Page 74 of The Saint

The shootout continued—and then the guys pulled out the rockets.

“This is about to go nuclear,” Luca said.

“Where is the Foreign Legion?” I barked.

“I don’t know,” Luca said. “Maybe Ivan has another force they have to get through to reach us.”

I was about to be blown into pieces, and Fleur…she was on her own.

I couldn’t fail her. I fucking couldn’t. “I promised her…”

All Luca could do was flash me a look of sympathy that barely lasted a second before he had to focus on reality again. “We get through this, then we go for her. We’ve got to head to the bunker.”

“If we head to the bunker, then we’ll be fish in a barrel,” I snapped. “I’m dying with a bullet to my face, not my back.”

“We’re all gonna die if we don’t do something?—”

Ivan’s amplified voice came from the speaker system of one of the Hummers, loud as a megaphone. “Butcher.”

The gunfire ceased on both sides.

“They say to look both ways before you cross the street,” he said. “And they say never get in cars with strangers. I guess your parents failed you.”

I felt my neck tighten and the cords stretch. Felt my face burn red from the rage I couldn’t express in any other way. I was hiding like a fucking rat, while my girl was who fucking knew where. I’d risen to the top, but now I came tumbling down to rock bottom—six feet under.

“All regimes fall, Butcher,” he said. “Now it’s your turn.”

I looked at the room full of men who remained loyal to me, and that loyalty was about to get them killed.

“Surrender—and I’ll let her go.”

I sucked in a hard breath and felt my hands tighten into fists. I’d walk out there, and he’d shoot me in the head for everyone to see, to know that he was the one who had executed the Butcher and usurped his regime. He’d probably piss on my body once he was done.

And I would be okay with that if he really let her go.

Luca looked at me. “You know he won’t do it, Bastien.”

I swallowed.

“She might not…” He didn’t finish the sentence, didn’t make me listen to it. “Don’t do it.”

Ivan spoke over the speakers again. “Come on, Butcher. My patience grows thin.”

I stared at Luca, but I saw Fleur’s face. “I have to.”

“You know he’s lying?—”

“Even if he is, he’s going to kill us all anyway. At least I can save you and everyone else in here who’s stood by me all these years. I go out there, and afterward, you get Fleur. Promise you will not rest until you get her back.” I hated to think what Ivan would do with her if Luca didn’t get her back. I couldn’t bear it. Otherwise, it would bring me to tears.

Ivan spoke again. “Come out here, or I’ll shoot her in her pretty little fucking head, asshole.”

A flash of pain hit me, enough to make my eyes flood.

My phone rang in my pocket, and the only reason I fished it out was for the ridiculous hope that it would be Fleur telling me where she was. But it was Godric’s name on the screen, someone I hadn’t thought of since all this had started.

Luca stared at the screen. “What does he want?”

“I don’t know. Too much of a coincidence.” I took the call. “Godric.”

---