Andrei swings, and I prepare for his attack by zeroing in on his approach at eye-level. But then he drops out of my sight line.
Searing, blistering pain in my left leg drives me to one knee.
This jackass sliced my thigh.
Fuck.
The muscle’s not totally shorn, but putting weight on it—with all the blood I’ve already lost—is damn near impossible.
Rising to full height, victory painted on his face, Andrei offers me another cold smile. “I do love to see a king kneel.”
He pulls the gun from his belt and trains it on my forehead.
Fear bounces around in my skull, and morbid anticipation mounts inside me.
Is this the end of me?
Right here? Right now?
What a pathetic way to go. In the middle of nowhere, at the hands of Kruschev, while Trinity cowers below us.
I keep my eyes trained on the end of the gun. I won’t give him the satisfaction of closing my?—
Thetangof metal connecting with bone reverberates through the room.
Andrei’s gun hits the kitchen floor.
He drops like a marionette with cut strings, his eyes rolling back in his head.
Trinity stands above him, a skillet raised over her head like a club. She pants, her eyes wild, her nostrils flaring.
Well, shit.
Did this crazy woman just save my life?
She drops the skillet with a clang. “Come on!” She grasps one of my arms and yanks.
I haul myself up, wincing at the sharp sting in my left thigh. That’s going to be a real bitch later.
We run, half-hobbling down the front steps toward the BMW parked and waiting for us in the driveway.
A hot projectile whizzes past my right arm.
Shit.Andrei woke up a little too soon.
More bullets spray in our direction as Trinity and I throw ourselves into the SUV.
Andrei stumbles to the destroyed front door and trains his gun on the vehicle. “I want that drive!”
He keeps shooting as I start the engine and whip this baby around. I slam my foot on the gas, and we fly down the driveway as bullets puncture the back fender.
Trinity screams when a bullet connects with the rear windshield and sends glass shattering down into the back seat before we squeal around a curve.
We escaped our compromised safe house with our lives intact. Just barely.
But now what?
Chapter 20
