Page 20 of Kept in the Dark

7

Dimitri

No good will come of this, only more problems.

If he does not let her go, I will kill him. And maybe if he does.

Based on what I heard, I expect to see her on her knees when I come around the corner of the maze, and the thought makes me see red.

The relief is acute, but brief, when instead I find her upright, sandwiched between Kyle and the thick bushes, one of his hands pressed tightly over her mouth and the other holding a gun at her temple. I step in without thinking, growl an order without considering any consequences—my only thoughts are wordless ones of sharp urgency and fury.

“Let her go!”

With a start, he swings around. He points the gun at me before I see his face, and the threat of being shot is all it takes for me to bring my arm up to let my knife fly.

Too late, I see the slicked-back hair. Too late, I realize that this is the man who was talking to Felix at the bar.

At the very last second, I try to adjust the trajectory of my throw from one that will kill to one that will incapacitate. I need to question him—to know what business Felix had here tonight. With a fleshypop, my knife lodges in the lower portion of his stomach, somewhere halfway between the center of his chest, where I first aimed, and his thigh, the target I tried adjusting to.

He makes a choked noise and stares down at the knife in disbelief. Eyes wide with shock and fury, he points the gun at me again. I duck back behind the hedge for cover, but not before a shot goes off. It is dark, and his aim is poor, but a white-hot, searing pain lances me in my side.

Fuck! He just shot me!

Fuck! A gun just went off at a wedding!

He fires again and again in my general direction until all that remains is the empty click of a gun out of bullets. I emerge, ready to face off, but he is already disappearing behind another hedgerow. Those final shots were a distraction to cover his own escape.

Tonight was a bad night. So many mistakes.

But none of that feels very important at this exact moment. As Nicole scrambles to her feet, I go to her and scan her for injuries with a kind of indescribable mania I have never before felt. The beat of my own heart is so loud in my ears that it blocks all other sound, calming only when I verify that the spray of blood across her dress likely belonged to Kyle. There is no damage to her.

Instructions to retrace her steps out of here are ready on my tongue, only to wither and die at the sound of a series of unmistakable bangs. Weboth freeze.

Gunshots. Two, then three in answer.

Unless he had another gun stashed somewhere, I know Kyle is not part of it, though the shooting is loud enough that it must be close. The exchange of fire continues for several long seconds, and then the chaos begins.

Distant sounds fill the night air—screams, breaking glass, crashing furniture, and the noise of feet pounding against stone and bodies falling as a crazed, terrified crowd moves erratically to run for cover or hide. Nicole takes a half step towards me, eyes wide with fear.

All at once, my priorities shift fromslip out unnoticedtoprotect Nicole.She movestowardsme for safety. She just saw me throw a knife at and possibly fatally wound a man, but in this moment, she believes I will protect her. And in this moment, I want to be the man she thinks I am.

So, I will.

“Stay with me,” I say, grabbing her arm before she can wander in the wrong direction. She is shaking in my grip, and I want to soothe her, but there are more pressing matters. I reopen the communication channel. “What is happening?”

“I don’t know!” she cries softly in response, thinking that I was asking her.

Wesley’s voice enters my right ear, calm, steady, and factual.“I can’t see where the shots came from, but every guard in this place is heading for the house or the maze. This is your only chance before they block off every exit. Get out of therenow!”

When another shot goes off, Nicole whimpers and shifts so close to me that our bodies are pressed together.

Now is not the time to notice how well she fits against me—how solid and tall she is, like she would not bend or break in my grip. Soft, warm skin, rounded curves…

Not the fucking time!

“Nicole, listen to me. I will lead you out, but I need both hands. Stay close and try to move quickly and silently.”

Eyes wet and round, like shining coins at the bottom of a pool, she nods. Another round of gunshots that sounds even closer intensifies her shaking.