Page 61 of Shielded Secrets

“No, it’d be too late to do that now. And I don’t even have it on me right now, anyway. It’s back at home.”

I shrugged. “Okay, then we’ll handle that another time. Sorry.”

She gave me a funny look. “Why would you say you’re sorry?”

“Because you’re talking about not wanting to be here on campus anymore and we’ll have to come back again.”

“But just to wrap up loose ends. I can handle that.”

She could. She could handle anything that came her way.

After we entered a narrower walkway near the library, I felt my phone buzz and checked the screen. I didn’t have a chance to really get a look at the text, though, because Kelly screamed.

“Look out!”

I tensed, bracing for attack and reaching for my gun. From one of the arched nooks cut into the exterior of one of the buildings that ran perpendicular to the one we walked along, a couple ofmen burst out from the shadows. They’d been standing there, clearly waiting to ambush us, not merely hanging out in the carved niche of brickwork but idling at the intersecting pathway.

“Get back,” I ordered them both. Holding on to Kelly’s hand, I tugged her closer so I could hug her and block her from these guys.

They were too quick, though, barreling into me. And they were too efficient, having someone ready on a moped to blast through and snatch Kelly by the waist.

One moment, we were walking and talking, carefree as only a couple in love could be. Then the next, she was flailing and bucking to break free from the man riding the moped and speeding away.

In a flash, everything had blurred with too many actions at once. Fury filled me, and I couldn’t try to bottle it in. Snatching the closest man to me, I started a gruesome, no-holds-barred fight. Punching, kicking, and trying to slam this asshole to the ground, I resisted the stone-cold instinct to end his life now. Right here and now.

People scattered from the nearest building, hearing the sounds of the fight, but that didn’t matter. It couldn’t. The second I choked this fucker into submission and pinned him to the cold ground, I fished my phone out and called for backup.

“Find her. Find her now!”

“We’re tracking her already. It looks like she’s heading toward the building.”

“Which fucking building?” I roared, tightening my fingers on the man’s neck on the ground. He wasn’t a Petrov. I didn’t think hewas an Ilyin, either. Whoever he was, he’d screwed up big time in collaborating with someone who dared to take my wife.

“Where Marcus James was killed. The admin building that has the dean’s office in it.”

“Dumbasses,” I muttered. “They took her there?”

Seeing a Baranov soldier running up to me, I ended the call and let him take over handling this punk I’d grabbed. “They took her to the admin building. Handle him.”

He nodded, and I sprinted in the direction of where my wife had been taken.

I wasn’t losing her. Not like this, right after we talked about the future.

I wasn’t losing her ever.

I’m coming for you. I promise. I won’t fail you, Kelly. I won’t.

I clenched my teeth and ran harder. From my left, another Baranov man showed up and ran with me, almost racing me to reach the building where she had been taken. When he got close enough, I saw that it wasn’t just another soldier as backup, but Vik.

“What the fuck is going on?” he said. “I just got the alert from the crew that something went down and I see you running.”

“Someone drove by and took Kelly.”

It wasn’t easy talking while running, but we weren’t amateurs.

“What the fuck? Who?”

I shook my head the best I could while running. “I didn’t see. It happened too quickly.”

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