Page 98 of Frozen Heart

There was a bang, almost in my face, and I tensed and waited for the pain, but it didn’t come. Then I was on him, bringing the switchblade forward and slamming it into his stomach. The knife went in so easily, I thought I’d done it wrong. Then I felt hot wetness against my fingers andOh Jesus, I stabbed him.I knew I was meant to twist but the guard was already stumbling sideways, the gun dropping from his fingers, and I jumped back, panting in shock.

The workers surrounded me and pulled open the heavy metal door. Stone steps led up. The workers flooded past me and up the stairs. Next to me, the guard rolled on the floor, clutching his wound, sobbing but alive.

I slumped in relief for a second. Then I turned to Liliya. “C’mon, let’s?—”

I froze. Liliya was leaning against the wall, her face white, and she was holding her stomach like it ached. Then I saw the blood oozing between her fingers.The shot the guard fired…“No,” I said, shaking my head. “No.No!”

Liliya started to slide down the wall, her legs collapsing under her. I ran over and supported her as she slumped to her knees. “Help!” I screamed. “Somebody help!”

75

RADIMIR

I duckedback behind the bar again, panting, as more bullets took chunks out of the bar top. Spartak and his men were coming, creeping towards us through the smoke, and we couldn’t hold them, not with just two of us. I exchanged a look with Alexei.It’s over.

And then suddenly there was shouting from the other end of the club, behind Spartak. Clouds of smoke were billowing from behind the DJ booth and then...peoplestarted emerging from up out of the floor. People dressed in laboratory coveralls.What the hell?

I had no idea what was going on. All that mattered was that they were comingupfrom some sort of basement. I was betting that was where Bronwyn was. And it was definitely where the fire was: the smoke was getting thicker and thicker, lit up by orange flames.Chyort,I have to get down there.

But between us and the hole were Spartak and his men. They were distracted, trying to grab the people and corral them back downstairs...maybe we can take them.We had to, or Bronwyn was going to die down there. I nodded to Alexei, and we ran.

For the first few seconds, it looked like we had a chance. Some of the guards were looking the other way, focused on the escaping lab workers. But then they looked around and saw us and the bullets started flying, catching us out in the open. I felt one tug at the fabric of my jacket, inches from my chest. Alexei stumbled as a bullet clipped his leg. We couldn’t fire back, not without hitting all the panicked people running back and forth. One of the guards lifted his gun and aimed right at me and I grimaced, bracing myself…

The guard suddenly flew sideways as a man in a suit rammed into him.Gennadiy!

Another guard fell, the handle of a knife sticking from his chest, and I saw Valentin standing in the shadows. A third doubled over as Mikhail swung a baseball bat into his stomach. And Mikhail’s dogs were there, too, two of them latching on to a guard’s arms and pulling him down while a third put his jaws warningly around his throat. I blinked: daylight was flooding into the club through the front door: my brothers must have fought their way in past the bouncers. And now the door was being held open by a flood of panicked people trying to get outside. For the first time since Gabriella killed the power, I could see beyond the reach of my flashlight.Where’s Spartak?I’d lost sight of him.

I ran over to the fight and staggered to a stop. “What are you doing here?” I yelled at Gennadiy. “I told you to stay away!”

Gennadiy punched the guard in the face. “And I told you, you’re my brother.” Another guard ran towards us. “Go and find your wife!” Gennadiy told me. “We’ve got this!”

Alexei nodded to me and joined my brothers. I ran to where the people were emerging from behind the DJ booth. As I got closer, I saw a square hatch had opened in the floor. A stream of people, all women, were emerging. But Bronwyn wasn’t amongthem. And I could see tongues of orange flickering down there. I raced forward?—

A bottle shattered against the back of my head, and I went down hard in a shower of glittering glass fragments. My neck and back were soaked and I smelled vodka. Pain detonated in the center of my brain and throbbed outwards like a nuclear blast cloud, pushing out everything else. I couldn’t think, couldn’t function. I lay there for a few seconds and then tried to stand, but my feet just scrabbled at the floor uselessly. It slowly sank in that I was hurt. Hurtbad.

Spartak’s shoes appeared in front of my face, glass crunching under his shoes like a fresh winter frost. “Oh Radimir,” he chided. “Look what’s become of you.”

I knew I needed to get up, but my brain wouldn’t issue any orders. The pain was so bad it vaporized all thought.

“I’m going to kill you,” Spartak told me coldly. “Then I’ll deal with your brothers and your uncle. When Konstantin hears the Aristovs are gone, he’ll pull his men out.” He placed his shoe on my cheek and pressed. The side of my face started to press into the broken glass on the floor, but I couldn’t move: every time I tried to do something, the pain annihilated the thought, a blast cloud turning houses to matchwood. I wasdone.

“You make me sick,” said Spartak, pushing a little harder. “You used to be one of us. No one was more ruthless than Radimir Aristov. And now you give yourself upfor a woman!”

I’d had to close one eye because it was millimeters away from touching the glass. Through the other, I could see my brothers, Mikhail and Alexei still fighting the guards. I was on my own.

I looked at the hatch. It was blurry...in fact,everythingwas blurry. I must have a concussion. But I could see that women had stopped coming out of the hole, and flames were leaping up into the club, spreading the fire.

Spartak saw me looking. “Oh, she’s down there,” he confirmed. “I left her down there.”

Fear clawed at my throat. I stared at the hatch, unable to take my eyes off it.

“Look at me!” roared Spartak, and he kicked me in the kidneys, rolling me onto my back. That’s when I heard it in his voice: the same anger that I’d felt all those years ago, when I’d cut Alexei out of my life. When I’d been angry with him for falling in love.

“You’re pathetic!” yelled Spartak, kicking me again. “You die for awoman!”

Except it wasn’t anger in his voice: it was fear. He had Liliya but she was a possession, not someone who loved him. He feared, heknew,that he’d never have what I had.

I still had it. I still had her.