Page 52 of The Enemy's Defector
She was mywife. For all of several seconds, she was my wife and it was unreal yet potent how much that title could change things.
A streak of rabid and primal possessiveness took over me as gunfire erupted in the apartment.
With Katerina down and crouching for safety, her arms over her stomach, she reminded me of how fiercely she’d protect our baby. As though she could prevent a bullet from reaching her stomach with her limbs over it.
I grabbed my gun and joined in the fight without hesitation. Needing more protection, or shelter of some kind, I flipped the couch and hoped Katerina could be out of sight behind it. It wasn’t bullet-proof, but not having her in plain sight was better than nothing.
“Get back,” the guard yelled again.
I didn’t listen to him over the gunfire he and the other Ivanov man rained on the assassins streaming into the room. Because that was exactly who they were. Killers. Anton’s killers. The fact that these men weren’t trying to hide had to mean something, but I couldn’t slow down and react to consider what.
Behind me, the officiant fell down, clutching his side. I fired without pause, ducking behind the couch with Katerina as she pulled the older man toward her to compress his wound. While she had him close, she took the gun out of his holster and held it securely.
“Are you insane?” I growled. The idea of her fighting back stunned me. She was pregnant! With my child! She had to let me handle this for her. It was the very reason I’d married her, to protect her, for fuck’s sake.
“No.” She narrowed her eyes. “I’m just mad,” she spat back as she held the gun and helped the older man. “I’m sick of my uncle trying to ruin my life.”
That fire was sexy as hell. But not now. I would never wish her feistiness to fade, but I had to focus on keeping her safe. And that meant making sure she wouldn’t try to be brave and take another bullet for me.
“Go,” the second Ivanov guard shouted at us.
“We’ll hold them back,” the first ordered. “Go!” He jerked his head to the side as he indicated for us to go, not taking his eyes off the targets in front of him.
Retreating wasn’t a sign of cowardice, not when my wife’s and baby’s lives were on the line. Getting them away from danger was imperative, but as I turned to view the options of where to go, Katerina lunged at me and flattened me to the floor.
The rear window of the apartment shattered as a Kozlov assassin came in that way. We were surrounded, and had she not noticed and shoved me to the ground, the bullets littering thecouch cushion would’ve taken out both of our heads. Lying over me, she raised her arm and fired at the man, killing him, but not before the Ivanov guard still crouching in front of us and the couch dropped to the floor.
He gritted his teeth in pain, holding his hand near his neck, but he didn’t stay down for long.
This was a fight to the death, and no Ivanov would ever slack in his ability to defend the family.
He looked me in the eye as I rolled, covering Katerina, and fired again and again at the other men who came in through the window.
They had to be waiting on the fire escape to keep this up. That meant Katerina and I couldn’t use that way, but I had to hope there was another means of escape with this unit being positioned on the corner.
“Go,” the guard said. “Go, Nikolai. We’ve got this.” He staggered to stand, leaning on the couch to get to his feet. But he did. And he fired again and again, caught in the frenzied commotion of this sudden ambush.
We did have this. Despite the Kozlov assassins coming in and outnumbering us, my Ivanov brothers and I would win this fight. We would win every fight we faced because we were always stronger together. And with Katerina giving me so much more to fight for, I was raring to kill them all with a message they could take home.
I stood, Katerina plastered to my back as she followed me. We were in sync as ever, her meeting my stride and able to finish my sentences or step in as my sidekick.
Partners. We were two of a pair and I didn’t need to wait for her to catch up.
We would go.
Together.
But as I turned and faced the men coming in to stop us from uniting in marriage, I narrowed my eyes and shot at the motherfuckers who’d failed.
Someone had to have been watching the lines of communication to be able to come and ambush us. I’d only contacted one soldier, keeping this quick and the details to the minimum just in case.
Lo and behold, they’d nearly stopped my marriage to Katerina.
On my feet and scoping the room, confident Katerina would shoot alongside me as we calculated how to fight our way out of here, I saw that it wasn’t only Kozlovs.
A couple of Romanos had come along as well.
“You’re too late, motherfuckers,” I shouted, letting them hear the sinister amusement I couldn’t tamp down.
