Page 35 of Emerald Malice

Glass crunches in the hallway, and I pull the door open while Natalia stutters behind me. She’s babbling about “not wanting trouble” and “dangerous environments.”

Little late for that, darling.

Through the crack in the door, I spy several of Nikolai’s men emerge from the staircase onto the third floor landing.

Well, that decides it.

She’s coming with me.

While she’s still gibbering, I roll the doctor’s chair over and wedge it beneath the door handle. It’ll buy us a few seconds at best. Once that’s secure, I pull out my gun and check the clip.

The gibbering stops instantly.

“W-why do you—Is that a—Why gun?” she stammers.

I don’t have time to entertain her questions, though. Nikolai’s men are coming and they aren’t the type to play nice.

I stride to the only window in the room and peer out of it. It’s locked and nailed shut, but on the other side of the glass, a rusty fire escape zig-zags down to the alley.

It’s not perfect. But it’ll have to do.

“Andrey, what the hell is?—”

Her words are drowned by the blast of a gunshot in the hallway. She screams and slams a hand over her mouth. I grab her face and force her to look at me.

“Listen to me. That’s all you have to do. Just listen.” She stares up at me numbly. I have no idea if she’s processing a word I’m saying, but that’s another conversation I won’t waste time having. “Everything is going to be alright as long as you listen to me.”

I wonder idly if Vaska, Efrem, and Yuri have already escaped. They know better than to wait like sitting ducks. I won’t sit around, either.

Especially not now that I have newfound responsibilities.

“First order: stay back and stay quiet,” I bark as I grab the metal trash can from the corner.

They’ll hear me once this starts. We won’t have long.

I take a deep breath. Then I coil back and hurl the trash can through the window.

Glass explodes outward and Natalia screams. She’s still asking me questions—“What are you doing? Where are we going? Who are those…?”—but I don’t bother answering. If we escape, there will be time for that later. If we don’t, it won’t make a difference who is doing what and why, because we’ll all be dead.

I scoop her into my arms and carry her across the broken glass to the window. I use my elbow to knock out the last of the shards, not caring when they cut me open, then carefully set her on her feet on the fire escape.

Footsteps outside the room thunder closer. The door handle jiggles and the chair I shoved under it groans in protest.

“Go,” I snarl at her. “Run.”

Gunshots thud into the cheap wooden door. It splinters, but it doesn’t give up the fight quite yet.

She grabs my bleeding elbow. “Come with me.”

“Go,” I say again, gentler this time. “I’m right behind you.”

She hesitates for one more moment. Then, thank fuck, she obeys.

Just as she starts maneuvering down the ladder, the door is battered down. I take aim and the first three men who pour through the door swallow bullets to the face.

I seize the momentary lull to haul myself through the broken window and out onto the fire escape. The metal whines beneath my weight, though one quick glance down says Natalia has reached the ground.

When I look up, I see a new face shoving his way into the exam room.

---