16. Sierra
SIXTEEN
Sierra
“I should be studying,” I mutter under my breath.
Nikolai glances over at me from his vantage point near the parking garage entrance. “You say something, zaya?”
“Nope!” I answer as cheerfully as I can. Not that it’s a lot of cheer, considering we’re staking out a warehouse where my father may or may not have stashed some of the missing weapons shipments.
Between my brother’s notes and some good old fashioned hacking, I’d managed to finally break into my father’s admin account on the laptop, but that doesn’t help me crack all the passwords on his private files or various email accounts.
And boy, did he have a lot of different email accounts. Sean’s notes had mentioned a few in relation to which contacts they were connected with, but I doubt that even he knew the extent of our father’s paranoia.
“She complained about being here,” Yuri says. He fiddles with his gun, and I edge away from him nervously. “Sierra would rather be studying than helping us.”
I glower at him. “Thanks, snitch,” I mutter. “I’m just saying this is a waste of time, that’s all. ”
And I shouldn’t be here at all. Just because I found the place doesn’t mean I’m suited to being in a potential weapons-holding warehouse with two mob men. If something goes wrong, I’ll go from hostage to target fast.
“There hasn’t been any movement in the past hour,” Nikolai says. “But I spotted a few cameras. The cables leading in are probably in the box by the back of the building.”
Yuri gets closer to me and claps his hand on my shoulder. “That’s your expertise, right? Technology. You’ll gain access to it.”
“I know in theory how to do it from the outside,” I say, my brows furrowing. “But I’ve never actually tried.” I shake my head. “I do know how to do it from inside the network itself, but that would mean finding the server room and hacking into their internal network.”
Nikolai blinks at me.
I huff out an exasperated sigh. “It means I need to be inside the building, Nikolai,” I say. “I’m a cybersecurity student , not an expert.”
Yuri’s hand on my shoulder tightens. “You want us to believe you haven’t done any of this before? When you managed to get inside your dear Papa’s laptop?”
I blush because Yuri isn’t wrong. I just don’t want to give my hand away too early. And I’m not lying about needing more direct access. All my self-teaching has been focused on software, not hardware—especially not outside network lines.
“Well, if you want to paint a huge target on our backs while I spend hours trying to figure out how to splice into their network and also potentially tip them off that somebody is even attempting an infiltration…”
Nikolai rolls his eyes. “Fine. We’ll get you inside. Yura?”
Yuri lets go of me and hefts his gun once more. “It’s more fun this way anyway.”
“For you,” I mutter. “You’re not the one who has to figure this out at gunpoint.” I look pointedly at Yuri’s gun. “You have enough over my head already, all right?”
“Think of it as practice for your graduation project,” Nikolai answers with a smarmy grin. “Your profs will be very impressed. ”
“Yeah,” I say, deadpan. “So impressed that I hacked into a secure compound looking for weapons for the fucking Russian mafia that my mobster father tried to hide from them.”
And did hide from them, rather successfully, at that.
“Look, with any luck, some idiot left a sticky note with their password on their desk,” I say.
“People don’t really do that,” Nikolai says, eyeing me skeptically.
“They absolutely fucking do,” I retort. “Not that I have time to inspect every computer in the building. But it’s not as easy as splicing into a network and getting access to every—” I realize he and Yuri are staring at me without much comprehension. “Yeah. Let’s just get inside and I’ll see what I can do.”
Yuri puts his arm around the small of my back. I tense, but that doesn’t deter him. He leads me toward the building, steering clear of the cameras, while Nikolai follows a few steps behind.
The bag with my “hacking tools”—aka my Bratva-provided laptop—presses against my thigh.
“Can’t use the back door,” Yuri says quietly. “There’s cameras there too.”
“There’s a window that was cracked open,” Nikolai says. “I’ll give you two a boost.”
“A boost into what could be a snake den?” I ask. “We don’t know who’s in there. And unless you want to give me a gun to protect myself…”
“Not a chance,” Nikolai says quickly. “Yura will go first.”
Yuri looks up at the window in question. “I’ll have to get on your shoulders.” He grins at Nikolai. “Are you strong enough for that?”
“Are you tall enough for that?” Nikolai counters. “Even if I put you on my shoulders, you might still not be able to reach.”
“Are there any cameras on the second floor?” I ask, ignoring their bickering.
“I can reach,” Yuri mutters. “And I’ll check for cameras before I get in.” He motions to Nikolai, who rolls his eyes and braces himself against the wall.
I’m skeptical about this upcoming feat of acrobatics, but Yuri gets his feet first on Nikolai’s waist, then onto his shoulders. They’re using the wall to help balance, but I have to admit I’m impressed by how quickly they managed to do this.
Of course, with both of them distracted as they are, this would be the perfect opportunity for me to sneak off—if I had anywhere to go, or if I didn’t care what happened to my mother, niece, and nephew.
So I’m still stuck.
“Stand straighter,” Yuri mutters, to which Nikolai makes an annoyed sound.
“You’re not the one with a hundred and eighty pound dude on his shoulders.” Nikolai does straighten his back, giving Yuri a few extra inches of height.
Yuri taps Nikolai’s shoulder with his foot. “If you could balance as well as I can, you wouldn’t always be on the bottom.”
I can’t help it. I snort at that, watching in amusement as Nikolai grabs Yuri’s ankles to hold him upright.
Then I realize I’m going to have to do this, and it’s suddenly a lot less amusing. It’s not that I’m scared of heights, but putting myself into Nikolai’s hands like that? That would be a hard pass in any other situation.
Nikolai glowers at me. “Something funny, zaya?” he asks sourly, even as he hoists Yuri up to where he can grab the window ledge.
“Nope. Nothing at all. Is there anything in there, Yuri?” I ask, trying to hide my nerves behind a smirk.
“It’s a bathroom,” Yuri says smugly. “No cameras.” He opens the window as much as it’ll go, then grabs the edge to lift himself over. He’s inside the building in a few seconds flat. After a few moments, he leans out and says, “I locked the door. Sierra, get on Nikolai’s shoulders and I’ll help you up.”
My stomach flutters, and I take a few steps back. “How about I just walk you through it? It’s not that hard, once you’re inside,” I hedge, even though I know perfectly well that trying to explain how to hack into the network isn’t easy to explain.
Nikolai grabs my arm and pulls me closer. “Come on, zaya. A bunny like you can surely hop onto my shoulders.”
“If I was a bunny, I’d hop away from your predatory ass,” I grumble, but I hand the laptop bag up to Yuri. He takes it, and I study Nikolai as I try to remember just how Yuri had climbed him like a tree.
Nikolai snickers, but he holds still, and I dig my heel hard enough into his side to make him grunt.
“Sorry not sorry,” I say.
It’s not that I’m the least graceful person in the world, but the move isn’t as easy as Yuri made it out to be. It takes me several minutes to figure out how to go from Nikolai’s waist to his shoulders, and when he leans in to kiss my ankle, I yelp and nearly fall.
“What the hell, Nikolai!” I exclaim, clinging to the window ledge.
“Sorry not sorry,” Nikolai echoes, snickering.
“Shut up,” Yuri hisses at us. He reaches for my arms and starts pulling. I swallow another noise and hop—not like a bunny—to make this whole process faster.
But I admit I’m a little worried that he’s going to drop me and I’ll land head-first on the ground. At least it isn’t too high.
Of course, once I’m in the bathroom, I realize why the window was open in the first place.
“Jesus Christ, that smell is foul,” I complain, covering my nose.
Yuri’s nose twitches. “Yeah. But lucky us, right?”
He looks out the window to Nikolai.
“We’ll get the camera turned off so you can get into one of the side entrances,” I say, sticking my head out the window to get a gulp of fresh air.
“Got it,” Nikolai confirms. “I’ll find a place to wait.”
I glance at Yuri, holding my nose. “All right. Let’s find the server room,” I tell him.
Yuri unlocks the bathroom door. “Walk confidently,” he says. “We will try to avoid cameras, but we want to appear like we belong here.”
“We definitely don’t look like we belong here,” I point out, looking at our mostly-leather clothing, but I shrug. “Whatever. I can act like I own the place. ”
What should be anxiety has turned into excitement, and I wonder if we can really pull this off.
No, scratch that.
We are going to pull this off.
“We’re fine,” Yuri mumbles. He leads the way like he knows exactly where we’re going—and maybe he does. Maybe he’s done a lot more recon than he let on. When we hear footsteps, he redirects our path into a nearby door until whoever it was has passed. The room we ended up in is some sort of staff kitchen, but it’s entirely empty.
“How did you know nobody was in here?” I ask. “People could have been having lunch or grabbing coffee.”
Yuri smirks at me. “Lunch at 3 p.m.?”
“Or coffee,” I repeat with a glare. “Hell, this could have been an office.”
“There was no light coming in from under the door.” Yuri leads us out again. “And all the offices are one floor above.”
“Okay, since you know it all, tell me where the server room is,” I say. I try to think. “How many floors does this building have? Three?”
“Server room is on the first floor,” Yuri says, ignoring my other question. “Stairs are… right here.” He opens the stairwell door, and checks the doorknob on both sides to make sure it doesn’t auto-lock. He grins at me. “You think I got sent to jail just because of your pretty smile? I did do a few things they could pin on me.”
“Shocker,” I say, but I find myself smiling back at him. It’s a strange moment, fraught with weird tension, and I can’t help but think that things could’ve been so, so very different if Sean wasn’t such a dick.
Then again, would I really have wanted to date someone from the Russian mob if I’d been given a choice?
My mood sours. It would’ve been nice to have a choice.
“Let’s go,” I say, my voice clipped. I brush past him to take the stairs, as light on my feet as I can manage.
“There are more people on this floor,” Yuri warns. “But it should be okay. There weren’t that many cars parked in the garage. ”
“Maybe they all carpool,” I suggest snarkily.
Yuri lets out a huffed laugh. “You think they had five grown men inside each of those cars? Like in a circus?”
“You never know,” I say. “Besides, there could be women, too. You remember that we exist, right?” Except we both know it’s not very likely that there are several women here. If we’re here because it’s possible there are weapons in the warehouse itself, it’s definitely a mafia outfit — which means women shouldn’t be anywhere near the place.
Misogynistic pigs.
“I remember,” Yuri answers, a lot softer. There’s a strange look in his eye, but he shakes his head and knocks on the door closest to him.
No response.
Yuri shrugs and attempts to open the door, but of course it’s locked.
“Let me guess. This is the server room,” I say with a groan.
“It is.” Yuri runs his hand along the keypad lock. “How many four digit combinations are there?” he asks.
“Ten thousand,” I answer. “We can narrow it down by looking at the numbers that are worn a little, but that’s assuming they don’t regularly change the code.”
Yuri shrugs and inputs the numbers 4567. The top of the lock flashes red. He tries 5678, but like the first attempt, that fails.
“You can’t seriously think you’ll brute force it,” I say, frustration bleeding into my voice. Yuri keeps punching in numbers. “There is no way?—”
The lock beeps green, and Yuri opens the door.
I stare at him in disbelief. “You did not just…” I shake my head. “Yep, we’re definitely going to find a password on a sticky note.”
Yuri smiles at me. “I tried the default codes for the lock. You’re supposed to deactivate those when you set it up.”
“Computer security 101: people are the weakest point in any system,” I mutter. I follow him into the server room. “What if it had been a thumbprint lock instead?”
Yuri shrugs. “I would have found somebody’s thumb. ”
“Would it have stayed attached to their body?” I ask, only to shake my head. “Never mind. I’d rather not know.”
I walk around the server room, trying to get my bearings. It’s significantly cooler in here than in the rest of the building. The server towers glow with the LED lights of the computers.
“Access the cameras first,” Yuri says. “That way Nikolai can join us.”
“Yeah,” I say absently, scanning the room. The setup is basic, and better than that, the intranet is using a default password. It’s hard to believe just how lucky I am. If I were in charge, I’d fire the head of security.
I’ll take advantage of the carelessness and stupidity, though.
I take care of the cameras, nodding to Yuri. “You can tell him to come into the side door, the one near the freight dropoffs. He’ll have a clear shot to us.”
Yuri nods and sits down on the desk chair, casually taking his phone out to text Nikolai.
I get to work sorting through what I have access to.
I don’t have full admin access, but with the camera access I can view most of the rooms in the building. I spot the security room, even, and it feels weird that they’re being surveilled while they’re surveilling. Of course, surveillance also works better if one of the guards on duty wasn’t taking a nap, and the other one only glances up occasionally between watching something on his phone.
I roll my eyes and switch the camera feed that shows Nikolai before the guard looks up at his screens again.
“Did you know security here was so lax?” I ask Yuri.
“Of course.” Yuri gives me a strange look. “We wouldn’t have brought you someplace it was likely to get deadly.”
Something flutters in my stomach, something I can’t identify, and it momentarily gives me pause. I don’t let it distract me for long, though, turning back to the cameras and making sure I cover Nikolai’s path to us.
For fuck’s sake, this shouldn’t be so easy.
It has my hackles up, and I slow down, taking extra care with what I’m doing .
“Tell Nikolai he should be in the clear,” I say. “I’m gonna start trying to find… something. Weapons, files, a paper trail of shell companies, whatever.”
Yuri nods. “Sounds good. I will be here, watching you.”
“Awesome,” I say, and I’d be sarcastic if I wasn’t so distracted.
I don’t spot anything on any of the camera feeds, so if weapons are hidden here, they aren’t in an obvious location. Since that’s a bust, I decide to take a closer look at the files on the server.
The first time I’d actually hacked into a computer, it had been Kyran’s laptop that he’d left on the kitchen island. I’d used every trick I could think of to hack into it, just to prove to myself that I could.
Then I looked up his browsing habits. Not just the browser history, but checking all the server logs to see what websites he’d accessed that he’d gone out of his way to keep private.
Let’s just say, I’d regretted it afterward.
Who knew my brother was such a kinky, gay dude?
Sean’s porn habits were tame in comparison—and I hadn’t tried finding out my dad’s. There’s some things a person is never prepared for.
Hacking into Kyran’s laptop was easier than what I’m doing now, but a lot of the same principles apply. And given how lax security has been so far…
“Did you find the password taped under the keyboard over there?” I ask Yuri.
Yuri laughs and shakes his head. “No, but I did find a two-factor dongle in the desk drawer.” He tosses the dongle at me, and I catch it.
“Seriously? They just left this right next to their server?” I gripe. “It’s like they want to be hacked.”
“In their defense, it was a locked drawer.” He smiles. “These desk locks are child’s play, though.”
I shake my head. That doesn’t surprise me. I insert the dongle so I can access the server files.
The door opens, and I automatically say, “Hi, Nikolai,” without pausing in my typing. I don’t really want to sift through all the files, so I start a copy process.
It’s going to take ages to transfer 3 GB of data. Great.
“Who the fuck are you?” A gruff voice asks.
Fuck. I stiffen and glance at the door. It’s a large man, probably twice as wide as Yuri, with a military cut and a nasty scar across his face. I glance at the camera feed, and realize it’s the guy who’d been asleep earlier.
“Dave sent us,” Yuri says breezily. “The server was acting up, and he needed somebody to check on things.”
The guy scowls. “Dave? Guy’s out sick for days and then he sends people without warning us?”
Yuri shrugs. “I don’t know about that. Just that the files are too important to risk losing thanks to a glitch in the system.” He glances between the guy and me. “You’re doing all the backups now?”
“Yep,” I say, trying not to tense up. Yuri has this handled. All I have to do is avoid fucking it up. “Shouldn’t take too long.”
The guy crosses his arms in front of himself. “So what are your names? In case something does go wrong, and I need to tell the boss who to blame.”
“Blame Dave,” Yuri suggests. “But I’m Dimitri. She’s Anya. Things won’t go wrong, though. All we’re doing is making sure nothing gets lost.”
“Uh-huh.” The guard’s tone doesn’t bode well. “Who’s Nikolai, then? Since you’re apparently expecting him.”
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
I don’t think on my feet as fast as Yuri, but looking to him would give us away. Instead, I focus on the backups, letting him handle this. The seconds tick by, the download going agonizingly slowly.
Yuri gets up and strolls closer to the guy. “Nikolai is our errand boy. We sent him to find coffee for us.” He gives a condescending laugh. “Between you and me, I bet he got distracted along the way. Or maybe he had to piss, I don’t know.”
I barely even have time to blink before the guard lashes out at Yuri. Yuri saw it coming, though, and ducks down .
“Who the fuck do you think you’re fooling?” the guard shouts. “The boss would never trust a Russian.”
Yuri curses. “Because of the accent? I could be Ukrainian! Uzbek! Azeri! Belarussian!” He skips backward a few steps and glances at me. “How much time do you still need?”
“Ten,” I say, my eyes wide as I look between them.
I really wish I had a fucking gun of my own.
Not that I’d use it, but it would be nice leverage.
Probably.
Where the fuck is Nikolai?
The guy lunges at Yuri and slams into him, knocking Yuri into the wall. Yuri grunts in pain and clutches at the wall.
With Yuri dazed, the guy turns to me with a nasty grin. “Your turn, girlie.”
I meep and shake my head. “Wait! I’m not doing this willingly! He forced me to!”
The guard barks out a laugh. “You expect me to believe that? And even if I did, why the fuck should I care?” He stalks toward me, clearly enjoying scaring me.
The thing is, though, I’m not as scared of him as I am of Yuri.
Yuri rushes at the man and kicks him in the back of the knees, sending him stumbling to the floor.
“Come on, come on, come on,” I chant under my breath, like that’s really going to make the download go any faster. “Seven, Y— Dimitri!”
Seven minutes. So much can happen in seven minutes. What if the other guard shows up? What if they set off an alarm? My heart is racing, everything that can possibly go wrong running through my mind.
The server room isn’t large enough for a full on brawl, and the next punch the guy throws knocks Yuri into one of the server towers.
“Careful!” I hiss. “Both of you! You’ll destroy the data!”
The guard looks at me. “Better than you getting it.” He reaches out for my laptop, and I can already see all the progress disappearing and having to start from scratch. Without thinking, I throw myself at him to keep the transfer going.
I really hope that the seven-minute estimate is exactly seven minutes. Or less! Less would be nice.
I crash into him, but of course the impact shakes me more than it does him. He gets his thick arms around my torso and pulls me closer.
“Bad idea, little girl,” he says with a disgusting grin. “The boss is gonna love a girl like?—”
“Let her go,” Yuri interrupts, his voice dark and dangerous. I glance at him and inhale sharply when I see the gun aimed at us.
The guy tightens his hold on me. “You want to risk shooting her?” he asks. “Or destroying this data you’re so keen to steal?”
“There is no risk of shooting her,” Yuri says. His icy glare terrifies me. “You will let her go.”
“Yeah? Or what?” the guy taunts. “Because from where I’m standing?—”
A shot rings out.
The hands around me loosen, and something warm and wet drips onto my head.
Warm, wet, and with a familiar smell that permeates my senses even before I can identify what it is. I jerk free from the man’s grasp, turning slightly.
The man drops to the floor.
Nikolai is standing in the doorway, gun out.
“You could’ve shot me!” I fight not to shout as he keeps the gun trained on the guy who’d been holding me, who’d been threatening to hand me over to yet another man to use me.
Yuri closes the distance between us and pulls me against him, hugging me tight. “Sierra,” he says, and I can hear the waver in his voice.
It’s enough to pull my attention away from Nikolai, and I look up at Yuri, baffled. I pat his back awkwardly, unsure of what to say or do. I look helplessly over at Nikolai, and his expression is just as bewildered .
Nikolai recovers first, though, even as Yuri holds me tight. “The data?” he prompts. “We need to get out of here.”
Yuri kisses the top of my head before slowly, reluctantly, releasing me. “Check the laptop,” he says, pointing. Then he glares at Nikolai. “What took you so long?”
“Dodged into an occupied office,” Nikolai says, grimacing. “Had to deal with that before I could keep going.” He looks at the computer. “Two minutes.” He crosses over to me, and he pulls me into his arms. “Are you all right, zaya?”
“Shaken up.” I grimace. “Need a shower.” I don’t want to think about what’s in my hair. “But it’s fine.”
Nikolai leans in, kissing me fiercely, and I’m surprised into kissing him back. “We will protect you,” he promises.
From everyone but the three of them, at least.
A drop of blood slides down my forehead.
Yuri steps up to us and runs a gentle hand over my jaw, leaning down to kiss me just as Nikolai had. He doesn’t seem to care about the copper taste on my lips.
When he pulls away, there’s blood on his face, too.
The air feels strange now, and I try to find something to say.
In the end, I ask, “How did you know about Dave?”
Yuri blinks a few times, then points at the desk. There’s a dirty mug next to the monitor with the name Dave emblazoned on it.
“Oh,” I say dumbly. “Yeah.” I look at the laptop, where the transfer has finished. “Guess there’s no need to try to hide my tracks, seeing as how we have a dead body here.” I sound a lot calmer than I feel, or maybe I’m just numb. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”