Mikhail's men surge forward, at least six of them converging on Alina. My Glock is in my hand before conscious thought, muscle memory taking over. I fire twice—center mass, the way I've done a thousand times before. Two of Mikhail's soldiers drop before they're within five feet of my wife.
The courtyard explodes into chaos.
Gunfire erupts from the monastery walls where my men have been positioned, waiting for exactly this moment. Muzzle flashes light up the ancient stone like lightning. The sharp crack of rifles echoes off the crumbling walls, mixing with shouts in Russian and the wet thud of bodies hitting cobblestones.
I grab Alina and pull her against me, shielding her body with mine as I fire again. Another of Mikhail's men goes down, hisweapon clattering across the stones. Bullets whine past my head, so close I feel the displacement of air.
"Move!" I shout, dragging her toward the old stone fountain in the center of the courtyard. It's the only cover within reach, and even as we run, I see chunks of ancient stone exploding where bullets strike.
We hit the ground hard behind the fountain, and I position myself between Alina and the incoming fire. My back presses against cold stone as bullets chip away at our cover, sending fragments raining down on us.
"Dimitri!" Alexei's voice crackles through my earpiece. "We have the high ground. Give us thirty seconds to suppress their fire."
"Copy," I respond, checking my magazine. Half empty. I have two more on my belt, but if this turns into a prolonged firefight, we're in trouble.
I risk a glance at Alina. Her face is pale in the torchlight, her red hair wild around her shoulders, but her green eyes are focused. Alert. She's not panicking, not freezing. She's assessing, thinking, surviving.
My wife is magnificent.
"You okay?" I ask, running my free hand over her arms, her sides, checking for injuries I might have missed in the chaos.
"I'm fine." She grabs my wrist, stopping my frantic inspection. "Dimitri, I'm fine."
More gunfire erupts, but it's different now. Controlled. Precise. My men are picking off Mikhail's soldiers with the efficiency of the professionals they are. I hear bodies falling, hear the screams of the wounded.
Through a gap in the fountain's stonework, I see Mikhail retreating toward the monastery entrance, his remaining men providing covering fire. He's moving fast, already disappearing into the shadows of the ancient building.
"Damn it." I key my radio. "Alexei, Mikhail's heading into the monastery. Cut off the exits."
"On it, Pakhan."
The gunfire is tapering off now. Most of Mikhail's men are down or surrendering. But the man himself is escaping, and if he gets away, this nightmare continues. He'll regroup, plan another attack, and next time, he might succeed in taking everything I love.
I turn to Alina, ready to tell her to stay here where it's safe, where my men can protect her while I go after Mikhail. But when I look into her eyes, I see the same determination that made her pull a gun on me in that guest bedroom. The same strength that made her kill her own father to protect her sister.
"Don't," she says before I can speak. "Don't tell me to stay here while you go in there alone."
"Alina, it's too dangerous. Mikhail could have the whole building rigged. He's had five years to plan this."
"Exactly." She grips my arm, her fingers digging into my tactical vest. "Which is why you need someone watching your back. Someone he won't expect." Her voice drops, becomes almost pleading. "I'm coming with you, Dimitri. We finish this together."
Every protective instinct I have is screaming at me to refuse. To lock her in the SUV and storm the monastery with my men.But I look at her face, at the fierce determination there, and I remember what she said to Mikhail.
Because he's a better man than you'll ever be.
A better man wouldn't treat his wife like a fragile thing to be protected and hidden away. A better man would trust her strength, her courage, her right to stand beside him.
"You never intended to marry him," I say, the realization hitting me. "The surrender, the offer. It was all a distraction."
A ghost of a smile crosses her lips. "Shock factor. I needed to buy time for your men to get into position. And I needed Mikhail focused on me instead of watching for an ambush."
Pride swells in my chest, so intense it's almost painful. "You're brilliant. And insane. But mostly brilliant."
"I learned from the best." She touches my face, her palm warm against my beard. "Now let's go finish this before he gets away."
I want to kiss her, want to pull her against me and taste her lips, remind myself that she's alive, that we're both alive. But there's no time. Mikhail is escaping, and every second we waste gives him more opportunity to set traps or call for reinforcements.
I check my weapon one more time, then nod. "Stay close. If I tell you to run, you run. No arguments."
