The Boy Who Glowed in the Dark

CHAPTER 54

Nadia sensed the man behind her. She couldn’t hear, see, or smell him. But she knew he was there. Simmy must have experienced the same sensation because he started to turn.

“Don’t turn around,” Victor said. Nadia saw the gun pressed to the back of Simmy’s head. “You heard what the boy said. Downstairs is better. Run. Both of you.”

Victor had ulterior motives. Nadia realized this immediately, but Simmy didn’t. How could he? He didn’t know Victor as well as she did.

Nadia stepped forward, but Simmy hesitated. The muscles in his gun hand twitched. No doubt he didn’t like being given orders. She wondered when he’d last been in a position where he was forced to yield to another man’s will.

“Live to play another day,” Nadia said.

Simmy pressed his lips tight, as he’d done in the car when he told her about Milanovich. He’d survived and prospered in the new Russia for a reason. A second later he was running across the room beside Nadia. He didn’t bother to look over his shoulder.

“Faster,” he said. “I gave my men the signal to attack a minute ago.”

They found a dead guard in the middle of the stairwell. A knife protruded from his eye. Nadia recognized the knife. It was the one Bobby had pulled from a sheath wrapped around his calf. How had he overpowered a man with a rifle? Where had he found the fortitude to perform such a gruesome task?

Eva, she thought. The girl was most definitely Eva. He’d killed the man for Eva.

As she rounded the stairwell, a deafening noise filled the house. Nadia stopped in her tracks. The castle trembled.

Bomb, Nadia thought.

She wondered if the place where she was standing was about to blow up next. The thought sent a wave of fear down her spine.

A pair of sturdy hands grabbed her shoulders.

She turned.

Simmy tilted his head up a notch and squeezed her. His men were coming, Nadia thought.

No, she realized.

His men were here.