24. Chapter 24 #2
I gasped awake to the freezing chill of water dumped on me.
My head pounded, and my brain suffered waves of dizziness while my stomach roiled with nausea, but a concussion was the least of my worries.
My shoulders strained in pain from being suspended from the ceiling in the cold room empty of everything other than concrete, me and someone sitting in a chair smoking a cigarette.
The glow from his drag was the only warmth in here. The single bulb hanging barely gave off any light, making it hard to get my bearings.
My entire body was wet and shivering, and I tried not to panic to find myself completely naked.
As my eyes adjusted, the man before me started to unfold into a picture.
He was older, in his sixties, with black hair threaded with gray.
He was tall and broad and, despite his age, looked like he could crush a man’s head with his hands alone.
And I instantly knew who he was. I’d seen countless images of him during my research to take him down.
Misha Kozlov.
If I were any other man, I’d be pissing on the floor right about now. But I was more worried about Luca. If this were a trap for me, they’d be after him right now, and I wasn’t there to fucking protect him.
“Who are you? I know who you work for, but which one are you?” he asked in a deep and gravelly voice thick in Russian.
I said nothing because my father made sure I could tolerate torture through his abuse. Though, I wasn’t sure that was his intention.
The cattle prod slammed into my thigh behind me and way too close to my nuts, sending painful waves of electricity through my body.
My muscles tensed and pulled, trying to escape the pain.
It was probably only seconds but felt like an eternity.
When they backed off, my body grew limp, yanking my shoulders from dead weight.
“Someone has been killing my men and the banker. Not only did you kill my men, but you stole something of value from me. I didn’t know who at first until the boy turned up.
Then I knew it was the very men I hired.
The District has betrayed me, hence my little trap.
It worked perfectly, no?” He tapped his head with a finger from his cigarette hand and smiled, letting me know how fucking clever he was.
It was cold and sinister, and I wasn’t sure my shudder was from the residual electricity, the cold, or him.
“You were only to take out those men and leave. Instead, you stole my diamonds and my slave. The boy is mine. He was to be left alone. Your business has backstabbed me, and now you all must die. I cannot let this slide.”
Sid and Malik were correct in their assumption that this was about Misha and the boy, along with the diamonds.
“Which one are you?” he asked again.
I wasn’t about to give any information about my family, either. He could hurt me or kill me, and I’d never betray them.
My eyes rolled into the back of my head, increasing the pain and pounding my skull as my body tightened and shuddered from the electricity over my wet body. Thoughts grew black and blank, consumed by pain. It was all my brain could register. A coppery taste filled my mouth as I bit my tongue.
A gasping and painful sound echoed through the empty room as my body fell limp again, and the pain stopped, realizing the sounds came from me.
“I can do this all day.”
“You’re not doing anything. He is,” I retorted, though I didn’t recognize the hoarseness in my voice. “See all these scars? Nothing will get me to talk.”
Kozlov scoffed and dropped his cigarette onto the ground, and put it out with the heel of his shoe.
“Oh, I know a stubborn man when I see him. You aren’t a ruthless killer without being one. But no worries. We will break you, then we will break The District. Meanwhile, I will reclaim what is mine.”
He stood and nodded at the other man I couldn’t see behind me.
“Bring him to the meat locker and hose him down. Leave him in there on ice, and then pull him out after five minutes. Use the prod again, but don’t let him die, or you die.
Once you have answers, then you can do what you want with him.
” Then he faced me and pushed me with a finger, leaving me swaying, then he walked off.
So, he didn’t want Luca killed. The hit was to draw us out, and it fucking worked perfectly. That didn’t mean Luca’s mother wouldn’t be collateral damage.
I wasn’t afraid for me but for Luca. My only thoughts now were to find a way out of there and get to him. The question was how, or if I even could, if they did too much damage.
Once the door was shut behind Kozlov, a massive Russian stood in front of me, grinning with a toothpick hanging out of his mouth.
I instantly recognized him as Pushkin Serov.
As much as I wanted to react and kick the bastard in the face, I needed to get down.
There was no escaping until my hands were free.
“Behave,” he said. “I know you’ll try to escape, but you cannot.”
Before I could say anything, he took the cattle prod and zapped me again for so long in my armpit that I thought he’d surely kill me.
When he stopped, my body was unable to do anything except hang there like a slab of meat ready for the market.
He stood on the chair and cut my bonds. I fell into a heap on the floor, landing hard on my shoulder and hip and knocking the wind out of me.
I didn’t even fucking wait for him to torture me, needing to quickly react before I was too weak to do anything else.
My hands were still bound in front of me, but I had no choice.
If he got me into that meat locker, I was done for.
With my remaining strength and stars flashing in my eyes from the effort, I quickly stood and teetered while trying to get my muscles to cooperate.
He approached me with the cattle prod and a smile that just begged me to fight back, so he could hurt me.
I took a step back until I felt stable, then when he was close enough, I swung my leg in a spin kick right at his head.
He teetered but didn’t fall. Once I regained my balance, and he regained his, I jumped and kicked out with two feet on his chest. He stumbled back, and right when he was about to right himself, he fell on his ass while I landed on my back, nearly knocking the wind out of me.
The cattle prod rolled away, and I scrambled for it while trying to find my lungs.
Once it was in my hands, I slammed it into his throat and turned it on.
His body shuddered, and his eyes rolled back into his head.
Now that he was down, I stood on my knees and beat his head over and over with the prod into his fucking ugly face.
The only thing keeping me going was adrenaline and hatred. Once those wore off, I’d be dead unless I could get out of there.
The man groaned through his bleeding face as I grabbed his gun and fired two rounds into it to shut him up.
As quickly as I could, I searched his pockets and found a knife, and cut away the rope.
After another search, I found an extra magazine for the gun.
Who knew how many men I’d have to face to get out of here.
Wiping my running nose with the back of my hand, I quickly looked around for my belongings, but nothing was there.
There was no more time to search. I yanked and tugged the bigger man’s clothes off and put them on.
They were baggy, and I had to tighten the belt to keep the pants up. And they fucking stunk like body odor.
Move, move, move.
My entire body flared with pain, and I was dizzy from the concussion, but I had to keep moving. With my stolen gun out in front of me, I made my way out of there. No longer was I on the hunt. I was prey and needed to focus on getting to my Luca.
Two Russians were ahead, smoking and relaxing, so I quickly took them out and kept moving. Thank fuck, I researched the layout of the building. It wasn’t in detail, but I got the gist of where I was.
Stepping over the dead bodies, I kept moving.
There!
A door was ahead of me that had an exit sign, but on the left of me was a room with men speaking Russian.
I had no idea how many were in there. Fuck it.
I stepped through the threshold and counted off the men as I fired rounds into them.
There were four in total, and too bad Kozlov wasn’t one of them.
More men had to be around, but I wasn’t sticking around to find out how many. I burst through the door and into the cool evening, firing one more round into a man smoking by the door.
I limped my way to my car, continuously checking behind me for anyone following. All was clear, but I had to keep moving, which wasn’t easy with my concussion and every inch of me in pain.
Once I reached my car, I dropped to the ground and ran my hand underneath, yanking off a magnetic box.
I opened it and pulled out my spare keys.
With one more glance behind me, I got in the car and took off.
A few miles away later, in a clearing by the Potomac River, I stopped the car, got out, and opened the trunk.
I pulled out a bag with spare clothes and quickly changed.
Then I opened up a box full of weapons and ammo.
Once I was in my own things, I breathed easier.
With a quick text to Sid, I drove off.
Now to get Luca.