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Gunshots blasted from the other side of the house. Several of them.

But they wouldn’t be able to get to me in time.

I couldn’t die. Not yet. My job wasn’t done.

The knife!

With the last of my desperate strength, I dug into my pocket and fumbled with it. For a second, I thought I wouldn’t be able to grasp it, but I locked my fingers around the handle and flicked out the blade.

I jammed it upward into the asshole’s side and jerked it out in a slicing motion. He howled and slammed my head into the sand. Blackness was taking over the world.

Yanking back my arm, I aimed for his head. I nicked his ear. So close.

He leaned in the direction opposite of my hand with the knife and I drove it sideways.

Right into his eye.

The pressure on my throat was immediately gone, and I sucked in a huge lungful of air. I kicked him off and rolled toward the deck, my throat on fire with each inhale.

The fucker screamed and kicked, flailing about on the ground with his hands pressing against his wound. He became coated in bloody sand like a real life horror movie monster. Then just when I thought he’d never die, he suddenly went still.

Shouts echoed from within the house, but no more shots.

I waited, not daring to move. Watching his chest, it didn’t rise for ten seconds. Twenty. Thirty. A full minute.

He was dead. I coughed out something that was like a laugh or sob.

“Quill!”

I sat up at the sound of my name and nearly vomited.

Talis slid onto his knees at my side. “Are you alright?”

I nodded, motioning to the dead bastard and my throat.

“I can see. The police and EMTs are on their way. Let’s get you into one of those chairs and put some ice on your neck to stop any swelling.” Talis, ever the calm and cool professional.

I let him help me up, and I stood for a few seconds trying to find my balance.

Konstantin burst out from the open back door. Thank fuck he was alive.

“We can’t find Lillianna and Aubrielle. They aren’t in the house.”

No fucking way. They had to be here.

I shook my head and stumbled toward the door. Both Talis and Konstantin grabbed me before I fell over.

“They checked everywhere? All the closets and bathrooms? Is there an attic or crawlspace?” Talis quickly questioned.

“Nowhere.” Konstantin repeated with a frustrated grunt. He seemed cool, but in his eyes, the panic threatened to spillout. “I was certain Lorenzo had them here with him. He wouldn’t have trusted them to be anywhere else.”

“Leave me. Find them,” I croaked, swallowing hard. All of this was for naught if we didn’t save Lillianna and Aubrielle.

Talis cursed under his breath and then pressed the button on the radio attached to his bulletproof vest. “Ping the house.”

I frowned. Konstantin was immediately on that strange order. “Ping? What do you mean?”

“Aubrielle and Lillianna were wearing museum bracelets. There’s a chip in them that allows security to locate someone if a child goes missing or is looking for their parent—”