Viktor(74)

He screams, dropping to the floor; his gun still pointed at me. He shoots, and the bullet narrowly misses me. I immediately shoot again, this time hitting him in the head. Two holes, blood everywhere, and a man dying right in front of my eyes. Again. It doesn’t faze me anymore.

I run up the stairs, past the body, and into the next hallway where another one stands in front of the elevator. I lift the gun and shoot three times, one hitting him in the chest and the other two embedding in the wall. He drops to the floor before he has a chance to shoot back.

I go into the elevator and press the button to our floor. When the doors close, I look at my reflection in the metal. My eyes glimmer with a certain determination I’ve never seen before. I feel calm. Confident. Like I could fight the world and still win. I don’t recognize myself anymore, but that’s okay. I could definitely get used to the new me.

When the elevator pings, I take a deep breath and hold up my gun, ready to face my enemy. The doors slide open, and two people are right in front of me, but their backs are facing me. They don’t hear me because of the ruckus up ahead.

Without hesitation, I shoot them in the back of the head. I don’t regret killing any of them. They knew what they were getting into the moment they tried to use my sister against me.

They’d better not lay a hand on her … or else someone’s gonna feel the pain before I send them straight to hell.

No one is standing between my front door and me, so I put my face against the door and listen.

“What’s that fucking noise?” I hear a guy yell.

“Why don’t you go out and fucking look?” Alisha’s voice resonates in my head. Fuck me, am I glad she’s still alive.

“Shut up, you little cunt!”

That’s it. No one talks to my sister like that.

I burst in, aiming my gun in front of me, and see just one guy guarding my sister. “Hands in the air, motherfucker.”

He turns around in shock but still reaches for his holster, so I shoot him in the leg.

He drops to the floor. “Fuck!” he cries, rolling around on the floor.

His gun is a few inches away from him, so I kick it to the far end of the room. Then I look at Alisha, who’s tied up in the only chair we have. “You okay?”

She nods. “You’re safe,” she says. “But what the fuck, Lex, you could’ve died!”

“I didn’t, so shut up and tell me what’s going on.”

“Get me out of these ropes,” she says, bouncing up and down while tied up.

“One sec, gotta make sure this guy’s not trying anything.” I reach under my mattress and find my trusted cuffs. Always come in handy when trying to fuck a kinky client … or to make sure a fucking crook doesn’t escape.

I put one around his wrist as he wriggles around on the floor and then one around the bedpost, making sure he’s not going anywhere. “Stay still and shut the fuck up,” I growl at him.

Then I grab a knife from the kitchen counter and free my sister from her binds.

“Jesus, that feels much better,” she groans, rubbing her wrists.

“Did they hurt you?” I look at the guy crying on the floor. “Because if they did, I swear to God, I’m gonna fuck him up.”

“No, but why the fuck did you come here? You know it’s a trap!”

“I shot all of them. Where’s the trap?” I say.

The man handcuffed to the bed begins to laugh.

“Too late,” he grumbles.

“What you talking about?” I say, stomping toward him. “What did you say?”

“You’re already too late …”

The smile on his face pisses me off so much that I kick him in the balls as hard as I can. “What was that?”

He cringes. “Cell … phone.” His eyes point toward his pocket.

I bend over, keeping an eye on him at all times while I fish the phone from his pocket.

I step back before I read the text that’s on the screen.

It’s from Vladim. Kill them.

“Too late? Bullshit. We’re both alive, so you failed.”

“No … you don’t get it. I was supposed to send a status update every minute. If I don’t, he’ll know you’re here.”

My eyes widen. It was all a trap. I just didn’t realize what kind of trap.

“You fell right for it. His men are already on their way.”

“No, fuck that.” I reach for his collar and pull him up, almost choking him in the process. “How long do we have?”

“Five minutes, tops,” he spurts.

I shove him back into his corner. “We’ll be outta here before they get here.” I nod at Alisha.

“Doesn’t matter … you can’t leave.”