Russian Mobster's Obsession by Bella Rose Page B

cluttered, but most of it wasn’t particularly useful. Then she found a length of metal rebar. She wrapped her hands around it and waited for the span of two breaths.
    A set of headlights cut a swath of light across the field in front of their parked van. It was the perfect distraction. Sasha leaned forward in his seat, trying to see if there was really a car coming or not. Katie took the opportunity to swing the rebar up and over her head. It landed squarely on Sasha’s shoulder.
    He grunted in pain, falling forward and lying stunned against the steering wheel. Katie scraped her nails along the inside of the door, looking for the latch. When it finally gave, she jumped headfirst out of the van.
    She landed on the pavement with enough force to scrape the skin from her palms. She bit back a curse of pain and scrambled to her feet. Warm sticky blood coated her knees and made the insides of her jeans stick to her legs. She didn’t care. She had to keep moving or a few scrapes and bruises wouldn’t matter a bit.
    Katie was up and running through the darkness as though the hounds of hell were right on her tail. She heard the door of the van open and then slam closed. Sasha was screaming at her. Her heart was pounding so quickly that she could hardly breathe. Her lungs burned from want of air and still she ran.
    The ground was uneven. She fell several times, skinning her legs and sometimes falling face-first into a copse of thick, damp grass. Crawling the last bit, she found the copse of trees where she and Viktor had walked only a few days before. She stayed on her hands and knees and burrowed her way as far as she could toward the trunks of the trees.
    Katie sucked in a deep breath and held it. She could hear nothing over the pounding of her own heart, and she wondered if Sasha had followed her or if he’d stayed with the van to see whom those headlights belonged to.
    Then she heard Sasha’s harsh whisper only half a dozen yards away. “Katie! There’s no escaping from me, Katie. I’m going to find you sooner or later.” She heard a strange clicking noise, and Sasha began to laugh in an almost maniacal way. “Even if I have to burn this whole fucking place down.”
    Katie froze in her hiding place. Burn? She heard the clicking again. Then a bright orange light began to flicker in the darkness. As she watched in utter stupefaction, an entire tree went up in flames right before her eyes.
    Oh. My. God!
     

Chapter Fourteen
     
     
    Viktor saw the red hot glow of flames licking their way across the dryer sections of the thick trees. Denis had been charging past him and Viktor reached out to grab the man’s arm. “We have to find Katie! Sasha is trying to burn her out!”
    Denis shouted to his men and they all began to approach the fiery copse of burning brush and trees that now occupied the center of the park. Viktor gripped a thick hank of Max’s ruff in one hand, trying to keep the dog from charging right into the flames. Smoke burned his lungs and made his eyes water so that he could hardly see.
    “Katie!” Viktor shouted. “You have to get out of the trees, Katie!”
    A dozen yards away, a tree crashed to the earth. The grass beneath it caught fire in an instant. The flames quickly jumped from dry spot to dry spot before hungrily devouring a picnic pavilion near the playground equipment. The air was full of cinders and burning bits of ash.
    Viktor turned in a slow circle, trying to locate Denis and the others. He could see nothing but flames leaping into the night sky. Beside him, Max whined and fidgeted, pulling and trying to escape Viktor’s hold.
    “Viktor!”
    Startled, Viktor let go of Max. The animal bounded away and was instantly enveloped by the smoky night. Then Viktor saw a shape emerge from a break in the burn line. It was Sasha.
    “I think you’ll have a very hard time finding your Katie now, Viktor!” Sasha cried out, his voice raspy from inhaling the smoke.
    Viktor tried to remain calm. Losing