31. Family matters
Chapter 31
Family matters
TOMER
I f they don’t shut the fuck up, I’ll yank out my earpiece. As it is, I should probably disable my chest cam.
We don’t need footage of what I’m about to do.
Lionheart’s words fall on deaf ears. “Tomer, fucking listen to me. Do not engage on your own.”
“Maybe you should fucking engage too. This is the mission, right? Find the tango and get the intel. That’s what I’m doing.”
And then putting a bullet in his fucking skull after shooting his dick off and feeding it to him.
Crossing the back alley, I get approximately fifty feet from the vehicle when two things happen simultaneously.
“Back door opening,” Klein announces.
And a female voice screeches out from somewhere behind me, “Stop!”
Shit.
Time slows.
I freeze, put my weight on my left foot, and prepare to pivot toward her voice. Except I don’t want to take my fucking gun or eye off Viktor to do it. And my team should be watching my six.
Before I decide whether to turn, Sawyer calls out, “Maintain tango, T. I got her.” His breath is choppy, like he’s running.
Good.
Although they tried to stop me from rushing the vehicle, they still had my back. At least there’s that.
I resume forward progress toward the monster, moving at a good clip. “Viktor has eyes on me. He looked up from his phone. Probably heard the scream.”
Shep’s voice rings through the comms. “Bravo is approaching. We’ll have you covered here, T.”
“I have your six,” Leo signals.
About damn time.
Then again, this whole thing happened in ten seconds or less. It only feels way fucking longer.
“Sawyer, who is she?” I ask, my pace picking up now since I know my team is on board. “And Klein, where the fuck were you on that one?”
Seriously. HQ should have seen her coming before she screamed. What if she fucking shot me in the back of my head? She’s obviously here to stop us, whoever she is.
I don’t get an answer before Klein announces,“Movement in the vehicle. Viktor’s reaching for the door.”
My legs hurl me at full speed toward my target. Leo’s steps increase behind me. I’m five feet away from the car when Viktor gets out with his hands up, keeping his beady eyes on my gun.
“Stop, or he’ll kill you!” the female screams again, her Russian accent more prevalent.
I halt my approach, feet stopping on a dime. My spine goes ramrod straight, but I maintain some give in my knees, staying poised to adapt as needed.
Is she talking to Viktor or me?
When Leo stops beside me, my periphery catches Shep and Aaron approaching from behind Viktor. He’ll have no idea they’re on him. Unless the unidentified female tips him off since she can likely see their approach.
Fuck.
“I have the back of his skull in my sight,” Jonesy announces in a steely calm tone.
“Be a man and take off your mask when you’re pointing a gun at me,” Viktor orders me in perfect English, his tone cocky and face punchable. “No need to hide. We’re all friends here.” He narrows his eyes to slits as he throws a fierce glare over my shoulder. “Except that backstabbing whore.”
“Fuck you, Viktor,” the female screeches.
Curiosity wins out, and I finally cut my eyes over my shoulder toward the sound of the shrill, unfamiliar voice.
Katia.
Disdain coating her words, she taunts Viktor. “I guess you finally figured out what was going on, you pathetic idiot.”
Despite her thrashing to get free, Sawyer restrains her easily, holding her hands behind her back. She’s petite and pregnant, so he’s being cautious with his hold. Even still, she won’t get free.
But hold the fuck up.
Why is she here? Did she come to stop him from giving us the intel?
What the fuck is happening? Best I can tell is she played Viktor.
“Sawyer, bring her over here,” I order, needing her and Viktor together in my field of vision.
Leo’s focus on Viktor wavers slightly as he throws a quick side-eye at me.
I answer his unspoken question in a code I hope he tracks. “Little audition for them.”
It takes three seconds before Leo finally gives me a solid nod of understanding.
We need to see who’s playing what fucking role in this shit show.
Once Katia and Sawyer are a few feet behind me, I raise my NODs to the top of my head, revealing my face to Viktor while keeping my SIG pointed at him. Burning a hole into his face with my stare, I grit my teeth and return both hands to my gun’s grip.
Impatiently, I wait for him to shift his glare off Katia.
As the seconds pass, I itch more and more to get him intimately acquainted with the bullets in my weapon.
Gradually, his greasy gaze slithers off Katia. The corner of his mouth pinches and lifts into a sneer. “Lovely to see you, Tomer Stillman. How is our girl?”
My finger wobbles as it inches closer to the trigger. “She’s not our girl. She’s mine. Mention her again, and you’re dead where you stand.”
He lowers his hands to his sides as if he’s untouchable despite being a hair’s breadth from death.
To resist the urge to put a bullet between his eyes, I channel every ounce of love I have for Lettie and our baby. The vision of her rounded belly fills my mind, along with her little sweetheart smiles and sneaky laughs.
Finally, my trigger finger relaxes.“The architect said you had something for us.”
His expression goes blank for a split second, followed by a slight twitch under one eye. “Yes. Of course. I do have something.”
“No. He lies,”Katia refutes, her accent thick and voice strained.
In Russian, he accuses her of being the liar, then switches back to English as his eyes fall on me. “Silly me. I forgot you can speak the mother tongue.”
Without giving him a chance to continue, Katia flings more insults at him. When she’s done, she glares at Sawyer over her shoulder. “Let me go.”
A deep laugh oozes from Viktor’s chest, the sickening sound settling in my gut. “Interesting how you have a pregnant female restrained. Yet I move freely.”
“You’re not as free as you think.” I tip my chin over his shoulder. “Several guns pointed at your head from behind, plus ours in your face.”
Viktor mashes his lips together, the pressure turning them into thin white lines. Addressing Sawyer, he orders, “Put her in the front seat of my car, and we’ll finish our transaction another time. First, I must deal with her for attempting to stop me from delivering the architect’s message.”
“I won’t go anywhere with you. Never again.” She spits on the ground in Viktor’s direction, then whips her head to address Leo, who also has raised his night vision goggles off his eyes. “Tell him let me go, and I give you what you came for. Then I go free.”
I keep my eyes and gun on Viktor as my thoughts swirl.Is she who the architect sent or is Viktor? I don’t trust either of these fuckers.
To Sawyer, Leo utters, “Release her.”
As he complies, there’s a blur of movement in the corner of my eye, and then he issues a stern warning to Katia. “Don’t try anything stupid.”
Viktor’sfathomless eyes burn into her, and his upper lip curls. “ Ty umresh' za predatel'stvo sem'i, shlyukha .”
Fucking hell. Is he threatening to kill her for betraying the Lenkov family or the architect’s family?
Her reply enlightens us only slightly. “No. You betray the family. Not me. You let your father’s prize get away. You should have moved blonde slut when I told you. You are weak and stupid. It’s why Nikolai send me to watch you.”
Operating on instinct, I swipe my gun from Viktor to Katia, aiming the barrel between her eyes. She takes a step back and holds her hands up, but Sawyer is there to stop her from getting too far.
“Don’t you ever call her that again,” I force out, vision going hazy with my wrath.
Rage over her calling Lettie something so vile. Over teaming-up with Viktor and Nikolai. For her role in the disgusting ploy to hurt my girl.
Everything.
I want her to die. I want her and Viktor to die.
Neither are innocent.
Leo sticks out one of his giant paws in front of me. “Easy, T. She’s fucking pregnant.”
No shit. Doesn’t change the boiling fury inside me or make what she did forgivable.
Swiftly, I bat his hand away with the side of my gun and return it to where it was. “Who sent you, Katia?” I demand, my teeth grinding.
“My father. Daedalus,” she answers flatly, one brow arched in triumph. “I have what you need to send him ,” she glares at Viktor, “to prison. Where he belong.”
She’s the one we were supposed to meet. Most likely, Viktor found out and came to stop her.
My arms slowly fall, dropping the gun toward the ground. “Where is it then? The proof? Give it to us.”
Reaching behind her, she lifts the back of her blouse and moves toward her waistband.
Muscles tightening, I raise my weapon again. “Slowly.”
Reducing the speed of her movements, she lowers her chin, looking at me with condescension dripping from her sneer. “I am not one you should cross, Mr. Stillman.”
She is not our ally.
My stomach pitches and rolls with dread.
“Oversized delivery van incoming. West side of the lot,” Klein announces in a rush.
“Fuck. It’s blocking my line of sight,” Jonesy huffs.
Katia pulls out a small envelope from behind her. She must have had it tucked in her waistband, hidden under her clothes.
The deafening roar of the van’s engine echoes around the alley as it approaches us. It’s driving far too fast. This isn’t your standard late-night delivery.
Everything happens at once.
Katia thrusts the envelope into Sawyer’s chest, catching him off guard and pushing him on the ground directly in the path of the oncoming vehicle. Leo dives after him.
“Bravo team has lost visual,” Shep announces.
“Viktor’s got a gun,” Klein yells.
The black metal enters my field of vision from my left, and I turn to see Viktor pointing his gun at Katia.
My trigger finger squeezes twice. Two shots ring out.
From my weapon.
The delivery van slows on my right, and I lose sight of Sawyer and Leo on the other side. Almost instantly, the engine rumbles to life again, and it tears out of the lot.
My haggard breathing drowns out the sounds of the night surrounding me. Spinning in a circle with my gun extended, I survey the scene, looking from one spot to the next.
Katia’s nowhere to be seen.
And Viktor lies dead on the ground, a satisfying puddle of blood pooling around his head.His gun rests on the concrete near his hand.
My two bullets lodged in his brain.