Chapter 9 Vadim
VADIM
My watch buzzes and pulls me out of sleep sometime before midnight.
I open my eyes slowly and realize I'm still curled around Danica with my arm wrapped tightly around her waist. She's snoring softly and the sound is surprisingly pleasant.
I figured she'd run out of here the moment I fell asleep.
It's nice to know she didn't feel the need to take off.
But I'm rock hard and pressed against her back, and every instinct is screaming at me to wake her up and take what I want. I just won't cross that line no matter how badly I need the release.
I can force her to marry me and I can make her live in my house and sleep in my bed. But I won't force that particular act on her because even I have limits to what I'm willing to do.
My watch buzzes again, and I carefully extract my arm from around her body to check it. She makes a small noise in her sleep and rolls onto her stomach but doesn't wake up. I grab my phone from the nightstand and check the notification that woke me.
Jovan 11:47 PM: We found him. Positive ID on Andrei at residence on Kosovska Street. Moving now?
I'm instantly alert. We've been hunting this bastard for seven months and I can't miss an opportunity to take him when he's so close. That jewelry store was a dead end, like everything else. I feel like I’m chasing my tail, but maybe this will be our night.
I type back quickly with one hand while I climb out of bed.
Vadim 11:48 PM: Don't move yet. I'm coming. Ten minutes.
I dress without turning on any lights and holster my weapon at my hip.
Danica's still sleeping peacefully when I leave the bedroom and close the door behind me.
She has no idea what I'm about to do, and that's probably for the best. The less she knows about my work, the safer she'll be if things go wrong tonight.
Outside, the air is cool and Vuk's waiting in his car at the curb with the engine already running. I slide into the passenger seat, and he pulls away from my house before I've even closed the door properly. If he's this eager, it must be good intel.
"How sure are you?" I ask while I buckle my seatbelt.
"We're certain, Boss." Vuk takes a corner too fast. "Jovan saw him enter the house an hour ago and he hasn't left."
"Who else is there?" I check my gun to make sure a round is chambered and it's ready to go.
"Boris, Nenad, and Jovan are already watching the exits." Vuk runs a red light while looking both directions, but at this hour, no one is out and about. "If he tries to run, we'll see him."
"What's the plan when we get there?" I slide my gun back into the holster. Usually, I'm the one calling the shots, but I trust my guys, and Vuk has been with me long enough that he understands how I move.
"We go in quiet and confirm it's really him." Vuk glances at me. "Then we take him."
I shake my head and roll my neck to release some of the tension. I'm not used to sleeping in bed with someone. I feel stiff.
"No, we need to be absolutely certain he killed Dominic before we do anything permanent." I watch the buildings flash past. "If we're wrong, this could start a war we can't finish."
"Yeah, good…" He grunts. "So we'll take him somewhere to question him, then."
Vuk cuts the headlights before we reach Kosovska Street and coasts the car to a stop behind a delivery truck. I grab my gun from its holster and check the clip before chambering a round. The street is deserted and most of the houses are dark at this hour.
We walk through an alley that runs between two homes that look abandoned and come out near the target house. Nenad's already there waiting for us in the shadow of a fence. He nods when he sees me and keeps his hand on the gun tucked into his waistband.
"Lebedev went inside around eleven and we haven't seen him leave." Nenad seems calm for how important this night is. It's good. It means he understands what's at stake here. "Boris is watching the back entrance in case he tries to run."
"How many other men are in there?" I study the house from our position across the street, hoping these guys have more intel than just an idea that Lebedev is inside.
"Four on the ground floor, at least, maybe two upstairs." Nenad points toward the second story. "We think he's in the room with the light on."
The house looks abandoned with weeds growing wild in the yard and paint flaking off the siding in chunks.
One of the downstairs windows has plywood nailed over it and the front porch sags in the middle.
It's exactly the type of place someone would use as a temporary hideout, though I'm not really holding my breath.
I really need to stop being pessimistic.
"Anyone else go in or out?" Vuk pulls his own gun and checks the chamber.
"Nobody." Nenad shakes his head. "I've been here the whole time since we followed him in, Boss."
I cross the street, and Vuk and Nenad follow close behind me with dead grass crunching under our boots.
We reach the front porch, and I test the first step with my weight before putting my full foot down.
The wood groans but holds, though the noise is loud enough that someone might hear us coming if they're listening for something.
The front door's unlocked when I try the handle and it swings inward on rusty hinges that creak, but I step inside with my gun raised and my finger on the trigger.
The interior smells rancid from garbage and mold and broken furniture is scattered across the floor.
This place has definitely seen better days.
A staircase rises along the left wall, and I can see the second floor landing at the top where a pool of light beckons us forward.
I motion for Vuk and Nenad to follow me and we start climbing.
Every step creaks under our weight no matter how carefully we move or where we step.
It's like this old house wants to scream that we're approaching, but since the house has been telling on us, I figure someone would be coming to investigate. Yet there's no movement.
What we have here is probably another dead end, but we can't turn back now. If I don't see this through and he's up there, I'll never forgive myself.
The upstairs hallway runs the length of the house with doors on both sides.
Three of them stand open and show empty rooms beyond.
The fourth door at the end is closed and light leaks out from underneath.
I hear footsteps moving around inside and the sound of something heavy being dragged across the floor. It makes me curious but very alert.
There really is someone here. Now to see if it's our man.
I position myself on one side of the door while Vuk takes the other side. Nenad hangs back a few feet with his gun aimed at the doorway while I count down silently using my fingers, and when I hit zero, Vuk slams his boot into the door next to the handle.
The frame splinters and the door flies open.
We rush inside as one unit. I sweep my gun across the room looking for targets, but the space is empty except for an old mattress against one wall and a wooden chair lying on its side.
The window is wide open and cold air pours through it, so I cross over to it and lean out to look at the alley below.
But there's no sign of anyone down there and no way to tell which direction they went.
My stomach drops because I know what this means.
"We need to get out of here right now." I turn back toward the door, but I'm already too late.
Gunfire erupts from the hallway and bullets tear through the doorframe. Nenad screams and goes down clutching his leg as blood spreads across his jeans in seconds. I throw myself behind the mattress and return fire at the muzzle flashes in the hall.
It's a goddamn ambush. Someone knew we were hunting Lebedev here and they set us up.
Vuk and I take cover as best we can while trying to keep the men in the hallway away from Nenad, but they're in full fucking tactical gear coming with automatic weapons.
Unless we get a head shot, neither of us stands a chance of beating any of the four of them. And Nenad might just be a goner anyway.
More shooting starts up from downstairs and I realize we're trapped between two groups. They let us get inside and split up before they closed the trap. I hear Boris yelling from somewhere below and then his voice cuts off in the middle of a word.
I lean around the mattress and fire three rounds at the closest attacker.
Two miss, but the third catches him in the shoulder and spins him around.
Another man steps over him without breaking stride and keeps advancing.
These aren't amateurs or street thugs hired for quick cash.
They're hired hands, personal security, maybe, or trained insurgents. We're fucked.
My clip runs empty and I reach for a spare from my jacket, but before I can reload, something hard slams into my back between my shoulder blades. I pitch forward onto my hands and knees and my gun goes flying across the floor.
Someone kicks me in the ribs and I feel bones snap under the impact. Then hands grab my arms and yank them behind my back. Plastic zip ties cut into my wrists and tighten until I lose feeling in my fingers. Another kick lands on my spine and makes my vision go white.
The shooting finally stops but my ears are ringing from the noise. I hear Nenad's groaning and know he's alive, but who knows about Boris downstairs? Boots move across the floor around me and I hear someone giving orders in a thick Serbian dialect.
"Get him up." Someone to my left speaks in a harsh tone, and I blink my eyes hard against a bright light someone is shining into my face.
Fingers dig into my hair and jerk my head back, and I see Vuk kneeling a few feet away with a gun barrel pressed against his skull. Blood runs from a cut above his eyebrow and drips onto his shirt, and Nenad is still on the floor behind him.
Motherfuckers knew exactly how to draw us right to them and surround us. It's like they've been studying me as long as I've been studying Lebedev—that, or they have someone on the inside.
A man walks into my line of sight and stops directly in front of me and I recognize Milo? Popovi? from television commercials and billboards. He's been running for a spot as deputy in parliament. His face is everywhere.
"You must be Vadim Gravitch." Milo? smiles down at me. "I've been looking forward to meeting you." Somehow, I don’t really believe a word he's saying.
I spit blood at his feet and watch it splatter across his expensive polished shoes. "Where the fuck is Lebedev?"
"Somewhere safe." Milo? crouches down so we're at eye level. "Did you really think we would just hand him over? You Russians always underestimate us." He stinks too, like some expensive cologne he probably slathers on so his whores go home smelling like him.
"Either kill me or let me go." I hold his gaze without blinking. "I don't have time for speeches." I'm not afraid to die. I haven't been since I was nineteen years old and I took my first life. It's living with fuckers like him in charge that really scares me.
"You have all the time in the world right now." Milo? stands back up and gestures to his men. "Pick him up."
Two of them haul me to my feet and my ribs scream in protest. Blood drips from my mouth onto my shirt and the floor.
Milo? steps closer and shoves the barrel of his gun under my chin hard enough to force my head back and jar my teeth against one another.
God, wouldn’t I love to kick this son of a bitch in the nuts.
"Pay attention because this is important." His breath smells like expensive whiskey and cigars. "Go back to Russia and tell your cousin that war has already started. Andrei Lebedev killing your cousin was just the beginning."
"Beginning of what?" I force the words out past the gun barrel pressing into my throat.
"The complete destruction of your family." Milo? grins and his teeth are unnaturally white. "You are all so stupid, you haven't seen it yet. Victoria, Yaros, even your precious heir, Dominic, all things we did with a little help. You'll be begging for mercy before I'm done with you."
If what's left of the Kozlov organization has aligned with the Serbians, there's no telling how fucked we really are.
I knew Yaros Veche was trying to keep Kolar on the line, but we won that battle…
But this? There's no telling how bad this will get if the Veches, the Kozlovs, and the Serbians ally against us.
"You're lying to save your own ass." I spit out some blood and lick a tooth that hurts. Probably busted loose from that blow I took. This bastard is trying to get under my skin. I can't let him.
"Think about it." Milo? pulls the gun away from my throat. "Every attack for the past two years follows the same pattern. The Kozlovs and Veches want your territory and we want Russians out of the Balkans. We all get what we want."
He nods at his man, and the first punch drives into my stomach, making all the air leave my lungs so I double over gasping.
The second punch breaks a few ribs, and pain explodes through my entire torso, forcing blood up and out as I cough.
It splatters all over the man's white shirt in a Rorschach pattern that ironically looks vaguely like a butterfly.
They beat me until my vision starts to fade, and all I can do is focus on staying conscious because passing out means I might not wake up.
"That's good." Milo? waves them off. "Leave him breathing so he can deliver my message to Yuri."
One final boot catches me in the temple, and everything goes dark. The last thing I register is Vuk screaming my name and more gunshots echoing through the house. Then there's nothing except blackness and pain and the metallic taste filling my mouth.