Time blurred in a stretch of anxiety as I hid out of sight. But it wasn’t long before someone else entered the room.
“What the—” A groan of pain cut off the newcomer’s greeting. Staggered steps moved further into the room. “What thefuckdo you think you’re doing?”
“Andre. Are you all right?” Yusef had lost the snarl that he’d had in his grumbles as he looked for a map. His feet turned, all that I could see from my vantage point under the desk.
Oh, shit.
Andre?
Andre Orlov is here?
And I’m stuck hiding in his office?
My terror coalesced and thickened with outright panic. Shivering at the new and more potent danger of being caught, I held my breath and stared at their feet.
Andre’s legs stopped near the door. His feet remained in place, but his labored breathing didn’t sound good.
“No, I’m not fucking all right,” Andre growled.
Yusef didn’t argue. His feet backed up a couple of steps. “You’ve been shot.”
“I’m not all right with my fucking guard snooping through my shit,” Andre shouted.
“No, Boss. No. I’m not—” Yusef backed up again.
I swallowed hard. My heart hammered against my ribcage as I locked my sight on their feet on the other side of the desk.
“You’re the fucking mole? You’re the one selling secrets to the fucking Giovannis?” Andre accused.
“I—”
A pop cut off whatever Yusef might have wanted to insist. Andre had shot him. Once, with a silencer. The telltale muffled sound was unmistakable, but I had more proof in the killing act when Yusef dropped. He slumped to the floor, face-forward. As gravity settled his tall frame to the carpet, his head rolled just enough so that his vacant stare glazed at me. The neat hole between his dead eyes glistened and bled out mere feet from where I hid.
I tensed. All my muscles braced for impact. Shock sliced through me at the horror that had just happened within my reach.
But before I could let the fear and dread consume me, I turned to watch Andre fall too.
Groaning and seeming to clutch an armchair for support, the Orlov leader slumped to one knee. Then both. More of his huge, muscled body came into my view as I huddled in a ball, hiding under his desk.
His suit was disheveled. Blood streaked from him, staining the once-white shirt he wore.
Another heaving groan left his lips as he surrendered his hold on the chair.
“Fuck,” he moaned after he dropped to the carpet, pressing a hand to his shoulder. “That hurt.”
I dared to exhale a short breath, watching as he struggled to get back up after collapsing.
This is it.
With him in pain and squeezing his eyes shut on the floor, I could slip out of here. He wasn’t watching. He was vulnerable in pain, wounded and not quick enough to stop me.
This had to be my window to escape this office full of death and blood.
I hadn’t succeeded in finding anything for my uncle, and with Esmeralda as the leverage he’d use against me, I was still beholden to spy.
Just not tonight.
I’d have to stay and try again another time.
