I stared at him in shock. “W-what?”
His eyes flashed, and for a second, I remembered the rumors about him. The stories said he was a gangster and connected to a very powerful Russian bratva family. I didn’t know what that meant exactly, but it sounded bad.
Could the rumors be true? There was a gunman, or maybe more than one, in the building. Could they be after him?
Plus, there was the fact that he seemed oddly calm.
Could he really be a gangster?
“Amy,” he snapped, and I blinked away the confusion. “You need to pull yourself together and get me off the bed. I’m too big of a target here. Can you do that?”
Mutely, I nodded. Flipping back the blankets, I hooked my arms around him. He was heavier than he looked, and my back screamed in protest.
“Where?”
“Bathroom,” he began to say, and a round of loud pops filled my ears, scaring me so much I almost dropped him. Catching him at the last minute, I turned towards the door.
The shooter was in this wing now.
“Put me down, Amy,” Nikolai ordered. I dropped into a protectivecrouch next to him as he sagged against the wall. I was shaking so hard it was hard to keep my feet.
“Amy?”
I turned to him.
“It’s OK to be scared,” he said softly. “Fear is normal, but you need to be brave now.” His old lips slipped into a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Braver than you already are.”
“I should get a weapon. Maybe there’s a knife on the—”
“A knife won’t win a gun fight. Just stay quiet.”
Biting my lip to stop myself from crying out at the sounds playing out behind the closed door, I wrapped my arms around the frail man, putting myself between him and the door.
If someone wanted him, they would have to get through me first, which they probably would, but this was my job.
I’d always wanted to save people and—
Silence.
Suddenly, there was nothing but silence, and it was even more terrifying than the gunfire.
I tightened my arms around him.
I desperately wanted to tell him it would be OK, but the slightest noise would give us away if I did.
That’s when I heard it, the smallest of clicks. My body went rigid. They were opening the door.
More than likely, I was about to be shot and killed, which would leave my sister alone.
She couldn’t be alone, not now, but what choice did I have?
“Is someone—” the voice was male and gravelly. Anger made it into a lower growl.
I moved my body over the old man’s, shielding as much of his much bigger frame as I could, and waited for death because I knew it was coming.
A shot to the back wasn’t the way I had wanted to go, but I would still die protecting those who couldn’t protect themselves.
“Alexei,” The man under me whispered. He pushed lightly on myshoulders. “It’s OK, Amy. It’s just my grandson, Alexei. It’s all over now.”
