Page 73 of Small Town Beast

Saverin shoved Tanya down as the killer unloaded.

The second bullet took out the switch, shorting the circuit and cutting off all light. The room was pitch black and the dark new moon outside revealed nothing. It turned out to be what saved them. That and the Kimber.

In hindsight it was reckless; the gunfire that penetrated the crumbling wooden walls could have killed somebody. Pure animal instinct put the Kimber in his hands. He unloaded back at an enemy he could neither see nor hear. He fired and fired and fired until the trigger depressed on an empty click and a ringing silence settled.

Tanya was still screaming, but it was over.

The room stank of gunpowder and blood. Adrenaline whipped Saverin’s heart into a bloody sprint. He was alive. Right? Once again he’d looked death in the eye and lived. Tanya’s headhad nearly stopped the bullet.

He stumbled back and knelt next to her, checking her blindly in the dark. She’d curled up with her hands over her ears and stayed there.

Who was he here for? Her, or me?

“TANYA,” he said.Blew out my fuckin’ eardrums…

“Mm…”

Saverin stood up and fumbled for the light. In the fog of the moment he hadn’t understood what had cut the lights off.His fingertips discovered the scorched hole in the switch. He removed his hand quickly.

Saverin took out his pocketknife and clicked the penlight on, washing it over the killer who made a crumpled heap on the floor. Blood pooled out of the body like oil. Saverin made no assumptions; he’d seen men rise from worse than this. He went over and took the gun, which was a piece of shit just like its owner, and emptied the last round.

It thudded heavily to the floor.

He went over to Tanya and helped her up and out of the apartment.Fresh air.His boots were slick with blood but not his, nor hers. It had to be a miracle.

Tanya collapsed on the step, holding onto the railing for dear life. He pulled her into his arms.

“We’re fine,” was all he said.

There were people coming out of the bottom apartment now. Her neighbors. They were shouting, maybe even screaming but he was deaf to them, looking only at Tanya.

“Breathe,” he told Tanya. “Breathe slow and easy; we’re alright, honey.”

She did. He crouched in front of her at eye level. Already his nerves were calming, cool instinct taking over as it always did in a crisis.

“You need to look at him and tell me if you know him.”

She understood what he meant. Quick, beautiful Tanya. But she stared at Saverin in a tight-lipped refusal.She wasnotgoing back in that apartment.

“You need to do it before the cops show up,” he said. “Baby, you have to.”

In the end she went inside with him and walked slowly to the dead man. Saverin’s comforting arm around her shoulder also pushed her forward, not lettingpanic send her running back. Crime waspredictable. It was not the stranger in the night somuch as the ones you laid your head next to on the pillow. And it was always better to know the truth than to imagine it.

Tanya made a small noise in the back of her throat as they came to the body but she didn’t run. Trying to get it over with Saverin turned the man over sharply, suppressing his nausea at the doll-like spasm the body made. He was going to have a devil of a time explaining this to Roman.

Tanya convulsed as the man’s face was revealed. The bullet had struck him through the heart and killed him quickly. He had lain in wait inside, which meant he wasn’t looking for a fast getaway. For that reason Saverin doubted the man had come here to find him.

No, the bastard had wanted to trap Tanya in here with him.

Who knew how long he would have tortured her before killing her? If he meant to kill her at all…It could have been so much worse.

It was no surprise when Tanya said, “I know him.”

“Is it the man you fought today?” Saverin demanded. “Your manager?”

“No,” she whispered. “That’s Amari’s father.”

She swayed against Saverin but he held her up strongly. “Oh my God,” she whimpered. “He really tried to kill me…”

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