Page 149 of Vendetta Crown

38

AURORA

Bullets crack overhead,snapping like rubber-bands against walls.

"Get to the car," Ruslan had said. Three simple words, but a stream of bullets has made that impossible now.

I'm halfway to the vehicle when I see him.

Kristofer.

My heart stops dead in my chest.

He stands between me and the car, a hideous grin spreading across his bloated face. My veins freeze as he licks his wormy lips.

The sound of gunfire intensifies. I steal a glance back to see Ruslan pinned down behind a pillar, Semyon's men closing in on him.

He can't reach me.

"Jaaaamie," Kristofer sings, closing the distance between us with unhurried steps despite the chaos. "I missed you."

My babies kick inside me, as if sensing the danger.

I press a hand protectively against my belly, mind racing through options that grow slimmer by the second.

I can't get to the car. Not now.

The theater entrance gapes to my right, dark and empty.

"Remember how good we were together?" Kristofer calls, like we're old lovers rather than predator and prey. "How much I loved you?"

A bullet ricochets off the pavement near my feet. I flinch, the sound yanking me from my paralysis.

The theater. It's my only chance.

My legs move before my brain fully decides. I pivot and dash toward the theater's glass doors, throwing my weight against them, praying they'll open.

They give way. I stumble into the dark lobby, heart hammering against my ribs as I hear Kristofer's shout of rage behind me.

"Jamie! Come back here!"

I rush into the main screening room, darkness swallowing me whole. The giant screen looms ahead, illuminated only by the exit signs' faint red glow. My lungs burn with each desperate breath as I navigate between rows of empty seats towards the backstage.

"Where are you going, Jamie?" Kristofer's voice echoes behind me, singsong and chilling. "You know this place is rigged to blow. There's nowhere to run."

I duck down between the seats, trying to hide as I run.

"No-one is coming to save you this time," he calls out, closer now. "No Russian thug to pull me off you. No one to stop what I'm about to do to you!"

I whirl around and see him coming closer.

Something metallic glints in his hand, catching what little light exists in this darkness.

A knife.

And that's when I remember the message that came with the teddy bear.

I'm going to cut out his bastard from your belly.

---