Bright spots appear before my eyes, the glasses on my face flying out of reach.
“You stupid fucking girl,” he rumbles in his thick Russian accent. “It was your sister I am after! Your sister who I have been searching for!”
The dizzying pain fades for the shock that comes at his revelation.
I squint up at him and mutter, “Eva? You’ve beenlookingfor her? But that means?—”
“Yes, that is right!” he yells over me. “Your clever little sister escaped from my custody months ago. She took something very valuable with her when she left.”
“Wait, so she’s been free this whole?—”
“I had reason to believe the Callahans were harboring her,” he interrupts, standing over me. “That perhaps Lochlan or the fucking traitor whose eye I took had taken her in.Youwere supposed to find out for me. Confirm whether they had her hidden away somewhere. But you failed, didn’t you? You got too attached to your Irish brute and collected no useful info.”
I’m not even listening anymore.
One phrase and one phrase alone is echoing inside my head.
Eva is free.
This whole time I’ve been desperately searching for her, and she’s been free all along.
Now I just have to find her.
Hope rises anew inside me, making me draw several other conclusions at once.
…like how Fedorov can no longer dangle her in front of me. He can no longer use her against me.
…which means I’m done being his puppet.
My gaze lowers to the gun in Fedorov’s hand and the cane in the other.
I make a snap decision and go for it. I lunge forward and wrench his cane out from under him. His legs give out due to the surprise of it, how swiftly I’ve snatched the cane away and left him unsupported.
He crashes to the ground beside me, and I’m on him in the next second, doing my best to wrangle the gun away from him.
Fedorov snarls in instant rage. “You stupid fucking girl!”
His palm connects with my cheek, and we roll over this way and that as we battle it out.
He’s much older but also a lot bigger than I am.
I refuse to give up. Even half blind with my left cheek throbbing, I give it everything I have. My fingers wrap around the handle of his pistol, and I desperately try to pry it from his grasp.
We turn over again. Fedorov winds up on top of me. Panic starts to set in, a flood of bad memories coming back to me.
Past moments where this was my world; I was nothing more than a pet made to lie still and take whatever he gave me.
For a paralyzing second, I almost become that girl again. I’m close to locking up and giving in. Letting Fedorov take over.
…letting him win and have his way.
But I push through the haze of memories with a scream. I shove back at him as we turn over yet again. The gun’s caught between us, both of our grips locked onto it.
The bang is deafening. So loud it seemingly drowns out all the other chaotic sounds throughout the estate.
My eyes go wide as my body goes still.
The warm slick substance is instant. I feel it on me, spreading fast.
