The noise is deafening, and I fall to one knee, breathless, ears ringing. Fuck. Fuck.
I have to remind myself why I did it. I have to imagine saving Lucy, otherwise I might lose my shit right here on the warehouse floor. There’s an exception to every rule. Nobody is safe as long as Lucy is in danger. Gathering my strength, I push myself up from the ground, unsteady on my feet.
I check to see how much ammunition is left and toss the gun to the floor when I see it’s empty. I still have my pistol. I climb the stairs two at a time, calling out for Konstantin. “Come out here, you bastard,” I say.
The second floor of the warehouse is a mess. There are rooms full of boxes that stretch towards the ceiling. Whatever he’s packaging and shipping, it’s huge. I go from room to room until I see one door open. The light is on.
I enter slowly, looking around. I get to the other side of the room when I hear a noise. Spinning around, I see Konstantin.
He has Lucy held tight, a gun pressed to her head. The sight makes my blood run cold.
The look of fear on her face burns itself into my mind. She looks terrified, eyes wide, nose flaring as she breathes heavily. “Let her go, Konstantin,” I say. I tighten my grip on my gun. “She doesn’t have anything to do with this. I was the one hired to kill you. Not her.”
Konstantin chuckles and looks down at her. “Is that right? Lucy here had a lot to tell me earlier. She told me how she’s always wanted to kill me. How she dreamed about me some nights. I’m certain she played as big a role in this as you did.”
I want to yell at Lucy for saying anything. She should’ve just kept her mouth shut. But I understand. I couldn’t hold back from telling Andrei and Aleksandr. I wanted to gloat. Wanted to rub it in their faces that I was the one taking them out of this world.
“Roman,” she says, eyes full with tears. “You have to stop him.”
Konstantin chuckles again. “He’s not going to stop anything, sweetheart. He’s going to do exactly what I say if he doesn’t want to watch you die right in front of him.”
Just the thought of it makes me sick. Death doesn’t scare me. What does is the thought of Lucy being the next person I see die.
I can’t shake the thought from my mind. The blood. The hollow look in her eyes. It’s bone-chilling.
That’s not going to happen to her.
“Konstantin, look at me.”
His wild eyes fall on me. “What?”
“We can work together, okay? We don’t have to be against each other.”
One of his eyebrows cocks upwards. “Elaborate.”
“Mr. X knows that I’m coming for you tonight. He knows that you’re supposed to die. You think he’s gonna stop trying to bury you, just because his first option for the job didn’t get it done? No way. If I fail, more will come after me. But if you work with me, if you let Lucy go, I’ll tell him you’re dead. I’ll let him think you’re gone. You can disappear. You can move out of the city. Go somewhere else, start your businesses there. I’ll deal with Mr. X on my own.”
It’s a solid plan. Sure, I have no fucking idea how I’m going to explain it to Mr. X, but I don’t have time to think about that. I need to say anything I can to get this man to lower his weapon. I just need him to take his finger off the trigger long enough for me to shoot him dead.
“You really think I’d fall for that?”
“I know you have connections, Konstantin. You have plenty of people out there that can help you disappear. Lay low for a little while. Let me take care of Mr. X, and when it’s all said and done, you can come back to town.”
“You’d kill him?”
“Anything. I don’t care. I don’t care what it takes. If you want it, we can make it happen, okay?”
He looks as if he’s considering it. I’ve almost got him. “What do you think?” he asks Lucy. “Should I trust him?”
“Yes,” she breathes. “You should.”
Konstantin smirks. He aims his gun at my feet and fires. I jump back, barely missing the bullet as it buries itself into the concrete floor, hissing. My heart races.
“Did you really think I’d fall for that, Roman? Surely you must think better of me.”
Fuck.
Gritting my teeth, I steady my gun again, taking a shaky breath.
“It’s not a trick, Konstantin. Anything you fucking want, you can have. Just let her go.”
“I want you dead, Roman,” he says, eyes glinting with psychotic glee. “I saw what you did to all of my men downstairs. I saw the carnage. I heard the screaming. You killed all of them to get up here. If I let my guard down just once, you’ll be at my throat with your teeth.”
He’s not a stupid man. At least he has that going for him. “If you let her go, I’ll walk out of here and never look back. I won’t even turn around to see where you run off to.”
Konstantin tilts his head. “Like you’d ever really turn against Mr. X like that.”
“Fuck X,” I shout. “Fuck him and anyone else I’ve worked for. I’m done with this shit.”
He laughs, head falling back for a moment. “Is that right? You think you can just walk away? After everything Mr. X has on you?”
“What?”
There’s no way in hell he knows about the blackmail. X told me he was the only one who knew. As long as he had it, he controlled me.
“You heard me, Roman. I know what you did to dear old Uncle Andrei and Uncle Aleksandr. It was vicious, but if you ask me, they had it coming. They got exactly what they deserved. I mean, killing your parents like that? How could they
