Page 66 of The Berlin Sisters
‘Heinrich—’
‘Shut up!’ he screamed, the whites of his eyes flashing as he spat on the carpet in disgust.
‘Heinrich—’
‘You don’t speak to me, you Jew-loving bitch!’ Spittle formed in the corners of his mouth, a deranged man if ever she’d seen one.
Ava knew the only advantage she might have would be taking him by surprise; he was staring at her with so much hatred that she knew he wouldn’t hesitate in pulling the trigger, but if she could just wrestle the gun from him or knock him off balance, at least her sister might have a chance.
She lunged forward without hesitation, diving to the side as the gun fired, lowering her body and quickly scrambling to her feet and charging at him with her shoulder, reaching desperately for the gun, her hands flailing while she struggled to connect with it.
He was so much bigger than her, so much stronger, and even as her fingers wrapped around the pistol, even as she fought with every bit of strength in her body to pull it from his grasp, she knew it was useless. Heinrich was going to kill her and her sister and Eliana, and then he’d find her mother, too.
When he wrestled the gun free from her grip, she only had a moment to find her feet before the butt of the pistol connected with the side of her head, sending her reeling. Ava staggered backwards, hand raised to her face, watching through blurry eyes as he cocked the gun once more, smiling as he did so, and she tried to focus on him through her blurry vision.
I’m going to die. He’s going to kill all of us.
There was a cracking sound when Heinrich squeezed the trigger, the sound of her sister screaming behind her echoing through the room, and Ava looked down at her stomach, expecting to see crimson blood staining her top. She dropped to her knees and the room swam around her.
But that was when she realised that the scream piercing the air in the room wasn’t coming from her sister. She scrambled backwardswhile Heinrich collapsed, the gun falling from his hands as Ava began to scream again, and the blood she’d expected to see on her own body pooled under his. She began to shake uncontrollably as she crawled across the room, tears streaming down her cheeks.
For Heinrich’s wasn’t the only fallen body in the room.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Ava’s hands were shaking as she crept around Heinrich, bending down to pick up his pistol and trying not to be sick while his expressionless eyes stared back at her. She gave him a quick kick with the point of her foot, wanting to make sure he was dead without getting any closer to him, then she dashed around to David, to the man who’d so bravely killed Heinrich, who’d saved her life with so little thought for his own.
He was sitting up now but slumped over to the side, blood seeping through his shirt, and Ava didn’t know what to do. She heard a moan and looked past him to Eliana, torn between running to her and helping David.
‘Untie me!’ Hanna cried. ‘David, put pressure on the wound. Keep your hand there.’
‘Get the keys,’ David groaned. ‘You need keys, for her handcuffs.’
Ava’s stomach turned. That would mean groping around Heinrich’s dead body looking for them. Her heart started to pound as she thought about the other men downstairs. In all the commotion, she’d forgotten entirely about them.
‘The guards,’ she panicked, looking at the door, expecting them to come bursting through at any second. ‘We have—’
‘They’re gone,’ David said, his voice low, his hand pressed hard to his side as he groaned again.
Ava didn’t even want to think about what David had been forced to do. All she cared about was that no one else was coming for them. Yet.
She bent down low over Heinrich, having to grab hold of him and heft him to the side in order to fumble for the keys. She unclipped them from his belt loop and let his body go, backing away from him, wondering how she’d ever loved him, how she’d ever planned to marry him and have children with such a monster.
Ava turned back to her sister, using the edge of her blouse to wipe a splatter of blood from her cheek, her hands shaking as she undid the cuffs and freed her hands. Hanna gave her a quick, hard hug before darting across the room to David. Dropping to her knees, she took his hand away to inspect his wound.
Eliana.Ava’s legs wobbled as she ran back across the room and through the connecting door to Eliana, who was hunched forward now, her knees drawn up to her chest, her body trembling. Ava took in the scene before her, knowing instinctively what Heinrich had done to her friend. She sat down and gently put an arm around Eliana, holding her as she cried, pushing the hair from her face. What she wanted was to take her to the bathroom and carefully bathe her, before wrapping her in warm blankets and holding her while she slept away the pain and trauma of what had happened. But they didn’t have the luxury of time – the other two SS men could be back at any moment, and she didn’t even want to think what they’d do if they came into the house and found three of their own shot dead. She only hoped that Zelda didn’t arrive and unexpectedly end up part of the commotion.
‘I’m going to get you a fresh change of clothes,’ Ava said.
‘David?’ Eliana whispered, looking up at Ava, more child than young woman in that moment.
‘David is in good hands,’ Ava murmured. ‘Hanna will look after him.’
Tears began to leak from Eliana’s eyes once more, and Ava pressed a kiss to her forehead and quickly hugged her again, before letting go and standing up.
‘Don’t leave me,’ Eliana whispered, her eyes wide with fear. ‘Please don’t leave me, Ava.’
‘I’m only going to get clothes from my room for you. I’ll be right back.’
