Chapter 32 #2
I spun in a circle, desperately searching for her. Matteo was there, fighting alongside Liam. Max had taken cover behind an overturned table, shooting whenever he got the chance. Adrik was pressed against a wall, firing methodically, despite the blood streaming down his face.
But no sign of my Adrianne.
And when I looked up at the grand staircase, Vladimir was gone, too.
And so was Sasha.
“No.” The word came out broken and on repeat. I couldn’t lose her. I wouldn’t. “No, no, no.”
“Nikolai!” Matteo grabbed my arm, yanking me back from my panic. “We need to fall back! There are too many!”
“He has her.” I shook him off. “Vladimir has Adrianne.”
“We’ll find her, but not if we’re dead! We need to regroup!”
More of Vladimir’s men flooded in through the entrance. We were being surrounded, overwhelmed by their numbers.
“Fall back to the east wing!” I shouted to my men. “Fighting retreat! Go!”
We moved as one, laying down covering fire as we retreated. Bodies fell on both sides. The beautiful entrance hall was destroyed, littered with corpses and shell casings and broken glass.
“The corridor!” Max shouted. “It’s lit.”
“Run!” I ordered.
The east corridor was a kill box, rigged with explosives that could be detonated remotely. A last resort that seemed to have become the first resort, after all.
We fought our way there, and I was the last one through, slamming the heavy, reinforced door shut and securing the bolt.
Pounding started immediately from the other side. Shouting in Russian. The sound of an army of men throwing themselves against the door to knock it down.
“Kirill!” I barked. “The detonator!”
He pulled it from his pocket, tossing it to me. The smile that covered my face was vile. This small move would eliminate most of Vladimir’s men. Aside from the ones that would be shadowing him, all the others would have been instructed to kill us, and catch me alive.
Because this wasn’t just about killing me, it was about watching the pain etch into my features as I lost the only things I had left. Adrik. Sasha. Adrianne.
We all crouched against the walls of the narrow space at the other end of this death tunnel, the Battaglias on one side, my men on the other. Not a single face wasn’t marred by blood, ours or theirs, I couldn’t tell. But once again, red seemed to be the theme.
My eyes found Adrik in the dim emergency lighting.
He stood at the back, his face a mask of guilt and grief.
I crossed the space in two strides and grabbed him by the throat, slamming him against the wall.
“If you don’t die in the blast that’s coming,” I said, my voice low and deadly calm, “I will kill you myself. Slowly. Painfully. I’ll make sure you understand exactly what your betrayal cost. Every person who dies tonight?
That’s on you. Adrianne being taken? That’s on you.
And when this is over, when we’ve buried our dead and counted the cost of your cowardice, I’m going to put a bullet in your skull and feel nothing but relief. ”
Adrik’s eyes filled with remorse, but he didn’t fight back. Didn’t even try to defend himself. I knew how much of a hypocrite I was being at the moment, but I didn’t care. Nothing mattered if I didn’t have her. Save her. Save them both.
“I know,” he whispered. “I know.”
“Good.” I released him and turned back to the door.
The pounding intensified, more men piling up, not knowing that they were about to meet their fucking maker. They were using something heavy, trying to bash the door in.
“Everyone ready?” I asked.
Nods all around, hands covering their ears, and heads ducked away from the entrance.
The door shuddered under another massive impact. Hinges groaning as they pounded on it.
“Wait for it,” I said, my finger hovering over the detonator button.
Another impact. The door cracked.
“Wait…”
The door exploded inward, one of the panels flying right off its hinges. Vladimir’s men poured through, invading the long corridor.
“Now!” Matteo shouted.
I pressed the button and covered my head.
The explosion was deafening, amplified by the enclosed space.
The corridor behind us erupted in a wall of flame and debris. The blast wave hit hard and violently, throwing Vladimir’s men backward, shredding them to pieces, and crushing them under falling concrete.
The screams were louder than the bomb, the kind of shrieks nightmares were made of.
We were far enough, but the heat of those flames still licked at our flesh, threatening to consume anyone who looked at it for too long.
When the debris stopped falling and when the initial screams faded to moans and the crackle of fire, I looked back.
The corridor was gone. Nothing but a smoking crater filled with twisted metal and broken bodies. The entrance had been completely sealed under tons of rubble.
“That’ll slow them down,” Liam said, coughing through the smoke.
“They’ll find another way around. We have maybe ten minutes before they breach this section.” I said. We wouldn’t have been lucky enough to kill his whole entourage.
“Then we use those ten minutes.” Matt checked his weapon, assessing our chances. “Where would your father take them?”
My mind raced, going through every possibility. Vladimir was a showman. He’d want to make a statement. To break me in the most theatrical way possible.
“The ballroom. The staircase where he killed my mother. That’s where he’ll take her. He’ll want to make it poetic.”
“Then we split up,” Liam said.
I nodded in agreement. “Kirill, take half the men and secure the route to the ballroom. Keep Vladimir’s forces divided. Matt, you and your brother come with me. We go straight for Adrianne.”
“And Sasha,” Adrik said quietly.
I turned to look at him. He stood there, covered in blood and ash, looking like a dead man walking.
“You’re staying here,” I said flatly.
“Like hell I am. He has my sister.”
“I don’t trust you not to shoot me in the back.”
“Nikolai.” Adrik tried, but I wasn’t having it. He should have come to me. He should have told me Vladimir had Sasha, and this whole thing would have been different.
“That’s an order.” I turned to Kirill. “If he tries to follow, shoot him.”
Kirill hesitated first, then nodded. “Yes, Boss.”
I looked at the rest of them. My men who’d fought beside me for years, the Battaglias who’d become unlikely allies. All of them battered, bleeding, but still standing and willing to fight.
“Vladimir wants me. That’s what this has always been about. So I’m going to give him exactly what he wants.” I checked my weapon, chambering a round. “But I’m bringing Adrianne back. Whatever it takes. Even if I have to burn this entire house to the ground and drag her out of the ashes.”
“We’re with you,” Matteo said, and his men nodded.
“Then let’s go hunt.”