And I don’t have a go-ahead to kill him, so my knife and gun are off-limits.
Only Konrad dies today, I tell myself. And I try to force calm, because whoever dies, it mustn't be Katy.
Nic’s prepared, and as I come for him out of the shadows he reacts first.
He raises his gun and I snap my hands to deflect it, but it’s a rouse. We’re close and that big meaty fist of his strikes me in the gut. A kidney shot. Damn blow hurts worse than a bullet I once took.
But I can’t react. Pain is just part of the flow, I remind myself. It’s to be embraced.
I headbutt Nic, bashing my forehead into his nose, blunting it with a crack. And the big brute barely reacts more than I did.
He’s too tough. The kind of mark I’d be cautious with. But caution has no place when my woman is on the line.
I grab hold of Nic’s trigger finger and twist it away, making him groan in pain, but he punches me again and I am only able to dull it a little with my free hand.
“Time to sleep, comrade,” I growl at him, taking a gamble as he drops the gun with a clatter.
Twisting his finger got him to drop the handgun, but that didn’t help me much, because now he has two free fists to batter me. And he goes to town trying to hammer me with those fists immediately.
It takes all I’ve got to deflect and block his blows as the blood runs down from Nic’s nose and into his mouth. And I know I can beat him. But in a battle of strength and melee skill, it’ll take a while to wear down this brute.
So I have to take a gamble. Offer Nic something to wrap his hands around.
My neck.
I grapple with him until he takes the offer, and I feel him choking off my breathing, strength enough to collapse my throat in mere moments. But it gives me my clear shot.
I nail him in the gut as he expects, but there’s little to be done to that brick of muscle, it just gets him to lean forward more. To open up my real target.
I have no kill order, but Nic does. And his eyes are full of murder as my face flushes with blood and the lack of oxygen begins to weaken my muscles.
Just one more hit, I tell myself.
Just one more.
I uppercut him in the jaw, and I hear teeth shatter as his head rockets back from the strike. I gasp for air as he staggers back.
It’s not done.
20
Katy
“I’m going to make you mine before we leave,” Konrad croaks, grinding up against me and jerking a hand up under my skirt, trying to rip my panties off. I’m almost dizzy with fear, and I know I have to act, fast.
I bring my lips up to his ear, brushing against it ever so slightly. “Let me get you out of that jacket, I want to really see you,” I breathe, and he’s too lust-ridden to refuse me.
He turns around, and with one hand, I trail my hand up his chest and to his collar, unbuttoning the top buttons and sliding the jacket down just enough to leave his neck exposed.
With the other hand, I slip between the cushions of the couch, searching for what I left there the last time Ivan and I fucked on this very spot. Then my fingers find it.
The black strip of cloth he used as a blindfold.
With every bit of speed I can muster, I yank the black cloth out and take hold of both ends of it, jerking it around Konrad’s greasy neck and pulling and twisting as hard as I can.
There’s a sickening gagging sound as I pull back with all my weight, and his hands immediately go to the cloth, trying to pry himself free.
“I’ll-” he chokes, “I’ll kill you, b-backstabbing bitch!”
“If I’d stabbed you in the back, you’d be dead already!” I shout back into his ear, pulling the cloth as tight as I possibly can. His face is starting to purple. Just a little longer…!
My hand slips.
In an instant, I see my life flashing before my eyes as Konrad uses that half-second lapse in my grip to rip the blindfold from my hands, tossing it aside and spinning around.
It’s the most terrifying face I’ve ever seen in my life.
The next thing I know, I’m being hoisted into the air and tossed like a ragdoll onto the carpeted ground, sprawling onto my back and looking up at the enraged Konrad in terror.
“Fine,” he spits, “if that’s how you want to play it, you treacherous cunt, I’ll take what your father owed me!”
He puts a knee on one side of me, and I feel his hands wrap around my throat as he descends on me with murderous rage in his eyes-
CRACK.
I see Konrad’s face go placid for a moment, then his grip lessens, and he slumps off me, and I see Ivan standing over him, my father’s bloody baseball bat in his hand, fury on his face, and a trickle of blood running from a cut in his forehead.
Konrad rolls over on his stomach, clearly dazed, and he mouths something before Ivan grabs him by the neck, picking him up like a piece of trash with one arm, hoisting him up in the air with one hand. His eyes are filled with fire, and I’m paralyzed on the floor before the scene.