Page 2 of The Assassin
When I came to my feet in the dark hall, I pulled the door to, then breathed, waiting for my eyes to adjust.The hall was long, traveling nearly half the building length, where elevators waited. It was also empty. Either the enemy was fast or he knew exactly where he was going. But where was that?
Anywhere up was my guess. If, like Remi, the man was a spotter, he’d want a good vantage point for a possible shot. The only problem with that theory was the fact that he appeared to be alone. Eli wouldn’tmiss someone else approaching the meet site.
No, the target was on his own, which left only one answer: he was here to take someone out.
Me. But I wasn’t upstairs. Remi was.
Taking the risk, I used my comm. “Eli, get over here, bro. Remi, watch your back. I think he’s coming up to you.”
The target likely took the stairs to my right. Moving quickly but carefully, I hurried down the hall, stoppingto assess each room with an open door or an inset window, but there were no signs of life as I passed.Remi’s aware. He’s safe.He was killer at hiding in plain sight, and he could wait, motionless, for hours until a target revealed itself. So why did every step make my chest tighten and my heartbeat pound in my ears?
Because Remi was upstairs with a target. He was supposed to be protected; bothmy brothers were. I never put them in danger when I could take the risk myself. Never. But now…
I eased open the heavy door to the staircase. Closed it just as quietly. Climbed quickly to the next floor.
If the target had begun his search at the other end, how far down the hall would he be? It was possible he’d begun on the top floor, but nothing was guaranteed.
And nothing was getting solvedwith me standing here. I barely cracked the door to peek out.
My night-vision goggles showed no movement along the visible portion of the hall. Either the man had started upstairs, was still on the other side of the building, or was searching one of the rooms between here and the elevators. Too many options. I only cared about one.
After squeezing through, I carefully closed the door behindme. As I crossed to the room where Remi waited, I pressed the button on my earpiece three times—a warning that I was coming inside.
Door open. Door closed. I waited a moment in the dark, then moved toward the balcony. “Remi—”
It happened in fucking slow motion. I’d always heard it described that way, but I hadn’t really thought it could be reality. It was. Theclickof the door opening behindme. The shift in light as Remi moved into the door of the balcony. His eyes going wide at the sight of the target behind me. I dropped to my knee, my hand already going for the KA-BAR strapped to my thigh. Pain shot up my leg as I hit the floor.
A crack split the air. For a strange moment I thought it was the sound of my knee exploding, but my leg didn’t give way. Instead I rolled to my side,the goggles orienting me in the darkness as I swung around to face the door from my position on the dusty carpet. My knife flew through the air as a second, third, fourth crack came, followed by the flash of light from the end of the target’s semiautomatic. The fifth shot was cut off by the impact of the blade in the man’s shoulder.
I landed on top of him as he hit the floor.
The fight was shortbut brutal. At the end, he was unconscious and I wasn’t, but Eli screaming in my ear kept me from gloating.
“What?”
“Remi!”
Shit! I whirled toward the balcony.
“Levi, get down here!” my brother screamed in my ear.
Down? Rushing outside, I took a moment to notice the emptiness of the platform before throwing myself at the steel railing. Directly below me, Eli crouched over Remi’s body.
Thesight knocked every thought, every breath away. Jumping the railing was automatic. Pain shot through my hands as I dropped, catching the lip of the balcony and scraping ten layers of skin off my palms. I ignored it. Dangling full length left no more than a few feet between me and the ground, and I let go, landing near Remi’s boots.
“Eli?” I scrambled toward my brother’s head.
“H-he’s— H-he f-f-fell—h-he—”
I grabbed Eli’s hands before he could touch Remi’s head. “It’s okay.” It was never gonna be okay again. “He’ll be fine.” He wasn’t fucking fine! “Let me check him.”
Oh God. Fucking… What had I done?
A pool of dark blood spread beneath Remi’s head where he’d impacted the ground. I laid a hand on his chest, oh so carefully, and almost passed out at the reassuring rise and fall I felt there. “He’sbreathing.” But was his neck broken?
I couldn’t find that out without moving him.
There were no wounds on his face or the sides of his head. That meant the blood was coming from beneath him, and the best way to staunch it was to leave the back of his head against the ground. I moved my hand down his torso, along each leg, searching for more wounds, for twisted bones or gunshots, and found nothing.
