29. Chapter 29
M y fingers itched to pull the trigger of my rifle as I watched one of the guards make his rounds in the front of the house.
He had his own rifle loosely held in his hands, but ready to fire on any intruders.
All the men surrounding the block of a house were on high alert, ready for anything.
Their formation and timing were tight, and that would also be their undoing.
Keeping things random would’ve made it more difficult for us.
This wouldn’t be an easy job. No infiltration was easy, but my last one would be a walk in the park in comparison to this, and I still bled.
We couldn’t afford to make mistakes, and I needed to get back to my Luca, preferably alive and in one piece.
He was my motivation, yet he was my distraction, and I needed to shove him into the deepest recesses of my mind to focus on the job.
This was for him, after all. I owed him my success.
While I preferred to work alone, I was grateful for my brothers fighting alongside me. We stood a greater chance of taking Kozlov out and surviving it.
The evening was chilly and still fucking humid, so despite the cooler temperatures, sweat beaded on my back and in my pits.
Some of it was from the tension as well.
Since I had more to lose, I wasn’t as calm as I normally was.
This was going to be a fucking problem if I didn’t get my shit in gear and calm the fuck down.
Malik wasn’t wrong, stating that having a loved one could get you killed, but I stopped caring.
Even if I died, it would be worth it to have had Luca in my life.
My biggest regret became the most important thing in my life.
I guess that wouldn’t be a regret after all.
Gurgling sounds were heard through my earpiece as Sully slit throats in stealth. That was our cue to begin in the front.
“Nothing like the sounds of choking in the early evening,” Sully whispered in our ears.
“Focus,” Maverick growled.
I looked at Khai, who had his own rifle, but his sword was attached to his back. Interesting how we all had our own preferences for how we killed and what weapons we used.
“I’ll take the one on the left,” I said.
As soon as the two guards crossed each other in the front, perfectly timed, Khai and I lifted our rifles. “Three… two… one… fire.” We dropped the two men with headshots.
I swirled my finger in the air and pointed at the house. It was time to break in. Hopefully, Layla was on top of the security issue, but she hadn’t failed us yet.
We ran in a crouch across the long expanse of lawn to the front door, then dragged the bodies into the bushes to buy us some time. We expected more men, but not for ten more minutes unless Sully managed to take them out, too. Then we dug into their pockets to find the keys.
It didn’t take long for Khai to find the right key and open the door.
We stepped in and closed it quietly behind us.
With our rifles trained on potential danger, we went on the hunt for our prey.
We expected nine men in the house, including Kozlov, from your research.
Hopefully, that stayed true, but we also expected worst-case scenarios.
Khai headed off to the left to handle the men downstairs, as I traversed up the stairs to take out the men up there.
We expected Kozlov to be in his office upstairs, though there was no guarantee.
No matter where he was, he was my kill. If my brothers got to him first, they were to subdue him until I could get there.
With my gun raised and ready, I slowly made my way upstairs. Everything was quiet, so our stealthy infiltration had worked so far. No alarm had been raised…
Well, that descended quickly.
“What the fuck?” said a man coming down the stairs with his rifle attached to his back and not ready, proving they hadn’t expected us right at this moment.
I fired a round into his head before he could sound the alarm.
He dropped, but his tumbling down the stairs wasn’t exactly quiet.
I rushed up the flight of stairs, so I wasn’t cornered and made my way into a room that was empty with the door open.
I held a bated breath, waiting for the sound of men coming out to see what was going on.
Sure enough, two men came out with their guns drawn and ready. I cursed the noise and the end of our stealth. They knew we were here now and ready for potential intruders.
“Check the security feed,” one of them whispered into his earpiece.
They won’t find shit other than their security had been tampered with, which would be a dead giveaway to our presence, but they already knew something was amiss.
The idiots didn’t look behind them when they glanced down the stairs to see their comrade dead.
“Fuck,” the other said, and before he could speak again, I put a bullet in his brain. A fraction of a second later, his partner was dead, too.
Time to speed things up .
“We’ve been made,” I whispered. “Be ready.”
“Confirmed,” they said one after the other, except for Sully, who said, “Oh, goodie. Now for some fun.”
The place was too damned open, but I had no choice but to move forward.
“It’s clear outside. Wait for me,” Sully said. “I’ll be there in two shakes of a lamb’s tail.”
I rolled my eyes but maintained my hiding space to wait.
If Kozlov was in his office with his other men, I needed the backup, so I stayed put and kept my gun trained and ready in case any came out to investigate, but I doubted it.
They would rally around their boss to protect him.
Even if Kozlov were alone, he shouldn’t be underestimated.
What I hadn’t expected was that the room I hid in was attached to another.
That someone would sneak behind me and punch my kidneys until I dropped to my knees.
Pain radiated through my already bruised and broken body.
Before I could get up and train the gun on them, they kicked it out of my hands, nearly breaking my fingers, and it went skidding across the hallway and down the balcony to the floor below.
Fuck .
There was no time to grab another weapon as I defended myself from more blows with heavy steeled boots.
“You will pay for my men and your betrayal. I should’ve killed you that day instead of wasting my time interrogating you.”
The room was too dark to make out his features, but his deep Russian accent was a dead giveaway. He was the very man who had me tortured and who hurt my Luca.
Even at sixty-two years old, he was a powerhouse.
He kicked again, and I blocked it with crossed arms. It hurt my forearms like a bitch, but better than my face or vital organs.
I managed to stand and blocked him several times.
While I wasn’t a slouch regarding height and build, Kozlov had several inches on me as well as bulk.
Not to mention sneaking up on me and catching me off-guard.
Each blow felt like concrete hitting me over and over.
I hopped back to give myself some breathing room from this monster of a man while keeping my eyes pinned for other dangers from his men, who could take me out while I was defenseless and distracted. I needed to get him to make mistakes.
“Why Luca? What is the boy to you? How could you fuck a child.”
He smirked as we circled each other. “He’s beautiful, no? I’ve wanted him since he was much younger. He’s delicious, no?”
Instead of getting Kozlov to make a mistake, I was on the verge of making one in my anger. He’d turned the tables on me and knew exactly where it hurt the most with his words. I took a couple of swings at him and missed.
When his fist came at me, I blocked it again and countered it with my own punch to his solid gut.
Fuck. There was no time to shake the pain from my knuckles, and I was growing tired from constantly being on the defensive.
He was bigger and older, surely he’d tire soon with the amount of energy he put into hurting me.
“Don’t blame me for wanting him. You, of all people, should understand since you fuck him, too.”
Again, his words were as strong as his punches. He knew my weaknesses, reminding me of how worried I had been about being like those other men to Luca. “Bullshit! He’s not a boy. I don’t fuck boys, you sick fuck!”
He chuckled, but it was sinister rather than humorous. “Oh, you would’ve given in to him eventually. He’s hard to resist.”
“Fuck you!”
He barreled at me, and before I could deflect him, his head landed in my sternum, and it felt like my lungs ceased to exist. When I landed hard against the wall, I nearly passed out.
Before I could black out, I took a desperate gasp, filling my lungs with precious air, but not before he slammed me over and over with punches to my sides and gut.
It was nearly impossible to block them, and I was quickly weakening.
He had the advantage, and I struggled to get out from underneath him.
My teeth rattled in my mouth as a crushing blow slammed into my face.
“You will die painfully!” he growled at me. “You took my precious boy. My diamonds. My men. My bank! All of you at The District will perish, and I will dismember each of you personally before dumping you into the ocean for the sharks. You will be so mutilated, not even God will remember you.”
I reached for my sheathed knife in my thigh while I tried to block his blows as best as I could. He had me at a disadvantage, making it hard to get any purchase to hurt him. Stars filled my vision, and blackness tried to blanket my mind.