The Taser felt weighty in my hand, but the plastic was cool to the touch. I pressed the power button and a red laser dot moved on the floor.
“This is exactly why I wanted to put Sergei in charge,” my uncle complained. “We need to make a statement and eliminate this one. Prove to them we mean business.”
No one was even looking toward me.
“The last thing we need is to make a statement,” Axel told my uncle.
I raised the Taser and pointed it at the man. It wavered, like a cat laser toy, on the middle of his torso.
“You need to finish him so he can become the lesson they all need to learn.”
I squeezed the trigger, and the weapon crackled in my hands. There was a snapping sound and a second later, the man was jerking violently on his feet before he fell backward, crashing through the one piece of furniture that had remained intact, the antique silver drink cart.
There was a tremendous crash, as he toppled over it, and glasses and Axel’s expensive scotch crashed to the floor. The trespasser’s body locked in an uncomfortable contorted arch before he collapsed backward in a heap.
He groaned heavily.
Then, the only sound in the room was the crunch of glass as he rolled over onto his side. Saliva streamed from his slack lips.
“This is absolutely unacceptable,” my aunt hissed into the silence.
Axel turned and looked at me with genuine shock on his face.
And then my uncle started to laugh, until his mirth was echoing through the room.
Axel pulled a zip tie out of his pocket and secured the guy’s hands behind his back before he crossed the room toward me. He was bleeding, and his lip was already swelling. His eye looked sore too. He gently pried the Taser from my numb fingers and tossed it on the floor.
“Come on.” He took my hand. Without speaking to my aunt and uncle, he gently led me up to his bedroom.
“Bandit,” I pleaded. “He must be terrified outside.”
“I’ll go get him,” he soothed. “Why don’t you sit down on the bed?”
“What about Anton?” I cried, belatedly remembering that he had disappeared upstairs and not come down.
“I’ll go check on him too. Stay here.”
And then he was gone.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
AXEL
I calledMaksim for backup before finding Anton sitting on the bottom steps, nursing his head.
“How are you feeling?” I asked, checking out his pupils. They both looked normal.
“I’ve got a headache.”
I wanted to rage against someone, knowing how close Mila and Anton had come to getting hurt. “Maksim is on his way. He’s going to take you to the hospital.”
“I’m good. I don’t need a doctor.”
“It wasn’t a suggestion,” I told him.
He squinted at me, studying my battered face. “You sure you don’t need a doctor too?”
Fifteen minutes later,after reuniting Bandit and Mila, Maksim and my men took the intruder out of my house, along with Antonand the guard, with strict instructions to make sure they got checked out at the hospital.
