Twice Dead - Catherine Coulter [268]
“The Frasiers are dead. They weren’t worth anything to me alive. And now, you aren’t either.”
The bodyguards took a step forward, in unison.
He’d had the Frasiers killed?
Lily ran at the wheelchair, smashed into it as hard as she could and sent it over onto its side, scraping against the marble floor. Olaf was flung from the chair.
Lily didn’t hesitate. She ran as fast as she could, to fall flat behind the white king. She heard two rapid shots. The king’s head shattered and fragments of marble flew everywhere.
She heard Olaf yell at the bodyguards, heard their loud running steps. She stayed flat on the floor. Several shards of marble had struck her, and she felt pricks of pain, felt the sticky flow of blood down her arm, rolling beneath her bra, staining the white dress.
She heard Olaf cursing, still helpless on the floor. He was screaming at his bodyguards to tell him if he’d killed her yet.
The bodyguards shouted something, but again it was in Swedish so she didn’t understand. They didn’t come after her, evidently because he wanted to have this pleasure all for himself, and they knew it.
She began moving on her elbows, behind the queen now, toward the great front door, behind the bishop. She looked out toward Olaf. One of his bodyguards was bending over him, handing him his own gun.
The bodyguard picked Olaf up and set him again in his wheelchair, then turned the chair toward her. And now Olaf aimed that gun right at her.
She rolled behind the knight. She wasn’t any farther than ten feet from the front doors.
“I like this game,” Olaf shouted and fired. The bishop toppled, shattering as it fell, falling over her ankles. She felt a stab of pain, but she could still move her feet. She moved solidly behind the knight and stilled.
Olaf shouted again. Then he laughed. Another shot, obscenely loud in the silence, and she saw a huge chunk of marble floor, not three feet from her, spew in all directions. He fired again and again, sending the white king careening into the queen.
Lily was on her knees behind the rook now, close to the front door.
Another shot whistled past her ear, and she flattened herself. One of the bodyguards yelled and ran toward her. Why?
Then she heard more shots, at least six of them, but they weren’t from Olaf or the bodyguard; they were coming through the front door. She heard yelling, men’s voices, and pounding on the door until it crashed inward.
Olaf and the bodyguards were shooting toward the door.
Lily lurched to her feet, lifted a huge shard of the bishop’s white miter, ran toward Olaf, and hurled it at his wheelchair.
It hit him. Olaf, his gun firing wildly, straight up now, went over backward. His bodyguards ran as policemen fired at them from the open front door.
More gunfire. So much shouting, so much noise, too much. Simon was there, just behind the third policeman. He was alive.
There was sudden silence. The gun storm was over. Lily ran to Simon, hurled herself against him. His arms tightened around her.
She raised her head and smiled up at him. “I’m glad you came when you did. It was pretty dicey there for a while.”
She heard Olaf screaming, spewing profanity. Then he was quiet.
Simon said in her ear, “It’s over, Lily, all over. Olaf isn’t going anywhere. It’s time to worry about yourself. You’re bleeding a little. I want you to hold still; there’s an ambulance coming.”
“I’m all right. It’s just cuts from the flying marble. You’re wet, Simon,” she said. “Why are you wet?”
“I was careless. Be still.”
“No, tell me. How did you get away from them? What happened?”
He realized she couldn’t let it go, and he slowed himself, keeping his voice calm and low. “I dove into the canal to get away, but I couldn’t. Then there were all sorts of cops there to pull me out of the canal and take care of Alpo, Nikki, and Ian. Nobody was killed. They’re all in the local lockup. It was your brother, Lily. He called a friend in Stockholm who happened to have two brothers living here in Gothenburg. The police were watching the mansion,