Page 178 of Emerald Malice

Nikolai is in front of me. I can still hear gunfire downstairs, but Nikolai is calm.

Unbelievably calm, given he’s unarmed and I have every intention of ripping his head from his body.

He half-turns to me, nodding to the gun I have aimed at his chest. “I’d put that away if I were you,” he says. “Shooting me might set her off.”

A whimper to my right draws my attention, and my knees nearly buckle.

Natalia is sitting in a chair—alive, whole, perfect. Except…

“No.”

“Oh, yes,” Nikolai hisses, his eyes narrowing with triumph. “Time to make a choice, Andrey Kuznetsov.”

Shura was wrong: the house isn’t the ticking time bomb.

Natalia is—by virtue of the explosive strapped to her chest, counting down the time remaining to detonation.

“You have thirteen minutes left.”

64

ANDREY

“Isn’t this fun?” Nikolai eyes my gun with amusement, knowing as well as I do that it’s useless. “If we’re going to kill people, it might as well be poetic. Don’t you agree, pretty lamb?”

Natalia is pale as ash and shaking like a leaf

“Don’t you dare fucking speak to her!” I snarl.

“You’re in no position to be giving orders, Andrey,” he replies coolly. “As a matter of fact, I’d be very careful about how you speak to me.”

“One bullet is all it would take, Rostov. One fucking bullet.”

He sighs like this whole charade is boring him. “And just like that, another precious minute lost to idle chatter and idler threats. Only twelve left. Life does move so fast, doesn’t it?” He kicks away the ratty old carpet at his feet to reveal a trap door. When he opens it, it reveals a set of stairs that descend into a pool of darkness below.

Nikolai takes the first step and pauses. “You can come after me if you want, but your lady would pay the price, I’m afraid.”

My gaze slides to Natalia. She looks beyond terrified, but she’s still here with me. Her eyes are focused and present. I wonder if that’s a good thing or not. If we do make it out of here, the memories of this nightmare might drown her.

He takes another step, his eyes dancing with amusement I desperately want to shatter with a bullet. Several bullets, preferably.

“It’s up to you, Andrey. What’s more important to you: your woman or winning?”

The fight continues to rage around us. Footsteps thunder down the hall and more guns bark and chatter downstairs.

My men are out there fighting and Natalia is strapped to a bomb. They’ll all be gone if I don’t save her.

Not that there was ever another choice, anyway.

I turn my back on Nikolai and drop to my knees in front of Natalia. Nikolai’s triumphant laugh rings out before the trap door thuds closed, sealing away the sound.

“Andrey…” Natalia’s eyes are wide as she stares at me. Her lips are chalky white.

“You’re going to be fine, lastochka.” I circle her chair and clock every detail I can see. Three colored wires weave in and out of the vest.

Blue.

Yellow.

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