Chapter 39
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
MARCO
I paced up and down the alleyway, unable to keep still, as I waited for Valerio and the rest of my men to join me. My black SUV was parked at the entrance. The alleyway was beside one of Yegorov’s known warehouses. I knew that Audry was not in there, but since this was their supply base, I was hoping that if Yegorov was expecting trouble from us, he would send for more guns, and we could follow the guns to him.
My phone beeped and I saw that I had a message from Valerio.
We are here .
I nodded to myself, striding out of the alley and getting into my car. I reversed down the street, before turning the car around to rendezvous with my brother. He was two streets over with a contingent of ten cars. He leaned his head out of the passenger side window of his car to speak to me.
“We picked up one of their guys on the street, worked him over. He told us where Yegorov has been for the past two days. An old property down in Compton. We think that's where he's keeping her.”
“I know they're together.” I said, “because I just called him. He was threatening to kill her.”
Valerio blanched before his face hardened. “She’s no shrinking violet, Marco. She’s a hardened criminal. She can handle him.”
I gave him a look of disbelief. “She’s not bullet proof.”
“I’m sure she’s managed to finesse her way out of tighter spots. We will get her!”
“That is if she’s even at this location.”
Valerio gave me a bleak look. “She has to be.”
“We’re wasting time. We should go.” I switched my engine back on, ready to join the convoy when I got a new text. I almost ignored it but something made me reach for it. I opened it to see a picture of a building.
She’s here.
I stared at it, but not with doubt. The picture was from the same person who’d texted me before. I was sure of it. I would have liked some time to find out who this person was and whether they were leading us into a trap, but I had no time. They were right in their first message, so I decided to believe the second. I had a location and I needed to get Audry out, trap or not. There was just no way I could fail the Mercers again. I could not be responsible for the deaths of both their daughters.
More than that, I felt a driving need inside of me to get her back. No ifs, buts or maybes. I needed her with me, as mortifying as it was to admit – even to myself. I looked over at Valerio, holding out the phone to him. “Find out where this is, now. ”
It took ten of the longest minutes of my life to locate the house. Sure enough, it was in Compton, about twenty minutes away from our current location, which was a relief. Valerio sent a drone ahead to scan the territory as George used his spyware to try and find out how many warm bodies were present on site. I kept my phone on speaker, as Valerio, George and I conference called, information being conveyed in real time as soon as it was obtained. I stopped my vehicle about a mile from the destination in a shopping center parking lot.
So as not to attract too much attention, we remained on conference call instead of speaking in person while I laid out the plan.
“So, we have five drones in the air. So far, they don’t seem to have been spotted, which is good. However, to keep out of sight, they have to be pretty high up, so visibility is limited. What we know is that there are at least twenty people on the ground. There is some electronic monitoring taking place from somewhere in there but there are very few cameras on site. We think this is because the things that take place in there are not anything that Yegorov wants recorded.” I took a deep breath. My hands were shaking slightly. I wanted to rush headlong in there and get her out.
It hurt to imagine what she might be enduring while we sat here talking. But I was the leader of this clan and if I went off halfcocked, so would they. Then maybe we would all die.
So, I took another breath and continued. “We have no idea which room she’s in. That’s the primary objective. To find Audry Martin. The secondary objective is to kill Yegorov. You should all know that this is unsanctioned by the council so if you want to step away, this is your chance.”
I waited silently, but no one said anything.
I nodded in acknowledgement and went on. “So, we divide into groups of three…” I took them through the plan, trying to think of every contingency and plan for it. Not easy when we were essentially going in blind.
This was the kind of operation that usually took weeks to plan. But we didn’t have that time so we’d just have to do our best.
“Ready?” I asked.
“Yes.” Various voices replied.
“Then let’s go.”
I retrieved my weapons from their cases, two guns and a knife, and deposited them in my gun belt. I placed the knife on a holder inside my sleeve. Then I started my vehicle and got into formation. We had a massive truck to ram through the gate. We knew it was likely we wouldn’t have the element of surprise so we weren’t being subtle.
The truck flew through the gate, scattering a few security guards. Immediately, they were gunned down by the second man in the truck. As anticipated, several guards poured out of the house right away, their guns cocked, shooting at us. We immediately spread out to create a more difficult target and all swarmed from our vehicles, shooting back while using our bullet proof doors as shields.
We cut about half of them down before they even got a clue and dived for cover. We moved forward - shooting every time they showed themselves – in a v-formation. Along our sides were men with bullet proof shields blocking bullets as we moved forward.
They’d left the door open so we entered the house without difficulty and immediately split into three, one group going towards the kitchen, the other towards the bedrooms. I led the last group forward to the living room, shooting to kill as I went. I kept careful count of my bullets, crouching down to reload while two of my deputies took over. We swept through the sitting room ascertaining that Audry was nowhere around there or the dining hall. I continued on down the darkened corridor, towards the den, mentally thanking Valerio for having obtained the house blueprints.
As I walked, I smashed open doors and then stepped back for my two deputies to clear the room while I covered them from the doorway. Once we were sure a room was empty or it was taken care, we moved on to the next. Just before the last door, one of my deputies got shot in the leg and I immediately had the other one tie off the wound before insisting that he take him out to the car. I headed for the last door on my own, both guns ready. I kicked the door open with my leg, immediately pointing my guns, ready to shoot.
I froze at the sight before me. Aleksandr Yegorov was choking Audry, her beat up and swollen face turning almost blue.