But Ruslan isn't finished. Before I can even think about running, he's behind me on the porch and his arm wraps around my throat like an iron bar as he yanks me backward against his chest hard enough to knock the wind from my lungs. His gun presses against my temple and the metal is still warm from having just been fired.
"Everyone stops moving right now," Ruslan says, and his mouth is so close to my ear that I can feel his hot breath against my skin. "Nobody takes another step or even thinks about raising a weapon, or I'm going to decorate this porch with her brains."
I can't breathe. His forearm is crushing my windpipe and I claw desperately at his arm with both hands, but I might as well be trying to bend steel. My nails scrape across his skin hard enough that they dig in and draw blood, but he doesn't even flinch. Black spots are starting to bloom at the edges of my vision and there's a high-pitched ringing in my ears that's getting louder by the second.
"Let her go," Vadim says, pulling his own weapon. He sounds furious and desperate. "Whatever you think you're accomplishing here, it's not worth this. Let her go and we can still work this out."
"I want every single weapon on the ground right now," Ruslan says, completely ignoring Vadim's words. "Put them down and step back five paces or I pull this trigger and you all get to watch her die."
"If you kill her, you're a dead man before her body stops twitching," Vadim says, and now I can see the muscle jumping in his jaw. "You won't make it three steps."
"Then I guess we all die together tonight," Ruslan says. He sounds almost pleased by the prospect. "Is that really what you want? You want to stand there and watch me kill your wife because you were too stubborn to put your weapon down?"
A siren begins wailing somewhere in the distance. The sound is faint at first but growing steadily louder, and I realize that someone must've heard my scream. One of the neighborsmust've called the police. Ruslan's arm tightens around my throat and I make a strangled wheezing sound that barely qualifies as noise.
"Vadim, please," I manage to force out, though it's barely more than a whisper. His face goes from pale to absolutely ashen as he takes a step toward us.
"Don't give him what he wants," Nenad says from somewhere to the left. "He's planning to kill her regardless of what we do."
"Shut your mouth," Ruslan snarls. "You don't know what I'm planning to do."
"Stand down," Vadim says, and his eyes are locked on mine like he's trying to communicate something without words. "And maybe we can all walk away from this without anyone else dying tonight."
"Why in the world would I do that?" Ruslan asks. He scoffs and takes a step backward, putting more strain on my neck. I've stopped fighting, but my heart feels like it might explode in my chest.
"Every single one of us heard the confession." Vadim is advancing toward me slowly, but I feel so weak. "They all heard Lebedev say that you both worked together to kill Dominic. We know what you did, Ruslan."
I can't turn my head to see what Vadim is talking about, but I can hear movement. Footsteps shifting in the grass, weapons being adjusted, someone clearing their throat nervously.
"Ilya, Konstantin," Ruslan says, and he's starting to sound desperate too. "I'm giving you both a direct order. Kill Vadim and his men right now."
The sirens are getting closer now, and I can hear at least two of them. But I don't hear any other movement. No one else moves to pull a weapon or shoot Vadim as he ordered, and my brain starts to spin. If only I weren't in the way, Vadim could take the shot and kill this man. It's what he does for a living. I'd be saved… But I'm right in front of him.
"I said kill them," Ruslan repeats, and he jerks me around a little bit. Now I can see Vadim, and he looks terrified. It might be the first time I’ve ever seen him look this way. "That's a direct order from your superior officer."
"You killed Dominic ," a voice says, and it belongs to one of the men I don't recognize. "You’re a traitor, Ruslan…"
"I gave you an order," Ruslan snarls angrily, and his arm tightens on my throat, but I've locked eyes with Vadim and I'm pleading with him to understand what I'm communicating. "You follow my orders. That's how this works."
"We follow orders from family," the other man says. "We follow men who honor the code and protect the bloodline. You're not family anymore. You stopped being family the moment you decided to kill Dominic."
The sirens are much louder now as the men put their weapons away and step back, like they're deferring to Vadim. The sirens sound like they're only a block or two away at most, and the sound seems to force Ruslan into some kind of action.
"You all made your choice," he says. "You're all traitors just like Vadim. When this is over, when the war comes, you're all going to die."
"Let her go," Vadim says, and he takes another careful step forward. "Yuri's going to want to question you. Who else was involved in this conspiracy?"
"Fuck you!" Ruslan jerks me around again, and I let my body relax. I can do this. If I just drop to my knees, let all my weight hang on that one arm of his, there's no way he can keep me up, right? It'd throw him off balance and give Vadim the opening he needs to take the shot.
The sirens are screaming now, so close that they're making my skull vibrate. They must be right outside the house, possibly already parking in front.
"It's my word against yours," Ruslan snarls again, but Vadim takes another step and his men start to back away. They pick up the dead man from the lawn, all four of them, and start to drag him away.
"We have all the evidence we need, Ruslan… Your calls to Popovic, communication with Lebedev. It ties you to everything so thoroughly, Yuri will have no problem believing me, and when the cops wonder why you're dead, I call self-defense. You're on my lawn and?—"
I drop.
My knees buckle and I let my dead weight hang from his arm, knowing if he is strong enough to hold me up, it will choke me to death, but it's my best shot.
