“Call of Duty,” I repeat, taking out another hostile. “Of course.”
She glares at me before attempting to aim. “I’m doing my best here!”
She misses, and the bullet hits the wall. “Your best is going to get us both killed!”
“Well I don’t see you doing much better!” she retorts with another wild shot, but to my surprise, his one actually hits somebody. An attacker screams and grabs his arm.
“I’ve been shot!” I gesture at my bleeding shoulder. “What’s your excuse?”
“I’ve never done this before!” she shouts.
No fucking shit. If we make it out of here, I’m personally overseeing her firearms training. “I can tell!”
Are we seriously yelling at each other while actively being shot at? It’s crazy. It’s reckless. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever experienced.
Because we’re together. Outnumbered and outgunned, yes, but together.
I fire three more shots, crowing at my accuracy despite my injured shoulder. Three more bodies drop.
Vera fires wildly beside me. Her shots are chaos incarnate, but the psychological effect is working. Konstantin’s men weren’t expecting resistance from inside and theycertainlyweren’t expecting my wife to fight back.
“Aim for center mass!” I shout at her, trying to coach her through the madness.
She pushes hair off her face as she fires another shot, her grip on the gun a bit lax. “I’m trying!” she grits out.
“Try harder!” I order her, bringing down another man who charged into the safe room.
“You’re very unsupportive right now!”
Another of her shots actually connects and catches a man in the shoulder. He yowls and spins from the force of the shot. I finish him.
“See?” she gasps triumphantly, blood on her face. “I got him!”
I fire at another man. “You hit his shoulder. He was charging us!”
“It still fucking counts, Dimitri!”
I’m grinning like a maniac. Despite the situation, this is the most fun I’ve had in a while.
“FALL BACK!” Alexei’s voice cuts through the chaos. I see him at the stairs, and my heart leaps at the sight of my brother even though he’s a fucking traitor. “This isn’t worth it! We regroup!”
Rage surges through me. He’s running. The bastard is running.
I want to chase him and put a bullet between his eyes and end this now.
But Vera is my priority.
I watch him disappear up the stairs with what’s left of his men and count to ten. I wait for the sound of vehicles peeling away from the estate.
Then, my men who survived the initial assault surge into the room. Sergei looks bloodied but functional and Viktor has a cut above his eye. Anton looks worse for wear and Dmitri has a wicked looking bruised eye and split lip.
“Secure the perimeter,” I order roughly. “No one in or out. Sweep every room, and get Dr. Petrov here asap.”
They leave immediately, and then I’m turning to Vera.
She’s still holding the gun and breathing hard. There’s gunpowder smeared across her cheeks and blood (not hers, I realize with relief) splattered across her sweater and nose.
She looks at me, her brown eyes wide and bright.
