Chapter 16

Kyle quickly sat up in bed when she was woken up by several bangs. She looked over and realized Max wasn’t in bed with her. She felt a current of fear roll through her.

The bedroom door slowly opened, and she knew it wasn’t Max. She tried to find something to throw at them before the light was turned on, blinding her.

Once her eyes adjusted, she saw that it was Anatoli.

“You need to be quiet,” he told her. She noticed that he had his gun drawn, and she could tell that he was on edge.

“I have to get you out of here. Hurry up and put on some clothes.”

Kyle, for once, didn’t care that she was naked. She jumped up and ran to the closet, fumbling with finding something to slip on.

Kyle heard more bangs and concluded that it was gunfire. She was confused about why people were attacking them.

She found a shirt and a pair of sweats that belonged to Max and came back out.

“You remember what I taught you?” Anatoli asked her as he handed her a gun.

“Yes,” Kyle said nervously.

“Then let’s go. I’m going to turn off this light, and we are going to try and sneak out. You have to stay near me no matter what,” he commanded her.

She nodded at Anatoli, and he turned off the light. He cracked the door and peeked out before opening it farther and stepping out. He motioned for Kyle to follow him.

They slowly and quietly walked toward the end of the hallway. Kyle was confused because the stairs were in the other direction.

They made it to the end of the hallway without incident and opened the shelf that revealed a hidden staircase.

“It’ll take us down to the kitchen, and we can try to go out the back.”

“Where are Dimitri and Max?” she asked him.

“They’re fine—they’ll meet us at the safe house.” She didn’t like that answer because she knew they were in the middle of the gunfight.

Anatoli led Kyle down the stairs to the kitchen. When they approached the door, Anatoli slowly opened it to scope out the area.

“I don’t see anything. Let’s be quick about this,” he said.

“Wait—I can’t leave without Elliot.” Kyle stopped Anatoli before he stepped out.

“Who the fuck is Elliot?”

“The dog Max got me.”

Anatolia let out a sigh. “He’ll have to wait. Now let’s go.”

Kyle was upset because it was the first gift she had gotten from them, and she loved that dog even though she only had it for a few hours. She didn’t want to leave Elliot behind.

They crept into the kitchen, and Kyle was starting to panic because the gunfire was getting closer. Anatoli could see the distress in her.

“You need to calm down. You’re—”

Anatoli’s words were interrupted when a gun went off in the room. Kyle let out a scream and saw Anatoli fall.

“Well, well, I can’t believe I found the girl,” the man said with a smile. “You’re much prettier in person.”

Anatoli let out a groan, taking the attention off Kyle. The man who shot him took a few steps toward them and lowered his gun at Anatoli, not paying attention to what Kyle was doing.

Kyle raised her gun and closed her eyes before she pulled the trigger.

“You bitch!” the man screamed. The bullet had only grazed his arm.

He went to raise his gun at her, but this time, Kyle kept her eyes open and shot the man in the chest and watched him fall to the ground.

She helped Anatoli up and made their way outside to a waiting car.

“You’ll have to drive. I’ll give you directions...” Anatoli grunted out.

“You need a doctor.”

“There will be one when we get to the safe house,” he reassured her.

“We need to try and stop the bleeding first.” She laid him in the back seat and tried to put pressure on his side. Anatoli grunted at the pain the pressure caused.

“We need to go now,” Anatoli demanded.

Kyle didn’t want to leave him alone in the back seat. They may have had their differences when she first got here, but she didn’t hate him.

“I’m serious, Kyle. We need to go now.”

Kyle listened to Anatoli. She got in the driver’s seat and pulled away from the house.