He’s standing now, high on the balustrade, opposite Maksim. But Maks’s shots are too low—he can’t stand without risking drawing Desya’s return fire—and everyone else is focusing on the beams, like I told them to do.
Desya smirks. He aims at me.
I aim at him, too.
This is it.Moment of truth.
Everything slows. All my focus tightens around two things: my trigger finger and Desya’s. His single eye bores into me, daring me to take the shot. He thinks I won’t—that I’m as sentimental as he’s made me out to be.
That mistake will cost him.
My finger twitches. I’m about to pull the trigger, about to wipe themudakwho ruined my life off the face of the earth?—
“DIE, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!”
—and Anton’s fucking voice rings out.
Shit.
Desya’s gaze darts. It’d be the perfect chance, but I can’t help the slip in my attention, too.
A rain of bullets leaves Anton’s gun.
All of them lodge in Desya’s bulletproof vest.
This goddamn idiot.He’s exposed now, head poking out of his hiding place, the perfect target. I told them to never abandon their posts, but with Desya parading himself around like that, it was only a matter of time before someone decided to take the easiest shot of their lives.
Except that, of course, it’s a trap.
Desya baited him out.The realization sinks slowly, along with the sick irony of our strategy being used against us.That’s why he’s standing there—he’s been waiting for someone to slip up.
Of course it’d be the resident fucking coward who fell for it.
As if to confirm my theory, a sick grin blooms on Desya’s face. Then his rifle tilts slightly to the right.
Without time to aim properly, I pull the trigger. So does Desya, in perfect sync.
My bullet misses.
His doesn’t.
But it isn’t me it gets. Shockingly, it isn’t Anton, either.
It’s Zhenya.
35
MIA
It all happens too fast.
Yulian dives into the rain of bullets, and I can’t stop him. It feels like my heart is right there with him, being torn to pieces with every shot that grazes his clothes.
I want to scream. Want to run out there and throw myself into the line of fire. I want to keep himsafe.
But I have someone else to protect.
Without thinking, I press my palm over my belly.It’s okay,I lie. A kind lie, a white lie, but a lie nonetheless.It’s all gonna be okay.
