I stumbled.
He caught me and hissed out a curse. “Do not break now.”
“Wasn’t planning on it.” But I needed a hard second to get my bearings. “Who did you smoke?”
“The short one with the earring. I took his gun and his knife.” Viktor passed me the blade. “Including Priest, there are five other Crows here somewhere. Two more firearms, if I have counted correctly.”
“What if you haven’t?”
“Then this ends. And it might not end well. We are weak and outnumbered. But it is time, no? I do not want to die on my knees. Do you?”
No fuckin’ way.
I didn’t hesitate. I wrapped my hand around the knife handle and widened my stance. “We’re not dying.”
Viktor cocked his head towards the sound of an incoming storm. “That is good to know. Then we live.”
Strong words, and I believed them as much as I believed Nash was out there somewhere looking for me. Folk. Ranger. Saint. Other brothers I’d run out of rope to think about.
They’re not finding my body.
Not fuckin’ happening. And with the decision made, that eerie calm returned to me. A measured frame of mind that wasn’t entirely mine.Nash.Out of nowhere, I remembered the lollipop he’d tucked into my pocket the night of the festival. The one I’d had grand plans to unwrap and rub all over Orla’s sinful red lips the next time we were naked together, leaving them sweet for Nash when he finally made it home.
Now it was me who hadn’t come home.
Fuck that.
I found the stick in the depths of my ruined jeans. Pulled it out and unwrapped it, biting that fucker in half.
Black-cherry sugar filled my mouth. I passed the rest of it to Viktor and he slipped it between his lips, savouring the moment.
“You are ready?”
I didn’t get the chance to answer. Monsters rushed up on us, bullets flying. I resisted the urge to tug Viktor behind me and got low with the knife, leaving him to raise his gun and return fire.
He was better at this than they were. Even depleted by captivity, his aim was true.
Two fuckers went down.
Another ducked and I went for him, ending him with less angst than I figured I’d feel the first time I knew for sure that I’d taken a life.
We moved on, sweeping the corridor and every room we came across until we reached an exit.
Outside, shouts filled the air, the rough voices of at least two men, but I wasn’t relying on Viktor’s mental arithmetic. Dude had found an unnatural burst of energy, but it wouldn’t last. We had minutes to fight our way out of here or we were both dead.
Expect the worst.
Enjoy the best.
Cheers, Lo.
I booted the door with my socked foot, barrelling through it and out into the night. Fresh air hit me. Cold, as if I’d been gone so long that peak winter had set in. But the frigid wind gave me life and the next person to come up on me was a blur.
Did I kill them too?
Honestly, I didn’t know.
I didn’tcare.