Someone put sugar in the fuel tank.
My body makes the full connection before my mind does as the distinct feeling of being watched settles over me. I stiffen and turn toward the front of the car as my feet grow heavy and my chest feels like it might explode.
"Rurik," I mutter, but he's so busy, he can't hear me. "Someone put sugar in?—"
Movement near woods catches my eye and I freeze as three men emerge from the tree line on the other side of the road. They're dressed in dark clothes and carrying guns. One of them raises his weapon and points it at Rurik who's still bent over the engine.
"Get down!" I scream, but it's too late.
The gunshot is deafening.
Rurik jerks and stumbles backward clutching his shoulder. He reaches for his own weapon, but another shot rings out and he drops to the ground in a heap as I scream in terror.
I rush to his side to see blood pooling under him and a look of panic on his face. His forehead is covered in droplets of sweat and his eyes are wide in fear.
"Oh, my God." My hands hover over the wound, not knowing what to do. "Hold on. Just hold on."
"Run." He grabs my wrist with surprising strength. "Get out of here."
"I'm not leaving you." Tears blur my vision.
"You have to." He coughs, and blood sprays from his mouth. "They're coming for you."
Footsteps crunch on gravel behind me, and I turn to see the three men approaching. The one in front has his gun trained on me and the other two flank him on either side.
"Please." I hold up my hands in surrender and whimper, "Please don't kill him."
"Too late for that." The leader's voice is cold. He aims at Rurik and fires two more rounds
Rurik's body jerks and then goes still. His hand falls away from my wrist and his eyes stare at nothing, and a raw howl of grief and terror tears from my throat.
"Shut her up," the leader growls, and another one moves toward me with his gun raised. They're gonna kill me. This is it. I'm dead now.
"Dimitri will save me." The words tumble out in a rush. "He'll come for me and he'll kill all of you," I spit hostilely, and the man pauses and narrows his eyes.
The leader holds up his hand and the other man stops. "Dimitri Gravitch?"
"Yes…" I mumble, and I'm shaking so hard, I can barely speak. Using his name may be a mistake that draws him right into the middle of the chaos, but I know it's true. As soon as he finds out what they’ve done to Rurik, he'll come.
The three men exchange glances, then the leader lowers his gun slightly. "You know him?" He uses the tip of his gun to make my chin lift, and I grit my teeth. "Do you mean something to him?" He squints and almost smirks at me.
I don't know what to say. If I tell them we're together, they might kill me anyway. But if I say nothing, they'll definitely kill me. So I do the only thing I can think of.
I spit at the leader's feet and turn my face away from him.
"He won't ever let anything happen to me." I’m still terrified, but I let it turn to anger. "And when he finds out what you did, you'll be sorry. All of you."
The leader wipes the spit from his shoe onto Rurik's pants leg and looks at the other two men. He mutters something in a language I don't know and they have a bit of a back and forth, but I know what they’re thinking. Instead of killing me, I've become their new favorite toy.
They're going to use me to draw him out, and when he comes, they'll kill us both.
They grab my arms and haul me to my feet kicking and screaming, but they're incredibly strong and insistent. They drag me toward a van parked in the trees that neither I nor Rurik noticed at all. The back doors are already open and they throw me inside, and I bounce on the hard metal and feel it scrape my skin.
Before I know it, there's a bag over my head even as I'm still screaming, and something hits me hard in the back of the head and blackness consumes me.
23
DIMITRI
