He was dragging something. No, not a thing. Someone.
Kalina!
It was so hard to see through the smoke, but I knew it had to be her. It was impossible to make out much, but knowing he was out here with her was all that mattered. Based on the position of the house, he was clearly trying to reach the panic room. And the closer I got, I saw that he was indeed dragging Kalina because she was out. She strained to get up, her eyes squeezed closed.
“I don’t think so!” A masked man roared it as he lifted his gun to shoot Misha.
“Get down!” I shouted it as loudly as I could, knowing that the second he heard my voice, he would listen.
He did.
Hunching over, as if he wanted to protect Kalina, I fired one shot over his head. I aimed at the man who was blocking him.
With a single pull on the trigger of my gun, I sank a bullet between his eyes.
He tumbled down, almost falling on both of them. Misha tensed, turning his head to the side, and cringed.
I hurried toward him. Spinning so that no one would have a free shot at my back, I passed Misha and kicked the dead man out of the way. “Go. Go on.” I slammed my hand against the small panic room door that was hidden with the set of wood panels on the wall.
He didn’t wait. He didn’t hesitate. As another masked man came forward, meeting the end of my gun barrel, Misha scooped up Kalina with all his might and pulled her into the room.
That was exactly what he was supposed to do. No matter where we went and stayed, I made sure that he always knew where to go in case of any danger.
Safe.
He had to be safe.
So did Kalina.
“Daddy, wait!” His frantic cry reached my ears as I shoved the door shut tight once more with one hand. In my other, I kept my gun firing at the three additional men who'd dared to come in here to hurt either of them.
As the smoke continued to clog up the cabin, I waited. I hunched low to breathe. And I waited. My heart pounded. My lungs ached for clean oxygen.
But I waited.
No one else burst out through the smoke. No other intruder stepped forward to try to get to me or the ones behind me.
Still, I had to know.
Time was running out. Kalina was unconscious. Misha was terrified. It would’ve been too risky to assume that the coast was clear to get them out of the building. Danger was imminent no matter which way I went. The cabin was burning down and we had to get out of here.
With another shout, I didn’t need to wonder if it was safe to move.
“Alexsei!”
Niko was here. He ran forward, covering his mouth with his shirt. “I’m coming!”
“Over here,” I yelled back.
“Where are they?”
“Are they all down?” I replied, not wanting to give away Kalina or Misha’s position. Then again, he wouldn’t have asked that if he wasn’t sure it would be safe to speak about them.
“Yes. All of them are dead. I’ve hit the call for SOS to Simon.”
“Good.” I wouldn’t bother double-checking with him if he was sure the men were dead. I would take his word for it because that was what I was trained to do. What we were all trained to do. To work as a team.
With his help, we found the panel to disengage the panic room’s door. A few more clicks sounded, and the lock was released.
