Page 66 of Kept By the Bratva

As I tried to blindly find another weapon, I lost my concentration on holding his arm away. The gun slid closer and closer. The metal shone bright as he almost succeeded in pushing it toward my neck and head.

“No!” I shouted, bringing my foot up to kick him. I missed, but the full-body pivot gave me a little more leeway to dodge his gun.

No. Fucking. Way.He wouldn’t get away with this. He was not going to kill me and take away my chance of seeing my dreams come true.

I had a man who cared for me. He fought valiantly from the other side of the room to reach me. Each time his shouts for me rang through my ears, I was reminded of how damned determined he was to see to my safety.

I had my babies who would depend on me.

My family.

Even all these criminals and their staff. They were mine now. I would be one of them and proud to be within their organization.

It wasn’t a conventional group, but in this fight to the death, resisting the danger and threat of this madman, we came together. Blood was thicker than water. But in my case, this deep, bold love that coursed through me was the strongest bond of all.

“Amy, get down!”

Nik’s shout sounded louder, and the vibrations of his footfalls led me to realize he was on my side of the room now. He’d escaped the men at the door. Alek was likely fending them off, killing them one by one.

I didn’t know how to drop without giving Diego a free range to shoot me.

But I trusted him. I counted on Nik to tell me what to do in this war, and I obeyed his order.

Holding my breath, I slid to my knees. Mila’s hand gripped me as she pulled me to hide under the table with her, but I was locked on the events unfolding.

Diego snarled like a feral beast, lowering the gun to me.

“No!” Nik shouted as he hurried closer.

Diego looked up, keeping his gun trained on me.

“Amy,” Mila said, panicked but full of authority. She shoved another knife into my hand from the depths of the table’s shelter.

As Diego reached for the holster at his side, keeping the gun aimed at me, he raised a second firearm to point at Nik as he approached.

No!I leaned forward, stabbing the knife into the top of Diego’s shoe.

Mila pulled me back as soon as I accomplished the hit. Tugging me back under the table with her, she was so forceful and quick that we rolled beneath the wood together.

He shot. The bullet pierced the floor, right where I’d been a second ago.

Another shot. Then another. Another.

I clung to Mila under the table, and she wrapped her arms around me in just as tight of a vise. Shaking and panting, we hugged each other as suspense chopped at my heart.

Nik?

Nik!

Staring at Diego’s feet, zoned out on the knife standing upright in his shoe. Blood spilled over the shiny surface. I blinked, willing him to move. To speak. To do anything. So many shots had been fired, but who was hit?

Then his other shoe slid. He pushed one leg back. His knee dropped down next. With a thudding impact that I felt from the vibrations rippling through the floor, he dropped.

Still and dead.

He gazed at us unseeing, the single bullet hole between his eyes pronouncing him dead. Three more bloody holes leaked crimson on his chest, dead center over his heart.

He was dead.