Chapter 30 Dimitri
DIMITRI
The SUVs eat up the road beneath us, engines growling as we take each curve too fast. My fingers tap against the gun on my thigh, the metal warm now from my constant touch. I'm watching the tablet screen that Theo's set up on the dash, a digital map showing our position closing in on the quarry.
I lean forward as a flash of white catches my eye through the windshield.
"That truck," I say, pointing at the same one that was parked off on the shoulder. The same one that made us slow down before the crash. "She's fucking here."
Theo slows just a hair, angling his head for a better look and then scans the surrounding area.
"This is a shit place to be caught in an ambush."
I nod.
"Then let's not give them time to set one."
The tablet pings with an alert, and I tap it immediately. It opens to a live drone feed one of our men launched from the trailing SUVs. The footage shows the old quarry headquarters from above, a concrete fortress weathered by time and neglect.
Rusty equipment litters the area, along with graffiti and broken glass.
I study the feed, counting bodies, entry points, vehicles. "Two guards at the main gate. Some around back with a few vehicles," I say, noting movement at the edge of the frame. "They may end up seeing the drone."
"Good," Theo says with a cold smile. "Then we do this fast. I got a new bride I'd like to get back to."
I don't respond. All I'm thinking about is Athena inside that building. What they've done to her. What they're planning to do.
Before we get too close, Theo pulls off the road and out of view behind some old buildings that looked to have been a living area at one time.
Ares's SUV pulls up to our left. The two other vehicles fan out behind us, closing off a perimeter.
I'm out of the car before Theo kills the engine completely. My body knows what to do even as my mind races with images of her.
Everyone else hops out and we gather behind the SUV I was in.
My brothers flank me as one of our men approaches, tablet in hand.
"From the drone, looks like three points of entry. West door, loading dock, and main entrance."
"I'll take the loading dock," I say without hesitation. It likely leads deepest into the building's core to where they may be keeping her.
"Then Theo, you take the west door," Ares says and cracks his neck. "And I'll go in the front. A team with each of us. We clear room by room."
No one argues.
"We're out in the open here. Be quick. Move fast. No hero shit," Theo says as everyone checks their weapons one final time.
I nod to the three men assigned to my team. "Let's go."
I move low and fast, weapon raised, my men flanking me as we approach the loading dock. My boots barely make a sound on the gravel, years of training making stealth second nature even when my mind is a storm of rage and fear.
We round the corner, and I catch movement at the front of the building, two guards casually talking, staring at a phone. They don't see any of us, too focused on whatever the hell they're watching.
Bang.
Bang.
Two pops from the front of the building. The guards don't even have time to shout before their bodies drop, limp.
Ares doesn't look our way. He just signals his men forward and heads straight for the front entrance.
We keep moving and my team reaches the edge of the loading dock, concrete crumbling at the edges where no trucks have backed up in years. I spot a steel door standing slightly ajar at the top of the platform, a sliver of darkness behind it.
Our way in.
I signal my men with a quick hand gesture to cover me, and they fan out, weapons trained on the opening. With a deep breath I sprint up the short ramp and flatten myself against the wall beside the door.
I wait and listen.
Nothing.
My fingers find the edge of the door, and I ease it open an inch at a time. The hinges creak softly.
I pause, listening. Still nothing.
Waving my men forward, I enter, them behind me.
My eyes adjust quickly to the dim light filtering through broken windows high on the walls. The interior smells like mildew and rust. Concrete floors stretch ahead of us. Pipes overhead look like they haven't been used in years and there's enough shadows around us to hide an army.
I have to be careful.
I take another step, my men following close behind.
The last man in shuts the door behind us and I look around.
Suddenly, voices echo deeper inside. Two men arguing in Greek. It's too far away to catch words, but they sound nervous.
My jaw tightens.
If they hurt her.
I signal to my team to move forward, keeping to the shadows along the wall. We pass through what must have once been a processing area, now stripped of anything valuable, leaving only broken machinery and stains of what looks like oil on the floor.
Voices grow louder as we advance and my grip tightens on my gun.
Two figures emerge from a side room about fifteen feet away, shotguns at the ready, arguing in hushed tones.
I don't hesitate.
I fire twice in rapid succession.
The first shot punches through the nearest man's neck, exiting his throat. Blood sprays as he reaches for what's left of his his windpipe.
The second shot catches the other in the chest, and he staggers backward, eyes wide with shock.
Both men crumple to the floor before they can yell, before they can radio for help, before they can even register that death has come for them.
Somewhere deeper in the building, a door slams, people scream, and more shots ring out. Must be Theo and Ares's team.
"Well, they for sure know we're here now," I say, looking at the men with me.
One of my men presses his finger to his earpiece, listening intently. His face is professionally blank as he relays the information to me.
"Okay. Loading dock clear. Advancing," he whispers and then looks at me.
"Ares cleared the front. No sign of her."
Another burst of gunfire, closer this time, followed by shouting.
My man touches his earpiece again. "Theo's team is in. Nothing yet."
I turn to look down the hallway. "Then we keep moving. She's here."
I can feel her in my bones, in my blood. She's close and she needs me.
We push deeper into the corridor, past the bodies cooling on the floor. My boots track blood across the concrete.
We pass more signs of recent occupation, cigarette butts and a chair where someone was clearly stationed to keep watch. The corridor turns, opening into what looks like it was once an administrative area.
Cubicle dividers lie broken on the floor, and the glass windows of offices are shattered. Perfect ambush territory. I motion for my team to spread out, covering all angles as we advance.
Somewhere ahead, a door creaks open.
Then all hell explodes.
Doors on both sides of the hall burst open so hard the hinges shriek. Men pour out, weapons raised. Not handguns, but full automatic machine guns. The kind that turn flesh into red mist.
The hallway erupts into a storm of bullets and noise.
I barely have time to shout, "DOWN!" before the first burst of automatic fire rips the air apart.
The burnt-out lights above us shatter, raining glass and sparks. The sound is deafening. A constant, punishing roar that vibrates the floor.
I throw myself sideways, slamming shoulder-first into a closed door. The impact nearly knocks the wind out of me, but it's better than standing in the open.
Bullets tear splinters off the frame above my head as I crash through, landing hard on my side. My gun skids across the floor, stopping just short of the opposite wall.
Behind me, the hallway has become a killing ground.
A short burst of fire punches through the wall inches from my head.
Two of my men make it through another doorway. The other screams as bullets pierce through him, the sound cutting off abruptly as his body jerks and falls. Blood pools beneath him, spreading in a dark stain across the concrete.
"Fuck!"
I roll to my stomach, crawling toward my weapon as bullets continue to pour through the doorway, punching holes in the drywall above me. Dust and debris fall on my back.
I reach my gun, fingers closing around the grip, and pull myself behind an overturned desk just as another round of fire shreds where I just was.
I wait for a break in the gunfire, my finger on the trigger, body tensed like a spring. Heart pounding so hard it's all I can hear.
When the barrage finally pauses, I move toward the door and twist around, popping my head out.
Down the hall, a cluster of men are running, swarming around someone in their center like a school of fish protecting something valuable.
I return fire and my two surviving men come out and start shooting too.
A machine gun forces us back into hiding as they fire at us before disappearing.
I look back out and they're gone. Like they weren't even there.
"You guys good?" I ask my men across from me.
They nod.
"Okay, let's—"
I stop.
I hear Screaming.
It's her.
My blood turns to ice, then fire.
"Athena!"
I signal to my remaining men and we burst from cover simultaneously, guns scanning the area. Smoke and dust still fill the hall, making our vision hazy.
Somewhere in the distance, more gunfire. Theo and Ares are probably encountering whoever the fuck those men were.
A man bursts out of a door and we all fire so quickly, three bullets sink into his chest and he collapses to the ground.
I hear another scream, closer now.
More men appear, and the gunfire intensifies, rounds ringing past my ears, embedding in the wall behind me.
I duck behind a support column, shoot, reload, and pivot back into the fight.
I take out another man with a shot that enters just below his left eye.
His head snaps back, body following a half-second later.
The others are retreating now, firing wildly as they run around the corner.
I sprint forward, gun raised, ready to pursue when suddenly, another scream comes and I can finally pinpoint it.
Up ahead on the right, a thin strip of light spills out from beneath a metal door.
She's there. She has to be.