"This is a ten-thirteen, all units respond!" one of them is screaming into his radio. "We have multiple armed suspects with automatic weapons inside the station! I repeat, suspects are inside the building!"
"Officers are down in the front lobby!" Another voice joins the chaos from somewhere I can't see. "We need medical and we need backup right fucking now!"
The gunfire intensifies, moving closer to where we're standing against a wall with every passing second. Popov pulls me in the opposite direction from the fighting, moving quickly while the smoke gets thicker. We make it about forty feet before another explosion tears through the building from what sounds like the complete opposite side from the first blast.
The windows that line the hallway shatter inward with tremendous force, sending glass spraying across the floor in a deadly wave. I throw my arms up to protect my face, but pieces still slice into my hands and I feel something warm running down my cheek.
"Multiple breach points!" someone is screaming nearby. "They're hitting us from the east wing and the west wing simultaneously! We're completely surrounded!"
"South exit, move!" Popov shoves me down another hall, and I stumble again, using the wall to keep myself upright. For someone who's trying to keep me alive, he isn't very kind. "Go now!"
I run—through the smoke and heat and the red haze that gives the only light by which I can navigate, and my ears are ringing so that I can barely hear his instructions. Where the hell is Dimitri? He's supposed to be here by now. This wasn’t part of the plan.
Popov spins suddenly and fires several shots back the way we came, and someone screams. I hear a body hit the floor, but I don't look back. All I can do is run, looking for an open door ora window I can escape from. It wasn't supposed to go down like this.
"Keep moving and don't stop!" Popov orders behind me, and he doesn't have to tell me twice.
Through the haze I see the red glow of an exit sign high on the wall in the distance. I focus on that as I run harder, but just as I'm passing an open room, something hits me. It feels like a car ramming into my body, throwing me violently against a wall. I slam into an open door frame and spin, slapping my hand on the opposite wall. It hurts so bad, I grunt and yelp, but it all happens so fast, I can barely react.
My body hits the floor hard, head knocking on the concrete tiles, and I roll into the far wall, clutching my chest.
I can't breathe.
For a moment, I see stars fade in and out of my vision, and I think I may pass out as my lungs seize and the air refuses to come.
Then I cough hard and hear more shouting and feet stomping past me so close, they almost step on me.
I don’t know where Popov is, or Rashid, and for all I know, they're dead or bleeding out somewhere while I'm here struggling to suck in air. I roll tightly against the wall as I hear more footsteps coming and realize they can't see me because of the smoke.
When the first inkling of air seeps into my lungs and the stars fade from my vision, I see under the layer of smoke that I'm in an open doorway. Just feet from me is a desk, and if I can getaround it and tucked underneath, I might just make it out of this alive.
My back screams at me not to move as I begin using my elbows to pull myself across the floor, littered with glass shards, to the desk. My body scrapes along the concrete, tearing up my already injured belly even more, and after struggling for several painfully terrifying seconds, I manage to suck in a full breath and get under the desk where no one can see me.
I sit there shaking, feeling tears burn my eyes and drip down my cheeks as I try to force myself not to cough and wonder where Dimitri is and what hell he's facing for him to have not gotten to me yet.
These fuckers are everywhere, and I know any second, they're going to go through the rooms one by one, checking every available space for me. And when that happens, it won't matter that I have a bulletproof vest on. The gun will be pointed at my head, not my heart…
Which is beating so hard, I might just have a cardiac right now. Dimitri has to get here soon.
He has to.
I can't let myself imagine a scenario where he doesn't.
31
DIMITRI
The explosion rattles the windows of my car from three blocks away, and I'm already moving before the sound finishes echoing through the night, my weapon drawn. The plan was to stay back and coordinate the simultaneous strikes on Kozlov and Veche locations across the city, but the moment I hear that blast, I know something has gone catastrophically wrong.
We expected a few elites to show up here, not explosives and a few dozen insurgents. I knew better than to think this would be easy, which is why I kept a handful of men back here. Rashid and Popov can't handle this alone.
"Boss, we've got multiple explosions at the precinct!" Kirill growls over my coms as my feet pound toward the building. "Sounds like they're hitting it from multiple sides!"
"Organize and respond," I order, but it doesn't slow my pace at all. I promised Tatiana I'd keep her safe, and I'm not breaking that promise tonight. "Send word to the other teams now too."
Gunfire erupts in the distance and makes my pulse kick in my veins. They didn't just come prepared. They brought automatic weapons to a knife fight. They aren't joking around with this, and it isn't just a hunt for a woman who witnessed a murder. Malcom would never take the risk of openly attacking a police precinct like this unless he was openly responding to the attack on that church.
He knows this is war, and he's showing his hand now. And it's terrifyingly strong.
