Chapter 34
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Roman
10 minutes ago
"I swear to God, you psychopath, if you don't let go of her hair this second, I'm coming at you with this chair and all!" Roxy's voice comes through the earpiece, and I'm officially done.
That piece of garbage dies now.
I know Luna wants to avoid a violent confrontation with gunfire for Roxy's safety, but she's dead wrong if she thinks I'm going to stand aside and let that lunatic hurt her while I listen to everything from a house away. The moment I rise from my chair, my phone starts ringing - private number.
I answer and instantly recognize the voice yelling through the speakerphone.
"Get the hell out of that house! Devin and his men have it rigged with C4. You're about to blow up at any moment!" Maksim's voice echoes through the room.
"How do you know that? And how the hell do you know where I am?" I ask.
I'm not suspicious of him, but I don't understand how he knows this.
"There isn't time to explain right now, but I have my methods and I can tell you for certain the whole location is riddled with C4," I hear him say, and if I didn't know better, I'd say there's anger in his voice.
Since everything happened so quickly, no one had time to inspect this house beforehand, so what Maksim's saying could be true. The problem is if we start leaving now, we'll alert them and they'll still detonate the C4 with our soldiers still here.
"Do you know its location?" I ask.
"From what I caught in their conversation, it's set in the attic," he tells me.
"The bastard wants to bury us in this house." Damien echoes my exact thoughts.
"We'll go to the basement; they won't expect us to be there. A few soldiers will run out toward the backyard. When they see them, they'll detonate the explosives," I say loudly enough for all soldiers to hear.
"Damien picks three men, I pick three, and we'll send them running. They'll have time to get away before they notice and blow up this house," I continue, though in the back of my mind all I see are freckles and strands of cinnamon hair.
I need to get Luna out of there. If I have to climb out from under rubble to get to her, then so be it.
"Are you insane? You'll be buried alive!" Maksim shouts.
"Easy, brother. Someone hearing you might think you care about me," I say with a smile.
All the soldiers are loyal. They'd all sacrifice themselves for us without hesitation.
"No. You're going out with the soldiers," Damien says now.
"If you think I'm leaving my men here while I run, then you’re a bigger head case than I thought, Damien," I tell him as I approach him.
"Luna's in there with a psycho who's definitely working with the Irish. What do you think they'll do to them once they confirm the explosives were detonated?" he says, and the image he puts in my head is enough to make me turn and drive my fist into the nearest wall.
I feel blood trickling down my hand, and I know exactly what they'll do. And I know every minute I lose sight of her is a minute Devin will use just to get revenge on me.
Right at that moment, in Damien's and my earpieces, we hear the words I feared.
"I feel sick."
Luna's voice is clear. She can't get Roxy out of there alone.
Damn it. I need to get to her.
"Do we still have eyes on the house?" I ask one of my soldiers.
"Yes, no sign of movement," he responds.
"Wait," Maksim's voice suddenly comes through. "I can create a diversion for you all to get out, but Roman, Devin has an army of men a few houses away. They'll attack right after the house blows," he tells me, and there's certainty in his tone.
I have a thousand ideas in my head, but his plan isn't bad. Good? Clearly not. But we've had closer calls than this.
"How do you plan to get their attention?" Damien asks.
"In sixty-five seconds, a drone will start shooting at one of the houses where the Irish are," he says, and both Damien and I smile and shake our heads.
Who the hell has armed drones?
There are so many things I don't know about my twin brother, but I'm glad he's on our side.
"You heard the order. Out through the back door," I tell all the soldiers.
Damien and I stay until last. You can't demand loyalty from your men and be the first to break down the door when something like this happens.
I'm coming, my love.
"Maksim," I say before heading to the door. My voice is the closest it's ever been to begging.
"I have eyes on the house where Luna is," he tells me, and I appreciate that he didn't make me vocalize my fears. The dread of knowing she's in danger paralyzes my body for a millisecond, but I trust Maksim. I don't know if it's the right decision, considering he just bulldozed his way into our lives, but I trust him.
"NOW!" Maksim's voice booms through the phone, and our men burst through the door, running as fast as their legs can carry them.
In the distance, it sounds exactly like a machine gun has broken loose and is having a field day. When the last man is out, both Damien and I sprint.
We have exactly a five-second head start when everything blows up. Damn Irish. Glass, concrete, and lumber fly in all directions, and since we're closest to the house, Damien and I are thrown to the ground.
Something hits my shoulder, and I realize it's a wooden splinter that, with all the explosives these idiots used, acted just like a knife in my shoulder.
Damien seems okay apart from some pieces of debris that fell on us.
The next thing I register is the ringing in my ears and the dizziness. Damn it . My head feels like someone hit it with a hammer, but it's just the percussion wave. I shake my head as if that would make the pain disappear.
Damien is talking, but I can't register any sound. I see his lips moving and try to get up on my knees.
"Roman. We need to move."
I hear him as if we’re underwater, but I understand what he's saying and force my body to stand.
Any physical impediment disappears when I remember Luna is a few yards away with that psychopath. My muscles seem to protest at the idea of standing, but Damien helps me stay on my feet. I notice he's limping slightly too, but it doesn't seem to affect him much.
When my gaze falls on the backyard, I see our soldiers, some standing, others on the ground, trying to recover from the explosion. The luckiest ones are a hundred feet away. Suddenly one of Damien's soldiers drops with a bullet between his eyes.
Maksim didn't estimate incorrectly when he said they'd come after us immediately. When I get my hands on that piece of shit Devin, I'll personally gouge his eyes out. Damien can skin him alive all he wants, but I'm going to cut out his tongue and make sure he swallows it.
I grab the gun from my back, and although my balance is seriously affected, I can still shoot some rookie soldiers.
From the front of the house, I see ten Irish emerge, and behind them, none other than Devin. How stupid do you have to be to come to your own funeral?
Damien looks at Devin like he's his favorite Christmas toy, and I know nothing will stand in his way of getting to him.
A moment later, any lack of concentration disappears and is replaced by the sound of bullets. It's total chaos. My mind is still slow, but I manage not to shoot any of our soldiers.
One of Devin's men manages to graze my leg with a bullet, but it's just a scratch that only serves to shake me out of my stupor after the bomb's impact. Three seconds later, he drops dead, shot in the throat by Damien.
I hear soldiers screaming, and when I look left, I see some of our men down. Together with my friend, who seems like he's at a birthday party he's so happy, we make our way toward Devin.
He's still surrounded by men, and our bullets clash with theirs. We're one-to-one in terms of manpower, but our men are coming in after an explosion, while theirs are rested and fresh.
Our advantage has always been Damien and me. We're both good with guns and, on a good day, could have eliminated twice as many soldiers, but it's clear the explosion affected us, because our aim is poor and slow.
When we position ourselves behind a row of trees behind the house, I can tell Damien’s leg is bothering him. There’s definitely something wrong with it, but it's not like we can stop to take a look.
"I'll draw their attention and you shoot them, okay?" he says, and when I look at him like he's grown two heads, he frowns. "What?" he asks, frustrated.
"Your leg is hit. You can't run!" By how he clenches his jaw, he realizes this too.
"When will the Irish ever get another chance to shoot at me?" he says, and before I can stop him, the idiot runs straight at them.
I breathe once. Twice. My heartbeat begins to slow and I steady my gun on a stable branch. I see the moment two of Devin's soldiers raise their guns, and without hesitation, I shoot one in the chest. I prefer head shots, but I'm too far away and can't risk Damien's life.
The second soldier is stunned by how his friend dropped, and before he can turn his head, I shoot him the same way.
Only two soldiers remain beside Devin. If I counted correctly, there are only three more scattered through the yard, and our soldiers greatly outnumber them.
"Whoever brings me an Irishman's head gets a bonus and a ride in Damien's new car," I shout, knowing every one of our soldiers heard and will handle the remaining men in moments.
They all know Devin is ours.
When I reach Damien, he's fighting one of the two remaining soldiers who were protecting Devin.That weasel ran like the coward he is, but he won't get far.
Damien throws a punch.
"Because of you, I have to loan out my new Maserati for a ride."
Another punch.
"And it's a limited edition."
Another punch.
"If anyone puts even a scratch on it because of you, I'll dig you up and beat you again."
Another punch.
"Damien. Come on. Leave him. You've already disfigured him," I say, and only then does he seem to snap out of his trance.
In the distance, I see Devin running across the road and getting into a car. When he opens the door, all the air leaves my lungs and I feel like someone hit me on the head again.
That's the moment Devin turns around and I see his laugh before he touches Luna's hair... She has blood on her forehead. I'm already running, not realizing when my brain gave the command, but the car starts before I can reach it.
My phone rings in my pocket, and I don't even look because I know who it is.
"Track that car!" I yell into the phone.
"I'm watching it. I'll let you know when it stops," Maksim says in an irritated voice.
I'm already heading toward an SUV parked a few houses away that seems intact, despite the bullets flying around. I open the door and get behind the wheel as Damien climbs in the passenger seat.
"You don't think I'm letting you have all the fun alone," he says in an amused tone, though I see his grimace of pain.
The only thing I care about is getting to Luna. I shouldn't have let her leave our house, but with Roxy involved, I knew she would never stay safely locked away.
"Maksim, I need reinforcements. I don't know what I'm walking into, so call Niko," I say while tearing down the road, following my twin's sporadic directions. I need men with fresh strength.
"I'll be there personally," Maksim tells me, and I feel a current run through my chest. He doesn't owe us this, and although it's clear neither my life nor Niko's has been a walk in the park, Maksim's life was much worse.
"Weren't you supposed to be in Russia?" I ask because I just realized he's back.
"I landed twenty minutes ago. I'm here now," he tells me, and even though I'd like to know how things went there, I have only one mission now.
I know he's doing this for Luna too. And although for a fraction of a second, jealousy seeps into my blood over their connection, I know Luna is mine. In every sense.
After twenty minutes of driving, Maksim signals me to stop and continue on foot. Ahead, what appears to be a factory takes shape. I quickly count about ten guards and spot Devin's car, the one he left with Luna in, parked out front.
"Roman, I'll be there in three minutes," Maksim says before hanging up.
"Wake me in three minutes," Damien mumbles, and when I look at him, I see him getting comfortable and closing his eyes, nestling into the car seat.
180 seconds and I'm coming for you, my love.