Page 70 of His Smile
“Did you send any of yourmen here to the studio for me?” Though she knew the men couldn’t hear her fromwhere she stood on the far end of the foyer, Rahina couldn’t help but whisperas she slowly inched backwards back to the elevators.
“No, I did not,” there wassomething breathless and rough by the way he answered that made the knot oftension in her stomach tighten painfully with dread. Speaking harshly inRussian she could only guess Roman was speaking to Mosca before speaking backto her. “I will be there in ten minutes, but some of my men might be theresooner, do you hear me?”
"Yes," the sharpcommand refocused her attention to him despite never taking her eyes from themen on the other side of the locked glass door.
“Rahina I want you to hide,”she could hear Roman’s breathing increase and the sound of an engine roaringand wheels burning against the pavement.
White hot fear bloomedthrough her as she watched one of the men raise his hands. It took preciousseconds longer than it should have for her mind to register the gun in hishand.
“Roman they have…” Herdesperate attempt to tell him what was happening ended in a piercing shriek asthe man fired three shots into the glass.
Chapter 23
Why was this happening? Who were these men!? Thequestions echoed around Rahina’s head as she snatched open the stairwell doorand took the stairs nearly four at a time. The two dance studios were locatedon the top two floors while the second floor of their new building was stillunder construction. Knowing that there were little options to choose from tohide in the studio spaces, Rahina silently opened the door to the second floorand slipped inside.
Her heart was crashing in her chest as she stood still for asecond, frantically scanning the dusty floors, construction equipment, andfurniture covered in big heavy drop cloths. Streetlight from outside barelytrickled through the windows covered in hazy thick plastic, giving the shroudedspace a dark, murky feeling. Naturally, Rahina looked to the large island offurniture gathered in the corner on the other side of the space covered in adusty drop cloth. It would be perfect to hide under—but also very obvious.Feeling the seconds tick by, she followed the foot trail in the plaster dust onthe floor made by the construction workers earlier and ducked between twoscaffolding racks half concealed by drop-cloths and equipment. Ducking down andout of sight, she grabbed a long metal pole with her shaking hands and silentlyclutched it against her.
With blood thunderingthrough her veins and pounding in her ear, Rahina strained to listen to thenoises in the building. Her stomach dropped at the sound of the elevator beingtaken up. Feeling herself begin to hyperventilate, Rahina forced her lipsclosed, pressing them painfully together, swallowing the rise of panic. Tearswelled in her eyes as she recalled the three men’s faces.
They were coming afterher!They were waiting for her, with guns. Were they going to kill her or did theymean to capture her? The thought of being captured by those men made her sick.If they caught her, they would hurt her, she knew that instinctively. Crouchedlow, she put her forehead to her knees, taking a few shallow breaths, sheforced herself to swallow the sob that threatened to escape from her throat.Tightening her sweating hands on the metal pole, she thought of Roman’s voicewhen she dropped her phone downstairs. She could hear the panicked fury in hisvoice as he shouted her name.
Roman would come for her. Hewould save her.
Dear God let him be on hisway, she prayed.
Moving again between thefloors, the whirring sound of the elevator activated again. They're donesearching the top floors, she realized. Thankfully the elevator didn't stop onthe second floor without the construction foreman's key—but that didn't meanthose men couldn't take the stairs like she did.
As if manifesting from herfears, Rahina’s blood turned cold and stilled in her veins at the sound of theheavy stairwell door opening. The room around her filled with a terrible emptysilence. How many were in here? Were they just standing there or were theywalking further into the room? From her spot behind what looked to be a hugegenerator and a table-saw, Rahina couldn't see anything, though she hoped itworked the same in reverse and they couldn't see her either.
Seconds dragged by likehours as she waited helplessly. A sound somewhere ahead of her to her rightmade the blood in her face drain away, and Rahina had to put a shaky hand overher mouth to keep from crying out.
The sudden unmistakablereports of a gun going off somewhere above her made her jump. A man's voicecursed from a few feet away from her, and she could clearly hear him moving nowas he reacted to the sounds above them.
A muffled scream from thefloor above startled her again, this time her flinching reaction causing thelong metal pole in her hand to hit some of the equipment next to her. Withoutwarning the piece of drop-cloth that was hanging from the scaffolding and framingher hiding space was ripped away. Screaming, Rahina stumbled backward, nearlyfalling but catching herself as the shadow of one of the men loomed over her.
“Come here!” the man hissed,lunging to grab ahold of her over her small barricade of constructionequipment.
Nimbly, she scurried out ofhis range and backed away, holding the metal pipe in front of her like a bat.
“Stop!” she yelled as theman jumped over the generator and came towards her.
Intense panic gripped, heras the startling realization settled on her, there was no way she was going tobe able to win a fight against the man.
Bits of light leaked in fromthe partially covered window behind her and illuminated the man’s ugly face asit twisted in anger. Stalking towards her, Rahina gripped the pole and swung athis head. Dodging the wild arc, he lunged for her again, but she didn't giveup. Swinging the pole back up to catch him in the flank, her heart seized interrified horror as she felt the pole stop mid-swing. With a gleam of spitefulsatisfaction the man glared at her as he jerked the pole from her grip. Oh God,this was it. Backing up until she was pressed into the plastic covered window,Rahina prepared herself to fight like a wildcat when the man got close. Hewould not take her easily; she would use every ounce of her strength to gougeat his eyes and bite at his throat if she had to.
Throwing down the pipe witha clang, she barely heard the man’s curse or noticed his satisfied cruel smileas he stepped towards her, she was too focused on changing all of her fear intoher last will of strength to fight back against him.
Behind him, the shadowsmoved. Materializing from the darkness, Rahina caught sight of the largeshadowy frame first—then the blade.
The machete started high inthe air just as the man reached out one hand for her. Her body was coiled andready to react in wild frenzy, but time and space seemed to freeze robbing herof her readied reaction. With a singing swish in the air, the machete came downwith an unholy force and speed, lobbing off the man's extended arm at theelbow. For a few seconds both her and the man met each other's gaze interrified confusion. By the fourth second, the man's brain finally registeredwhat happened.
Both of their screams rangout in the empty space. Stumbling to the side, away from his fallen twitchingarm, the man fell to the floor, screaming in a growing pool of his blood.
Emerging from the shadows,the familiar tall figure glanced at her with a look so foreign and distant itchilled her scream in her throat. It was as if she wasn’t looking at the manshe loved at all. She was finally looking into the eyes of the monster healways warned her about. Kicking the man’s severed arm as if to get it out ofhis path, Roman stepped over the screaming panicking man and raised thebloodied machete for another hit.
Rahina wasn’t sure whatreally happened next, it was as if a slice of her reality was taken away andher memories could only fast forward to the next. Commanding but soothing wordswere spoken into her ear as a familiar figure stepped in front of her coveringher body, ordering her to wrap her hands around his neck and to keep her headdown as he lifted and carried her away. She obeyed everything except for one briefmoment. Looking over the man's shoulder, she looked back at Roman who stoodlike a mountain over the mutilated man. With a mask of deadly rage, he caughther eyes as he watched her being taken from the room. Anger pulsated throughhim in waves that washed over the entire space as he turned slowly back to hisvictim beneath him and raised the machete again.
Closing her eyes, she buriedher face into the strong shoulder beneath her not wanting to see the followingcarnage.
