Chapter 25
DIMITRI
The church is dark when we pull up with three vehicles full of armed men. Yuri wasn't lying when he said I needed to be smart about this. So I brought Fyodor and Lev along with a dozen of our best soldiers. If the Kozlovs want a war, they're going to get one.
"Spread out," I order, checking my gun one more time. "Fyodor, take your team around the back. Lev, cover the east side. No one gets out of this building alive unless they're one of ours."
"What about the girl?" Fyodor adjusts his vest and the Velcro squelches in the silence. "If she's inside, we need to be careful about crossfire."
"She's the priority." I slam the magazine back into place and scowl at him. "But if anyone shoots at you, put them down. We'll sort out the bodies after."
The men move into position, and I give them two minutes to get set before approaching the front entrance.
The doors are heavy wood and probably too thick to shoot through unless we use armor piercing rounds, but our goal isn't to sit out here in a firefight.
I want in, and I want to get to Tatiana before anyone can harm her.
As it stands, I may be out of time anyway.
I signal to two of my men, and they move forward with a battering ram to break down the door. It takes three hits before the lock gives way, and the doors burst open and gunfire erupts immediately from inside.
"Get down!" I drop behind a stone pillar as bullets tear through the doorway.
The sound is deafening inside the stone walls. Muzzle flashes light up the darkness from at least four different positions. Just as Yuri predicted, they've been waiting and they are ready and armed to the teeth.
"Go!" I shout, breaking cover to shoot at the building.
The spray of return fire stunts their assault as men run in all directions, charging toward the opening.
But the stone pillar I'm using for cover starts chipping away under the barrage.
I lean around and take aim at a shooter positioned behind the door and with two quick shots, he goes down hard.
Glass shatters on the opposite side of the building as Fyodor's team breaches through the windows. The Kozlovs are forced to split their attention and it gives us the opening we need.
"Push forward!" I'm moving before I finish shouting, racing into the building with men flanking me.
We advance through the main floor using the overturned pews as cover.
One of my men goes down clutching his shoulder and another immediately drags him back behind the line.
A soldier to my left catches a round in the vest and drops but scrambles back up cursing, and I'm starting to realize Malcom has put most of his strength in this location to try to kill me.
I'm not sure whether I should be flattered or insulted.
The balcony above us erupts with gunfire, and I see three shooters raining bullets down on our position. I signal to Lev who's coming through the side entrance with his team as I duck for cover and shout, "Balcony!" I point upward, and Lev nods.
His men focus fire on the upper level, and one of the shooters stumbles forward and falls over the railing to the floor below with a sickening thud. The other two retreat deeper into the shadows, but we can still see their muzzle flashes.
I reload and move to a better position as my soldiers lay down suppressing fire on the balcony while I advance toward the stairs leading up.
Fyodor appears beside me with three of his men, and we take the stairs fast. The first shooter we encounter tries to swing his weapon around, but Fyodor puts two rounds in his chest before he can pull the trigger.
The second shooter comes out of a doorway firing wildly. Bullets tear through the wall beside my head, and I feel stone fragments cut into my cheek. I drop to one knee and return fire. He goes down but not before getting another burst off that catches one of Fyodor's men in the leg.
"Keep moving!" I'm already pushing past the bodies in my search to find her, desperate to know she's okay.
We clear the upper level room by room but find it mostly empty. The Kozlovs didn't have as many men as I expected. Maybe eight total, and most of them are already dead or wounded downstairs.
"Clear up here!" I call down to the main floor. "Finish sweeping the ground level!"
Lev's voice echoes back up. "Two more down by the side entrance! Building is secure!"
The amount of relief I feel knowing this place is cleaned up is dwarfed by my nagging feeling that Tatiana has been hurt. There is no sign that they even have her here, and if so, where is she?
I rush down the stairs and survey the damage. Five Kozlov bodies are scattered around the main floor and Gravitch casualties are better than expected. One man with a shoulder wound, another with a leg injury, and a third with some bruising from taking a round in his vest, but all of them will live.
"Find her," I growl, scanning the sanctuary, but there's no sign of Tatiana. "Every room, every closet, every corner. She has to be here somewhere."
My men spread through the church in teams. I head toward a staircase leading down with Fyodor right behind me. The basement door is open and I can see light spilling up from below.
"Careful." Fyodor has his weapon raised. "Could be one more waiting down there."
We descend the stairs slowly with our backs to the wall. The basement's smaller than I expected, with stone walls and a wet concrete floor. A man is slumped against the far wall with blood matting his hair. He's conscious but barely.
We can't pass this opportunity to get information on her, and though I haven't gotten my taste for revenge by killing Malcom myself, I won't mind doing it to this man instead. "Where is she?" I snarl.
"Where's who?" His words are slurred and his eyes can't quite focus.
"The girl." I slam him against the wall. "The one you brought here. Where is she?"
"Gone." He tries to laugh, but it comes out as a cough which has him doubled over, and I see the way his pupils are fixed and dilated. "She cracked my skull open with a brick and ran like hell."
"When?" I tighten my grip on his collar. "How long ago?"
"How the fuck should I know?" He's fading fast. "She fucking knocked me out, you cunt. Get the fuck off me!"
"Which way?" Fyodor moves closer. "Which direction did she go?"
"I said, how should I know?" The man's eyes are starting to glaze.
I release him and he slides back down the wall, leaving a blood smear on the stone. He's not going to give us anything useful and if he lives to tell about this, I haven't done right by Tatiana. So I pull my sidearm and put a bullet between his eyes before he can say anything else.
Fyodor's chest puffs out in a deep sigh and he looks away, letting me savor the moment of revenge for a second before I start talking again.
"She's on foot somewhere in this neighborhood.
" I'm already heading for the stairs, taking them two at a time.
"Get everyone outside. We're doing this block by block.
" I don't care if we have to walk the entire fucking city and check every alley and subway station. I'm not giving up until I have her.
When we regroup out front, the healthy among my men are waiting for new orders. "She escaped on her own." I address all of them at once. "She's somewhere in this area and we're gonna find her. Spread out in pairs and search every alley, every building, every possible hiding spot."
Thunder rumbles overhead and rain starts to sprinkle down over us, dampening our mood and our clothing. Within minutes, it's coming down in sheets and the visibility drops to almost nothing as the streets turn to rivers under our feet.
"This is going to make tracking harder." Lev wipes water from his face. "We could walk right past her in this weather."
"Then we search twice. I'm not leaving without her." I start moving, tucking my weapon away in my waistband and ducking my head against the rain. "Start knocking on doors. Ask everyone if they've seen a woman running through here in the past few hours."
The men pair off and spread through the neighborhood.
Fyodor stays with me, and we take the street directly behind the church.
Most of the buildings are abandoned, but there are a few with lights on.
I pound on door after door, keeping an eye on the time.
With the rain and the chill of night, Tatiana could be freezing out here.
After nearly an hour of searching slowly, I can tell my nephew is getting frustrated.
"This is taking too long." Fyodor checks his watch. "She could still be several Ks away."
"Keep looking," I growl, refusing to give up. We move to the next street over where I can see Lev questioning someone outside a corner store.
The rain is relentless. It's washing away any trail she might have left and turning the whole neighborhood into a blur of gray. I can barely see my own men moving through the streets.
But when my phone rings, I answer it immediately. "What?" I snap, not interested in being interrupted. But my entire attitude changes on a dime as soon as he speaks.
"Boss, we found something," says Oleg. "Behind a restaurant about six or seven blocks east of the church. You need to see this."
"On my way." I signal to Fyodor, and we start running through the rain. Our feet splash in puddles. We're soaked to the bone now, and nothing in my life will give me greater joy than to have her in my arms again.
"She's here." He points to a dumpster. "Behind there. But Boss, I think something's really wrong."
I push past him and round the dumpster. Tatiana's slumped on the ground with her back against the brick wall. Her eyes are closed and her shirt is soaked with blood and rain. I drop to my knees beside her and check for a pulse.
It's there but on the weak side.
"My God, Tatiana." I cup her face gently with one hand and tap her cheek with the other. "Open your eyes. Look at me," I say, tapping harder.
She doesn't respond. Her skin is cold and clammy, and I lift her shirt and see deep cuts across her stomach that are still bleeding slowly.
"Get the car here now," I order, already scooping her into my arms. "Move!" I don’t know what's wrong, but I have her now.
My God, I thought I lost her, and when a man gets as desperate as I've been for the past few hours, he'll go to any length to make his agony end.
I carry her in steady arms, on legs weak from exertion, moving back toward the direction of the cars until I see them approaching, raindrops dancing in the headlights' glow.
The car pulls up, and I climb into the back with her still cradled against my chest. Not a chance in hell I'm letting her go ever again. I order, "Drive to the penthouse. Don't stop for anything."
"Should we take her to a hospital?" Lazar looks at me in the rearview mirror with concern as the car starts moving.
"No hospitals." I pull out my phone with my free hand while cradling her with the other. "Have someone call the doctor to meet us there."
My eyes focus on her precious sleeping face. It's too dark to see much, but I can see the way her lips are chapped and her eyes are puffy from crying. "I made them pay, love. Hang in there," I whisper to her.
Malcom has no fucking clue what hell is coming for him.
And Yuri had better bring in better reinforcements because if he thinks he's gonna stop me from slaughtering the whole goddamn alliance between the Kozlovs and the Veches, he's wrong.