Kissing My Killer (42 page)

“You
look
evil,” said Irina. “But I don’t think you are.” She stood up.

At that moment, I heard the stairs creak as someone started up them. I glanced around quickly—the bedroom the girls had been hiding in had no other exit, so staying there wasn’t an option. I waved them to me and Irina scooped up Lizaveta and followed. We hurried across the landing and made it through a heavy oak door just as Seventeen rounded the top of the stairs.

It was the first time I’d seen him since the sawmill. He’d abandoned his rifle and was brandishing a shotgun. When he saw me, the scariest thing was that there was none of the rage or hatred that any normal man would display. He raised the shotgun as emotionlessly as a man lifting a fly swatter to kill a bug.

I slammed the door shut and locked it. A shotgun blast tore into the wood from the other side, splintering it but not quite breaking through. Another few shots, though, and it would be shredded.

We were in a hallway, with three doors to choose from. Nikolai might well be lying in wait, especially if Seventeen had reported my position. I might lead the girls right into an ambush.

The shotgun fired again and the first holes appeared in the door.

Gabriella

Yuri led us down into the security station, his gun drawn. It was a concrete box that had been sunk into the ground, with only a few tiny windows high on the walls for light. Screens stood ready to show views from CCTV cameras...but they were all dark. A solitary computer screen glowed.

“As I told you, all locked up,” said Yuri bitterly. “We would need
them
to unlock it.”

That was the part I was trying hard not to look at. Sitting at the control desk were two guards. Both had been shot in the back—probably Seventeen’s first move, when he’d arrived.

“Just...help me move them,” I said, my stomach churning. Together, we heaved the bodies out of their chairs and laid them gently against the wall.
Shouldn’t I say something, or something?
They were somebody’s brothers, maybe somebody’s fathers.... I settled for closing their eyes.

Back at the desk, Yuri and Arianna leaned over me as I went to work. Arianna translated the Russian and I started to skirt my way around the security protocols. Yuri got bored after thirty seconds and went to guard the door, which left the two of us in the gloom. For long minutes, the only sound was her voice telling me what the machine was asking for and the skittering of my fingers on the keys.

I sidestepped the last layer of security and the screens suddenly came to life: hallways and reception rooms, garages and a swimming pool.

Then I saw Alexei. He was in a hallway, sheltering a young woman who in turn was carrying a child. The door next to them was slowly splintering from gunfire. My stomach shot up into my throat.
“Alexei!”
I yelled.

“He can’t hear you,” said Arianna. “Use this.” She threw me a radio.

I tried the channels until I got him. “Alexei?”

I saw him pull the radio from his belt. “
Gabriella?!
”

“I can see you on the cameras. I’m going to guide you out.” One screen showed a map. “Go right down to the end of the hallway and through the last door on your left.”

“Do you see Nikolai anywhere?”

I scanned the screens. “No. You’re clear. Go, I’ll keep watch!”

He hauled the two girls along with him and ran. Behind him, I could see the door crack down the center and Seventeen’s arm reach through, fumbling for the lock.

“Turn right!” I yelled to Alexei. “Onto the balcony!”

“That’s a dead end!”

“There’s a fire escape.”

I watched as he burst out into the open air and then hustled the girls down the fire escape. “No sign of Nikolai?”

I couldn’t see anyone around the house but them. “None.” Then I saw something on the far side of the house—Luka, together with a man in his fifties. “Luka’s out, with his dad!” I heard Arianna give a groan of relief. “We’re at the security station—come get us.” There were cameras throughout the forest—I’d be able to watch his back the whole way.

I saw Alexei nod. Then he must have spotted the camera I was watching through, because he looked right into it. “Thank you,” he said into his radio. “I love you.”

My heart melted. Then the three of them were off and running and I slumped back in my chair in relief.

I heard the noise behind me just too late.

Gabriella

The back of my head exploded into pain, a cloud of red agony shot through with white spikes. I half-fell out of my chair, close to throwing up. When I managed to get my legs under me and turn around, I saw a man in his forties standing there, his suit disheveled and stained with mud. Behind him, through the doorway, I could see Yuri’s crumpled body lying on the ground—dead or unconscious, it was impossible to tell.

The man was pointing a gun at Arianna and me. I realized that he must have slugged me with the barrel. And I realized there was only one person he could be.

“Nikolai.” I croaked.

He might have been handsome, once, but bitterness had etched deep lines across his forehead and jaw, giving him a permanent scowl. In the gloom of the bunker, his eyes seemed to be the brightest part of him, two circles of dirty gray ice, without any of Alexei’s hint of blue.

“Alexei is coming,” I managed. Every word, every movement, made my head throb. “He’ll be here any minute.”

“No he won’t,” spat Nikolai. He grabbed the radio I’d been using and switched the channel. He kept the gun on us, but started glancing at the screens and speaking in Russian into the radio. I didn’t need Arianna to translate what was going on. He was talking to Seventeen. He was using the cameras to lead him right to Alexei and the cousins.

Alexei

Progress was slow—Irina still had Lizaveta in her arms, and she was getting tired. “I’ll take her,” I offered, holding out my arms for the child.

Lizaveta shook her head wildly, clinging desperately to Irina. “No!”

I sighed under my breath.
She knows,
a little voice in my head whispered.
Even a kid knows you’re a killer.

A bullet whipped past my ear. I spun around, firing blindly into the trees, but I couldn’t see anyone. I hustled the girls on, choosing a different path through the forest, trying to be quick but quiet.

A moment later, another shot whistled past my shoulder. I fired again, but I still couldn’t see anyone...and I was almost out of bullets.
How does he know where we are?

A twig cracked in the trees behind us. I dived at the girls, pushing them out of the way, and the bullets missed us by inches. As we sprawled on the ground, Seventeen emerged from the trees, lazily reloading his handgun. I managed to get my gun pointed at him just in time to have him kick it out of my hands.

He turned towards the girls. As he raised his gun, Irina pushed Lizaveta behind her, spreading her arms defensively. Seventeen hesitated, cocking his head as if he found her self-sacrifice to be a curious, alien concept.

That hesitation was all I needed. With a guttural yell, I dived at Seventeen, wrapping my arms around his legs and slamming him to the ground. I was already punching him as we landed.

Seventeen tried to rise but I pinned him down, absorbing his punches on my face and chest and focusing on beating him into submission. I had the size advantage and I was powered by raw, desperate fear.
I will not let this happen! Not Irina! Not Lizaveta!

It looked as if I’d win. He started to go limp. I drew my arm back to deliver the final blow….

But I’d never fought anyone like him before. All the people I’d fought had been sane—they had personalities, with all the doubts and insecurities that came with them. Faced with defeat, they went fearful and weak.

I didn’t even see Seventeen reach down and pull the knife from his belt. He shoved it into my side with such expert, surgical precision that I barely felt it go in. I only felt it as a weakness, my arms losing their strength, my weight slumping sideways….

Seventeen rolled out from under me as I fell to the ground. My eyes were open so I could see things unfold, but I couldn’t do a thing to stop them. My whole body was going numb.

Seventeen got to his feet, staggering a little, and looked around. He’d dropped his gun when he went down and it was lost amongst the leaves and twigs on the forest floor. He picked up my gun, instead.

I stared helplessly at Irina. She wasn’t crying—brave until the end. Behind her, Lizaveta was sobbing and clinging to her leg.

I could barely feel my legs, now. I knew that I must be bleeding internally. On some level, I actually admired him for how perfectly he’d done it—the wound would take a long time to kill me, but it took me out of the fight completely. I had nothing left to give.

Seventeen didn’t even bother to hurry as he retrieved my gun. He checked the clip, sighed, then cocked it. He walked over to the girls. Lizaveta immediately hid behind Irina.

“Show me your sister,” Seventeen told Irina in that flat, emotionless tone.

Irina’s eyes widened in astonishment. “
What?
No! Fuck you!” She spread her arms wide again. “You want her, you’re going to have to come through me!”

Seventeen showed her the gun. “There’s only one round left,” he said calmly. “I can make it quick, but only for one of you.”

Irina stared at him in horror and shook her head.

Seventeen tilted his head to the side, confused. I think he was making a genuine attempt to be humane, even if it was only based on what he’d heard was the right thing to do. “Don’t you want it to be quick for her?”

Now Irina did start to cry. Seventeen just waited, as if he had all the time in the world. Lizaveta was howling, big heaving gasps, her face red with tears.

I could see the straining tension in Irina’s body as she slowly pulled her younger sister in front of her. Lizaveta resisted and Irina had to use all her strength to drag her heels through the mud. “Shh,” she said. “Shh, it’ll be okay.”