join on this kind of mission, my face too high-profile to be caught carpet-bombing the enemy, but I wouldn’t miss taking down these mudaks for the world. These fuckers are the cause of my incessant nightmares. They came after Kira, and that alone sealed their fate.
But tonight, it ends.
I give the word and like a well-oiled machine, my team cuts the power. The villa plunges into darkness, a tangible silence spreading like a virus. Panicked shouts fill the night as Black Company guards wake up to the fact that something is happening.
On my mark, my men advance on the house. We’re a small but well trained team. I took only my best men with me. Roman, to my left, signals two fingers—our entry point is clear. We glide through the breached fence silently. Most of my team takes theleft, towards the front of the villa, but Pavel, Roman, and I go right, around the back. Lai King is mine to kill.
A pair of guards emerge from the villa's rear, flashlights cutting through the blackness. They don’t see us coming until it's far too late. Pavel and Roman take the guards out in unison, the silencers helping to mute the gunshots before the men crumple to the ground. Adrenaline surges as we step over the fallen and push forwards into the villa. We still have chaos on our side, but that won’t last long, so we need to locate King before he figures out we’re here and beelines to the safe room.
Through my ear-piece, Konstantin reports that Lai King is still above ground. "Second floor, office at the end of the hall," he says. “All guards on the ground floor were taken out.”
“Copy that,” Roman says, taking point, while Pavel covers the rear.
We take the stairs two at a time, turning the corner when we reach the second floor, pausing to make sure the area is clear and to orient ourselves. We studied the floor plan of the villa on the plane, but it’s different when you’re on the ground.
“Fuck!” Pavel’s pained words ring out behind me.
I spin, gun at the ready, to find my friend staggering, holding his side where blood's coming out fast. What the fuck happened?
A shadow detaches from the wall, knife in hand. From a crouched position, Pavel raises his gun but doesn’t shoot. Because it’s not a guard who attacked him. It’s a young woman, her face streaked with tears, the knife in her hand still bloody.
Woman or not, she has to go.
My finger tightens on the trigger, but Pavel's voice cuts through the tension. "Don't!"
My moment of pause buys her a precious second, and she's running before I can make a move, disappearing into the darkness. I curse under my breath. What the fuck was that? Does he know her?
There’s no time for questions. Whoever she is, she’s clearly not a soldier—she looked shaken and scared. While I won’t count her out entirely, I’m also not going to change course to follow her.
