Page 90 of Bride of Vengeance

The gun swings toward my stomach. "I know you think you're protected, Agent Castillo. But at this range, even a vest won't save you."

"She's not wearing a vest," Mikhail says, and something in his voice makes everyone pause.

"No?" Pavel's eyes narrow. "How come?"

"Because she's pregnant."

The words hang in the air like a bomb.

No. We weren't supposed to reveal that.

Harrison's face changes. "Pregnant?"

"Only a few weeks. Still very early." Mikhail's moving slowly, positioning himself between me and Pavel's gun. "So if you're going to shoot, shoot me. Not her. Not our baby."

"Baby?" Pavel laughs. "Ghost reproduced? This is too perfect."

"Pavel," Harrison says nervously. "We didn't discuss—"

"Plans change." Pavel's gun is steady. "Though this does make things more interesting. The Ghost's child. More leverage in our favor."

"You're not touching our child," I say, and it's not acting anymore.

"Watch me." He nods to his men. "Take her."

Everything happens at once.

Mikhail moves faster than humanly possible, knocking Pavel's gun aside as he pulls me behind a concrete pillar. Gunfire erupts from everywhere—Pavel's men, Boris's teams crashing through windows, Harrison diving for cover.

"Now!" Mikhail shouts into his comm. "All teams, now!"

The warehouse becomes a war zone. Through the chaos, I see Harrison trying to reach an exit. Can't let him escape—we need him alive.

I break from cover, sprinting after him despite Mikhail's shout of protest. Harrison turns, sees me coming, raises a gun I didn't know he had.

"You should have taken the deal, Agent Castillo," he snarls.

The shot is impossibly loud. But I'm already moving, training taking over. The bullet grazes my shoulder instead of hittingcenter mass. My return fire catches him in the leg, dropping him, and making the gun fall from his hand.

"Federal agent!" I shout, though I'm not anymore. "Do not move!"

Impossibly, some stop at my words. The gunfire continues in all directions, but a kind of bubble suspended in time has formed around Harrison and me, and those around us, even amid the chaos, seem to notice. The second the sound of gunfire quiets down just a little, it's enough to be able to hear Harrison whimpering, Pavel cursing in Russian, and sirens in the distance.

"It's over," I tell Harrison, standing over him with my gun trained on his head. "We have everything. Every confession, every solid piece of evidence that connects you with the cases. Mila bounced the signal off satellites—your jammer only blocked local frequencies."

His face goes white. "You played me."

"No. I just—"

The explosion rocks the building. Smoke grenades, I realize too late. Pavel's backup plan. The warehouse fills with thick, black smoke in seconds.

"Mariana!" Mikhail's voice, but I can't see him.

"Cover the exits!" Boris shouts through the chaos.

But it's too late. By the time the smoke clears, Pavel is gone. Harrison too—dragged away by Pavel's men, leaving only a blood trail where I shot him.

Rodriguez bursts through the door with a full FBI tactical team. Of course he didn't listen. Of course he's here.