Chapter 33
THEO
Five SUVs sit in the darkness. Engines off. Lights cut. The mountain air is crisp and cool.
Up ahead of us is a multi-level estate set against the hillside. Beyond the iron gate and stone perimeter, Cosmo Kouris—the one who called the hit on my father, the one responsible for Xander's kidnapping—is probably settling into bed.
"He's in there," Dimitri says, checking his watch. "Arrived yesterday morning with his mistress for the weekend. Security's lighter than his official residence, so this should be easy."
"Remember, we take him alive," I say, my voice firm. "He's no use to us dead."
Dimitri nods, checking his gun. "What did Ares say when you called him?"
"What I expected. George Zervas and Stavros Petrou refused to help. Afraid of government blowback."
"Fucking cowards," Dimitri says, sliding his gun into his holster. "We don't need them anyway."
"They've agreed not to interfere, which is the most we could have expected." I pull my gloves tighter. "But Ares insisted on informing Stavros about tonight's plan."
Dimitri's head snaps up. "What? Why the fuck would he do that?"
"As a courtesy," I say, hating that he did. "Out of respect. For Katerina," I add, looking at Dimitri, "with Stavros being her uncle and all."
"Bullshit." Dimitri shakes his head. "Since when do we telegraph our moves?"
I shrug. "You do questionable shit for your wife's family, I guess," I say and check my guns. "Doesn't matter. We're here now."
Our men gather around us, twenty in total. Their faces are stern and focused. These aren't ordinary soldiers of ours—these men are what I'd call the loyal. They've served my family for a long time. Earned their way to be standing here with blood and action.
I run through the plan one final time. "Team One takes the perimeter. Team Two secures the grounds. Dimitri and I, with Team Three, go for Cosmo. No harm comes to the women in the house. Are we clear?"
Nods all around.
"Once we have him, we move to the secondary location. Anyone who compromises this operation answers to me." I look at each face. "Let's move."
The men disperse silently across the grounds as we use the darkness to advance. I turn to Dimitri, who's carrying a duffel bag I don't recognize.
"What's that?"
He unzips it with a grin that tells me I'm probably not going to like what's about to happen. His eyes light up—that same fucking look he's had since we were kids whenever he's about to show off something new.
"Check this out." He launches it into the air, and it emits a soft hum. "Signal disruptor drone. Scrambles their security feeds."
"Seriously? We didn't discuss this."
"Because you would've said no."
"Well, bring that fucking thing down. We have a plan."
"A plan that gets better with this." He taps a few buttons on his phone. "Watch."
Suddenly, the security lights on the perimeter flicker.
"What did you just do?" I ask, grabbing the butt of my gun.
"Scrambled every electronic signal within five hundred feet. Cameras, alarms, phones—all dead." He looks far too pleased with himself. "Complete blackout."
"Phones?" I pull out mine. No signal.
"Dammit, Dimitri. Now we can't use our phones."
"What? You said you wanted stealth."
"I wanted coordination too." I put my useless phone away. "Now we can't communicate with the teams."
Dimitri shrugs. "Yeah, well, it's done."
"How long does this last?"
"Thirty minutes, give or take."
I shake my head. "Well, let's go."
We scale the perimeter wall easily, Dimitri smiling because his drone's interference ensured the security cameras didn't spot us.
Coming up to some bushes, we crouch down. The first wave of guards doesn't know what hit them. Suppressed shots, swift strikes, bodies collapse into the dark.
Guards are neutralized without an issue.
The rustling causes one of Cosmo's men to come investigate.
One of ours slides behind him and covers his mouth. He brings a blade down, slicing clean across his throat. No sound except the soft thud as he lowers the body to the grass.
"Hey, let's split and meet inside," Dimitri says.
I look around and see our other teams moving, the guards at the perimeter being taken out.
"Okay."
Dimitri nods and points to a few men, and off they go. I break left with my crew and we run, crouching toward the home.
It's all going smoothly.
Then all hell breaks loose.
A barrage of bullets cuts through the air, slamming into the stone column beside me. Chunks of marble explode outward, pelting my face with debris.
"Get down!" I yell, ducking behind a stone planter as bullets pepper the pathway. Two of my men drop beside me, blood flowing from their chests.
More gunfire erupts from another direction.
"Shit," I say, but the firing drowns out my voice. We're pinned down, bullets ricocheting around me with nowhere to go.
"It's a fucking ambush!" one of my men shouts.
I pop up and start returning fire in one direction, but I have to duck back down fast as fire comes at me from another.
The bullets come faster and faster. I can't move.
Across the estate, I see Dimitri's team pushed forward, returning fire, but they can't get to us and we can't get to them.
I pop up again and see it. A fucking machine gun is hailing bullets at us.
"We have to take him out," I yell to my men.
The machine gun keeps firing, its rapid shots eating away at what we're hiding behind. Soon I'll be wide open. I glance behind me and see another one of my men drop, blood spraying from his neck. He's gone before he hits the ground.
Another one of my men scrambles toward me, keeping his head low. He doesn't make it. A hail of bullets catches him in the back, lifting him off his feet and slamming him face-first onto the floor. Blood pools beneath him, spreading like spilled wine across the white stone.
I slam a fresh magazine into my gun. Bile rises in my throat, not from the violence but from the realization that Cosmo knew we were coming.
"Fall back!" I order the three men still with me.
We retreat deeper into the foyer, taking cover behind a massive stone staircase. The machine gun continues to spit bullets, chipping away at our cover.
"Where the fuck did they get a mounted machine gun?" Andreas, one of my most experienced soldiers, asks in shock.
I shake my head. This isn't street-level security. This is military-grade weaponry. For a government minister to have this kind of firepower, it confirms everything I suspected about Cosmo's connections.
"No sign of Dimitri's team now," another of my men reports, peering around the edge of the staircase.
"We're fucked if we can't take out that gun," I say.
The bullets stop, and with so much noise from the slew of bullets suddenly ending, it's almost deathly quiet.
I know I'm so close to ending this—that now's the time.
"Cover me!" I shout, and my men open fire, forcing the gunner to duck.
I roll to the ground and see the two men scrambling to reload the machine gun.
I pull my other gun out and fire both simultaneously.
The man on the left stumbles back and falls.
The other desperately tries to finish loading the gun.
I see him slam the clip and swing the barrel in my direction.
I fire two more times. The machine gun shoots into the ground and the man falls back.
I keep running and, once I can visually see them on the ground, I fire two more times into each of them, making sure they'll never move again.
Before I can even turn around, my men are running toward me, guns raised.
"Anyone see Dimitri?" I ask, checking the magazine on my gun.
"I just saw him pushing toward the main house," another man answers.
"Then that's where we go."
I motion for them to follow, stepping over the bodies of Cosmo's guards. We get to the main door and see it's kicked open. I hear screams.
I enter, gun raised, ready to pull the trigger when I see Dimitri and his men, having just taken out a few more guards.
"Easy, brother," Dimitri says, blood splattered across his face. Not his own.
"This was supposed to be straightforward," I say, wiping blood from my brow. "Not a fucking war zone."
Dimitri nods. "Something's off."
We turn to see one of our teams that took the perimeter come in.
"All clear outside. A lot more men than we thought," one of them says.
"Yeah, that seems to be a common issue here. Fuck. He better be here," I say.
"He is. Let's find the piece of shit," Dimitri says.
We move deeper into the house, room by room. My men spread out, clearing each space. Dimitri signals that he's moving upstairs. I follow.
Once we get up the grand staircase, a woman sees us and screams. She's trembling against the wall, half-naked, wearing only a silk robe that barely covers her. Her mascara runs down her face in black rivers. She's young—too young—and terrified.
"Please don't kill me," she sobs in Greek. "Please, I'm nobody."
"Get her the hell out of here," I tell one of my men.
As they pass, I stop her. "Where's Cosmo Kouris?"
She wipes tears from her eyes. "Coward left me when he heard the shooting."
I nod to my man. "Get her out. Make sure she stays safe."
We continue looking, clearing room after room. Every closet, every bathroom, behind every curtain and under every bed.
Nothing.
"Where the fuck is he?" Dimitri mutters, kicking over a chair in frustration. "She said he was here. He couldn't have left. One of our men would have found him."
I holster my gun and look around. "He's hiding." I turn to everyone. "Keep quiet. Let's see if we can hear him in the walls, like a scurrying cockroach."
Dimitri, a few men, and I walk into the library and look around. On the table is a stack of papers.
I pick them up and look over them. Cosmo's name is on them, but it's nothing I need.
Then we hear it.
A faint sound, like someone moving.
We freeze.
Where the hell is that coming from?
Dimitri and I exchange a look. He draws his gun and we both approach the bookshelf closest to the sound. I run my hand along the edge, feeling for anything unusual.