The explosion ripped through the basement door before I even had time to breathe.

Heat, smoke, and steel burst into the narrow space, the concussion slamming me against the wall. My ears rang, my vision blurred, and the room turned into a haze of gunfire and screams. The Russians had breached, their shadows pouring in through the smoke like devils straight from hell.

I hit the ground instinctively, dragging air into my lungs through the choking haze. The world was chaos—bullets ricocheting off concrete, Nikolai’s men shouting in Russian, the sharp crack of rifles shredding the silence.

And in the middle of it, I saw him.

Nikolai.

He moved like...