29. Chapter 29 #2
Luca filled my thoughts with his beautiful face.
I wasn’t an angel. He was. The one sent to heal me.
He deserved to live and not face his monsters any longer, even if I died.
As a surge of energy hit me, renewed by visions of Luca, I managed to get my knife out and repeatedly stabbed Kozlov in the side, hoping I had hit at least a kidney or a lung.
But he barely weakened, now choking the life out of me in his massively strong hands.
I was flailing and failing. Darkness was now consuming me, and soon, the pain was vanishing…
I’m so sorry, Luca. I tried.
Suddenly, the man went limp and fell on top of me. I gasped for breath, already winded from his blows, being choked, and now from his dense body. I looked up from the floor to see Sully smirking at me with a raised brow and a smoking gun in his hand.
“Sorry, I’m late to the party. I told you to wait for me.”
“Get… this fucker… off.”
He helped me yank the heavier man off and roll him onto his back, then he helped me stand and steady myself.
“Thanks.”
I pulled out my spare gun and shot Kozlov several times in the face out of spite.
“I know you wanted to kill him yourself, but it seemed like you were failing.”
“Yeah, thanks for reminding me. I had no idea.”
His smile was bright as he slammed me on the back with a brotherly pat that nearly knocked me to the floor again. “That’s the spirit.”
Soon, Khai and Maverick showed up and found me a bleeding mess.
Fuck, I really need a vacation. I was tired of getting hurt.
Usually, I was more careful than this, but too many times, I’d been caught unaware.
Or, maybe I was too distracted from Luca.
Then again, it was thinking about him that renewed my energy.
Whatever the reason, Luca was here to stay.
“You alright?” Maverick asked, grabbing my face to the light Khai had plunged us in. I blinked at the brightness while Maverick had a tight hold of me, looking at my face and eyes. “You’ve had a concussion. I suggest, now that this is over, you relax.”
“You’ve read my mind.”
He grinned and patted my sore face.
“Fucker… So, are we all clear?”
Khai nodded. “They’re all dead.”
“Awesome.” I pulled out my burner phone and called Sid. “It’s done,” I said when he answered.
“Excellent news. Layla has been keeping track via satellite, but we couldn’t see shit once you were inside since she had their system down. You all okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. Burn the place. Let law enforcement sort the shit out. They won’t care for long, knowing the local Russian mob has been taken out of D.C.
They won’t be able to trace shit to us. We’ve perhaps also leaked that there’s a rival faction vying for power against the Russians, while leaking all information we found on their child trafficking scheme.
Meanwhile, Layla let it be known that the contract against us is off. ”
“Sounds good.”
I hung up, dropped the phone to the ground, and smashed it. I grabbed the SIM card and broke it, then shoved it into the pocket of my combat pants.
“He said to burn it,” I told them.
Sully made praying hands with puppy dog eyes. “Ooo, can I light it up? Pretty please with sugar on top.”
I scoffed. “Psycho. Sure, have at it.”
Sully wrapped an arm around my shoulder. “That’s why you’re my BFF?”
“Come on. Surely this place has some sort of starter fluid,” Maverick said, heading out of the room and downstairs.
We stepped out into the cool evening and gathered all the bodies, dragging them into the house.
We were all exhausted and sweating with effort.
It didn’t help that I was still hurting from my blowout with Kozlov.
Then we headed toward the garden shed. Sure enough, there was kerosene, gasoline, and propane.
Sully grabbed a few rags to start the fire, and we headed back into the house.
Each of us poured the flammable liquids throughout the house, upstairs and downstairs, while Sully waited with way too much glee and excitement.
We all met outside, stinking of fumes, and waited for Sully to start the bonfire. He headed inside and lit up the upstairs, then headed downstairs and dropped a flaming rag onto the floor.
We all took generous steps back from Sully’s maniacal laughter. Good thing he was on our fucking side. I had no idea how Malik held his leash, but he kept him relatively under control.
Once the flames took hold and consumed the house, we got out of there.
Layla would watch via satellite when the firemen and EMS showed up.
Eventually, there would be a big investigation, and it would probably end up in the lap of the FBI, but they would never pin it on us.
Any evidence that was found, Layla would purge it.
Suddenly, a wave of dizziness hit me, and I fell into Khai. “Whoa. My head isn’t happy.”
“Come on. I’ll drive you back to your boy,” he said, taking my arm and walking back toward his car a few blocks away. Once we got in his car and buckled up, he took off back toward the Capitol.
Fuck, I was going to sleep for a year once I got back. And I definitely needed a vacation.