“If you cry, I’ll fucking slap you again, and this time I’ll slap the daylights out of you,” he warns me, and I can see he means it.
But the tears won’t stop falling, and I begin to panic.
He growls, his eyes darkening.
Behind him, I hear a shout, the snap of gunfire. I jump and scream, already on edge. One of the men from the van falls flat on his face, and a pool of red immediately spreads around him.
The man next to the hulk makes a gurgling sound, and when I look at him, the entire front of his face has been blown away by a bullet that hit the back of his skull.
I hear a scream. A loud, piercing, terrified scream. It takes me a few seconds before I realize it’s me.
The hulk pulls his gun from his belt and spins toward the attackers, dragging me along with him. I can’t tear my eyes off the other guy’s lifeless body, slumped half on the sidewalk and half in the road, his brains splattered out and chunks of flesh and goop bubbling from the open hole in his head.
“Maria!” a familiar voice demands my attention.
I drag my eyes off the corpse and look up to see Benedikt running toward me.
The Hulk tries to put himself between Benedikt and me, taking a shot and missing. And from behind Benedikt, Kaz takes a shot and hits the hulk in the shoulder, then, as he spins in pain, puts a bullet in his head.
I don’t know when the other van guy got taken down, but he’s also dead.
Where’s Ivan? Where’s the other guy who was with him?
I stare in utter disbelief at Benedikt’s and Kazimir’s efficiency in dispatching the would-be kidnappers. My feet won’t move. My mind won’t stop spinning. I can still hear screaming, but I’m not making a sound.
“Maria?”
“Baby bird?”
The two men crowd me. Behind us, tires screech, and Kaz turns to fire three shots at Ivan, making a getaway in the van. The passenger hangs out the window to take a shot at Kazimir, but Kaz shoots him right in the head with deadly accuracy.
Benedikt scoops me into his arms and cradles me against his massive chest.
As I bury my face against his warmth, a familiar scent and a sense of security envelop me.
Chapter 8 - Benedikt
She’s like a baby bird in my hands. I can see why Kaz calls her that. Delicate and trembling. I hold her closer, keep her tighter against me as Kazimir drives toward the safe house.
“Are we being followed?” he asks, glancing in the rearview mirror.
“I don’t think so, but it’s impossible to say for certain.”
Maria snuggles closer to me.
It makes my heart ache to see her so vulnerable.
So beautiful.
“Why were you out there alone?” I whisper as I stroke my fingers through her silky hair.
I don’t expect an answer, and she doesn’t give one. I imagine I know why she was out there alone.
Kazimir pulls the car into an underground parking area and shuts the engine off.
“We’re here,” he says, pushing the door open and climbing out.
He tugs my door open. “Is she okay?” he asks tensely.
