Page 24 of The Wraith & Her Killer

More of Santino’s guards are shouting, spewing commands in Italian, but Adris doesn’t rise to the bait. Suddenly, a burly man with a protruding gut charges Adris like a vicious bear, but the psycho killer before me is quicker. He makes no effort to grab for a weapon but instead uses his weight and swings his arm out, fuckingclothesliningthe man. He hits the ground with a shudder and wheezes at his lack of oxygen after having the breath knocked from his lungs.

I drop when Adris drops, trying to keep myself small and look away when Adris’ fist flies so fast and hard that it knocks the guard out in one hit. But he doesn’t stop. The muscles in his back flex with three swift punches before he reaches behind his head and grabs an arrow, driving it right into the heart of the man beneath him. He leaves him there as he stands again, briefly checking on me over his shoulder, nodding to himself before making our way to the stairs.

The tiny device in my ear crackles.

“More movement on the second floor. Last room on the south corner. I don’t have a body count. It could be Ferrero but I can’t be sure. Eyes open,” Rune warns.

Walking by one of the dead security guards, Adris reaches down and pulls one of his blades from between the guard’s eyes. I have to bite back a gag and the heavy wave of nausea that washes over me when it makes a sickening squelching sound and more blood spurts out, staining Adris’ and my boots.

Wiping the blood and brain matter off on the guard’s uniform, he tuts. “I fucking hate when that happens. I just had these fuckers cleaned.”

“I have no words,” I whisper more to myself than anything, because how can he be so unaffected by the absolute carnage that surrounds us?

We ascend the staircase and unease has the hairs on the back of my neck rising. It’s entirely too quiet and that scares me. Santino is a coward, and I trust that Adris is crafty enough to bring him down,but a small part of me is terrified that I’ll leave here a prisoner to his cruelty again.

“Adris—”I whisper, tugging at his shirt, but I’m cut off with a curtshh.

He turns his head but doesn’t look at me. Still, I see the command when he presses his finger to his lips, then presses the side of it to his ear, telling me to listen. I do my best to quieten my shaky, staccato breaths and strain my ears.

Thenhisvoice registers.

I’ve heard his agitated, hushed shouts too many times to count and the familiarity of his voice causes unwanted dread to slither down my spine.

I pull at the material on Adris’ shirt hard enough to get him to look back at me, his silver eyes meeting mine.

“It’s him.”I pull the cowl down to mouth the words.

He raises a single eyebrow as if to ask, “You sure?” since I can’t see his mouth. I nod in confirmation.

My cowl is pulled back up over my mouth and nose, and I’m momentarily stunned when he grips my face and presses the mouth of his mask to mine as if in a kiss. I don’t have time to process what he just did because he’s got me reattached to his belt loop as we silently creep our way to the end of the hall.

The hushed whispers become more distinct and it hits me that there’s more than one voice coming from within the last room. My heart is pounding so hard in my chest, I’m afraid even Adris can hear each thump.

“This whole thing is a fucking shitshow and it’s entirely on you, Santino,”one voice whisper-shouts behind the closed door.

“Me? I wouldn’t even be a fucking target right now if you hadn’t sold me false information about the girl!” Santino hisses.

“Oh, you’re still a target because you don’t know how to conduct business, Ferrero.” The other voice tuts. “She was a liability and a threat to my taking over the Kuznetsov bratva. Mikhail is about to give up his decade-long search for her and hand over the title, but doyou think that’s going to happen when he finds out that his fucking daughter is still alive?”

The blood drains from my face, and Adris turns to look at me with an oddly perplexed expression marring his brow. Dawning seems to hit us both at the same time. Somebody betrayed my father in an attempt to take over as Pakhan.

The car crash wasn’t just a random, targeted attack.

My mother’s death.

My kidnapping.

It was all a part of some grand plan.

But who is working with Santino?

“You were supposed to fucking dispose of her, you goddamned?—”

Clearly Adris has heard enough, because he raises his boot and kicks in the door so hard that the hinges split and crack, his gun raised. Before Santino can even react, his shoulder explodes in a spray of red as a bullet pierces his skin and he grips the ruined flesh, an ear-grating shriek pushing past his lips.

“Motherfucker!” he curses, reaching behind his back, but before he can grasp a weapon, Adris fires off another shot, blowing a hole straight through the center of his hand. He rushes Santino, only to kick him square in the chest.

Santino goes down hard, hitting his head along the way, rendering himself unconscious.

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