Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 70518 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70518 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
“Get the guns!” I heard Sawyer yell.
“Fuck.” I grunted as Eric fired off a round of shots that bounced off the metal containers in the room, splintering wood and drywall and god only knew what else. I heard Lucy’s panicked scream and yelled out to her. “Run, Lucy!”
“I’ll kill her!” Eric’s voice rang out and time seemed to stop as I turned to see him holding Lucy by the hair, the gun pointed at her head.
“You won’t kill anyone,” Sawyer hissed, holding out a gun of his own and pointing it at Nate.
I jumped to my feet, yanking Nate up with me. I held him by the arm, fixing my gaze on Eric.
“You have three seconds to let her go,” I said in an eerily calm voice.
Eric laughed. “Yeah, like I’m gonna just let her go because you said so.”
“I wouldn’t test him,” Rory said, wiping a streak of blood from his cheek, his booted foot on the stomach of one of the kidnappers. “He’s Russian and kinda crazy. I mean, I’m pretty crazy and he scares me so…”
“Two seconds,” I said quietly, meeting Sawyer’s eyes.
We’d only been friends a little over a year.
We’d bonded as his wife had been dying.
We had nothing in common beyond hockey and now Lucy.
And yet, Sawyer knew exactly what I was going to do and when I was going to do it. We didn’t have to communicate verbally for me to trust he would do what needed to be done, no matter what happened to me.
“Dude, I would listen to him,” Boone said, taking a step closer, as if he too understood what was about to happen.
“Fuck all of you,” Eric laughed again. “I’m going to blow her pretty little brains all over this dirty warehouse as soon as—”
“Time’s up.” Without waiting for him to finish whatever he was going to say, I crouched low and launched myself toward the small area where I would make as much contact as possible with Eric without fully impacting Lucy. I went for the hand with the gun, throwing all my weight on that arm as Lucy dropped and scuttled out of the way.
Eric was stronger than he looked, and we rolled around on the filthy floor, each of us vying for control of the gun. I saw in my peripheral vision that Sawyer and Nate were also scuffling, but my gut told me Eric was the scarier of the two brothers. Their accomplices had already been subdued, and it was time to end this.
Even though it meant letting go of the arm with the gun, I knew I was faster than this prick. Drawing back my fist as I moved, I punched Eric hard enough to stun him. The gun clattered out of his hand and Boone rushed forward to grab it, but I didn’t stop.
I couldn’t stop.
There had been a time when my fists had kept me alive. Now they were going to keep Lucy and my friends alive and make one of the men who’d hurt her pay. Eric tried to fight back, but he was no match for me. Once I started hitting him, my body remembered what it was like to be fighting for my life. For Svetlana’s life. My grandmother’s. And I just kept hitting him. Over and over and over. Until blood spurted from his nose, then his mouth, and when I caught him on the side of his face, two teeth came out when he coughed.
“Kon!” Boone’s voice penetrated my subconscious, but my body had a mind of its own. “The cops are here!”
“Kon!” I felt someone’s hands on me. “He’s out cold! It’s over. Let him go.”
I shook them off, swinging again and again, determined to make sure this fucker never hurt anyone ever again.
But now there was another voice.
And this one penetrated my haze of fury.
It was softer.
Crying.
Lucy.
“Konstantin. Babe. Don’t. Please stop before the—”
“Police! Freeze!”
Boone tackled me, knocking me over and landing on top of me. I caught myself just before I punched him in the gut, suddenly remembering who and where I was.
“Easy, Killer,” Boone said with a chuckle. “We got them. The cops are here. Your girl is safe. But let’s not go to jail tonight, okay?”
My girl was safe.
I swung my eyes to Lucy, who was now in Sawyer’s arms sobbing.
Jesus. Fucking. Christ.
What had I done?
What had I let her see me do?
The fight drained out of me and I let myself relax against the hard floor, Boone beside me as the cops swarmed around us. They were yelling and shouting orders, but I closed my eyes, waiting for the inevitable crash. Once the adrenaline left my body, it would hit me hard. And tomorrow it would hurt like hell.
“That man is a lunatic!” Nate yelled, pointing at me. “He killed my brother! He’s a fucking killer…oh my god, oh my god!” Nate went into full-on hysterics, but I wasn’t listening to him.