Chapter Twenty-Eight
Matteo Costello
I paced back and forth across the lobby where Marcus and Anthony stood alongside two dozen other men. The plan was simple—storm every goddamned place where the Petrovs had connections and kill everyone.
Marcus had traced Vlad’s call, and Anthony had been at my side, ready to provide any support necessary.
“If they see you, Matteo, they’ll kill her and focus on you.”
My mind reeled as Marcus pinpointed the place where Vlad’s phone had been. The address they’d given had been a decoy. I didn’t doubt that they would obliterate any forces we sent there, so we wouldn’t send any. I delegated my men to every place around town. Just as they had destroyed all Alessio’s businesses, I’d obliterate theirs.
I looked through the window at the building diagonal from us, finding two armed guards surrounding it. There would be at least one sniper in place there, and I knew the interior would be crawling with guards.
I knew that Lilianna was inside.
This building was off the radar and not attached to Vlad in any way. When Marcus had run a search for schematics and ownership, he’d found an old man who had been missing for three months—one who had gambled his life away in the years preceding the disappearance. If it hadn’t been for the call’s trace, we would have never found her.
We knew what had happened. Vlad had likely killed him and used his building for nefarious reasons.
“Is everyone in position?”
Anthony checked his phone and nodded. “We’re ready. He won’t see it coming.”
I turned and checked all the weapons and blades I’d strapped to myself. “Send it.”
Anthony sent off a message, and I watched the building closely. Nobody moved as I leaned against the glass and waited. It felt like a waste of time and energy to wait, especially not knowing what Lilianna could be enduring. Every part of my body yearned to charge inside half-cocked and damn the consequences, but nobody would survive if I did that.
I needed to get her out safely.
It was only a matter of time until word got out about our attacks. They would need all their available teams to aid in stopping Lilianna’s and my men, but there wouldn’t be enough.
Vlad didn’t have enough people to challenge the force that Lilianna and I had assembled.
Marcus chuckled as he scanned the laptop in front of him. “I’ve got a lock on the back camera of the place,” he said. “The front ones were disabled, but the back one is on a closed circuit, and I’m close enough to access it from here.”
“So we have visuals?”
Marcus nodded. “It’s time. We need to catch them when the guards are leaving and before they regroup. It looks like two are going out now.”
I nodded and moved to the back of the building. The exposed sewer grate sent the smell of feces and rot into the building, but I ignored the stench. A dozen of my men went first, clearing the grate and gesturing for the rest of us to join. When we were all inside, Marcus looked down at us.
“You know the plan?”
I nodded, and Anthony spoke. “The third right turn?” he clarified. “It will take me into the neighboring building, right?”
“According to the city’s schematics.”
Anthony would go there and check for a sniper on the roof. It was the only place with a 360-degree view of the building, so if they had a sniper positioned, it would be there. If not…well, Anthony would have a view of all entrances and exits of the building. The rifle strapped to his back would serve a purpose if they managed to call for backup.
The signal jammer that Marcus had given Anthony to throw on the roof would hopefully prevent that.
It had been a plan made quickly and with great difficulty, but it had come together. They couldn’t know we were coming—not if we wanted to get Lilianna out without injury. There were three different entrances, a handful of windows, and a city sewer grate that required annual inspections. We planned to cover all of those entry points as we attacked.
“All our mics are connected?” Marcus asked. I adjusted the earpiece and nodded as his voice fed through it. “I’m getting a good signal now. These are programmed on a different frequency than the jammer. We should have a connection the whole time.”
“Got it,” Anthony replied.
I didn’t say anything. I only nodded and gestured my men forward.
With all my men around me, we rushed through the grate, counting turns. Anthony veered off, and we continued forward. The men in the front watched every turn keenly, and when we reached the designated grate, we stopped and listened.
Nothing.
Nobody guarded it.
The frontman climbed the ladder and pressed it open. It made a loud clank as it budged free, and he immediately looked through the opening before glancing back down. He made a gesture to show the path was clear, and we all followed. Only two men stayed behind, guarding our way out.
I mentally envisioned the schematics of the rooms surrounding this one. I couldn’t begin to guess where Lilianna was being held, but I knew she was here. The trace on Vlad’s phone and all the security measures around this building indicated it.
I wouldn’t let her slip through my fingers.
I pointed to the door, and two of my men stormed into the hallway, gesturing for us to follow. The right side led to only one room—a small storage room that would be too small to house more than one person.
We went left, forking off toward a staircase with a sealed door at the top.
This was where the mission became risky. We didn’t know how many people were inside. We knew Vlad had been here less than an hour before. Marcus hadn’t seen him leave, so I hoped we’d find him. I could almost taste the vengeance I’d enact on the man. He’d deserve every ounce of the pain and suffering I brought upon him. Imagining the long days I’d take to tear him limb from limb had my hand tightening on my pistol.
The first group of my men rushed up the staircase, and I followed behind. The second group covered my back.
They barged through the door, and the sound of immediate gunfire made me curse.
A few of my men fell, but everyone fired back, taking out the three men in the center of the room easily.
My eyes seemed to know exactly where to go.
They met the wild gaze of Lilianna.
Blood oozed from her nose, and a few bruises seemed to have spread across her cheekbones, but other than that, she seemed to be in one piece.
The distraction had cost me, though. Two Russians came from each wall, four in total, opening fire on us as we stood at the top of the stairwell.
One by one, my men began falling from wounds of varying degrees of severity. Anyone who still lived was shooting back, and the few who hadn’t been hit were searching for cover. But the room was wide open, and there was nowhere to go but down. One of the Russians on both sides went down, and I lifted my gun to take out another.
A relentless burst of pain shot through my arm, and I involuntarily dropped the gun, falling back from the force of whatever had hit me.
“Retreat!” I shouted at my remaining men, but nobody listened. They all focused their attention on the enemies. I would stay. I had to stay. With Lilianna here, I couldn’t risk leaving her.
One of my men fired a shot that took out the final guard, and I heaved a sigh of relief as I stared at Lilianna, assessing her for any injuries that I hadn’t noticed before.
My eyes danced to the figure behind her, holding a gun to her head.
Aelita.
“If you shoot her, you don’t have a bargaining chip for your own life,” I told her.
I pulled out another of my guns and pointed it down at Aelita as I brought myself to my feet. But she stood directly behind Lilianna, crouched in a way that I could hit either of them if I fired a shot. With my injured forearm, I didn’t have enough stability to guarantee the shot.
I grabbed where my forearm had been hit and applied pressure to it. It wasn’t bleeding too severely, and I knew how lucky that was. I took just a moment to scan the faces of all the men around me. Three of them struggled to take in air, but the others—nearly two dozen of them—had been mowed down as if they meant nothing.
The door to a room a few feet from Aelita burst open, and my attention veered to Vlad, holding a gun pointed directly at me.
I turned mine on him and moved closer with slow, calculated steps.
“I expected you to fall for the bait,” he admitted. His tone told me that he knew precisely what my men and I had pulled to try and distract them. “You’re going to die today for what you did.”
“You’re not leaving this building alive!” I roared. “Not when you brought her into this.”
Lilianna’s eyes remained wide as I glanced at her again, almost as if she was trying to relay something. I took one step closer, looking between Aelita and Vlad.
“You’re outnumbered, boy.”
“Am I?”
Vlad stiffened and glanced over my shoulder. It was the opportunity I needed. I sprung forward and knocked his gun to the side. It went off and missed me narrowly. The ringing in my ears felt familiar as I kicked his gun away, but Vlad was quick. He grabbed my wounded forearm. Stars shot through my vision, and my other hand’s grip loosened as he slammed a fist down on my gun.
I released it with a shout in pain.
Motion captured my attention, and I found the door slamming closed. I caught the briefest glimpse of Lilianna on the other side and bared my teeth.
I needed to get inside. That was my first priority, but I had to take care of Vlad first.
“They used to insist on hand-to-hand combat to determine a Don,” Vlad said, stepping to the side and watching every motion I made. “It guaranteed a strong leader.”
“Then people like you came along and started shooting their competition in the back.”
My demeanor had gone cold. Everything inside of me had gone cold. All I cared about was reaching Lilianna, and if it meant killing Vlad on the spot, I’d do it. I’d fantasized about torturing him and giving him what he deserved, but there wasn’t a single thing that meant more than Lilianna. No vengeance or justice meant more.
Nothing.
I didn’t give him the chance to plan his attack. I reached for the two longer blades at my vest and gripped them tightly. The wound in my forearm ached, and it made it difficult to maintain my grip, but I didn’t allow it to stop me from slashing at Vlad.
For an older man, he moved as if he had spent his entire life training. He ducked beneath one blow and sidestepped the other, grabbing his knife. I didn’t allow him to use it as I kicked out a foot and thrust my blade over his wrist. He shouted in pain at the same time as gunfire exploded outside the building.
There wasn’t meant to be gunfire here.
I waited for Marcus or Anthony to provide an update, but nobody said anything through the earpiece.
I moved forward again, lifting the knife and plunging it toward his heart, but he moved, grabbing my wrist and twisting in a way that had my body turning, arm behind my back. I felt another blade cut through the air by my ear, and I slammed my head back. Whatever weapon he’d had fell away as I turned and pushed his body into the wall behind him with all the force I could manage.
The drywall cracked beneath his weight.
The gunfire around us intensified. At least five different gunmen were firing, and nobody was reporting through my earpiece.
I slid my blade to Vlad’s throat. I hesitated only for a moment, coming to terms with the loss of the revenge I’d yearned for. But I didn’t have time. I didn’t know where the gunfire outside was coming from, and Lilianna was alone with Aelita.
I had to end this.
“Burn in hell motherfucker,” I spit, pleased as he flinched away from my saliva.
I pressed the knife deep into his throat and slid it across. I watched as his mouth fell open, trying and failing to take another breath.
His body crashed to the floor, still thrashing and gurgling as I turned to the door where Aelita had taken Lilianna.
I wouldn’t lose another person I cared for. Not today.