Love Thy Enemy (Red Stone Security #13)(53)

The spotlight was off her, at least.

Her eyes widened when she saw him. A bruise was forming on her cheek and a tiny trail of dried blood streaked down her chin, but she was alive. For the first time in the last hour he felt as if he could breathe again. Pistol still in his hand he hurried across the open room.

Crouching next to her, he turned so that he had the doorway in his periphery. He wanted to comfort her, but if Hollis was nearby Viktor didn’t want the man to hear him. Holding a finger to his mouth, he then tugged her gag free. He didn’t have a way to get the cuffs off, not without a key or a way to cut them free.

“He’s crazy,” she whispered. “He’s got guys waiting at that other building. If Abram’s gone there—”

“He hasn’t. I’m going to get you out of here. I can’t get these off yet. Do you know where he is?” He kept his voice pitched low.

She shook her head as tears spilled over her cheeks.

He cupped her cheek with his free hand and swiped them away. He wanted to pull her to him but couldn’t risk the distraction, couldn’t risk losing focus on their surroundings for a moment. “You’re okay now,” he said quietly before pulling his phone out. He needed to call Harrison and get his brother and Lyosha up here. They needed to get Dominique free then hunt down Hollis.

Even killing that f*cker took a backseat to getting her to safety. As the phone started to ring Shane Hollis stepped into the room, hockey mask shoved up on top of his head—and a pistol in his hand.

Viktor whipped his weapon up lightning fast, moving to stand directly in front of Dominique so that his body blocked hers entirely. “Drop your gun,” Viktor ordered.

Hollis’s eyes were wild, a little too big and red-rimmed. “You stupid f*cker!”

“Drop your weapon. The police are on their way up. There’s nowhere to go. Just put your gun down and you’ll get out of this alive.” The guy had hired men to come after Viktor and kidnapped Dominique so he was dead, regardless, but Viktor couldn’t risk Dominique getting hurt or worse if the guy started firing.

“There are no cops!” His gun hand wavered slightly.

“Why did you do this? Why target me?” Viktor wanted to keep the guy talking. If the call to Harrison had connected, the other man should be hearing all this.

“You took everything from me!”

“I bought the businesses you put up for sale.” At a fair price, he thought. Too fair, because he’d wanted to let the guy save some pride.

“Then you wouldn’t work with me.” His voice was whiny, matching the trust-fund jackass Viktor had pegged him for at their first meeting. “The f*cking criminal wouldn’t work with me. Me! I’m a f*cking Hollis.” His gun hand wavered. “My family built—”

Viktor pulled the trigger, hitting Hollis square in the chest. Hollis’s eyes were wide as his body jerked back.

Boom. Boom.

Viktor fired again and again until Hollis tumbled backward, his weapon clattering to the concrete floor. He moved to it, kicked it away. Not bothering to check for a pulse, he patted the guy down until he found what he was looking for.

As he pulled the handcuff key out, he whipped his weapon up at a slight sound—then dropped it when he saw Abram and Lyosha rushing toward him.

Palming the key he hurried to Dominique, who was silently crying. After he’d freed her, she lunged at him before he could pull her into his arms.

“I thought he was going to kill you,” she sobbed, her voice cracking. “He was so smug, so sure you’d walk right into his trap. He said…he said he was going to bring you here and make you watch as he—” Her voice broke then, her body racking with silent sobs as he lifted her into his arms. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and buried her face against his neck as he carried her fireman-style out of the room. He couldn’t move fast enough. He wanted her away from this death and pain.

“There’s no one else here. Cops are on the way. So is Harrison,” Abram said as Viktor stepped over Hollis’s dead body.

“I’m taking her downstairs.” Away from all this.

He didn’t pause to talk to either Lyosha or his brother. The only thing that mattered was getting her to safety, getting her home—his home. Where no one would ever hurt her again.

He paused halfway down the hallway and turned to his brother. “Call Dima. Tell him to take care of it.” Meaning Kir. No way was that f*cker walking away after this. He wouldn’t do jail time. He’d just disappear forever. But Viktor would make sure that word spread in the right circles that he’d died because of his betrayal. A gruesome, horrific death. He had no problem spreading false rumors about himself, not when those rumors would keep Dominique safe. So anyone who thought they might target him or his loved ones in the future would think twice.

“Already done. We’ll make it look like—”

Viktor shook his head sharply to cut Abram off. He didn’t want Dominique to hear any of this. She needed to be completely truthful in everything she said to the police. She was a victim and an employee of Red Stone Security so he had no doubt the police would treat her right. But he didn’t want there to be any doubt about what had happened today.

She’d been kidnapped by Kir, then brought to Shane Hollis. For all the cops would think, Kir had disappeared, going on the run for his life. Viktor didn’t want her to know what would happen to Kir—at least not until after she’d talked to the police.