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Her eyes widened, but she managed to keep her wits and keep her voice low. “We’ve got to get you out of here, then!”
“No.I’vegot to get me out of here. You’ve got to go back and run the auction. I will draw them away.” I looked her in the eyes.
“But, Viktor—” she started, one hand already on the exit door.
“No. I will not have you endangering yourself for my sake.” Though it moved me that she would think of it. I wasn’t used to anyone outside the Bratva giving a damn whether I lived or died. “Go back, Olivia. I’ll contact you again as soon as I am able.”
She stepped back from me, pale and trembling, but then nodded and turned to go.
It was just then that a figure walked toward us in the dim hallway, one of the guards on his rounds. He stopped dead when he noticed us, then moved forward a little more slowly, not reaching for his radio. His hand was down by his holster instead.
Olivia held up her ID for the man, but I frowned. I didn’t recall him from the photos Olivia gave me.
I grabbed her one-armed a moment before he drew his weapon. My other hand yanked the Taurus from its holster while I turned to put her behind me. She was just reacting with a squeak when he took aim and the gunfire started.
The man’s first bullet bit into the wall six inches from my head. The slug from mine hit him in his right shoulder, destroying it and spinning him completely around. The pistol dropped from his suddenly limp hand and he thudded to the ground a second after, his eyes wide with shock.
Running feet, heading towards us from around the corner at the far end of the hall. Friend or foe? No way of telling. The door was steps away. I pushed Olivia toward it, and we ducked out into dim daylight and rain.
Empty crates were stacked along the wall beside the door, I yanked them down to block it as we ran. “My cars are in the VIP parking lot,” I told her as we hurried to get distance between us and the door.
“Won’t they know which car is yours?”
I stopped dead. I had parked in the small, sparsely occupied VIP lot, along with three other cars from our motor pool. We were the only ones parked in it. “Damn it.” It seemed Boris wasn’t the only one off his game lately. “You’re right. If they haven’t rigged a bomb, they’ll at least be watching the cars.” I weighed my options. Stealing a car was out. The subway station was a few blocks off.
“So we take mine. It’s a rental while the Prius is in the shop. Nobody knows what it looks like.”
She was involving herself. Bravely. Loyally.
Inside, I split down the middle—one half angry and worried that she wouldn’t let me get her out of this nasty business as fast as possible. One half suddenly wanting her with such savage urgency that I couldn’t push it from my thoughts.
“Very well,” I told her. “We’ll do it your way.”
Chapter 16
Olivia
Viktor had just shot someone in front of me to save my life. He had done it without blinking. Without hesitating. And now, I was saving his.
I wasn’t running from him. I wasn’t calling for the real security guys at the top of my lungs. I was helping him get the hell out of here without being killed.
The two gunshots echoed in my ears, the hard bang of the .38 across the hall and the deep, terrifying boom of whatever the hell that giant gun of Viktor’s was loaded with.
But what stuck with me just as much, if not more, was what Viktor had done before even drawing his revolver. He had put himself bodily between me and the shooter. Practically picked me up one-armed, like I weighed nothing, and set me down behind him while he aimed.
His actions had woken something in me. I tingled all over as we hurried across the street through a break in traffic, scared to look behind me in case some of the men trying to kill Viktor noticed us. My mind was racing, wondering what the hell I was going to tell the auction house, and also wondering what Viktor’s plan was once we were underway.
“What now?” I panted as we reached my car and I fumbled my keys out.
“Now we draw out the car with the jammer in it and my men will mop up any idiots still in the building. Quietly, I assure you,” he added at my expression. “My men do know their business.”
“Oh Jesus,” I mumbled as I let us both in. “I’m guessing you want to drive?”
“No, I’ll need my hands free. I hope you know how to drive defensively.”
“This is Boston,” I replied simply as I hopped into the driver’s seat and buckled up.
His chuckle made my toes curl.
