Page 10 of Toxic Temptation
“What the?—”
POP-POP-POP-POP-POP.
Five gunshots, one right after the next, rip through whatever moment of connection I thought Kovan and I were experiencing. It’s bizarre to me how gunshots can seem so phony and so awfully real at the same time.
My hand flies out to snare Luka’s on my way down. I fall to my ass with an ungainlyoofand he lands in my lap. I embrace him protectively, instinctively.
Above us, Kovan rounds the corner with his gun held high.
I can only see him at first. Then, with the strobing red glare of an emergency light, I see three grotesquely distorted shadows reaching down the hallway toward him. Long, thin, bristling gun tips emerge from the shadows’ edges.
Three bad men against one—well, I still don’t know if we can call Kovan a “good” man, but he’s better than the others as far as my own skin is concerned.
He rumbles something to the others in a language I don’t understand. Russian? Ukrainian? Whatever it is, every syllable sounds like his name, sharp and violent and crackling.
These goosebumps are gonna be with me for the rest of my life, I’m afraid.
I hear a cruel laugh blast off in response to Kovan. I take it negotiations didn’t go well.
Then the gunfire resumes.
Does it happen fast or does it take an eternity? I’m not sure. All I know is that I’m squeezing Luka, my eyes are shut, and the gunfire is so, so loud. It’s all booms and clacks and the tinny explosion of tiles erupting as a bullet reduces them to flying shards.
Then, almost as soon as it started, it’s all over.
At least, I think it is. Kovan edges forward and disappears fully around the corner, though his shadow stretches out behind him. The other three shadows have all vanished.
Luka wriggles out of my lap and belly-crawls forward to look after his uncle. Reluctantly, I go with him, and together, we peer out down the long, red-lit hallway.
It’s just Kovan, huge and still, surveying the trio of bodies at his feet. When the strobe light sweeps over them, I see the men’s blood running in rivulets down the tile grouting.
Is it… Is it safe?I don’t dare ask that aloud. Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answers to, et cetera, et cetera.
But as the seconds tick past and no new killers emerge, I’m starting to think it’s okay to breathe.
Until—
“Kovan, watch out!”
He spins around as the ER room doors burst open and two new figures stride in, guns raised. I’m screaming so loud that my own voice is all I can hear.
It’s only when I see Kovan’s face finally split into a grin that I realize I’ve misread the situation.
He tucks his gun away and he and one of the men clasp hands. At my side, Luka pushes aside my hand where it’s clamped on his hip, leaps to his feet, and goes sprinting toward the new entrants. He plows headlong into a hug around the first man’s waist, and all of them chuckle.
“Missed me, eh?” the man asks, ruffling Luka’s hair. “You gave us all a hell of a scare,malysh.Did you just get sick of breathing, or what?”
I struggle up and go inching toward the cluster of men. I stop a few feet away, unsure if I’m intruding, if I’m about to plunge into a much worse situation, or if this is something I can’t even wrap my head around yet.
“I take it you all are ‘backup’?” I ask cautiously.
Kovan nods. “Which means the police won’t be far behind.”
“I’m guessing you’re not going to stick around to talk to them.”
His lips twitch. Almost a smile. “Correct.”
My heart does a weird, mournful double-clutch. So this is it. One of the most insane experiences of my life is almost done. The police I wished for will arrive, they’ll ask what happened, I’ll answer honestly that I really don’t have any clue, and thenthese men, these enigmas, this gray-eyed little boy with maturity beyond his years… they’ll all just fade away. And a few years from now, I’ll be left to wonder if I dreamed the whole thing up.
