Page 3 of Kings of Violence

Just a little farther. We’re almost at the safe room, then…

We could call the cops from the emergency phone. If they actually manage to chase off the intruders, they’ll probably search the house again too. As if they hadn’t already turned the place upside down back when Sean got arrested.

That’s still preferable to us losing our lives.

The nearby window illuminates the bookcase that hides the door to the safe room. I breathe a small sigh of relief.

I tug on Ma’s hand and head toward the bookcase a little more steadily.

I have my hand on the panel to open the door when the small bit of light from the window disappears.

A large hand wraps itself around my wrist.

“Where are you going, hmm?” a deep voice says. Not the same guy from before, and this one has an accent that makes the blood freeze in my veins because the Russians have every reason to hate my family.

They have every reason to slaughter me and Ma, and my sister-in-law and her children too.

They have every reason to paint another room red, leaving me with nightmares of so much blood, so many body parts, so much flesh mottled with bullet wounds, and I?—

I can’t think of anything to say. I can’t think; hell, I can barelybreathe. The sound I make is little more than a squeak, and Ma is crying, and I don’t know what to do.

“Nikolai! Bring the light!” the man shouts down the hall. “So I can see where they hide their secrets.”

Ominous footsteps thud against the hardwood floor, and my heart beats frantically in my chest as another man nears us.

I try feebly to pull my hand away from the Russian holding me, but he only tightens his grasp, gripping until the delicate bones painfully grate together.

“This place is a maze,” the voice I recognize from earlier — the one that had called mezaya— says, coming up from behind us. He holds something up, and a blinding light flashes across my vision.

I blink, averting my eyes from the too-bright cell phone flashlight, and I realize I’m still holding on to the fucking spoon. “You can have it. Any of it,” I say quickly.

I wish Ma would stop sobbing. I can’tthink. The security system should’ve flagged something by now; once the power was cut, once the gunshots started, Kyran would’ve known what to do… and no matter how he feels about Ma, no matter how he feels about any of this, he wouldn’t abandon us.

Except he already did abandon us.

The only person who can protect Ma now is me.

“P-please,” Ma sobs. “Please, don’t hurt her. Don’t hurt my baby.”

With the light, I can get a better look at the intruders. The one holding me is large, impossibly so — larger even than my brother Kyran. This man has a thick beard, deep red hair, and intense eyes. I spot the hint of a tattoo on his neck, but it disappears under the collar of his dress shirt.

“It’s up to you whether I will hurt her or not,” the man says. He moves my hand from the panel and pushes down on it with his other hand. The bookcase swings inside to reveal the safe room. “I want your father’s guns.”

“We don’t have them,” I say quickly, trying to tug my hand away. “The FBI took them when they searched the house.”

“No,” the man barks. “Not those guns. The weapons stores. The shipments he owes us.”

Fuck.

I shake my head, swallowing thickly. “Please, we don’t know anything about that. Pa didn’t involve us. Because we’re women.”

Somehow, I don’t think that’s going to deter this mountain of a man from hurting us to try to find out what he wants to know, but it’s true enough.

The man with the flashlight chuckles. “And women are only good for one thing, eh, Kotya?” He’s big, too, though he’s stillshorter and leaner than the one calledKotya. I think this one must beNikolai, but that doesn’t help. None of that helps at all.

“Check this secret room,” Kotya orders. “Maybe Winters stashed things here to hide from the FBI.”

His grip on my wrist tightens as Nikolai walks past us into the safe room, taking the light with him.

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