Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 100416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 502(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 502(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
They stopped at the door at the top of the stairs. Alexei gave her a questioning look, and she nodded. She’d gotten them here. She wasn’t trained in this kind of thing, and was more than willing to take the lead if it meant retrieving Dmitri safely. Or as close to safely as he can be.
Alexei held up three fingers, and dropped them one at a time.
Three. Two. One. Go!
They poured into the room. Keira couldn’t see shit, and she ran into Alexei’s back when he stopped short. He didn’t immediately move and her heart stopped. Oh God, Dmitri’s dead. She shoved past him, needing to see for herself, because surely the world wouldn’t have kept on turning if Dmitri was no longer in it.
The sight that greeted her stopped her cold. Mae sat slumped over in a chair, her dark hair hiding her face. And, across from her, a gun in his hands and looking a little too pale, sat Dmitri.
“How?” breathed Keira. She immediately shook her head. Mae might be secured, but that didn’t mean they were out of danger. “Alexei, find Alethea and sweep the building. Vlad, with me.”
He didn’t so much as hesitate. He barked orders in Russian, and the men split into two groups. One went back the way they’d come, and the other headed out a door on the other side of the room. In the space of ten seconds, the room was empty but for the four of them. “Vlad, guard the door.” She didn’t wait to see if he’d obey.
Keira skirted around Mae and crouched next to Dmitri. The gun he held was steady, but he had a strange look in his eyes. “You came for me.”
“Of course I came for you, you fool.” She lowered her voice. “How hurt are you?”
“Several broken ribs. I don’t believe they’ve punctured anything.”
Even if they had, he wouldn’t tell her now. She shot a glance at Vlad. “Can you stand without help?”
Dmitri gave her a severe look. “Da.”
He had to be more hurt than he was saying, but the hastily buttoned shirt covered up any evidence of it. Fine. If he wasn’t in danger of dying right this moment, it could wait until they got back to safety. “We’ll find Alethea.” And then… She didn’t want to think about that. Keira might want Mae dead for what she did to Charlie—what she wanted to do to Dmitri—but it was one thing to think about how much better the world would be without Mae in it. It was entirely another to shoot her in cold blood.
She eyed the woman. “What are we going to do with her?”
Mae jerked like a puppet coming to life. She lifted her head slowly, narrowing her eyes at the sight of Dmitri and Keira. “Told you so.” She smiled through bloody lips.
It happened in the space of a moment. Mae shot to her feet and launched herself at them. Dmitri moved to intercept her, but he swayed, and his hold on the gun faltered. The weapon hit the floor. Keira was already in motion as she registered the flash of a blade in the woman’s hand, drawing her gun and firing three shots in quick succession. Each one took Mae in the chest, stopping her forward motion.
The woman hit her knees, a look of stunned surprise on her face. “Well, fuck.” She slumped over to the floor.
“I just…” Oh God.
“Did what was necessary.” Dmitri took a gasping breath. “I might have underestimated my injuries.” His eyes rolled back in his head and he went limp.
Keira barely caught him before he slid out of his chair, and even then, his weight pushed her to the floor. Vlad was there in an instant, helping her move her husband away from the dying woman. She waited to make sure he was still breathing, and then she forced herself to walk back to Mae.
This was what it meant to be Keira Romanov.
She felt sick to her stomach, but relief overpowered her nausea. This wasn’t like Devlin. Mae was as far from an innocent as a person could get. If she’d played by the rules, it wouldn’t have come to this. Keira crouched next to her, watching her struggle to breathe. “Charlie sends her regards.”
“Bitch…” Mae took one last rattling breath and stilled, her eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.
Dead.
I just killed a woman.
No, I just killed a monster.
She pushed to her feet, and Alexei and his half of the men came back through the door. One look at his face told her all she needed to know. “You couldn’t find Alethea.”
“There’s no trace of her.”
A worry for another day. Right now, dealing with the dead body and getting Dmitri medical aid was more important than the missing woman. She waved a hand at Mae. “Get rid of her.” It would have been nice to give Charlie some kind of official closure, but Mae was already a bail jumper. She would just have to be one of those unsolved cases. Charlie and Aiden would know the truth—that would have to be enough.