“All clear. If she wants the honors…”
Niko didn’t need to finish that sentence.
“I definitely want the honors,” Kalina replied, speaking through the comms unit for the first time throughout it all.
Simon piped in, from another SUV parked on the block. “Don’t delay it. I’m watching the police scanner and it’s only a matter of time before something pops up nearby.”
Emil nodded at me, understanding this was the moment to really have our backs. Others would guard us too, but he was directly on it.
I opened the door and helped Kalina out. She wasn’t waddling yet, but with that baby bump, rising from any seated position was getting to be tricky.
In a long beige trench coat over her maternity dress, she stood and rounded the car with me. I didn’t need to coach her abouthiding her gun. She held it, concealed in the folds of her unfastened coat and her sleeve.
Striding inside with me, she kept her head up. She stared straight ahead with a no-nonsense coolness, but if I watched her closely as we wove through the hallways and stepped over the dead bodies of the Italians they’d all killed, I could just barely catch the tremble of her lower lip.
Emil came with us, guarding her too, but he didn’t try to joke or lighten the situation. He used to be such a wise ass, but he’d calmed and mellowed since meeting Sadie and starting his family.
Somber and serious, we followed Niko’s directions to reach a small room on the second floor.
Upon entering the space, it was clear that the two men had been captured and held here against their will.
Serves you right, fuckers.
I stayed right next to Kalina, just in case something could still go wrong. Emil didn’t stray far from her on her left. But neither of us tried to block her or prevent her from being the main character here. Their threat.
Erik’s face was hardly identifiable with all the swollen areas, bruises, and cuts. Yusef didn’t look any better. He seemed to be missing a couple of fingers while Erik leaned heavily on one leg, as if he had been wounded so badly, he couldn’t fully stand on his own.
“You fucking wh?—”
We all raised our arms and aimed our guns at them. Me, Emil, Niko, and two other soldiers.
Kalina did not.
She stayed put, eerily still, and stared at her brother who’d stolen half of her life.
“You hear me?” He sneered at our not shooting him. “You’re nothing but a worthless fucking whore. You got yourself some fucking losers to breed you and now what? Huh? Now what?”
“Now you cheated us out of the money we deserved for it!” Yusef yelled.
“We spent all that time and money on you, keeping you safe for so long, and this is how you repay us?” Erik screamed.
She lifted her arm now. “No. This is how I’ll repay you.” She pulled the trigger and fired one shot. Continuing her beginner’s luck of having a hell of an accurate aim—the close range notwithstanding—she killed her brother.
A red hole showed on his brow. Right between his eyes. It no longer mattered if his injured leg couldn’t keep him up. He slumped, his head dropping like it was too heavy, and he fell forward.
“You fucking bitch!” Yusef screamed. “You fuck— Fuck. You fucking good for nothing?—”
“I’m good for killing you, too,” she stated calmly. She turned her arm toward him and lined up the shot. This one wasn’t as accurate. It landed in his eye, creating more of a gory splatter, but she only flinched a little. She shot again, getting more central on his head, and he surrendered to the pull of gravity and death as well.
Once he fell forward, Kalina exhaled a long, shaky breath. Then she lowered her arm.
I hugged her to me, proud and worried about her. While I respected her need to kill her captors and tormentors, it was a very big thing to take a life. I had to watch her and make sure that the trauma of acting on such a lethal motive wouldn’t mess with her head now.
Before I could stress about her reaction to killing two men, I had to keep her alive.
“Alexsei! Go!”
Another Dubinin man ran into the room from a door to the side.
