The other one fires wildly, panic making him sloppy.
I step out and finish him, but that’s when everything goes wrong.
Sophia sees the third attacker before I do.
He’s come from a side passage, his gun aimed directly at my head.
She doesn’t hesitate.
She throws herself in front of me, and I watch in horror as her finger tightens on the trigger.
Her shot hits him in the chest, but his gun is already firing.
The bullet meant for my head catches me in the shoulder instead, the same wounded shoulder, spinning me around.
Pain explodes through my body, white-hot and all-consuming.
I hit the ground hard, my gun skittering across the stone floor.
“Mikhail!” Sophia’s voice sounds distant, muffled. She’s kneeling beside me, her hands pressing against my shoulder. Warm blood seeps between her fingers. “No, no, no. Stay with me. Please stay with me.”
I try to speak, but my mouth won’t form words. The tunnel is spinning, darkness creeping in at the edges of my vision.
I can see her face above me, tears streaming down her cheeks, and I want to tell her it’s okay.
That she needs to run.
That she needs to save herself.
But all I can think is how beautiful she looks.
How much I need her.
How I can’t leave her alone in this world of violence and blood.
“I’ve got you,” she’s saying, her voice breaking. “I’ve got you. Just hold on.”
She’s trying to lift me, her slender frame struggling under my weight. I want to help her, but my body won’t respond.
The darkness is getting thicker, pulling me under like a riptide.
The last thing I see before consciousness slips away is Sophia’s face, determined and fierce, as she drags me deeper into the tunnel.
Away from the gunfire.
Away from death.
At least, I hope it’s away from death.
Then there’s nothing but black.
13
SOFIA
The safe house smells like pine and dust, a far cry from Mikhail’s mansion with its marble floors and expensive art.
But right now, as I press a clean cloth against the bullet wound in his shoulder—right next to the older bullet wound—this cramped cabin in the mountains feels like the only safe place in the world.
