73. Radimir

73

RADIMIR

We’d circled right around the dance floor and there was no sign of Bronwyn or Spartak. Where the hell are they?! I tried to push towards the center again, but the crowd was packed so tight I could barely move. I couldn’t even scare a path by waving my gun because there was nowhere for people to move to.

And then it got worse. My nose wrinkled and I whipped my head around to stare at Alexei. He nodded, looking worried. Smoke.

You could see the realization spread through the crowd. Then someone started to cough, and the panic began, people’s fears kicking in even before the smoke was really visible. The crowd surged towards the doors. But the guards at the doors wouldn’t open them: they were under orders because Spartak knew I was here. I ground my teeth. This is on me. People are going to die because I came here.

And I still couldn’t find Bronwyn. The smoke seemed to be drifting up from somewhere below. Was there another floor? I couldn’t find any stairs leading down and we’d tried every door. Where the hell is she?

There was a gunshot and Alexei shoved me aside. I heard a bullet pass between us. As the screaming started, I grabbed Alexei’s shoulder and ran with him to the bar that lay along one side of the hexagonal club. We dived over the bar and crashed head-first to the floor behind it. I got my foot trapped between two mini-fridges and twisted it trying to get it free. Pain blossomed in my ankle, and I cursed and finally got it loose. As more bullets passed over our heads, we knelt and peeked over the top of the bar.

Spartak and a handful of men were firing at us from across the club, not caring who they hit. The gunfire finally cleared some space on the dance floor, with people retreating to the edges and up onto the balconies, but that only made the crushes there worse. And the smoke was thickening: it was getting difficult to breathe and it was getting hotter, too: there was a full-on fire happening somewhere.

More bullets hit the bar. Alexei and I shot back, but we were hopelessly outnumbered. If we didn’t get out of here, we were dead. I saw Alexei’s jaw tighten and knew that he was thinking about his wife, out in the alley. The guilt crushed my heart in a fist. He’d been out of the Bratva, he’d been safe, and I’d dragged him back into it. Now he might never see his wife again. And I might never see mine.