Page 182 of 5+Us Makes Seven

The kneeling Russian’s face was deliciously close to my knee…

I smashed it into his face as hard as I could, satisfied when he reeled back, grunting. Blood poured from his nose.

These guys had it all wrong if they thought I was going to make this easy.

The largest of the three pushed the one in front of me away and roughly grabbed my legs, while the other completed the task of taping my legs together.

All the while, I stared triumphantly at the man whose nose I’d hopefully broken. He glared back angrily, not even bothering to stem the flow of blood.

The last thing I saw was him standing up before a burlap sack was put roughly over my head. I could barely see anything as I was carried from the room.

I panicked, feeling disorientated. The whole kidnap had taken just over a minute. Or at least so I thought; my perception of time was next to useless.

Cruz

I surveyed the room, eyes jumping between points of interest. There was little disturbance, except for a pool of congealing blood near the center of the room.

Good girl. Don’t make it easy for them.

A window was open, the curtain billowing softly in a cool breeze. Whether they’d actually entered through the window, I had no idea. Could be a fire escape there, I guessed.

I heard the sound of heavy footsteps out in the living room, heading slowly into the corridor…

Boots. A Russian. He was armed. I wasn’t.

I waited for my would-be assassin to enter the bedroom, turning slowly as I did so.

I suppressed the burning rage that was growing in my chest, switching it off like a light. I breathed deeply, rolling my shoulders to loosen the muscles.

The Russian turned the corner, his gun extended. He was a few feet away from the entrance.

Clever bastard.

He moved slowly. Professionally. Probably was an ex-KGB.

“Ah, Dmitry.” I recognized him from the plane.

He grinned viciously as he saw the recognition in my face. His left eye was half-closed, the other staring at me down the sights of his silver Tokarev pistol.

“If you don’t give me some useful information, I will kill you slowly.” His face turned dark as he stepped closer, his gun inches from my heart. “Talk now, American.”

I was relaxed, composed. Motionless. “Okay. I’ll talk. I have some information that you might find important.”

His eyebrow raised as he looked into my eyes and I saw the gleam of excitement on his ugly face. I could read the thoughts crossing his small brain: Kill the American and return with vital information.

Now was my chance.

I had been standing in a powerful fighter’s stance, my right foot slightly forward, weight favoring my good left knee. In an instant, I swiveled my torso to the right, my heart moved out of the line of fire in a fraction of a second. I knew a gunshot then would be painful and probably collapse my lung if he was quick, or merely graze my ribs if I was lucky.

But I had caught him off-guard. My hand shot to his gun arm like lightning, pushing the weapon away from my body. The gun bucked, gunshot ringing loud. A bullet sliced through the skin of my left arm, feeling like nothing more than a scratch from Alexandra’s nails.

I pushed my powerful thumb into his palm, savagely forcing the gun from his grip. As was usual in these situations, he focused on holding onto the gun. As soon as it was out of harm's way, it was next to useless, especially against someone like me. If I was holding the gun, I would have dropped it, surprising my assailant. I’d then follow it up with either a headbutt or palm to the bridge of the nose. Then I’d draw out my combat knife. It would have been over in two seconds.

With his focus on the gun, I turned my back to him, pulling his arm over my massive shoulder. I pulled his palm down to my waist, using my shoulder as a pivot. His elbow shattered with a sickening crack. He screamed in agony behind me.

I followed up with a backwards elbow into his ribs, violently cracking his bones. He reeled back from the blow, but I wasn’t finished with him yet.

Pivoting on my feet, I laid into him with fists like iron. Two, three, four, five body blows to the chest and abdomen. Ribs cracked, collarbone smashed.

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