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Gasping for air, Victor slid back, scuttling like a crab Reaching into the fireplace, he picked up the gun with his sleeve and pushed hi

“Now you’re going to die” Victor shot a crazed look fro to watch After this, only his ghost will haunt us” He cocked the gun, pointing it at Nikos with triumph

“No!” Anna screa with the cord By soainst her wrist She threw herself fro her body in front of Nikos as Victor squeezed the trigger

She closed her eyes, waiting to feel the bullet tear through her body

Instead, she just heard a soft click

The gun was empty!

Victor shook the gun with impotent fury

Nikos turned to one side, tucking her protectively behind hiot the bullets Sorry”

With a screaed it easily It clattered to the floor

Nikos glanced at it with a derisive snort He raised an eyebrow, giving Victor the darkly arrogant look that Anna had once despised But she appreciated it now She knew he used all his arrogance, all his strength and power, to protect the people he loved

“Fight me, Sinistyn,” Nikos demanded coldly “Just you and me”

Victor swore in Russian, shaking his head He looked straight at Anna, s he’d do to her if Nikos wasn’t there to protect her

Anna felt her cheeks grow hot with horror Nikos didn’t speak Russian, but when he saw the effect the rimly

With a yelp, Victor turned and ran in the other direction But Nikos caught up with hi him around

“Like scaring women, do you?” He punched Victor in the face—once, twice “Too htto just let erous indeed “Don’t think I won’t”

Victor started fighting dirty He tried to knee Nikos in the groin, to trip him When Nikos blocked hirabbed a sharp iron poker

“I’ll stab you like a pig, you Greek bastard,” he panted, swinging the poker at Nikos’s face

He blocked it with his right arm, but Anna heard the crunch of bone and saw the way Nikos’s right hand hung at a strange angle

Victor had broken his wrist She treht hilance

With his left hand he wrenched the poker away and threw Victor to the floor He held hiainst his neck Anna watched in horror as he tightened his grip

“How does it feel to be vulnerable?” Nikos demanded

“Nikos, let hio,” Anna sobbed

“Why? Do you think he would have let you go?” he de at her “Did he ever show mercy to anyone weaker? Why should I let him live after what he’s done to you?”

Slowly she put her hands against his shoulders, feeling the hard tension of his o so we can go back to our son”

Abruptly, he released his choke-hold on the other man and rose to his feet She had one brief vision of his face, and she thought she saw tears in his eyes as, without a word, he took her in his arhtly