“God, this is the Louvre all over again,” Alexei moaned in his ear.
“You’re never going to let me live that down,” Soren complained. “It was just going to be a tiny fire. Besides, I didn’t actually do it.”
“No, but you thought about it and that’s terrifying enough,” Alexei snapped.
“K, Ed, do you need backup?” West demanded sharply. “I’m about five minutes from Delphi.”
“No, we got him,” Ed growled.
“Stand by. He’s moving northwest through the town, but I think he’s going to run out of street soon with nothing but mountain and sparse woods. His car…his car can’t be here,” Kairo said as he searched the map he’d memorized of the town before leaving the rental house.
Vanko was slowing down as he passed through another yard and hit the most northern street of Delphi. Behind that row of houses was just the mountain slope with bushes, high grasses, rocks, and trees.
Gravel crunched and scraped under the soles of his trainers while sweat stung the corners of his eyes. His lungs burned, but his mind just replayed the image of this fucker hitting Isidore the first day they met. That rage fueled his run, pushing the pain aside. Vanko couldn’t be allowed to escape. He was the key to unlocking the secrets of who wanted to hurt Isidore and Athena.
To his shock, Vanko left the relative protection of the town behind and started up the slope of the mountain, heading straight for the thickest grouping of trees. The cover would give him temporary advantage.Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.They needed to catch up.
But they were already too far behind. Vanko made the cover of the trees first. Ed and Kairo both slowed in unison without needing to say a word while they drew guns from hidden holsters.
Just as they were about to reach the trees, Vanko ducked out, his gun held in front of him. Kairo lifted his own, aiming for the man’s shoulder. If he could just disarm him, slow the bastard a little bit, they could corner him for questions.
Ed grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him to the left just as he was squeezing the trigger. Vanko fired at the same time and Kairo swore he felt the bullet cut through the air to the right of his cheek. If Ed hadn’t moved him, he would have literally eaten that bullet.
But as close as that was, Kairo’s shot proved to be too good. As he was hitting the ground, he watched his bullet slam into Vanko’s forehead, throwing him backward and killing him instantly. Leaves and dirt lifted into the air around Vanko as his body hit the ground hard and didn’t move.
For a second, he and Ed froze there, kneeling in the dirt with their eyes locked on the newly made corpse. Their breaths were a ragged staccato after their long, uphill run.
Dead.
He’d wanted him dead but after he got his answers.
Dead now meant no answers.
“Fuck!” Kairo shouted at the top of his lungs.
“We got to move,” Ed snarled, his big hand pulling at Kairo’s left arm as he stumbled to his feet.
“What’s going on? Are you hit?” Charlie shouted in his ear, but Kairo couldn’t think beyond the fact that Vanko was now dead.
“Fuck!” he screamed a second time as Ed got him to his feet.
“K! Have you been shot?” As soon as the words were out of Charlie’s mouth, the following silence seemed extra heavy, punctuated only by Charlie’s whispered curse.
“No!” Kairo answered. “I’m not hurt, but Vanko’s dead. I fucked up. He’s dead.”
“We were in the trees when it happened, so there should be no direct witnesses,” Ed explained. “Asshole fired at us first, anyway.”
“I’ll be monitoring the police bands. Get your asses back here,” Charlie ordered.
“I’ve got my computer with me. I can intercept calls and reroute as needed once we’re on the road,” Kairo said now that his brain was functioning again. Guilt and frustration swirled together in his stomach to create a disgusting soup of discomfort.
“K,” Charlie started in a low voice. “Izzie heard me.”
Kairo fought the sigh that had risen in his throat. He’d wanted to keep this side of his life from the man, but was that really fair at all? Over the past three days, they’d talked about everything under the sun, told each other stories about their lives during the free time Kairo had away from his computer. He might have toned down some of the more dangerous aspects of his life, but he hadn’t completely censored them out.
Hell, Isidore had been right there in the middle of their mad escape. It wasn’t like he could believably lie that he didn’t face life-and-death situations on a somewhat regular basis. If they were going to make this relationship work, Isidore had to know the truth.
“Do you know how to change the outputs on the computer so he can hear me and I can hear him?” Kairo asked.