Page 6 of The Bronze Garza
Kristie glances up at them and her face crumples, gripping my hand and squeezing my fingers so hard it hurts. But I let her, because I understand.
The lanky Russian on the right is obsessed with her. Choosesonlyher. And I don’t know what on earth it is that he does to her once he takes her upstairs, but she always gets trembly and petrified when he walks in, then dissolves into a tearful mess after he leaves.
As he strides up to us with a deceptively charming smile and holds his hand out to her, Kristie gives my fingers one last squeeze, sucks in a deep breath, and stands.
The man settles his hand at the small of her back and leads her toward the stairs.
His friend does the same with one of the others.
Oleg and Viktor watch us from the interior balcony like angels of hell, chatting and snickering. Viktor, leaned against the railing with one hand rested readily on his ever-present gun. Oleg, slicing a pear with his switchblade and eating the pieces directly from the sharp edge.
No one is paying attention to her.
Not even me.
She’s the quiet one, the meekest of us all. Daughter of a pastor. The most compliant and well-behaved of all the Diamond Girls. The complete opposite of me—the defiantsvin’ya.
That’s why no one could’ve foreseen Kristie stopping with an abrupt halt, then pivot to push the lanky Russian with all her might. She pushes him so hard that he crashes back into his friend. The friend crashes into Oleg, and Oleg loses his balance at the same time he starts choking.
His pear and switchblade clatter to the floor and his hands fly up to his throat.
The friend catches his equilibrium and tries to help Oleg. But Oleg is wild with panic, eyes wide, so both lose their balance and end up flipping like coins over the interior balcony, bodies crashing to the checkered marble floor.
While Viktor and the lanky Russian are distracted by the fall, Kristie lurches forward and rips Viktor’s gun from his waist.
“Suka!” Viktor growls, and lunges at her, but halts when Kristie points the gun at him.
“DON’T!” Kristie shrieks. “Come near me and Iwillshoot you!”
Viktor laughs derisively, then sneers, “How do you think this is going to play out,glupaya suka?”
A small, shaky smile pulls at Kristie’s lips as she replies, “Even better than I imagined.”
Before I can scream,“Kristie, no!”, she presses the gun under her chin and pulls the trigger.
She’s dead before she hits the ground.
Until now, I’d had no idea blood could splatter so far and so wide.
It. Is.Everywhere.
Around me, the Diamond Girls are screaming like banshees.
Igor comes barreling out of his office, face twisted with rage, demanding to know what’s going on.
Oleg is rolling around on the floor, choking to death.
As all hell breaks loose around me, I just stand in the midst of it all, arms loose at my sides, not shocked or stunned as I should be. But…jealous.
I feeljealousytoward Kristie.
Envious, even.
If only I had the fucking guts, if only I was as sure of the purity of my soul like Kristie was, that could’ve been me.
ChapterThree
“You two?”
