“Don’t act like you don’t know,” she hissed. “I’m sure Valentina blabbed all about me.”
I blinked, seeing something I had never seen before in her eyes. Hate. Pure, unadulterated hate for me.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Calmly, I added, “Katie, why don’t you put the gun down. We can talk about whatever you want to. Without the gun.”
“Bullshit!” she barked, taking a step toward me.
I skittered back.
“I know they talked. They would have loved to tell you.”
I stayed mute, wondering if I could make a run out of the bedroom before she did something insane. “What would they have told me, Katie?” Best to keep her talking for right now since she was watching me with crazy eyes.
She snorted, taking another step forward. “Oh, please. Don’t start with that bull. You already know.”
I shook my head slowly. “No. No, I don’t.”
Slowly, it clicked. Katie had brought in the gift that had been supposedly left outside for me. Valentina and Bogdan knowing that Daniil’s kids were there. Where we were exactly. It had been a planned attack with them getting into the ventilation system like that, knowing the layout. Oh, God.
“No, Katie.” I shook my head, moving back farther into the room as she advanced. “Why? God, why would you do this? I love you! You love me! Why would you do this?”
She pulled a cigarette pack out of her pocket even as she raised the gun, pulling a cigarette out with her teeth and tossing the pack on the bed. “You don’t mind, do you?” She pulled a lighter out of her pocket, lighting her cigarette, not waiting for my answer. She waved the gun she had pointed at me toward the bed. “Sit down. It’ll make this easier.”
I sat slowly as she puffed on her cigarette, and froze…there was someone in the closet. I didn’t look too closely because it was Artur. He was texting from the quick glance I had, the white light of his phone shining on his face, illuminating it before he shut it. I scooted back slowly on the bed as Katie bent over, ashing into the little clay bowl on the nightstand Daniil used for spare change he had in his pockets.
Katie cocked the gun and aimed it directly at my chest, instead of in my general direction, and opened her mouth to speak. Artur heard the sound, and made his presence known then, stepping out into the light of the room, cocking his own gun, it already aimed at her. She jerked, thankfully not shooting me, taking a quick glance at who had snuck up on her.
“What the fuck are you doing in here?”
Artur drawled, “I could ask you the same thing.” He snapped his fingers at me with his free hand. “Get over here, Elizabeth.”
“Don’t move,” Katie shouted, her attention swinging back to me. “Don’t you fucking move!”
“Okay,” I said slowly. My heart was in my throat, and I felt like puking again with all of these guns being waved around by people I loved. I wasn’t sure which I hated more. Katie aiming a gun at me…or Artur aiming a gun at Katie. “Katie, why are you doing this? This won’t end well for you.”
Again, she didn’t answer me, her attention going back to Artur.
Daniil slipped into the bedroom, breathless, but slowly moving closer to Katie. He didn’t have a gun drawn, but his eyes encompassed everything, and his expression didn’t bode well for her.
Katie hadn’t even noticed his entrance. She hissed at Artur, “Put the fucking gun away. You know you aren’t going to shoot me.” She smirked and took a drag off her cigarette. “We had sex. Men like you don’t shoot someone you had sex with.”
I kept my attention firmly off Daniil and watched Artur shrug, his attention also off his dad while he said bluntly, “You’re a decent lay, but you were only a job. I’ve been watching you since I first saw your file. Anyone with as much debt as you have would be a threat. The weak link, so to speak. And I will shoot you. You weren’t that good of a fuck.”
Katie’s face had turned furious at the beginning, and her grip on her gun faltered at the end.
That was when Daniil struck.
I ducked, rolling in on myself as Daniil slammed into her back, grabbing her arm with the gun. The gun went off as I felt them hit the bed where my legs used to be. I peered up seeing the gunshot in the wall above our bed, and then down to Daniil ripping the gun away from her, and handing it off to Artur as she kicked and screamed under him. Daniil had her contained in less than two seconds, even if still squalling loud enough to be heard over the new ringing in my ears. That’s all it had taken.
I shouted over her, “What the fuck is going on with her?” I glanced at Artur since he seemed to have the most information. “Answer me!”
Daniil yanked her off the bed, none-to-damn-gently, and handed her off to one of the bodyguards that were filing into the room. Artur glanced at his dad, his expression hooded, and Daniil sighed heavily and turned to me, sitting down slowly on the bed. He pulled me into his arms as I watched Katie being drug out of the room, and he slowly began to speak, “When your family showed up at the resort, I had a profile ran on all of them. Katie’s came back with all the classic signs of someone who might accept bribes. I asked Artur to watch over her while we were there,” he glanced at his son, “although, I did not tell him to sleep with her.”
I blinked, feeling really fucking lost.
Artur shrugged, a small smile lifting his lips. “After the money showed up in her account, I needed an in.” He shrugged, putting his gun away. “She offered. I accepted. In accomplished.”
“Anyway,” Daniil growled, shaking his head at his son, and turning back to me. “I also asked Ember to watch over you at the resort since Katie had stayed with you that one night.”
