Dangerous Games

10

My shock is so total I nearly drop dead. “Call it in to Metrix so they can track it, you f*****g moron! What the hell are you waiting for?”

Outside, the sirens crescendo. What sounds like an entire squadron of cars screech to rubber-burning stops. I see through the balcony windows that the walls of the apartment building across the street are lit up with flashing red-and-white lights.

Cops.

Fuck.

The only way out is down the front stairs, right toward them.

When I let out a bellow of frustration, the tall German supporting me rolls his eyes. “You Americans are so dramatic. I’ll take care of this.”

He hands me off to one of the others and strides out the door, stepping nimbly over corpses, then disappears down the stairs.

“He’s going out to greet them?”

When I stare after him with my jaw unhinged, the prissy one says, “Don’t worry about it. Günter has friends in high places.”

I don’t have time to ask how high, because my brain decides it’s had too much of the punishing pain and blood loss bullshit and now would be a great time to take a leave of absence.

The room narrows to black, and I fall.

I awaken sometime later with a jolt, my heart hammering as if it’s been kick-started with a defibrillator.

I’m in the back of an ambulance with a white sheet draped across my lower body. We’re tearing down the street at top speed, swerving, sirens blaring.

Sitting calmly on a narrow cot across from me is Killian, impeccable in the same expensive suit he wore for our meeting at Saint Stephen’s Cathedral earlier in the day.

“Question,” he says, seeing that I’m awake. “Why are you naked?”

I bellow, “Where’s Eva? What’s happening? If you had anything to do with Dimitri finding us, I’ll kill you!”

Amused, he gazes at me with his eyebrows lifted. “You have a lot of energy for someone who should be dead.”

When I lunge at him, rolling halfway off my cot in the process, Killian shoves me back with a hand flat on my chest and curses.

“Calm down! You’ll hurt yourself more than you already are!”

I’d like to tell him to go f**k himself, but I’m too busy groaning in pain. I lie flat on my back with my eyes closed, making noises like an animal that got hit by a car and is dying on the side of a road.

“Aye, that’s more like it. Now if you can shut up for half a second, I’ll talk.”

Through a clenched jaw, I say, “Eva. Start there.”

His sigh is big and dramatic. He removes a silk pocket square from his suit jacket and wipes my blood off his hand. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. I’ve never met two more stubborn people in my life.”

The ambulance careens around a corner, tires squealing. The driver seems to be in an incredible hurry. I must be worse off than I think.

Killian says, “I intercepted a call from your German friends to Metrix headquarters relaying the situation—”

“You spied on the Germans? How?”

“I’m a spy, that’s how. Be quiet. As I was saying—”

“Dimitri took Eva. You need to let me out of this ambulance. I’m gonna get her back.”

“Excellent plan,” he says drily, tossing the bloodied square of silk aside. “You seem in perfect shape to be giving chase to an armed madman surrounded by armed bodyguards.”

“I’ve been worse.” I force myself to breathe through my nose so I don’t pant like a dog. It’s incredibly hard to maintain a normal breathing pattern when your body thinks it’s dying.

“I see. And will you be putting on a pair of trousers before your attack, or were you planning on wrestling Dimitri in the ancient Greek style? Which he might actually like, by the way.”

“f**k you, Killian.”

He exhales, shaking his head in disapproval. “I have no idea what she sees in you. You’re extremely short on charm.”

“You said earlier you had a high opinion of me.”

“I only said that to get on her good side.”

When I glare at him, he sighs again. “I’m joking. You make it too easy for me, mate.”

“My sense of humor takes a nosedive where you’re concerned. And I’m not going to any hospital, so stop this f*****g ambulance and let me out.”

“I never said we were going to a hospital.”

We stare at each other as the ambulance takes another sharp turn around another corner, knocking me against the wall and nearly dislodging Killian from his seat.

“Really? Then are we in a car chase I don’t know about? Because this driver’s a maniac.”

“I told him I’d give him a thousand euros if he got there in under ten minutes.”

“There? Where’s there?”

The sirens cut off, the ambulance comes to a screeching stop, and Killian smiles. “Here.”

When the driver throws open the back doors, I see we’re in a warehouse of some sort. A big metal door is rolling down silently behind us. The ceilings are high, the lights are low, and there’s a strange electrical humming emanating from some large piece of out-of-sight machinery.

The place has a vibe like a serial killer’s lair.

Killian says sourly, “Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t take you here to murder you. I would’ve just let you bleed out back where we came from if I wanted you dead. This is one of many safe houses I keep.

“And to answer your earlier question, no, I had nothing to do with Dimitri’s arrival. I should be offended that after all we’ve been through, you still don’t trust me, but I know what a suspicious arse you are.”