Page 105 of Ace of Shadows
“I’m going to kill you!” I grab him by the collar with one hand and punch him hard with the other, again and again, until my knuckles throb and my shoulder aches. “I’m going to fucking kill you!”
If Alexei hadn’t yelled Ivy’s name in the stairwell, I never would have found them. It’s a stroke of luck that after checking three addresses provided by Kraven, we located the one Alexei chose to hide Ivy, but I was about to leave when I heard her name echo through the stairwell like a call from above.
She’s here.
She’s here and I almost missed her because this building’s condemned and showed absolutely no sign of life. Each safe house had me torn between searching every single floor and moving on to the next. Thank God I got here in time.
Alexei doesn’t stay down for too long. He blocks my neck punch and I grab at his arm, but my grip slips in the blood pouring from a wound. The second I slip, Alexei surges upward and crashes his forehead into my nose. Pain explodes through my face and Ifall backward, maintaining enough sense to roll to my left just in time. I avoid Alexei’s knee as it smashed into the ground where my face was a split second earlier.
“Raaaghh!” Alexei roars and throws himself forward as I scramble to my feet.
I dodge and slam my elbow down between his shoulder blades as he passes. He yelps and swings upward, catching me on the back of my jaw. Pain, dull as it is, distracts me momentarily and Alexei’s other fist collides with my broken ribs.
For a moment, the entire world halts as sharp, bone-creaking agony flashes hot through my chest. I gasp and stumble. He lunges at me and I jab at him.
Right and left, two punches that collide with his face. My third cracks into his nose. Tissue bends and bursts underneath my fist, blood spurting like a faucet.
Alexei reaches for his gun, but as he unholsters it, I leap upward and slam my knee into his chest, using my weight to shove him back further and away from Ivy. We land together and the gun clatters to the ground. He tries to reach for it so I punch him hard in the face and grab his wrist. Rolling off him, I use my grip on him to drag him with me, rolling and forcing him onto his stomach.
Then I’m back on top of him, my arms wrapping around his throat and head.
“I’ve got you,” I snarl, bringing my face close to his head as I squeeze and strangle him. “You motherfucker. You think you can fight the Suit and get away with it? Even your own father gave you up. He sees how fucking pathetic you are. And then you went too far because you took the only thing I love. You should havekilled me at the car, Alexei, because now I’m going to kill you and not a soul will remember your fucking name!”
He grunts and yells, strained chokes and groans escaping him like the squeals of a dying pig.
I have him.
I’m going to kill him for ever touching Ivy. For taking her from me. For putting her through months of hell. For daring to decide he and his agenda were worth almost killing Cassian.
He’s going to die here.
“Ruslan!” Ivy screams from behind me.
Pain, blinding and hot, explodes through my flank and a cry of agony tears from my throat. Alexei had a knife. I didn’t see any on his belt when I attacked, but it must have been somewhere. Now it’s embedded in my side and my grip around his throat slackens.
Alexei surges upward and I’m knocked off him, landing on my burning side and rolling a couple of times through momentum. Each one shoves the blade deeper and Alexei advances like a thunderous rolling crowd. I’ve barely located the hilt of the small knife and ripped it from my back and he’s on me.
I need to kill him.
I’m going to bleed out. I need to kill him before that happens.
Alexei has a new surge of strength and he grabs me by the collar, hauling me clean off the ground and throwing me a few feet away. I collide with an air vent and crash down on the other side with a gasp of pain. Red pulses into my vision at the corner of myeyes and all the injuries from the crash flare up at once. Pushing my palms flat, I make it to my feet as Alexei reaches me.
Two punches, left and right, land with satisfying thuds, but Alexei’s punch lands lower on my body. Two meaty fists slam simultaneously into my broken ribs, blood spurts out past my lips, and then he punches me right where he stabbed me.
I collapse down onto one knee and grab at his wounded arm. A roar of pain escapes him and he punches me hard on the side of the head.
“I’ve always wanted to kill a Suit member,” Alexei wheezes. “And after? I’m gonna tear your little bitch apart?—”
A sudden gunshot brings us both to a momentary silence. We flinch, and I peer past Alexei.
Ivy stands in a wide stance, both her hands clutching Alexei’s discarded gun. She fires again and misses, her inexperience glaring.
“Again!” I yell as Alexei turns to her. “Keep pulling the trigger, Ivy! Keep pulling!”
She does. She opens fire recklessly and her eyes slip closed as she fires again and again. Bullets ping in all directions, hitting the air vents and the ground. One lands in my leg, but the pain is second to the satisfaction of watching Ivy find her target and shoot Alexei.
The first one thuds into his chest and he gasps in pain.
