Page 144 of Creed

Up ahead, the passageway echoes with the sounds of someone running, but we can’t see who it is. We need to assume it’s the enemy, though.

Severyn pulls me along quickly, frantically looking for somewhere for us to hide. Finding an alcove, she shoves me in and then squeezes in with me, facing forward, her back to my front, ready to attack if needed.

I have no idea how a billionaire’s niece and a songwriter-musician could be this calm and have this level of training like a covert operative, but I’m not about to look a gift horse in themouth. I’m not going to ask questionseverbecause it’s none of my business, and if she and her team help people like me, I’ll take this secret to my grave.

It’s unnerving not being able to see what’s happening and if there’s an imminent threat. This is made worse by Severyn’s body getting increasingly more rigid and ready as the running gets louder. I hold my breath, my body and muscles primed, and I’m ready to use my knife, but they run by us without stopping. Severyn’s stiffness eases slightly, and she steps out of the alcove.

But she sucks in sharply, then moves like a blurred shadow. By the time I step out behind her, she has Frederico Perez up against the wall with the blade against his throat and her hand over his mouth.

“You,” I gasp.

“You know him?” Severyn asks me without looking away from him.

“He… he’s a sicario like my father. Frederico Perez.”

He vehemently shakes his head, looking between Severyn and me.

“Are you trying to say you’renotpart of the crew hunting Sophie?” she hisses. “That you’re not on this boat to deliver her and me to someone called the Collectors for some kind of fucked-up sex and death ring?”

Indecision wars over Severyn’s face, and I suspect Salome was her first kill. His death wasn’t a conscious, cold decision, though. If Severyn kills Perez now, she’ll be making that choice. But Perez is part of this plan to deliver us to a death ring, one that sounds elaborate and complex. If she lets him live, she’s risking both of our lives—both for him raising the alarm that we’ve escaped, as well as for coming after us in the future.

A noise behind me makes my heart jump, and I whirl.

Swing and stab first, no questions.

I do just that. A large shadow nimbly and quickly jumps back, grabbing my arm gently but firmly to push away my blade.

“Shit. Sophie, he’s with us!” Severyn whispers loudly.

Only then do I recognize him as one of the men on Severyn’s team whom I had seen enter Electric.

Two things happen nearly simultaneously.

Perez opens his mouth to shout as Severyn is distracted, and her blade has eased the pressure from his neck.

Rolf pushes between us and swiftly andviolentlysnaps Perez's neck. He’s already lowering Perez’s dead, limp body over the railing to reduce the sound of the splash by the time my mouth falls open in shock.

He turns back to us. “We have to move.Now.”

Severyn pivots on her heel and leads the way, with Rolf bringing up our rear. As we reach the back of the boat, Nexin, the blonde guy from Electric, comes running down the walkway on the other side of the yacht. “Get onto the boat. Now!” He points, and Severyn looks over the rail and pulls me with her.

There's a tall blonde woman down below in a smaller boat, holding a gun, ready to protect us when we descend the ladder. Severyn pushes me to go first and I swing my leg over the rail and start down the ladder. As Severyn swings her leg over the rail to climb down after me, a male voice shouts, “Hey!”

Both her teammates curse, then Severyn istossedover the rail. I watch, stunned, as she falls into the boat below but lands on her feet like a freaking ninja cat.

A bubble of laughter wells, but I swallow it as I hurry down the last part of the ladder.

“Are you okay?” Her eyes quickly scan me, and I nod.

Before I can ask her the same thing, the blonde woman curses as there’s more yelling from above. “Fucking hell.”

The boat sinks and bobs violently as a huge form lands on his feet beside me, and I realize Rolf has jumped from the yacht. He’s already moving to the captain’s seat, and the boat sinks again as Nexin lands in.

As soon as Nexin’s feet touch down, Rolf fires our boat up and hammers the throttle.

Nexin catches me as I stumble. He quickly sheathes a bloody knife, then nudges me to the floor. “Get down.”

At his words, gunfire starts as we speed away, and Severyn bends her body over mine before I can even process the threat.

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