68. Bronwyn

68

brONWYN

Something you never really think about: there are no windows in a nightclub.

When the lights went out, it didn’t go dark, it went black. And for a second, it went silent: everyone in the glass-walled room froze in shock. The music had stopped, too, and my ears throbbed from the sudden quiet. Then the crowd downstairs began to scream and panic.

And then the shooting started.

It didn’t sound like shooting. More like a hard thud, and the sound of glass breaking, and a man crying out, all at the same time. I heard a body slump to the floor, somewhere behind Radimir. Then it happened again. And again. And again.

Spartak still had hold of me. He gripped my wrist so hard, I thought the bones were going to snap. I could hear him fumbling frantically with something and then suddenly there was light: he’d turned on the flashlight on his phone and was shining it around?—

The light found a body lying on the floor. One of Spartak’s men, his chest ruined and bloody. A second body. A third. And then Radimir, rising from his knees, his face like thunder.

Spartak went sheet white. He hooked an arm around my neck and pulled me back against him, using me as a shield. There was another shot and another of Spartak’s men fell. This one toppled forward and fell through the glass wall, smashing a huge hole and then tumbling into the darkness. A few seconds later, the screams from the people three floors below turned full-on hysterical as he landed in the crowd.

I saw Spartak look around in terror: he only had one man left, now, and Radimir was marching towards him. He put his gun to my head, and I froze as the cold metal kissed my temple. Radimir froze, too.

Spartak looked around, then began dragging me backwards, towards the wall. Where’s he taking me? There’s nothing there! The only door was on the far side of the room.

But then Spartak pushed on one of the wall panels and it swung aside: a secret door. He pulled me into a cramped, dark stairwell leading down. He snapped his fingers at Liliya, ordering her the way you would an animal, and she hurried in after us.

“Kill him!” Spartak yelled at his last surviving bodyguard. Then he pulled the door shut and shot a heavy metal bolt across, locking Radimir out.