Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 395(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 395(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
I step back. “Now pair up and practice.”
I walk between them, offering suggestions and encouragement. “Good. Remember to keep your movements quick and forceful. You want to create pain and surprise so they release you. Always keep your head on straight so you have the advantage. Men will often rely on brute force when taking or hurting a woman. Be smarter.”
I watch them grow confident, their movements more fluid. I can’t help but feel a sense of pride alongside a growing sense of doom.
What will happen next? Are we prepared?
Where the hell is Lev? I have so many damn questions for him.
“Good job, ladies.” My heart thunders in my chest. I hold my breath, unable to look over my shoulder. I know that voice.
I don’t know what to think.
I turn and stare at Lev. He holds my gaze. A well of questions rises, bubbling to the surface. I have so much I need to ask him. So much I need to know.
Will he answer my questions?
I swallow hard and stare ahead, trying to control the shaking of my limbs.
“Good morning, beautiful,” he says, heading to me. My heart warms in spite of myself.
Maybe Renata was wrong. Maybe…
I hear the whistling sound at the same time he does. We stare at each other in a split second of recognition before he screams, “Go for cover!”
An explosion shatters the quiet. Screams erupt all around us as the stone bench in the garden explodes. Smoke billows in and clouds all around us. I fall to the ground, and it takes me a second to realize he’s on top of me, sheltering me beneath his heavy frame. I can’t see what’s happening.
“Stay down!” he thunders, not just to me but all of us. “We’re under attack.”
Smoke keeps coming and coming, and it finally dawns on me. “Lev, it was a detonation to distract, but the rest are smoke bombs. They’re coming. Let me up!”
He leaps off me, and we both grab our guns. I choke on the smoke all around us but keep my head like I told the girls. I fall to the ground so I can breathe better and swivel my gaze all around.
“Make sure everyone’s safe!” I scream. “Your mother, your sister!”
“Where is everyone?” Lev yells.
“Harper!”
“Here!”
“Lydia!”
“Here!”
I breathe out a sigh of relief.
“Mom?” Lev shouts.
“Here!”
“Polina?” No answer. “Polina!”
Shit.
I crawl around us, looking for anything that will give me a clue when I see through the fog and smoke a pair of guy’s legs and a woman clad in workout leggings.
“Let her go, or I’ll shoot!” I scream. I barrel-roll through the fog and slide right into his legs. He falls on top of me and elbows my neck. I scream when he grabs my wrist but quickly out-maneuver him so he cannot hold me down.
There’s a sudden scream and thud, and my husband appears as if transported magically, the look on his face through the cloud of smoke terrifying.
“That’s my wife,” he says before he cocks his gun, points it at our assailant’s head, and pulls the trigger.
“Um, and sister,” Polina mutters as we stare down at the dead body of her would-be kidnapper.
“Sorry,” I tell her, my hand on her shoulder.
“Meh, you can keep him,” she says with a wink, but Lev doesn’t hear us. He’s already on to the next one.
We work as a team. I shoot down a man in a tactical vest while Lev slices his knife through a man who goes after his mother. I watch with pride as Aria perfectly orchestrates sliding out of a chokehold before she draws her gun and pulls the trigger. Ekaterina holds her own, sliding her wrist out of a grab before she slips a knife out of a boot holster and slices him.
Lev screams for backup into his phone, and the Romanov men pour into the backyard. For long moments, there’s nothing but the deafening sound of gunshots, terrified screams, the clash of weapons, and the moans and pleas of our assailants. I’m panting over the body of a man who’s vaguely familiar—my brother’s friend, I’d guess—when the dust begins to settle.
Mikhail glares into the crowd. “Is everyone accounted for?” I see the shadow of someone behind him. He doesn’t see, and there’s no time to warn him. I roll onto my right shoulder, take my position, and pull the trigger, but when my bullet hits its mark, another shot rings out, followed by another and another.
Jesus. Harper’s fucking amazing with a gun. She’s at the other end of the patio and still hit him straight between the eyes.
“Jesus,” Mikhail mutters.
We gather everyone up. “You’re injured,” I say to Lev. He has a gash across his cheek, and there’s blood dripping from a cut on his forehead.
“I’m fine,” he snaps. “Are you?”
No, I’m not fine. I’m nauseous and feel weird, and we were just attacked, and were you with another woman?