Chapter 28
Twenty-Eight
Luka
The tunnels were as confusing as they were rumored to be. I hadn’t been in them in years and it was five years since I had seen the schematics for them. I tried to mark the turns in my head but following behind the giant and without control of the flashlight it wasn’t easy to commit the path to memory. Fuck, if I’d ever be able to get out of here and back to the cargo lift.
Nikoli and the Bratva had lights. Scouring the tunnels reminded us of the cellars deep beneath the soil in Epernay. It was an unspoken memory between us.
Ciro held up his fist and I stopped. He pointed ahead. His flashlight went dark, and I realized he had spotted something or someone. Nik and the others cut their lights immediately.
I readied my gun. The flashlight turned back on. I groaned. False alarm. My shoulders relaxed and then I heard shouting.
Ciro yelled at me to get back. He pointed the flashlight like a spotlight as someone charged toward us. The man ran at a full sprint, tackling Ciro to the ground. They both groaned and started pounding on the other. I couldn’t see who had the advantage. I’d always put my money on Ciro’s training and his size.
“Get the light!” Ciro screamed. “He’s here.” I retrieved it and pointed it ahead.
“Shit.” I saw a man’s legs tied together. I ran toward him, praying he was alive. On the other side of a black tarp, Enzo was tied to a stake in the floor of the tunnel. There was a gag in his mouth.
I dropped to my knees and wrested it from his mouth. The corners of his lips were cracked. I wondered when the last time he drank anything was.
“Luka?” He was weak. His face was beaten. The collar of his shirt was soaked in blood. He had cut above his eye and one of his ears had been sliced.
“I’m getting you out of here, man. You don’t know how many people are looking for you.” He had no fucking idea how happy I was to see him.
Ciro struggled on the ground with the man guarding Enzo. The guard wasn’t the only one. I heard another round of fighting begin. Nik grunted taking a swing at another man in the dark. The Bratva were caught up in multiple fights.
I worked to untie the knots at his ankles and wrists. I wedged the flashlight between my teeth, pointing the beam on the rope.
I tossed them on the ground and put an arm under Enzo’s shoulder to lift him. He was dead weight. I struggled to get him to support himself.
“Can you walk out of here?” I asked.
“Hell yeah.” He could barely stand. It was only adrenaline that got him to his feet. I wasn’t completely sure his foot wasn’t broken the way he stood. It was twisted at an odd angle.
“Niko!” I screamed. “Let’s go.” He didn’t answer, he was still in the fight. “Ciro!” I was willing to accept help from anyone at this point.
My eyes whipped to the part of the tunnel where we had emerged. “Fuck,” I whispered. There were two more sets of lights running toward us. These guys wasn’t the only ones down here. From the lights headed for us, I couldn’t do a head count. I had a feeling we were outnumbered.
Finally, Ciro jumped to his feet. The man he had attacked was lifeless on the ground. But we were already outnumbered with the new group.
Ciro pulled his gun. He aimed it for the men running.
“Stay out of the way,” I urged Enzo. “We’ll get out of here.” He wasn’t armed, and there wasn’t time to give him another gun. I just needed him to stay down.
Enzo almost fell trying to make it to the wall on his own. He was in bad shape. It would take Ciro and me to haul him out of here. The injuries looked like they would heal on the surface. We could fix a broken foot. We could stitch his ear.
The gunshots started and I knew if I didn’t fire back, I was a sitting duck. I took position next to Ciro, kneeling and shooting. I emptied a round, and I realized the men weren’t running anymore. I didn’t know who or how many I shot.
“They’re down.” Their flashlights rolled on the stone floor. “Let’s move,” I ordered.
“I’ll flank you,” Nikoli announced.
Ciro groaned. He was hunched over. I hadn’t noticed that the giant wasn’t standing anymore.
“You okay?” I asked.
When he raised his head, I saw the blood spreading across his shirt.
“You got hit. Fuck, Ciro.”
He sounded like an angry bear. He pushed me away. “It’s nothing. I think it went straight through.”
“Nothing my ass.” I pushed back to see if he had been grazed or if the bullet had gone through like he thought. “It’s your shoulder.” I pointed the flashlight near his shoulder blade. “I think it did go through.”
He shook his head. “Let’s just get him out. There could be more on the way. I’ll take something for it when we’re home.” He tried to push off the ground. I offered him my hand. His palm clasped on to mine and I lifted the heavy man to his feet. Two more Bratva soldiers appeared and tried to help him, but Ciro recoiled.
“You good?”
“Yeah. Just get him.” His voice cracked with the pain. He cradled his arm.
“Enzo, we’ve got a little walk, man.” I wanted to downplay it. If he had any idea how long it was going to take us to get to the freight elevator, I might have a hard time convincing to move on that broken foot. Our group was banged up. I knew I was going to have to carry him myself with the kind of shape Ciro was in.
Enzo didn’t answer.
“Enzo, you ready?” I asked. I spun the light around. I didn’t want to blind the guy, but maybe he had fallen back past the tarp the guards used to conceal their location in the tunnel. I had to give it to them. It blocked light and if someone did come this far, they wouldn’t know it was there.
“I’ll help you and now we have to get the Neanderthal out,” I joked. “God, Katya is going to be so happy to see you?—”
I stopped.
I stopped talking. I stopped thinking. I dropped to my knees. I pressed my fingers to his neck. I don’t know why I did it. Was I supposed to confirm what I already knew? There was a bullet hole on the side of his head and one on his chest. His eyes were open. Vacant. But I did it anyway. I held them there firmly planted against his artery, waiting for a pulse. For a twinge. A single breath of hope.
“No,” I whispered. “Katya needs you. You can’t…you can’t do this. You have a baby that needs you.”
I sat next to his body. I couldn’t think of what to do. I couldn’t believe it. Did I dare offer up a pray? Did I beg God to rewind the clock and take me instead of him? Did I bargain and barter with my soul? Did God even want it anymore?
“We need to move him.” Ciro startled me.
“Give me a second.” I pinched my fingers between my eyes.
“I’ll do it for you.” Ciro put his hand on my shoulder.
I shook my head. “You can’t. You’re bleeding. We need to get you out of here.” It was hard to tell without much light, but I thought Ciro looked more pale than usual.
“Fuck.” I kicked the ground. “We were supposed to save him.” I crouched on the ground. What if Katya didn’t survive this? What if this broke her? What about the baby? No. No. I shook Enzo.
“Come on, man. Just take a breath and we’ll do the rest,” I pleaded.
Nikoli stood next to me. “He’s gone, Luka. Let him go. I’m sorry.”
I closed my eyes. How the hell did I do that when I promised my sister and Amara I’d bring him home? I couldn’t just let him go.
“We need to get moving,” Ciro grunted. He was in pain. I had to move or I would be trying to carry him out.
“Grab the tarp,” Nik instructed the men. “We’ll wrap him and take him as far as we can take him together. Then you come back and get him tonight when it’s safe to move him.”
They nodded, carrying out Nik’s step by step plan. He held the light while they unhooked the tarp from the wall and yanked it. It cascaded down.
“Good. It will be easier to move him with this.”
“What about them?” I nodded at the bodies of the guards.
“I’ll send in another team for them later,” Nik explained. “Maksim and his men can handle this. They’ll clean up the tunnels.”
Nik looked at Enzo. There was a brief softness in his voice and in his gaze. “Fucked up what happened to him.”
One of the men laid the tarp flat and rolled Enzo into the middle. They worked together, wrapping Enzo tightly and then carried him through the tunnels.