Page 281 of Sexting His Assistant

Misha uses the distraction to drag himself behind one of the support beams. He’s moving too slowly. Too painfully. But he is moving.

Oleg points his gun at Meredith. “Did you betray us, bitch?”

Meredith’s eyes widen. “I didn’t.”

The sound comes again.

Closer.

A rolling slam of metal against concrete.

Then the side wall near the loading dock blows inward.

A black SUV rams through the old metal doors, sending rusted panels and broken chains flying across the floor.

Men burst in behind it. Luka’s men.

Everything happens at once.

Gunfire tears through the warehouse.

Oleg’s men scatter.

Sergei comes through the smoke and dust first, firing in controlled bursts. Dima follows from the opposite side with three men, cutting off the exit near the van. Pavel appears by the side entrance with another team, moving fast, face cold and focused.

For one wild second, I cannot find Luka.

Then I see him.

He comes through the broken loading doors with a gun in both hands and murder on his face.

My entire body reacts before my mind does. “Luka!” I scream.

His head snaps toward me. The moment he sees me tied to the chair, his expression changes. Something goes completely still inside him.

He fires twice without looking away from me.

A man near the crates drops.

Another tries to come at him from the side, and Luka turns just enough to shoot him in the leg, then the shoulder. The man falls screaming.

Luka keeps coming.

He uses the crates, the beams, the broken light, the chaos. He is injured, but he does not move like an injured man. He moves like pain is something he has decided to punish later.

Oleg shouts, “Kill him!”

Kirill fires toward Luka.

The bullet hits the concrete near his feet.

Luka fires back. Kirill ducks behind a stack of pallets.

Misha appears from behind the support beam, still half-tied to the broken chair, and shoots at one of Kirill’s men before the man can aim at Luka’s back.

The man drops.

Misha staggers.