Chapter 12 Dimitri
DIMITRI
The sky is black. Not city dark. Real dark. Rural dark. The kind of dark where you can't trust anything past your headlights.
We've been driving for hours.
My shoulders ache from the tension, from staying alert this long. The car needs gas. My body needs rest. I need a place to stage the next move. Running blind is how people die.
Once we settle, I'll call my brothers. I don't want to check in until I have more than half a story. I'm the one who enforces plans, not guesswork.
I've been watching my mirrors since we left the last safehouse. No sign of a tail. But in our world, that's how it works.
Someone's looking. Someone always is.
This little hellfire beside me hasn't spoken in a while.
She's barefoot, still wiping small traces of blood from her feet with tissues I gave her. Trying to pretend she's not broken. But she is.
I want to sympathize with her. I know what that feeling's like. In my case, my tasks helped push the family name forward, gain territory, or stop our enemies. With her, she's so mixed up I almost feel bad for her.
Almost.
I mean, she fucking drugged me. Tried to kill me. And whether she would've followed through or not is irrelevant, the men she worked with absolutely would've finished the job.
Either way, I'm still trying to decide what to do with her.
I've got half the truth out of her, but not all of it.
She knows more. The man who set her in motion, this John G.
prick, he's connected to something bigger.
I feel it in my bones. Same network Cosmo was working for.
Same people behind my father's death. This "S" character.
So I'm not letting her go until I know everything she does.
But first, we need gas.
I'm running low, and I don't trust driving further on these empty roads. We're somewhere between Argos and the coast. No real towns out here. Just olive fields, empty dirt stretches, and one shitty all-night gas station I know from years ago.
It's a 24-hour stop for truckers mostly, and now, its sign flickers in the distance.
I slow down, turn off the road, and pull into the station, parking at a pump near the convenience store entrance. The place is mostly deserted except for two semi-trucks idling at the far end, their engines humming.
Athena shifts in her seat and looks around.
"What are we doing here?"
"Seeing if they have a room." I pause. "Getting gas."
I kill the engine and pocket the key.
Athena won't stop looking around.
"Hey, can I give you some advice?"
She looks at me and rolls her eyes. "Like I'd take advice from you?"
I smirk. "Maybe you should. Your friend, John G., probably has people looking for us."
Her eyes widen slightly before she can control it.
"You," she says quickly. "They'd only be looking for you."
I laugh. "You think they'd let you walk away? After what you know? After not even being able to finish the job they brought you in for?"
The realization hits her. I can see it in her eyes. She turns away. "Whatever. Think what you want."
I open the door and look back at her one last time.
"Okay, don't take my advice, but listen to me now," I say and pull my gun out. "Be a good girl and stay in the car. If you run, I'll shoot you."
I get out and shut the door before she can answer.
I look around, and it's too quiet for my liking. I cross in front of the car and look through the windshield. Athena sits with her arms crossed, giving one of her dirty looks.
I don't understand how such a pretty face can give off such a mean stare.
The convenience store doors slide open with a soft hiss. Inside, fluorescent lights buzz overhead. There's no other customers inside. I stop and look around. Something seems off, but maybe it's me being paranoid.
The cashier, a man in his fifties with thinning hair and dead eyes, doesn't even look up from his phone as I come in.
I spot a basic first aid kit next to some protein bars, and as I walk toward it to grab them, I see it.
A dark sedan pulling in, moving too slowly for my liking. I abandon the supplies and walk right up to the man at the counter.
I slap a hundred on the counter. "Fifty on pump three. Keep the change," I say, already turning toward the door.
That tingling feeling starts in my hands, and I prepare myself. It's the feeling I get right before I'm going to kill. Right before I'm going to do exactly what I've been trained to do since I was seventeen.
Take people off this earth.
I step outside, and the sedan has parked directly in front of where Athena waits in our car, blocking it.
Two men are already out, another still behind the wheel. Their body language is off. Talking low, trying not to look at me. Both armed, I can see the bulges under their jackets.
None of this feels right.
My hand slides behind my back and finds my gun.
I scan right.
Another SUV pulls up. More men.
Shit.
A fucking ambush.
My blood turns to ice. My mind goes clear.
Sharp. No fear. Just one thought: Get to Athena. Now.
I shift forward pulling my gun out
That's when one of them calls:
"Hey, Kastaris."
Before I can pivot fully—
The First shot fires.