Page 27 of Her Vicious Angel

The convenience store was comfortingly brighter, but as I made a quick turn around the shelves, I realized I had made a huge fucking mistake.

There was a skinny guy behind the counter rolling cigarettes and looking at dirty magazines, and a few big guys sitting at a booth smoking.

The skinny guy called out something in Russian.

I cleared my throat and said, “English only.”

I placed a bag of random chips on the counter, just for something to do, but I hadn’t missed the looks the three bigger men had shared.

Shit.

I fumbled in my pocket for some money.

Was I safer in the convenience store or out of the convenience store?

When they got up and started to walk towards me, I decided I’d take my chances outside.

I grabbed the bag of chips and started to run.

It didn’t help that I didn’t know where the fuck I was.

My breath sounded unnaturally loud in my ears.

I ran down the dark sidewalk in the direction Andrei had gone, but there was nothing there. Just empty quiet streets, broken windows, blinking streetlights.

I could hear the pounding of their feet as they hurried after me.

I tried to turn down an alleyway, hoping to lose them, and then they were on me.

The first man knocked me on the ear with a blow, making my ears ring and my head spin. He grabbed me by the waist and started dragging me further down the alleyway.

“Andrei!” I cried out in desperation. “Andrei, help!”

Suddenly, I felt the man on me getting tossed aside like he was a rag doll. He flew across the alleyway, and I heard his neck break as he hit the wall.

The second man charged, but he was far too slow. Andrei sidestepped the charge and put both his big hands on the man’s neck.

Crack.

He had killed another man for me.

The final one of my assailants backed away and pulled out a gun.

I expected Andrei to let him go. After all, he had a gun on us.

But I had reckoned without the anger of the Angel of Death. Andrei advanced on him, knocking the gun away before the other man even had a chance to get a shot off. Then he ran the third man into the wall, and began hitting him, over and over, until he was lying on the ground in a bloody pulp.

Andrei—“ I started to protest, pulling on his jacket. “You’re going to kill him!”

I was afraid someone was going to call the police.

He turned around and I felt a chill down my spine at the expression on his face.

“Iwantedto kill him.”

He didn’t even look like he’d broken a sweat. His shirt and suit jacket were not even rumpled.

“Nobodylays a hand on you, Cerise. Except me.”

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