“That’s the fucking Russian!” Someone hissed behind him, his hands raised in surrender.
The idiot’s grip tightened anyway, fingers twisting in Addy’s shirt as if holding her closer might save him.
It wouldn’t.
I took a slow and deliberate step forward. The scrape of my boot against concrete echoed louder than it should have, or maybe everything else had just gone quiet.
“Listen carefully,” I continued, my gaze locked on his, unblinking and unwavering, “because I’m only going to say this once.”
He laughed, sharp and unstable; the sound cracked and almost manic.
“You think I won’t fucking do it?” he barked, jamming the gun harder into her temple, forcing her head slightly to the side.
My jaw tightened and the world narrowed further. Drops of sweat were rolling down the side of my neck and my shirt was sticking to my back.
“You won’t.”
Hecouldn’t. Addy was not dying today. She’d come home with me, I’d finally put a goddamn ring on her finger and she’d stay right at my fucking side for the rest of our lives, where she belonged.
I took another step, precise and calculated.
“You don’t have the nerve,” I went on, quieter now, forcing him to listen, forcing him to focus on me so he wouldn’t have time to consider anything dangerous, “and even if you did, you wouldn’t get the chance to pull the trigger.”
Addy shifted slightly at that, and I felt it like a current running straight through my chest.
She’s alive, I reminded myself.Still alive.
The man swallowed hard, but he didn’t lower the gun. Wrong fucking choice.
“Last chance,” I bit out, my voice dropping just enough to turn it into something dangerous, something personal. “Let her go.”
For a second it looked like he might but then his expression twisted, fear curdling into something uglier, something desperate.
“Fuck you!” he snapped, jerking the gun harder against her head and I was done.
I pulled the trigger.
The shot tore through the warehouse like a clap of thunder, the recoil snapping clean through my shoulder as the bullet tore through him. His body dropped instantly, the grip on her releasing as if the life had been cut clean out of him mid-thought.
He hit the ground hard and didn’t move again.
Do svidaniya, motherfucker.
Addy flinched, a sharp sound catching in her throat, and her reaction burned through me worse than anything else in the room.
Fuck!He had been too fucking close.
The entire warehouse erupted into motion.
Shouts overlapped, boots scraped against concrete, and weapons were drawn in jerky, uncertain movements as chaos rippled outward from that single moment.
“Left side. Two more,” Kyrill’s voice cut in smoothly through the comms, calm and surgical. “One behind the crate. Don’t miss him.”
A shot rang out and the man behind the crate dropped before he could fully rise.
“Got him,” Kyrill added gleefully.
My men flooded in behind me, moving quickly and in a disciplined manner. Weapons raised and steady, they formed a perimeter in seconds, every movement controlled and every position deliberate.