12. Valentin
CHAPTER TWELVE
VALENTIN
“Brigadier, what do you think?” Dmitri Savin asks, his fist raised and dripping with blood.
“He knows something. Let’s give him a few more minutes to jog his memory,” I respond.
With a sly grin, Dmitri spins around and lands a powerful punch on the man’s face, shattering his nose. The man sits there, bloodied and weeping like a child, blood and mucus flowing freely.
“Ronaldo, tell me—who is Bianchi’s arms dealer?” I demand.
“Go to hell!” he shouts, and the men around me burst into laughter. In our line of work, it feels as though eternal damnation is a given for all of us.
I nod to Dmitri, who wastes no time. His right fist slams into Ronaldo’s jaw, followed swiftly by a punch to his eye.
Poor Ronaldo, he’s just an unfortunate Italian soldier caught in the chaos of war, no one important to me.
Dmitri is just getting warmed up. It’s shaping up to be a long, brutal day for Ronaldo.
“Damn, I miss being in the action!” Dmitri says and laughs, pausing to wipe the sweat off his forehead. It’s hard to believe that two years have flown by since he was promoted to Brigadier, right after his brother Andrei took on the role of Pakhan.
The Savins are Coalition royalty, like me, and come from a proud legacy of Brigadiers. The Savin boys are like sons to me, especially after their father died when they were teenage boys. I enjoy taking a break from the business world to spend time with them and kill an enemy.
“Nikolai, help us out here.” I gesture toward the tall, brooding man looming behind me.
Nikolai swiftly grabs an ice pick and hurls it at Dmitri.
As he catches it, Dmitri plunges the pick into Ronaldo’s right shoulder. Ronaldo’s anguished scream vibrates throughout the empty meatpacking plant.
“Other shoulder,” I command.
Dmitri positions himself for another attempt when Ronaldo interrupts, “Wait!”
I close the distance. “Now you want to talk, Ronaldo?”
“If I tell you, he’ll kill me,” he murmurs, and there’s terror in his eyes.
But it only brings a smile to my lips. “You’re already dead. But if you share what we want, we’ll make it quick. If you don’t, Dmitri will have his fun with you all day.” I nod toward Dmitri, expertly twirling the ice pick in his hand.
“I don’t know his name,” he stammers.
Dmitri raises the pick, but I hold up my flattened palm to halt him. “What do you know?”
“I know he’s connected to the Russians, that he views the Savins as his enemies. That’s why he’s supplying Bianchi.”
Interesting. The brothers and I exchange looks, caught off guard by this surprising twist.
“Where can we find this traitor?” I growl, anger boiling in my veins. One of our own is not just stealing from us, he’s turning against us by supplying the enemy with top-tier weapons on the black market.
Before he can respond, a piercing gunshot shatters the silence, sending me recoiling into myself, arms covering my face, body shrinking away in a flash as the whole room ricochets and tremors.
Ronaldo’s head jerks back as a bullet strikes dead center of his forehead. A great cascade of bright blood floods from both Ronaldo’s ears and nostrils, and a rain of human pieces pours down.
I grab my weapon and dart behind one of the vehicles for cover, expecting more fire.
Peering through the window, I realize we’re surrounded by Italian mobsters—Bianchi’s men. Gunfire erupts around the warehouse.
“Lev, watch out!” I shout as I pull the trigger, hitting the man aiming a gun at him.
Lev quickly shifts his focus to me, firing his weapon and taking down a man just to my rear. We share a knowing grin. This life of killing and dodging bullets has become second nature to us.
Dmitri and Nikolai can be heard commanding the soldiers, but Bianchi’s men have successfully outflanked us.
“Valentin, cover me!” Dmitri shouts.
I rise and unleash a rapid burst of shots across the warehouse.
Almost immediately, Dmitri emerges from behind the vehicle beside me. “Fuck!” he yells as he reloads his weapon.
The gunfire falls silent. “Savins. Valentin. Lay down your weapons and step out,” a voice commands from beyond. “You’re surrounded. We won’t kill you. Bianchi wants you alive.”
Nikolai signals to us, then says, “Five minutes.” He has called for backup, and we need to stall until then.
I’m the first to raise my hand and stand. As I move around the vehicle, the man demands, “Drop your gun, Brigadier.”
Without hesitation, I toss my gun across the room and notice Lev and the brothers stepping up behind me.
The man laughs. “This must be my lucky day! Two Coalition Brigadiers and the Colonel. I see a promotion in my future.”
Bianchi’s men circle us to grab our guns.
One of them, obviously feeling bold, throws a punch into Nikolai’s gut.
He collapses to the ground, and the man laughs while his companions join in. But underestimating Nikolai Savin is a grave mistake.
Nikolai is known as one of the most brutal men in our world, and it’s foolish to think that a single punch could take him down.
I brace myself for what’s about to happen.
The man prepares to kick Nikolai. As that kick lands squarely on Nikolai’s face, I watch in awe as his arm shoots out from the ground, driving the ice pick deep into the man’s calf.
With our enemies now wholly distracted by the man’s screams, Dmitri and I dive into a fierce fistfight with those closest to us. I pin one man to the ground with my knee and shatter his nose with a powerful strike from my knuckles.
“Fuck!” I shout, shaking my hand in pain, knowing that I might have just broken my finger.
“Time to retire, old man?” Dmitri laughs as he looks at me.
“Kiss my ass!” I reply, watching him beat the man beneath him.
He looks up at me, his eyes wide and his balance faltering as he struggles to raise himself off the ground.
The next thing I know, a gun muzzle presses firmly against the back of my head, but the fighting has finally come to an end.
“Get up,” the man orders, kicking my foot.
Reluctantly, I push myself off my knees, my labored breaths overpowering the sounds around me as I lift my hands in surrender.
The fighting has stopped, and Lev and the brothers stand with me, their hands raised in a united show of surrender. Our soldiers lie on the ground, guns pointed at them.
I sense the man’s hand tightening around the trigger, the cold metal of the gun pressing harder against the back of my head. He’s on the brink of pulling the trigger.
There’s a moment when you believe you’re ready to embrace death, but when a gun is aimed at your head, you start to realize all the reasons you have to fight for life.
I’ve been preparing for this moment for quite a while, and that’s why Andrei’s request to retire feels like a personal affront.
Fear of death is not what drives me. Yet there’s an unsettling question that haunts me, and the sole reason why I’m not ready to die. Would I have killed her?
A chilling gasp escaped my lips as the gunshot shattered the silence around me. The man behind me suddenly collapses at my feet. More bullets whiz past us, and I watch as men fall, one after another, a line of them.
“Shit!” I hiss, turning to make a run for cover.
As I take in the sight of Bianchi’s men lying defeated on the ground, drenched in crimson, I shift my gaze to the platform from which the shots rang out. My mind naturally braces for Nikolai’s soldiers, but what I see instead leaves me both shocked and fucking turned on.
“Hello, Daddy Brigadier,” she purrs, her sultry voice wrapping around each word. Her hand firmly grasps her weapon, but it’s that sleek black outfit hugging her curves perfectly that I’m staring at.
My cock is straining against my trousers and my heart races as I groan, “Hello, sweetheart.”
Standing beside her is a group of young women nearly her age, all dressed in striking, tight outfits and wielding weapons like little killers. It’s truly impressive to see my little girl commanding her own squad. Maybe I’ve been underestimating my girl after all.
“Who are you?” Nikolai growls, swiftly brandishing his weapon and aiming it at her.
“Lexi,” she replies nonchalantly, her eyes rolling slightly. “Krasotka,” she adds with a smirk, glancing over to me.
“What are you doing here?” He tightens his grip on the weapon.
She tsks playfully. “What you really mean, Colonel, is ‘thank you’ for saving you—and you’re welcome.”
“Do you know this girl?” Nikolai asks, lowering his weapon as he quickly realizes she poses no threat. After all, she saved us from the Italian mob.
I chuckle. “Well,” I say, rubbing the back of my neck. “She’s the one who kidnapped me.”
“Aww, Daddy Brigadier, is that really all I am to you, a mere kidnapper? I thought I meant more to you, especially seeing…” She gestures to the bruise around her neck. “After all, you did mark me as yours during your birthday party.”
“Is that the woman you danced with at your party?” Dmitri asks, a playful smirk gracing his lips.
“What the fuck? I’ve been searching for her all week, and you’ve been fucking her the entire time?” Nikolai exhales sharply, glancing over at her before a slow, confident smirk creeps across his face.
I arch an eyebrow in his direction, and he quickly raises his hands in playful defense.
The brothers burst into laughter. “I never expected this, old man,” Dmitri quips, smirking.
“Valentin, she’s like half your age,” Nikolai laughs, emphasizing the striking age difference.
She gazes up at the ceiling as helicopters draw near. They are undoubtedly the forces of Nikolai. The women around her start to withdraw, gradually stepping away from the platform and fading into the shadows at the back of the warehouse.
“Stay alive, Brigadier, at least until you give me the information I want, or we decide to kill each other,” she giggles, playfully kicking her leg as if we’re engaged in a light-hearted chat.
As she prepares to leave, she pauses to look at me. A playful smile crosses her face as she blows a kiss. In an instant, she and her team vanish from the warehouse, leaving no trace behind.
“What does the girl want from you?” Nikolai quickly asks me. “You never told us why she kidnapped you.”
“She wants to kill Petrov.”
His nostrils flare as he puts his thumb on one side and blows out blood, red droplets splattering across the cement floor. “Why?”
“He hurt her friend. I think he may have done something to her, too.”
“What do you think?” Nikolai asks Dmitri.
I think we need to find Petrov and find out what he did to the girl,” Dmitri responds. “Before we bury a Brigadier,” he cautions me with a side glance.
“Are you going to kill her for killing Fedir?” Dmitri raises an eyebrow at Nikolai.
Nikolai shakes a man’s blood off his knuckles. “Nah. Fuck him! He’s a weasel.” He looks at me and adds, “Unless you want me to?”
Dmitri places his hand on my shoulder. “Brigadier, you know she can’t go unpunished for kidnapping you.”
I’m fully aware of what that implies. It means we must make an example of the girl.
“She’s already being punished,” I tell him, and Nikolai laughs.
“Yeah, we saw how you punished her,” Nikolai jokes, grabbing his balls.
“We have more urgent matters to address than the girl,” Dmitri says, tucking his gun into the back of his pants. “We need to find the fucking thief and deal with him.”
As soldiers charge into the warehouse with their weapons drawn, they quickly inspect the lifeless bodies on the ground to confirm that none are still breathing. Those dumb fuckers, now corpses, will be sent back to Bianchi as a warning.
“Let’s keep it between us that a group of girls saved us,” Nikolai sheepishly suggests, lowering his head in shame.
I think we can all agree on that.
The brothers turn away as the soldiers begin to clean up the dead bodies. I call out to them, “Hey.” They pause and look back. I step closer, wanting this discussion to remain between the three of us. “Do you think the ladies know her?” I ask, referring to Elise and Ivy.
Dmitri shakes his head. “Nah, Elise would have recognized her at your birthday party.”
Nikolai chimes in, “Yeah, I asked Ivy about a girl named Lexi, and she denied knowing her as well.”
I take a deep breath and step back, my instincts on high alert. There’s something off about Lexi. She’s clearly hiding something more than just her search for Petrov.
“Thanks,” I say, making my way to my vehicle.
As I step inside, shielded by the dark glass, I reach for my pill bottle and hurriedly swallow one. With my head resting against the seat, I shut my eyes, trying to steady my breath—the breath I might not have if I had died just moments ago.
I press my hands against my face and exhale slowly, relieved to be alive. Lexi showed up just in time, but how did she know where I was? Is she stalking me again? Perhaps it’s time for me to pay her an unannounced visit and teach her a lesson.