Page 98 of Ballistic

Blood hummed through my veins, but not from fear. It was excitement that had me reminding myself to breathe slow and easy. Soon, everything would be set right again, regardless of who got to walk away.

Shadows slinked past the entrance to the ballroom, widening to the silhouette of the fat bastard and three of his men. I wanted to laugh at the sight of his big burly men flanked at either side of him.

What a pussy.

“I’m flattered,” I said. “Didn’t know I was the kind of threat that warranted your entourage. Hell, I didn’t even bring a gun.”

Tesarik kept a steady stride toward me, unfettered and unamused. “Laugh, child, but it’s you who are foolish, for coming alone and unarmed. I’m not here to chat. I’m here to retrieve you.”

I raised my knife, twisting it around in front of him. “I’m not completely unarmed.”

“You have one opportunity to save your life. Only one.” He came to a stop just short of where I sat, his men glancing around the room, always watching his back. Strange how loyal they remained, considering he’d always treated them like shit. “Transfer every bit of what you stole. You have a chance to walk away from this, Nicoleta.”

Hilarious. I’d once watched him force a guard to swallow gasoline, after he’d accused him of stealing his best cognac. Turned out, Tesarik had cracked it open himself on a drunken night and accidentally smashed it against the brick wall of his cigar room, where the bits of broken glass had lain mocking the man’s death.

At best, he’d probably let me scream one more time, before slicing out my tongue and tossing me into a bonfire.

I nabbed my phone from my back pocket, and at the racking of guns, I held my hands up in surrender. “Just wanted to show you something on my phone.”

Without looking at them, Tesarik raised his hand, and the men lowered their guns. “You’re testing my patience, child.”

“It’ll only take a second, and then I promise you, we’ll talk about your money.” I pressed play on the video, and with the heightening of screams, my screams, I watched as Tesarik’s mouth curved into a smile. “Who commissioned this?”

“I’m afraid I can’t answer that. They all go by screennames. Completely anonymous.”

Breathing a sigh, I stuffed the phone back into my jeans. “Then, I guess we’re done here. Do what you will, you’ll never find your money.”

Jaw shifting, he cracked his neck, eyes teeming with the kind of rage I’d only seen a few times in the months I’d been his prisoner. “Voyeur-two-ICU.”

Mind teasing out what the hell he just said, I frowned back at him. “What?”

“The name of the one who commissioned that production.”

“Not you?”

“I don’t commission my own productions. I prefer the live action version. Perhaps you remember that.”

Lips curled in disgust, I tightened my grip of the blade, wondering why the hell I hadn’t thrown it square at his skull, yet. “Then, why would you purchase me at auction? Why would you pay to make me your prisoner?”

“To bring Dmitry out of hiding, of course.”

Schooling my face to hide the smile tugging at my lips, I tipped my head. “There is no Dmitry. I made him up.”

Tesarik’s chuckle echoed in the surrounding building, and he pulled a case from his pocket, opening it to show cigarettes inside. “Surely, you don’t expect I’d have forgotten my own brother.”

I let the smile break at the one small detail I hadn’t been privy to, but had always suspected.

“He was my half-brother. Bastard child of our whore mother. For years, I thought I’d killed him that night. And then you came along, and like ghost, he reappears.”

The weight of the knife sat heavy in my palm, and I curled my fingers around the blade. I could be fast. No doubt, Tesarik’s men would shoot me, but not before the blade struck his skull. “If you expected Dmitry, then its you who are foolish for having come tonight.”

As soon as the words had fallen past my lips, three shots were fired from a silencer, and within seconds, Tesarik’s men lay on the floor. One of them lifted his gun and shot blindly into the darkness. A black hole marked the bullet’s path through his skull, and he fell backward. Another lay gripping the wound on his leg, swinging his gun as if searching for the source of gunfire. In the next breath, he lay as still as the other two.

Tesarik hadn’t bothered to take cover, or spare a single glance for his men. Instead, he casually lit his cigarette and blew the smoke off to the side, keeping his eyes on me. “A zrazu sa zjaví duch!”

“Is that what I am to you, Brother? A ghost?” From the shadows, Dmitry and one of his guards I recognized stepped into the ballroom. In a black suit and black gloves, he blended with the darkness, as if he were a part of it, coming to life. “You’ve built quite an empire, Jozef, eliminating all of your enemies. Me, Eugen.”

Tesarik shook his head, studying the lit end of his cigarette before taking another drag. “I did not kill our brother. He was always loyal to me.”