Chapter 36 Tony
Tony
The warehouse looks abandoned from the outside, but I count three guards on the roof and two more flanking the main entrance.
Sasha and I approach on foot, just as we planned.
No vehicles. No visible weapons. Just two people who look beaten and desperate, ready to negotiate terms of surrender.
We’ve rehearsed this moment a dozen times since leaving the hotel this morning, but rehearsal never quite captures the reality of walking toward men who want you dead.
One of the rooftop guards speaks into a radio as we cross the empty parking lot.
The asphalt is cracked, and weeds push through in patches, signs of a building that stopped mattering to anyone years ago.
By the time we reach the entrance, four more men have materialized from the shadows.
All of them armed. All of them watching us like we’re prey walking willingly into a trap.
Which, from their perspective, we are.
“Hands where we can see them,” the largest guard orders. “Both of you.”
We comply without argument. Two of the guards pat us down while the others keep their weapons trained on our chests. The search is thorough, and they confiscate Sasha’s phone and my wallet before stepping back.
“Mr. Belmont is expecting you,” the lead guard announces. “Follow me. Try anything stupid, and we’ll put bullets in both of you.”
We follow him through a rusted metal door and into the warehouse proper.
The interior is cavernous and mostly empty, with concrete floors stained by decades of industrial use.
Old machinery sits abandoned along the walls, covered in dust and cobwebs.
A makeshift office has been constructed in the far corner using shipping containers and plywood walls.
Someone has strung work lamps along the ceiling, which makes the concrete glow yellow.
I note the exits as we walk. There’s a main entrance behind us and a loading dock on the south wall, currently chained shut. An emergency exit is near the shipping container office, and somewhere in the back, the door Adrian will try to use when things go wrong.
Adrian emerges from the office as we approach, and I have to force myself not to recoil from his appearance.
He looks like death.
The wound from Thornfield has clearly become infected.
Sweat beads on his forehead, and his skin has taken on a grayish pallor that screams fever.
As he moves, he’s stiff and careful, suggesting every step causes him pain.
The confident predator I met in Knightsbridge has been replaced by something wounded and feral.
But his eyes are bright with something that goes beyond illness. Obsession has consumed whatever was left of the man I first met.
Adrian’s voice comes out hoarse. “Tony and Sasha. I have to admit, I didn’t expect to see either of you again so soon. Not after what happened at my estate.”
“We need to talk,” I tell him.
“Talk?” Adrian lets out a laugh that turns into a cough.
He presses a hand against his side where the wound must be, and his face contorts with pain.
“You destroyed my home. Killed a dozen of my men. Cost me three of my coalition partners who decided the Kozlovs were too dangerous to antagonize. And now you want to talk?”
“I want to end this before anyone else gets hurt.”
Adrian eyes me for a long moment. His guards have formed a loose circle around us, close enough to intervene but far enough to give their boss room to conduct his business. I count eight total, not including the ones outside. Boris’s team can handle them, but only if the breach goes perfectly.
Adrian turns his attention to Sasha. “And what about you, my dear? Have you come to apologize for your dramatic little speech? All that nonsense about cages and trophies?”
Sasha lowers her gaze and forces a tremor into her voice. “I’ve come to accept your terms.”
Adrian’s eyebrows shoot up, and something hungry moves across his face. For a moment, he looks almost healthy again, animated by the possibility that his obsession might finally be satisfied.
“My terms,” he repeats. “You mean...”
Sasha wraps her arms around herself in a gesture of defeat. “I’ll come with you. Voluntarily. Whatever you want. Just call off your coalition and leave my family alone.”
Adrian takes a step closer to her, wincing at the movement. He presses his hand against his side again, and I notice a dark stain seeping through his shirt beneath his jacket. The wound is worse than I thought. He needs a hospital.
“Why should I believe you?” he demands.
“Because I’ve seen what you’re capable of.
” Sasha’s voice cracks convincingly. “You’ve already proven you can hurt us.
You turned half of Europe against my brothers.
My family has spent two weeks hunting you across London, and we’ve accomplished nothing except losing men and burning resources we can’t afford to lose. ”
Adrian’s smile spreads slowly across his fevered face. “Go on.”
“I can’t watch you destroy everything my family has built. Everything my father and his father spent their lives creating.” Sasha shakes her head, and a tear slides down her cheek. “I’m not worth that. No one is.”
“So you’re willing to sacrifice yourself to save them,” Adrian sneers. “How noble. How touching. The princess of the Kozlov empire, brought low by her own conscience.”
“I’m willing to do what’s necessary.”
Adrian circles her slowly. Boris’s team should be in position by now. Three minutes out, staged in the buildings across the street and ready to breach on my signal. All I need is the right moment.
“You know what I think?” Adrian stops right in front of Sasha before he adds, “I think this is another trap. Another scheme cooked up by you and your brothers to get close to me. Dmitri probably has fifty men surrounding this building right now, just waiting for you to give them a signal.”
“It’s not a trap.”
“Then why bring Tony?” Adrian gestures toward me without looking away from Sasha. “If you’ve truly accepted my terms, why would you need a bodyguard?”
“Because I didn’t trust your men not to kill me before I reached you. And because Tony convinced me this was the only way to end this. He’s tired of running, Adrian. We both are.”
Adrian considers this for a moment. His tongue darts out to wet his cracked lips, and another cough rattles through his chest. The man is falling apart in front of me, held together by nothing but spite and medication.
“Then prove it.” Adrian reaches out and touches her chin, tilting her face up toward his. “Show me you mean what you say.”
Sasha doesn’t flinch away from his touch. Instead, she takes a shaky breath and asks, “How?”
Adrian’s smile is grotesque on his fevered face. “Kiss me like you mean it, and maybe I’ll believe you’ve finally come to your senses. Maybe I’ll believe the great Sasha Kozlov has finally recognized what she threw away two years ago.”
I force myself to stay still. This is the plan. This is exactly what we wanted. But watching Adrian put his hands on her makes every muscle in my body scream to tear him apart. Years of CIA training barely keeps me rooted in place.
Sasha glances at me, and I give her an almost imperceptible nod. She turns back to Adrian and places her hands on his chest.
“Okay,” she whispers. “If that’s what it takes.”
She leans in and presses her lips to his.
I count to three in my head. Then I reach up and scratch the back of my neck with my left hand.
The signal.
The world explodes.
Flashbangs detonate simultaneously at three different entry points, filling the warehouse with blinding strobes and deafening noise. Smoke canisters follow half a second later, turning the entire space into a gray haze that swallows everything more than ten feet away.
Boris’s men pour through the doors with their weapons up and firing before Adrian’s guards can react. The guards closest to the main entrance drop before they can raise their guns. Others scramble for cover behind abandoned machinery, but Boris’s team has trained for exactly this scenario.
I tackle the nearest guard and drive him into the concrete floor. His head bounces off the surface with a sickening crack, and he goes limp beneath me. I strip his weapon and roll behind a shipping container as bullets whiz past my position.
“Sasha!” I shout into the haze. “Get down!”
The firefight is brutal but brief. Adrian’s coalition has been gutted by the events of the past few weeks, and his remaining guards are outmatched by Boris’s team.
Bodies drop one after another as the professionals systematically clear the warehouse.
Someone screams near the loading dock. Gunfire echoes off the concrete walls. Then silence.
I rise from cover, scanning the smoke for Sasha. The haze is starting to clear, revealing the aftermath of the breach. Six of Adrian’s guards lie motionless on the concrete. Two more are on their knees with their hands behind their heads as Boris’s men secure them with zip ties.
“Clear!” someone shouts from the far side of the warehouse.
“Clear!” another voice echoes.
Boris appears through the smoke with his weapon still raised. “Where’s Belmont?”
I spin around, searching frantically. The spot where Adrian and Sasha stood moments ago is empty. In their place is nothing but concrete and shell casings.
“There!” Boris points toward the rear of the warehouse.
My blood turns to ice.
Adrian has Sasha against his chest with his arm locked around her throat and a pistol jammed against her temple. He’s backing toward a door, dragging her with him as a human shield.
“Nobody move!” Adrian screams. “One step closer and I put a bullet in her brain!”
I raise my weapon and aim it at Adrian’s head. The shot is there. Barely. A sliver of his skull visible past Sasha’s blonde hair.
But barely isn’t good enough. Not with her life on the line.
“Let her go, Adrian.” I keep my voice calm despite the terror clawing at my insides. “It’s over. Your guards are down. Your coalition is finished. There’s nowhere left to run.”
“There’s always somewhere to run. I’ve been running from people like you my entire life. I always find a way out.”
Boris’s men fan out on either side of me, creating a semicircle around Adrian’s position. Twelve weapons are aimed at a single target, but none of them can take the shot without risking Sasha.
“Think about what you’re doing,” I continue. “If you hurt her, you lose your only leverage. We’ll kill you before her body hits the ground.”
“Then we’ll die together.” Adrian’s smile is wild and unhinged. “Poetic, don’t you think? The woman who destroyed me, dying in my arms?”
Sasha’s eyes find mine across the distance. She’s terrified, but she’s also thinking. Looking for an opening that won’t get her killed.
I give her the smallest shake of my head. Not yet. Don’t try anything yet.