I spin the jeep around, kicking up a dust storm that allows me to drive in a little further until we’re practically at the door of the modest two-storey house.
Dimiv and I pop out on the safe side and take up positions. I pick off three, four, five Sobakin soldiers when they rear their heads above the low wall lining the roof. When the coast is clear, I pick out a path up and shimmy up the gutter until I’m high enough to slip in through a second-floor window.
The room I land in is weirdly empty. Through the walls, I can hear the thump of gun recoil and the groans of men as they’re decimated by my Bratva and Dominik’s. I pause and wait with my ears perked, but it seems I’ve snuck in unnoticed.
Or at least, that’s what I thought. But as soon as I take a step toward the door to venture further into the house, it bursts open. I don’t even wait to see who I’m shooting. I raise my gun and unload a trio of shots.
Two bodies hit the ground, bleeding from new holes in their foreheads. A third man spins back out of the room with a scream.
I lunge after and find him crawling away on his hands and knees, leaking blood from where my first shot caught him in the shoulder. I execute him quickly with a swift bullet to the back of the skull.
He screams again just before he dies. But the sound of that and of his body hitting the floor draws attention I was hoping to avoid. More faces appear at the end of the hall. I fire blindly, enough to buy myself some time to move, then duck and load a fresh clip into my gun.
I’m getting ready to pop back out and trade gunfire when CRASH!—the skeleton of the house shivers. If I had to guess, I’d say someone’s run a car right into the foundation somewhere. It’s a sufficient distraction for me to eliminate the rat’s nest of Sobakin mudaks who’d been waiting for me to stick my head out again. Four bodies drop in quick succession.
I charge deeper into the house. My only purpose now is finding that motherfucker, Boris. I don’t even care about Artur Agapov at this point. If we manage to get the asshole, it will only be a bonus.
Boris Sobakin is the entrée.
As a smoky body comes around the corner, I raise my gun, but his arms go up in surrender almost immediately. “Don’t shoot!” he cries out.
“Blyat’, Dimiv,” I snarl. “Nearly took your head off.”
He slides into place beside me. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean you infiltrated the house by yourself, no backup, nothing,” he hisses. “I look away for one second and when I turn back, you’re crawling up a goddamn gutter like you think you’re Catwoman. There’s, like, twenty men in here at least and only one of you.”
“I wanted to give them a fair opportunity.” I crack my neck. “Come on, we need to keep moving. The longer it takes to find Sobakin, the better chance he has of getting away.”
“Word is Agapov is somewhere downstairs. We’ve got him surrounded.”
I grit my teeth. “I don’t give a fuck about Agapov. Live or die, he’s not why we came here.”
We rove through, clearing room after room, but most are devoid of life. I’m starting to lose hope when we find a closed door at the end of the hall.
I rush towards it and kick it down with one powerful blow. It flies back on its hinges, sending splints of wood flying everywhere. The room is empty…
Except for the curtains flapping around the breeze coming through the open window. Beyond that is just dark forest.
“No,” I growl in disbelief, running towards the window. “No…”
I sprint to the window just in time to see Boris vanishing between tree trunks. I wait and watch for any sign of him—then I see the telltale twin flash of headlights.
“Motherfucker had a getaway car waiting for him.” I fire helplessly into the distance, but there’s no chance in hell I’m nailing him from here. The lights grow smaller and dimmer as the car backs away until the darkness swallows them up, too.
“He’s gone. He’s fucking gone.”
I twist around, turning my back on the window, furious that I came this goddamn close, only to have Sobakin slip through my fingers. That’s when I notice the man cowering in the corner of the room beside the door, his face drenched with sweat, his leg clearly broken and bent in a way that legs are not supposed to bend.
I walk over to him and point my gun in his face. “No! No. Please! Don’t kill me. I can give you information!” Frothy spit flies out of his mouth as he talks.
“This better be worth my while,” I glower down at him. “Go on. You have ten seconds.”
“H-h-he g-got a call. Right before you showed up. He locked himself in this room and got one of the men to bring the car around to the forest entrance. I-I didn’t know why until… until we were attacked.”
“So he was warned. I could’ve told you that myself.” I raise my gun and shoot the son of a bitch in the face before he can beg for his life. Then I walk outside to the lingering carnage of the fight.
Dominik is standing outside the house, taking down Sobakin’s men execution-style one by one. I have to respect a pakhan who handles the dirty work himself. He turns to me, blood and sweat smearing his face. “Well?”
“He escaped. He was warned.”
Dominik’s eyes narrow and he points out the soot-stained runt being restrained by two of his soldiers. “If you have any questions for Artur Agapov, I’d ask them now.”
I shake my head. “Sobakin was using Artur. He wouldn’t have trusted him with anything. Kill him.”
Dominik shrugs and points for his men to do as I said. I don’t even bother to watch as Artur swallows his last breath, followed by the bullet that steals it from him.
“This isn’t over,” I tell Dominik. “Not until Sobakin is dead. You’ll get your money after it’s done.”
Dominik just nods, the bloodlust still churning in his eyes as he turns towards the line of soon-to-be dead men and resumes his bloody work.
Dimiv emerges from the house a few moments later. He’s on the phone with someone but he hangs up as he runs towards me. “I got word from my contact in Russia. It looks like Elena Chernoff and her son are bound for the States.”
“He’s bringing them home?”
“Sure seems that way.”
I nod. “Then he’s going to try and meet up with them at some point.” My jaw clenches. I’m more determined now than ever. “He’s going to fuck up soon. And I’m going to be there to take advantage.”
“What about this place?” Dimiv asks, jerking a thumb at the bullet-riddled house behind us.
“Burn it and everyone in it to the ground.” I turn towards my jeep. “Move out!” I order my men. “We’re done here.”
Just as I get into my vehicle, a call comes in. Nikolai. “What’s going on?” I ask urgently. He wouldn’t call unless it was important.
“Brother, it’s Alyssa. Grigory just did another scan and… you better get here soon. She needs you.”
46
ALYSSA
I’m crying when Uri walks in.