Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 92549 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92549 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
No, it was too risky.
Of course, I would kill them before they left the room, but I refused to jeopardize her life.
And it had absolutely nothing to do with the promise I made to her sister, and everything to do with the fact that she was mine. I wouldn’t let some two-bit gun-for-hire take what was most important to me.
Marina may have been the most infuriating, irrational, impulsive pain in my ass that I have ever had to deal with, but she was mine.
Mine to hold. Mine to protect. Mine to love. Until death do us part. But that day was not fucking today.
“You got it all?” dead man number two said, the barrel of the gun still pressed tightly to her head.
His death was going to be painful. I’d make sure of it.
“Let’s go,” dead man number one said as he zipped up the duffel and threw it over his shoulder, pulling out his gun and pointing it at me as he backed away.
Dead man number two didn’t let Marina go.
He held on to her, gripping her by the back of her neck and walking backward toward the door, using her to block any possible attack I could make.
“I hope whatever he paid you was worth it,” I said. “Because you won’t have time to use it.”
Dead man number two started firing wild shots again, forcing me to hit the floor to take cover.
The second he was out the door, I stood and grabbed my gun.
Blood was dripping down my arm. As I moved to the door, the room swam around me. I shook it off and followed.
I got to the doorway just in time to see the elevator doors start to close.
Marina’s face looked pale, as one of them whispered something in her ear.
“Don’t worry, moy zaichonok, I will get you back. I will always come for you.”
She met my gaze, her eyes hardening in a way that made my heart ache as she nodded.
She didn’t believe me.
Marina didn’t believe that I would get to her in time, that I could rescue her before those men did whatever vile things they had whispered in her ear.
She had given up. The woman so full of life, so full of determination to experience everything the world offered, had given up.
Several people poured out of their rooms at the commotion.
“Get back into your rooms, lock the doors,” I said, booming my words with authority.
“What’s going on?” some man in a velvet dressing gown said, with a woman who couldn’t have been more than twenty years old in red leather cowering behind him.
“NYPD,” I lied. “Everything’s under control but get back into your rooms and lock the doors. The hotel will tell you when it’s clear.”
It always amazed me how easily Americans believed anything I said if I told them I was law enforcement. No one asked for a badge, no one asked for any type of proof. They just went into their rooms and locked their doors.
Maybe it wasn’t gullibility, maybe it was some kind of sense of self-preservation? Something the men who took Marina clearly lacked.
Gun still drawn, I ran down the hall to the door with the gold sign above it indicating the stairs. Just as I reached for the handle, one of the other elevators opened, and I leveled my gun in that direction, ready to fire in case they had sent more men to deal with me.
Instead, Gregor, Mikhail, and Damien jumped out with their guns drawn.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I bit out. My left shoulder slumping down with relief as I lowered my gun.
“We knew there was trouble, so we came up to help, and then we heard shots were fired, so we thought—”
“You’re late. They already took her. I need to—I’ve got—”
“Go,” Gregor said. “We’ll split up. Mikhail, take the roof in case they get out of the building.”
Mikhail nodded and ran past me up the stairs, his sniper rifle strapped to his back.
I ran down the stairs, flight after flight, struggling to keep my focus and my feet straight as the stairs swirled around me. I had lost far too much blood, but it didn’t matter.
Blood could be replaced. Marina could not.
When I got to the bottom of the stairs, I had to stop for a moment, bracing my hand on the wall as the room spun and bile rose in my throat. I pushed it back down and headed to the lobby, straight to the banks of elevators.
The elevator car the dead men and Marina were on was on the second floor and heading to me.
Screams sounded around me as I pulled out my gun and aimed it toward the elevator, waiting for the gilded doors to slide open.
I was ready.
Two shots between the eyes and Marina would be safe.
Even if I couldn’t hold the gun steady, I could keep them trapped just long enough for Gregor and Damian to give me the backup I needed.