Page 64 of Pistols and Plush Toys

But they cleared all the rooms on the bottom floor. Did Vitale have no personal security here?

Alex signaled to the stairs. Nikolai gave him the go-ahead, and he and Pyotr took the stairs up and spread out to check the rooms. Nikolai and Katyana waited at the base, gun trained in the opposite direction just in case.

The house was deadly silent.

For a second Nikolai worried Elliot wasn’t even here. That all of this was for nothing–

“Clear,”Pyotr said aloud, jarring him back.

A moment later Alex said,“The kid is here.”

Nikolai was up the stairs before he even realized he’d moved. He followed Alex’s voice to a door just cracked open at the end of a hallway. Alex stepped away.

“Wait at the elevator,”Nikolai said.“We’ll be quick.”

Alex nodded and retreated.

Nikolai barely heard him go as he opened the door all the way. There Elliot was, standing in the middle of the room, looking small and lost.

He had dark, vicious bruising around one eye, and his lip was swollen and scabbed. The beautiful hazel eyes of his were red, like he’d been crying.

And he had a ring of bruises around his throat.

“N-Nikolai?” Elliot said, staring at him like he wasn’t sure he was even real.

In that moment, Nikolai realized that even if he hadn’t gotten Vicki’s permission, he would see Mattia Vitale dead.

There was no other choice.

Chapter 13: Elliot

Seeing Nikolai standing there at the door cracked open something inside him, and Elliot’s bottom lip trembled. The cold numbness he’d pulled around himself after being brought back to Mattia suddenly felt fragile. Like just the idea of Nikolai was enough to draw the tender parts of him back to the surface.

“I’m here to take you back,” Nikolai said.

The words came to him through a fog. Then he took in the rest of Nikolai—black tactical gear, gun in hand.

Because he’d come here for a fight. A fight with Mattia.

Mattia.

Where was he? He’d gone out several hours ago in a hurry, but when would he be back?

A shivering started in his limbs. Over the last two days Mattia’s comings and goings had been irregular to the point of making Elliot sick with nerves. Every time Mattia came back it was in a rage, one he took out on Elliot either by hand or by—

Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it.

Oh god, oh fuck, and if Mattia came back and found Nikolai here…

“You can’t be here!” Elliot cried, rushing up to the door. “He’s–if Mattia comes back–”

“Is okay,” Nikolai tried to say, but Elliot cut him off.

“No! No, you can’t be here! You have to–he’s going to–” He’d kill Nikolai. Mattia would kill Nikolai in cold blood, and then what? Then Elliot would have to live knowing it was all his fault. That he’d caused the death of a good man and–

He wasn’t getting enough air. His chest heaved as the panic ran over him.

“Hey, hey, breathe,” Nikolai said, but it sounded like he was speaking underwater. Or maybe Elliot was underwater. Everything was spinning, distorted.

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