Page 94 of Bought By Sin

The Volkovs.

Because it was no longer instinct to think of them as something different or apart from me.

I was one of them, and as I snatched the handful of slim plastic drives and crammed them into the zippered pocket of my black pants, I knew that this, too, would be proving my commitment to see them prosper. I hadn’t come here and shot Yusef Antonov in the face, but I wasn’t tagging along and doing nothing.

I came. I saw. And I conquered the fine art of searching for intel and stealing it.

Secrets that had to matter to Gregori.

And now they could be secrets that counted as resourceful clues to the Volkovs.

“Let’s go,” I told Lev, not even bothering to close the drawers or care about what the office looked like.

Our intrusion had been noticed despite no alarm systems being triggered. The sound of gunfire had to have informed a guard, and as men rushed in here to be greeted by the Bratva soldiers’ firearms, more and more would come.

It was time to run, to take this intel back to Adrik and the others. To flee with Lev and know that we’d had a productive night.

I cared now, not just going through the motions of another smuggling run.

I cared that we had done well. That we would come back victorious and be able to plan another step against Gregori now.

Before that could happen, we had to escape and live.

I looked up as Lev retreated a step from the door. The distance he put between his previous vantage point and where he stood now meant he couldn’t see the thug rushing down the hall, his murderous face implying the intention to get to us.

He shouted something in Russian at the same time that I screamed, “Get down!”

I ducked, aiming my taser at the thug.

Lev lurched to the side, to get shelter behind the desk with me. Zinging bolts of a current shot out from the taser and got the man, but as I leaned up to see if he was down, I was hit.

A piercing ray of agony lanced through my upper arm. Then again, near my neck. Or was it my shoulder?

With the distortion of my senses as I was shot, I couldn’t slow down time to fully comprehend any details.

They all blurred together.

Lev shouting and the ensuing gunfire.

The pulsing heat of an injury at my shoulder and arm.

Weightless pressure to fall to the floor and force my now-heavy lids to blink or stay open.

I will…

I strained to push myself up, determined not to sit here and droop lower and lower under the crushing intensity of the pain.

I will… survive.

I will survive?

I swallowed hard and gritted my teeth to roll over. Maybe being on my hands and knees would give me leverage to move. Lev stood firmly in place, blocking me from the men rushing in and firing at us. Bullet holes dotted the desk, but none were through to pierce us.

I was shot, though, and as I lifted one arm to press my hand over the gaping gash on my flesh, I tried to breathe through it all.

The shock.

The numbing realization of pain as it consumed me from head to toe, radiating from the inside out.