Page 71 of 10 Days to Surrender

Steady.

Gentle squeeze, and…

I miss by a fucking mile.

I frown as I see just how badly wide my shot veered. “Cross-wind,” I mutter. “Gotta adjust.” I crack my neck from side to side, then start the process all over again.

Exhale.

Steady.

Gentle squeeze.

And…

Worse. Much worse.

“Chtob u tebya hui vo lbu vyros,” I curse.

Kosti watches, lighting a cigarette. The crack of the match is louder than my missed shots. “Was that the wind again?” he asks. “Or did the gun let you down?”

“Fuck you.”

“The answer is neither, Sasha.” He exhales a plume of smoke. “It’s your head that’s the problem.”

I raise the Glock again, teeth gritted. Fuck the can; the next target over appears in my sights—a paper outline of a man, black and white.

Simple. Math.

Boom.

Ten yards in the wrong direction. The target remains pristine.

I, on the other hand, am a mess. I’m sweating out of nowhere, even though the morning is relatively cool. Pain lances up my side, bright and hot. “The fucking sights are off.”

“The sights are fine and you know it.” He exhales a smoke ring.“You’reoff.”

Another shot. Another miss. The gun recoils in my grip like a spooked horse. What to blame now? Sleepless nights? Months cut off from my men, my money, my empire?Oh, poor fucking me—my mattress wasn’t TempurPedic, so I can’t kill anymore?

I fire again.

Again, I miss.

“You’re anticipating the recoil,” Kosti observes. “Flinching before you even pull the trigger. Like you’re afraid of the pain.”

I turn on him with a snarl. “I’m not afraid of anything.”

“No?” His eyebrow climbs. “Then why are you still here?”

We both know he’s not talking about the quarry anymore.

I empty the rest of the magazine into the target. The shots are sloppy, scattered. None of them would have killed a man. Some wouldn’t even have slowed him down.

My hands are shaking so badly now that I can barely reload. Sweat trickles down my spine, cold sweat, ice-cold fucking sweat.

“Let me see it.” Kosti reaches for the Glock.

I twist away. “Fuck off.”

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