[MAX]
"You think you can shoot me before I shoot her?"
It had almost been too easy. He had been so wrapped up in his own pride and power that he hadn't even noticed when I stepped up next to him. Not until I had my gun pressed to his head.
Not until it was too late.
"Of course I can." I didn't bother to suppress my smirk. "But feel free to test that theory."
The guy froze as if he had been tossed into a deep freeze, but the superior, demented look on his face didn't fade. "Who ..." he started to ask, but I interrupted him.
"Somebody who makes sure there's a bullet in the chamber before she makes threats."
Some semblance of a smile twitched across his lips then. "You sure you're somebody who's ready to kill?" It was a question intended to taunt and disorient, delivered with the sticky sweetness of a man with more than a little blood on his own hands.
I canted my head just enough to be sure I caught his eyes. Where everything about his features and tone screamed devious and unstable, my own expression was ruinous. I let the silence stretch for a few seconds, long enough where any other person would have started to squirm. He seemed just enough out of touch not to. "Are you sure you're somebody who's ready to die?"
It was in that moment that many things happened at once.
Alexei shot Crazy Guy in the shoulder.
Crazy Guy screamed and fired his gun.
His arm jerked from the impact of the bullet.
Danny tackled Harper to the floor.
I adjust my aim and fired my own shot.
And it all happened in less than sixty seconds.
By the time everything went still, Danny had pulled Harper up to her feet — both of them unharmed — and Crazy Guy lay on his side, unmoving, in a pool of his own blood.
Though Alexei was more than capable of shooting a man through and through without doing any serious damage, I knew that wasn't the sort of aim he had taken just now. But ultimately, it didn't matter where Alexei had shot him, because once I had seen Crazy Guy fire in response to the pain, I had shot him, too.
And my aim was even less forgiving than Alexei's may have been. It wasn't a head shot — he had been moving too much for me to try that — but instead I'd aimed for his ribs.
At best he had a punctured lung; at worst, I'd hit his heart.
Either way, it wasn't the sort of injury one lived to talk about.
I could distantly hear as Danny spoke to Harper, and I was half aware that Alexei knocked out the other two guys who had been in the building, but in the moment none of it fully registered for me.
Killing people doesn't get easier. I don't think it's supposed to. I don't go out of my way to do it, but when it counts ... I know what I'm capable of.
Harper van Roma counts.
—
Around a minute passed before Dylan's voice registered in my head.
"Max, we have a problem." Bright blue eyes were alight when I turned my focus to him. Dylan waved his phone at me. "Reznor said backup is too close for us to interfere, and that text came before shots were fired. We have to leave."
I didn't answer him immediately, but my silence only lasted a few seconds. My gaze swept across the room to where Danny had a light hold on Harper's shoulders and was talking to her with a calm yet charming smile. Harper shook, most noticeably her hands, even under Danny's steadying hold. I looked back to Dylan, my gaze level, my own hands steady. Phoenix was right beside him, her arms wrapped around her torso, her warm eyes on me. I could hear the sirens closing in. "You need to go."
Dylan opened his mouth to protest, but I didn't give him a chance to.
"You need to go," I repeated, this time with more resolve, "and you need to take them with you. Harper has to stay with me."
The sirens intensified. Now I could see red and blue flashing across every reflective surface outside.
"Max—" Phoenix began to protest.
"This is a bad idea," Alexei said loud enough to be heard as he came up beside me. "But she is right."
"Don't agree with her!" Phoenix retorted loudly. "She'll get arrested! They'll put her in isolation before she can even ask for a lawyer!"
"I think asking for a lawyer is a little out of reach for me," I mused to myself. The wailing sirens meant no one else heard me. I raised my voice, "No arguing! Get out! NOW!"
Dylan grabbed Phoenix's arm before she had another chance to protest and dragged her toward the back door that Alexei and I had come in through. Dylan's face was grim, and he shot me a brief look before he was out of the door.
Danny's face had frozen in shock at the turn of events, his thick brows furrowed, his golden eyes reflecting the red and blue lights as the cars stopped in front of the building. He opened his mouth to say something to me, but before he could get it out, Alexei had forcibly turned him and prodded him toward the door.
The last thing I heard Alexei say was "Be smart, Krasnaya!"
When I turned to Harper to check on her, the door burst open.
I watched Harper's face as the cops and FBI agents flooded the room. Her green eyes were wide, her mouth hung open.
I was surrounded immediately.
I watched past the various guns and uniforms as one man dropped to his knees to check if Crazy Guy had a pulse; when he found none, he moved on to the two that Alexei had knocked unconscious.
"Drop the gun!" an FBI agent shouted at me. He didn't wait for my response before he added, "And get on your knees!"
One of the agents secured his gun in its holster as he approached Harper. "Doctor van Roma, are you okay—?"
"Drop your gun and get on your knees!"
This time I made steady eye contact with the man who screamed at me. I flipped the safety on on my gun before before I let it fall. Then I lowered myself slowly to the floor.
The agent faltered some under my stare, then frowned before he seemed to remember; "Hands on your head!"
I obeyed.
Then a new voice realized, "Holy crap, that's Max Destin!"
For one ... two ... three seconds the only sounds to be heard were the sirens and the shouting that continued outside.
My smile was crooked. "That honestly took less time than I thought it would."
