Then I close my eyes and pray that it will be over quickly.
***
Suddenly, a bang rips through the air. The door swings wildly and crashes into the wall. And Nikita stands in the doorway with his gun pointed at Gino.
“Annie, get down!”
Augustin releases me as he fumbles for the gun at his hip. I scream, roll to one side, and drop to the ground just as the crack of gunfire cuts through the air. Gino is a couple of feet in front of me and pulls his own gun out, firing at Nikita, who has tucked and rolled to the far side of the room. I crawl on my hands and knees to a desk at my right and duck behind it as I try to keep safe from the bullets screaming through the room.
“Missed you, boss!” Augustin shouts from the opposite corner of the room as a couple of more bullets crack through the air.
Nikita growls and says nothing. More bullets slam into the walls and ceiling.
I have no idea who’s firing anymore. I just lean against the desk, my knees to my chest, waiting for the gunfire to stop. I hear two more pops and then a pained groan.
And then ... silence.
Gino’s sinister laugh fills the room and my heart plummets. Did they kill Nikita?
I peek around the corner just in time to see Nikita and Augustin tumbling head over heels on the dusty floor. Fists fly back and forth. Off to the side, I see Gino, bleeding profusely from a wound in his leg, sliding away, leaving a trail of blood behind him like a slug.
I don’t know where to look. Nikita’s fist slams into Augustin’s face while Augustin sinks his own fist into Nikita’s stomach. They struggle to their feet, stumble apart for a brief second to catch their breath, and then dive back at each other with twin roars, eyes narrowed.
Nikita dodges Augustin’s swinging fist and comes up with his own uppercut. It dazes him for just a brief instant. Then Augustin’s rears his head back and slams it into Nikita’s face. They separate again, bloody and dusty, before Nikita shakes it off and blindly throws a sloppy kick
Augustin steps back, easily evading the kick. “You shouldn’t have come here, Nikita,” he taunts through a mouth full of broken teeth. I can see blood droplets spatter against the wall from a gruesome gash in Nikita’s leg. He lands heavily and barely keeps his feet, favoring the injured leg. It looks bad. My heart is pounding against my ribcage.
“I came to get something of mine,” Nikita retorts. He charges once again at Augustin, this time throwing his elbow into the other man’s face. The sickening crunch makes my stomach churn and I gag. Blood spurts from Augustin’s face and he falls backward into a shelf. Nikita sends two more quick punches into his face and the man slumps aside, unconscious.
Off to my right, I see Gino tearing off his shirt and fashioning a tourniquet around his bleeding leg. His face is pale and drawn, but the evil gleam in his eyes is as bright as it was the moment he first snatched me from the sidewalk.
Slowly, Nikita extracts himself from Augustin’s limp limbs and stands straight. He turns painfully to look at Gino, who is still half lying on the ground, panting.
“So much fire in you, Lavrin. Too bad your father didn’t have such fight in him,” Gino hisses.
“Enough from you, Gino. You’ve made your last mistake.”
“Care to wager who’s going to die?” Gino smiles, his eyes briefly glancing over Nikita’s shoulder.
I follow the look only to find Augustin standing above me, a gun pointed at my head. Everyone in the room freezes, until Augustin reaches down and hauls me to my feet by the roots of my hair. I scream, not that he gives a damn. Hell, he probably enjoys my fear.
“Get up, you cunt,” he bellows. “And you!” he adds, whirling around to point his gun at Nikita. “Hands up. Don’t make a fucking move.”
My terrified gaze darts between Nikita and the other men. I try to find a weak point, something none of them are paying attention to, a way out. But there is none. Augustin’s gun prods me in my lower back.
“Over here, bitch,” he snarls, pushing me away from the corner of the room. “I want you to look at him while I put a bullet in his head. Then I’m going to fuck you till I’ve had my fill.”
When we reach the middle of the open space, Augustin kicks me in the back of my legs, sending me to my knees with a thump. I’m a few feet away from Nikita. His gaze is fixed on mine, unreadable, as Augustin comes to my side, gun pressed against my temple.
“I’m sorry, Annie,” Nikita whispers. “I tried.”
Above me, Augustin’s eyes are dark, as if he’s lost his soul. They’re darker than my father’s. Darker than Nikita’s.
“Kill her!” Gino screams.
Augustin’s gun cocks with a metallic click.
For the second time in the last five minutes, I close my eyes and wait for the horrible fate that awaits me and the baby in my womb.
And for the second time, I’m saved.
Everything happens fast. The door flies open. Augustin spins around. Two shots fire in quick succession. I open my eyes and try to comprehend what just happened.
Eitan is slumped in the doorway, gushing blood from a bullet hole in the dead center of his chest. And next to me, Augustin’s body is sprawled out on the ground. His face is a hideous, exploded mess of blood and brain. I fall to my hands and knees and retch.
No one needs to tell me Augustin is dead. I know it in my gut. Shoes scuffle across the floor and I swing my head toward Gino. He’s scrambling to the desk I was hiding behind moments ago.
Nikita jumps towards Gino. He gets a hand wrapped around
