“Eric,” Nikolett murmured. “Please listen. Don’t do this.”
Eric reached out, hesitating for a moment, and then letting his hands settle on her upper arms. For a second he almost seemed to be caressing her, and Nikolett said something, whispering so low that no one could hear. Eric stared down at her, thumbs rubbing her shoulders…
And then Eric’s grip tightened, he lifted Nikolett off her feet and set her to the side, then stalked out the door.
Nikolett spun the minute he put her down and managed to get her hands on Eric, grabbing his forearm. Eric shook her off without breaking stride.
“Grab him,” Nikolett ordered, for the first time a hint of fear in her words. “Later, he’ll thank us for making sure he doesn’t kill her.”
The knights and security officers obeyed their admiral, streaking out after Eric. Jakob had started moving the instant he saw Eric’s hands tighten on Nikolett’s arms. As a result, he was only half a step behind the knights near the door, and two steps behind Eric. As they sprinted down the hall, Jakob nearly pulled even with Eric.
The safe room was off a short connecting hall, and since Eric didn’t know that, he shot past it, catching sight of Vadisk standing guard outside the door too late to change course. Jakob slapped a hand against the corner so he could take it at speed, whipping around, shoes slipping on the unfinished concrete subfloor.
Vadisk was already at attention, clearly having heard the sounds of running feet.
Jakob didn’t bother to say anything, figuring Vadisk was smart enough to figure it out. Instead, Jakob shot past him slapping his hands on the door. Because it was meant to be a safe room, there was no lock on the outside, and since they didn’t want Ava locking them out, the internal lock had been disabled. That hadn’t been an issue because Nikolett had pairs of people stationed outside all night as guards.
But now it meant there was no way to keep Eric out of the room, and Annalise was inside. Annalise, who was still brave, even if she didn’t think about herself that way. If Annalise saw an enraged Eric burst into the room, she might put herself between Eric and Ava.
Jakob was going to get into the room before the fleet admiral. And he was going to protect Annalise. Ava…well, there were plenty of other people who could stop the fleet admiral from murdering her. This wasn’t Jakob’s territory. He had no obligation to make sure the prisoner was treated fairly.
Or kept alive.
Vadisk stepped forward to meet Eric, his shoulder turned and lowered like a rugby player.
Meanwhile, Jakob burst through the saferoom door.
Annalise, who’d pulled her chair around so she was close enough to Ava to have her hand on the other woman’s shoulder, jumped to her feet. As Jakob had feared, she stepped between the door and the insane serial killer. Jakob had too much momentum to stop, so he reached out, grabbed Annalise’s arm, and yanked her to the side. He heard her gasp, knew he’d grabbed the arm with the bruised shoulder. The chair clattered as she caught her hip on it, knocking it to the floor.
He turned so when they hit the long wall with the built-in counter, he took the brunt of the blow. He was going to have a long line bruise on his butt. Maybe Walt would kiss it better. Annalise thumped into his chest a second later. Jakob wrapped his arms around her and then spun, his back to the door, his body between hers and danger.
There was the sound of fists thudding from outside the door.
“What’s happening?” Ava sounded scared, and chain clanked as she moved around.
Right. Better not turn his back to the insane serial killer. He had no desire to have her wearing his face after she peeled the skin off his skull. Jakob turned, sandwiching Annalise between his back and the counter.
“Jakob, what’s going on?” Annalise asked in breathless German.
“Der Flottenadmiral ist hier.”
Annalise sucked in a breath, realizing in an instant how the situation had changed.
Jakob pinned Ava with his stare, hoping his expression conveyed his utter ambivalence as to whether she lived or died, and his willingness to do whatever it took to protect Annalise.
“Annalise?” Ava’s eyes were wide, her lower lip trembling.
For a moment, Jakob’s resolve wavered. She looked so frightened and helpless. The cuff dangling from one wrist, securing her to the chair, seemed suddenly obscene.
“The woman you killed in Dublin, her friend is here,” Annalise said.
Ava’s shoulders pulled back. “I gave her a gift because if I—”
The door slammed open, hitting the wall so hard, concrete cracked. Eric’s face was a mask of rage. He’d lost the camo jacket, and now his already ripped T-shirt was stippled with blood. More blood trailed from the corner of his mouth. Out in the hall, Vadisk and several others were struggling to rise from the floor.
Eric’s lips pulled back from his teeth, a savage, feral expression.
Ava stepped back, eyes wide. Her mouth opened and closed several times, but no words came out.
Annalise stepped out from behind Jakob. He grabbed her arm, halting her when it seemed she would put herself between the fleet admiral and Ava. Maybe she didn’t know the stories about Eric Ericsson. About how, after the death of his wives, the loss of his trinity, he’d become a mercenary. How he’d taken on jobs where death was all but certain, only to come out alive because he, like the Vikings he was nicknamed for, suffered from berserker rages. The kind of rages that allowed him to quite literally rip a man’s head off with his bare hands.
“Fleet Admiral.” Annalise’s voice cracked with authority. It was a tone Jakob had never heard her use before.
It caught Eric’s attention, and though he didn’t look away from Ava, he cocked his head.
“This woman is responsible not just for Josephine’s death, but the deaths of others. Potentially many others. We need her alive so she can tell us about them. Help us find and locate their bodies, their loved ones.”
Eric shuddered, an actual physical shudder working its way down his body from his shoulders to his feet. He rolled his head on his shoulders and finally released a slow breath. He was calming himself down, hopefully either coming out of, or preventing himself from fully entering, a berserker rage.
They were so close to getting out of this without any dead bodies.
But then Ava decided to seal her own fate.
She turned with a predatory grace, sneering at Annalise. “Is that what you thought you were doing? That you were going to manipulate me and make me do things? Tell you things?” Ava shook her head, almost sadly. “You would never understand, and quite frankly, you don’t deserve to know who those I deemed worthy were.”
There was a beat of silence, and then Eric took two long strides, grabbed Ava by the neck, and shoved her body back against the wall.
“You deserve to suffer.” He yanked her forward, lifted her by the neck with one hand, and slammed her back against the wall once more, this time with her toes a few centimeters off the ground.
People rushed into the room, but Eric snarled, “Out.”
Reluctantly, a battered Vadisk and Maxim obeyed and backed out. Jakob started edging Annalise toward the door.
“No,” Annalise whispered furiously. “We have to stop him because I can get her to talk. Eventually she will, it will just take time…”