24. Chapter 24
D espite putting some men on Luca for his protection, I hated leaving him.
He wouldn’t truly be safe until I was back with him.
I probably shouldn’t have allowed him to go shopping at all with his mother, but dammit, they needed to bond.
I’d give anything to have my mother back.
It should’ve been my father who had been killed.
I’d just have to deal. The men were the best. He’d be safe.
I could’ve just brought him to the District, but he and Sully did not get along at all.
Sully had calmed down the past few weeks, but Luca didn’t put up with the nut job.
There was no way around it. While Sully was my brother in a way, he was off his rocker half the time.
I didn’t blame him for it, but when he let go of his control, he was fucking violent, and when that happened, he left behind a wake of destruction and blood while listening to disco, of all things. Weirdo.
Speaking of the devil. When I stepped into Malik’s office, Sully was standing next to the older man, who had rested his face in his hands.
Malik exuded exacerbation. Sully was good at irritating people, but I knew there was more going on here.
Malik was so deep in the closet, not even the brightest of lights would lead him out of it.
It was his upbringing and religion. But Sully loved to torment him.
To see how much he could get Malik to open up finally.
I honestly wasn’t sure if it was Sully being his typical asshole self or if he had a thing for his mentor.
It was hard to tell. Even if he wanted Malik, there was no way they’d ever be together.
Malik would never allow it. He was too in control.
Hell, we were all control freaks. We had to be.
But Malik was a steel wall with barbed wire and electric fencing.
Malik must have sensed me since he looked up when I walked in. His face was one of relief. Then I glanced at Sully, who looked stabby for interrupting him. “Leave us, Sullivan.”
That was all he had to say to make the redhead finally walk out without one word or complaint. Interesting. Sully never obeyed unless it served his purpose.
I said nothing about the two men as I sat down in front of his desk.
It wasn’t my business. He slid a folder across his desk, and I picked it up to review the contents.
Inside were photos of the three men I had pried out of Sergey and Evgeniy, which I had already seen.
All three were brutish men. They were in their late thirties and early forties.
Pushkin Serov had a shaved head and looked like his face was beaten in with a cast iron skillet.
Gregori Nikitin was the youngest at thirty-eight and attractive were it not for the black eyes that probably saw more death than I had.
And Damir Belov was bland and balding, but I knew there was nothing bland about him.
No matter how many times I had read about these men, what they had done to both boys and girls made my skin crawl.
No amount of soap and hot showers would rid me of it.
What I hadn’t seen already were even more gruesome images of kids beaten and raped in the file.
My jaw ticked, itching to put these bastards down, but not before I made them suffer as much as possible.
“There’s a warehouse in Bethesda, Maryland, where these men apparently sell children to the highest bidder.
Right now, all is quiet on that front. Originally, we were going to have you take them out one by one in their homes, but since you excel at infiltration, I’m going to send you into the warehouse.
And no more taking in strays when you take these men out, Dante.
If there are children in there, we will call the authorities. ”
I glanced at Malik and scowled. He would’ve done the same, just like he did with Sully. Sully was his own stray, so he could fuck right off. Then again, he wasn’t fucking his stray as I was.
“They are closing up shop and moving on to who knows where, according to Layla. She’s dug deep in the Dark Web, and there’s something you should know. The reason behind them closing up this particular building and going deep underground.”
I tensed, waiting for the bad news.
“There’s a hit on your boy and his mother, which means they are not only aware that his father’s death wasn’t an accident but that they know Luca is back.
Sid and I still aren’t sure if those who hired us to take out that faction where you found Luca are the same people who have put a hit on your boy.
We are still digging through that mess, but our instincts say yes. The coincidence is too great.”
My first instinct was to run out of there and rush back to Luca, but I needed to calm the fuck down and breathe. If this were an immediate hit, Malik would have said so.
“I see that look on your face. I know you care about the boy, but I need you to focus. Take out these men. You already have people guarding Luca and his mother. Get rid of them, then you won’t have to worry about anyone hurting the boy.
While you take care of these Russians, Sid and I are making a plan to infiltrate Misha Kozlov’s estate.
Once you wrap up this job, bring Luca here. He’ll be safer.”
He was right. I needed to focus on removing the threat instead of going into protection mode and hiding. Take the offensive path. Take charge of the situation.
“We may not be one hundred percent of his hiring us for the job where you found the boy, but Kozlov’s on the boy’s list, so we take him out regardless.”
I nodded and left his office with the file in hand.
Fuck, it would’ve been safer had I left Luca at my house. At least I had an exceptional security system. His mother had one, too, but not nearly as good as mine. Plus, my windows were bulletproof, and my doors were steel.
I headed toward our arsenal room to stock up on guns and ammo.
Then I strapped on a Kevlar vest on top of my T-shirt, generally wearing one only for the bigger jobs.
When I was ready, I searched for Maverick and found him in the library with his booted feet propped on the table, leaning back, reading and sipping coffee as his chair teetered on two legs.
His long hair was pulled back into a messy bun, and he wore reading glasses that were perched on the end of his nose.
It was a strange sight for someone not that old.
He was only thirty-eight, but his eyes were about fifty-eight. His joke.
“Hey, Mav,” I said and sat down next to him.
“What’s up, Dante?”
“I need a favor.”
He set his book down, removed his feet from the table, and turned to face me. “I’m listening.”
“The assignment I’m going on is risky, but that’s irrelevant. There’s a hit on Luca. If I don’t come back. If something were to happen, I need you to go to his mother’s house and get him out of there. Take her, too, but she’s not a priority like he is. I trust you the most to do this for me.”
“You got it. And what if something does happen to you and I have him? What then? What do you want me to do with him?”
“Just bring him here. Keep him protected until the threat is gone. He’s already listed as my beneficiary. He gets everything.”
He gave a curt nod and went back to reading. There was no ‘You’ll be fine’ or ‘Don’t think like that.’ It was the life of a killer. We always went in, knowing we might not come back.
“Thanks, man.”
I glanced at my watch as I stood to leave. It was time. I needed the cover of darkness to get me through it.
When I reached the warehouse in Maryland forty minutes later after fighting traffic, because when were we not fighting traffic in the D.C.
area, I parked two blocks away in an alley.
I shoved on a beanie to keep my hair away from my face and tossed on a black long-sleeved T-shirt over my Kevlar to cover my arms for camouflage.
I counted back from twenty to calm my heart and nerves, then I punched out a quick text to Layla, telling her I had arrived and to do her magic to keep me in stealth on their cameras. When I was ready, I turned my phone off and tossed it in my car.
The building was nondescript and made from brick.
It was old, but there was nothing that stood out, surrounded by other similar buildings.
The large windows were blacked out with paint on the inside, keeping the place anonymous.
Why were they moving locations? I doubt the cops would ever be suspicious of it.
Unless they were worried about an attack from us when I interrogated their two men.
With a deep breath, I held it as I took out two sentries by the back door to the warehouse. Like the time I met Luca, I needed to be cautious but move quickly, not wanting the enemies to regroup and fortify.
I tested the metal door, but it was locked, so I had to waste precious time digging around the dead men for keys. I found a ring of them, and after trying four times, I found the right key. Now, I prayed the door didn’t make too much noise, which it didn’t.
The lighting inside was dim, and the place had the faint smell of bleach, trying to mask urine and mold.
There were no sounds to be heard, making my footsteps sound like a giant was walking.
The first room I entered had several human-sized cages, but no children were being kept there.
That should’ve been my first clue that something was wrong because as soon as I stepped into the next room, a floodlight hit my eyes, blinding me, and then I was suddenly hit by throbbing pain and darkness.
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