While a couple of my men were licensed by the French government as armed bodyguards, the rest of us were carrying without government approval, which meant a five-year prison sentence at least if we were caught, closer to fifteen since shots were fired. I didn’t give a damn. No matter what, I wasn’t leaving without Tessa and Alizé.
“Rurik. You’re on my turf. It’s over,” I yelled, then pressed on my ear comm. “Michel, take out their car batteries. Let’s make sure they can’t get far. Erel, take a team and circle around back.”
“Boss, up top.”
My eyes followed. Tessa and Alizé stood at the edge of an outer doorway that led to nowhere on the second floor.
“What the hell are they doing?” I tapped my headset. “Erel, we found them. Keep the Russians occupied.”
Another volley of gunfire ensued, followed by a whoosh of flames near the back of the barn. Fuck, that was not what I meant by keeping them occupied. With the dry weather of late and the amount of wood and fodder around, the whole thing would burn and collapse in no time.
Alizé leaped off the ledge.
“Shit,” she yelled in the air. She landed atop stacked rows of cylindrical hay bales covered with a tarp. Tessa stayed at the edge of the door, gripping the frame on both sides.
I ran to the side of the barn, my men covering me as a few Russians broke out of the burning barn. My men picked them off, one by one, clean shots.
Erel’s voice crackled in my ear. “Cops six minutes out.”
“Anything on Leontyev?” I snapped.
“Bastard’s still inside. It’s your call, boss.”
I gritted my teeth. The longer we stayed, the greater the risk for everyone to get caught, Tessa and my sister included. There would be another opportunity. “Get to the vehicles.”
The fire had spread a quarter through the roof already. The longer Tessa waited, the more likely a beam would fall.
“Jump, Tessa.” Her head snapped in my direction. The artery in my neck throbbed as I extended my arms up to her. “Jump, it’s not far. I’ll be right there when you do. Jump now.” Still, she hesitated.
The blaze heated one side of my face. The fire overhead crackled and popped, sending flaming embers onto the tarp. Sweat trailed from my forehead to chin, and not only from the heat. If Tessa didn’t jump soon, the entire pile of hay would goup in flames, her only escape with it. If she couldn’t do this, I would go in there, bullets and jail time be damned.
“Tessa, listen to my voice. You can make it. The hay is less than two strides from the door. Just push off hard and straight, and you’ll get there.”
“Promise?”
“I’ll be there to catch you. Always.”
Tessa nodded shakily and closed her eyes, readying to take the leap. She took a few steps back and hurtled out of the barn, arms swinging. The courage it took to trust me with a blind jump like this made me more in awe of her than ever before. Her scream was short-lived, puffing out of her as she hit the hay bales.
I scrambled to pry her off the piles while police sirens wailed in the distance. My hands rushed over the back of her head, down her spine, over her breasts and stomach, before quickly inspecting her arms and hands.
“I’m not hurt,” she said softly.
I kissed her brief but hard, then wrestled her against my chest, her nose to my collarbone, my cheek to her hair. She was alive. She was whole. She was healthy.
“Don’t you ever do that to me again.”
“It’s not like I planned to get kidnapped.”
“Hey, where’s my hug?” Alizé griped.
“Get to the fucking car.”
My sister was smart enough not to argue as I picked Tessa up by her waist. The hay bales were fully aflame now, sending thick dark-gray smoke curling into the air.
“Legs around me. Arms around my neck,” I ordered with urgency. She obeyed, and I sprinted for our nearest vehicle. “Keep your head down.”
If bullets went flying, they’d hit me, not her. Never her again.
