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“Sorry, but no. I had a rather in-depth lesson before I came here. I know exactly what I’m doing.”
He arches a brow and looks at Froderick. “Are you willing to bet your life on your aim?”
“Are you?”
His eyes go wide in surprise, and he turns to face me fully. “Perhaps I underestimated you, Miss Balestra. However, I do still have my bargaining chip. Your father. And if you kill me, you’ll never be able to find him.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m not the one who has to worry about making you talk. I have people for that.” No doubt Barry has been keeping the others up to date with the situation, and backup isn’t far away. Just far enough to avoid detection. Even if my shot goes wide, I know only one of us will walk away.
“If you’d like a chance to speak to him, then you will get in my car and come with me.” Drago drops his voice, gives me a curt nod. “Do you understand?”
“I understand what you’re trying to do, but I’m not going to let you get away with it.”
I pull the trigger, and the gun, much larger than the one Ricardo taught me on, knocks back. The shot goes wide and hits the ground at Drago’s feet, sending up a clod of dirt and grass. The old man is surprisingly light on his feet, and before I have a chance to fire again, he’s bounding toward his car.
“Get back here!” Did I just fuck this up?
I can’t let him get away.
Ricardo will be here in a matter of minutes, but waiting for him to get here will mean I’ve lost precious time following Drago.
Froderick’s goons have their weapons drawn on me, but Barry is anything but useless. He used the din to get closer and now fires off a round of shots, the sound inaudible, with the silencer on his weapon. He puts two bullets in each of their heads and follows with a kill shot to Froderick’s heart. Once he’s done, he turns to me, pauses.
“Come, Miss Balestra.” He finally gestures to the car. “We’re leaving.”
“We can’t let them get away.”
“Understood.”
The cleanup crew will arrive soon, I hope. Before the police. But I won’t be here when they arrive. Drago is escaping, and I’m going to follow him.
29
RICARDO
“Fuck!” I scramble off my stomach, the sight of the automatic weapon in front of me trained on the spot where Drago had been standing.
“You should have taken the shot when you had the chance.” Carter is on his feet a second behind me, the movement accompanied by the crack of his knees at his sudden movement.
“I didn’t have a clean shot,” I insist.
And Isabella must have known it. If not consciously, then somewhere deep in the recesses of her mind. She had to know I’d be there watching her, the radio at my side relaying every one of Barry’s observations about the meeting.
She had to go in blind.
Drago, for his part, kept behind one of the slender trunks of the trees and made sure not to stray, as though he’d also scoped out the layout of the cemetery and knew exactly where we’d be. But I hadn’t been expecting Froderick to show up. I should have put one right between his eyes the second he had his hands on Isabella.
The only reason I hadn’t was Carter stilling my hand. But the moment Isabella downed him and Drago moved, I should have pulled the trigger.
I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.
“Get in the goddamn car, Ricardo!” Carter slings the rifle over his shoulder. He’s already got the phone out to call for reinforcements and the cleanup crew. “We’re going after Prokhor.”
It was a chance on our part to take him out before we’ve determined where he’s hiding Edward. A risk we agreed to take considering Drago’s insistence on meeting Isabella at this particular time. Now, my mind spirals uselessly, and my footsteps are sluggish.
Carter continued to bark out commands into his cell before he hung up and pressed the fob to open up the trunk. He stashed the rifle underneath the liner, his movements methodical.
“The more time you waste scratching your ass, the more likely it is we’ll lose them,” Carter snaps.
