Chapter 24 – Nik
“Incompetent!” I bellowed, my blood boiling with rage. “All of you!”
None of my men dared look me in the eyes; their faces were masked with shame, guilt, and fear. They knew they messed up, and I was pissed at their negligence.
I paced back and forth, seething, with my hands on my waist. “I was gone for just a few hours, and you idiots couldn’t keep her safe in my absence!”
They stood before me in silence, looking like prisoners awaiting execution. The air was thick with tension, and I could almost hear their heartbeats. The stench of their fear filled the room as they had no idea what I’d do to them.
I paused in my tracks, my gaze sweeping across their miserable faces. “The mansion is a fuckin’ fortress. How the hell did a group of strangers waltz in here, take her, and vanish like smoke?”
Before anyone could respond, my right-hand man, Boris, who was with me when the incident happened, stepped into the room. “Boss. You might wanna see this.” He walked over to me and handed me an iPad.
My eyes fixed on the screen where the footage of the incident was playing. I watched in awe as my Dikaya took down two trained assassins with tactical moves. I’d always known she was a fighter, but there was something different about the way she moved in the clip.
Her stance, her blows, and kicks were those of a skilled fighter—a soldier. I watched how she broke bones like mere twigs, a testament to the fact that this wasn’t her first rodeo.
Every punch she threw was calculated, and her strikes were more powerful than those of an average girl her age. She wasn’t struggling to run for her life or survive an attack. Dikaya was beating the crap out of those men, her strength and skills matching theirs.
My brows rose when she pulled a stunt that shocked even Boris, who let out an instinctive wolf-whistle.
Dikaya had kicked the knife from her attacker’s hand, caught it midair, and jabbed the blade in his thigh. Without hesitation, she yanked the knife free and hurled it into the chest of the guy sneaking up behind her.
“Damn, nice shot,” Boris murmured under his breath, his voice laced with surprise.
I was so engrossed in watching the fight that I almost forgot she needed saving. The way she dodged those knife attacks and knocked out her opponents was rather remarkable.
From what I’d just watched, the only reason the last man standing was able to get her was because the bastard cheated. He injected her in the neck and picked her up after she passed out.
At this moment, a million thoughts raced through my mind. But the most prominent one was how she was able to fight like that. These people were assassins—trained killers—yet she faced them head-on as if it was just another Tuesday in the park.
Something wasn’t adding up because there was no way an ordinary girl would be so skilled. Dikaya had some explaining to do; however, all of that would have to wait. The most important thing right now was to find out who took her and where they were keeping her.
I was sure that she was still alive. If those guys wanted her dead, they wouldn’t have drugged her—they would have put a bullet in her neck, not a syringe.
My eyes squinted as I noticed a familiar ink on the arm of the man who took Dikaya. Only one gang in the city had those Phoenix tattoos. Richard Kane’s men. The son of a bitch was behind this. I wasn’t surprised at all.
“Where were you when she was fighting these men?” I asked my guards, frowning at them.
“We checked and found there was something in the ventilation system that knocked them out cold,” Boris replied on their behalf. “This was a coordinated attack.”
“Richard Kane is behind this,” I said, my gaze sweeping across the faces of my men. “Find out where he’s keeping her. Now.”
They nodded and dematerialized, leaving Boris and me.
“You know this is a trap, right?” he asked. “He’s using her as bait to lure you out.”
“Kane’s been trying to get my attention for the longest time.” I turned to face him. “Well, now he has it. Now he has my full attention.”
It didn’t take long before my men were able to pinpoint his exact location. I had no idea how they did it in such a short while, and I honestly couldn’t care less. We wouldn’t have been in this mess if they’d done their jobs to begin with.
We tracked him down to an abandoned warehouse at the outskirts of the city and raided the building without a second thought. Chaos erupted immediately we arrived, the sound of rapid gunfire filling the air.
His men fought back, but the idiots were no match for my gang and me. I led the invasion, holding up my rifle in front of me as I moved like a shadow in the dark. For each round I squeezed, a man dropped dead. The screams of terrified women came from behind a closed door up ahead.
The shooting ended as quickly as it began, with all of Kane’s men sprawled across the floor. My eyes squinted as I scanned the surroundings, sensing that something was off.
“Is it just me, or is this too easy?” Boris whispered to me.
Just then, a device rolled out from a corner.
“Grenade!” Boris roared, pushing me out of the way.
The blast whisked me into the air and hurled me back against the wall. Covered in dirt and smoke, I coughed, struggling to stand. I winced at my aching body and the loud ringing in my ears. Most of my men were down—some dead, others injured.
Before the dust could settle, more of Kane’s men appeared out of nowhere, pelting bullets in the air.
I hid behind a pillar as it absorbed the blasts, my eyes scanning the surroundings.
Through a reflective surface a few feet in front of me, I spotted a container marked as highly flammable behind the shooters.
I waited for the right moment, and when the shots ceased for a split second, I fired at the container. And then, boom!
The explosion was wild, its flames consuming the enemies. They screamed at the top of their lungs, their bodies catching on fire as they ran around like headless chickens. The air was filled with the smell of smoke and burning flesh.
More armed men revealed themselves, firing wildly.
“Go find her!” Boris yelled in my direction. “We’ve got this!”
He and a few of my men covered me as I ran toward the closed door. While in motion, bodies dropped around me, none by my own bullet. I reached the entrance and knocked the door down with a single kick.
The women in the room gasped in fear, hid their faces, and hugged each other.
“Please, don’t kill us!” one pleaded with me, tears streaming from her eyes.
I looked around the room, but my Dikaya was nowhere to be found. My heart skipped a beat, and my scowl deepened. “Where’s Blair?” I asked them.
“He took her,” one of them replied, rising to her feet.
I recognized the redhead—it was Maria
“Where?” I demanded.
She lifted her eyes toward the high ceiling. “Upstairs.”
“Wait here,” I said to them, then stepped out and closed the door behind me.
I found a staircase leading to an upper floor, and I raced up the steps. With my rifle in front of me, I walked down a deserted hallway under a single flickering bulb. My boots were silent on the dusty floor, each step leaving a footprint behind me.
My eyes were fixed on the red door ahead, my fingers hovering over the trigger as I drew closer. I grabbed the handle and slowly pushed it open, the stench of oil and iron invading my senses.
The room was spacious, and shadows flickered across the walls, cast by torches burning low. In the center was a pit lined with deadly steel spikes—cold and ruthless like a monster’s fangs.
Above was her. My Dikaya.
She was hanging over this horrendous scene with her wrists bound in coarse rope. Her body swayed slightly, and with every strained breath, the tension in the fibers creaked.
My jaw locked, and my heart sank into my stomach. The rope had frayed thin in the middle, warning that it could snap at any moment and send her crashing onto the unforgiving spikes below.
“Nik,” she called out softly, fear flashing in her eyes.
“Save your breath,” I answered, masking my own fear as I cautiously stepped further into the room.
“It’s a beautiful scene, isn’t it?” Kane appeared from the shadows, his pistol aimed at me.
“You son of a bitch!” I growled
“Yes, I’m the son of a bitch who’s about to end your entire generation.” He laughed, spreading out his arms.
“I swear to God, I’ll kill you.” My eyes flicked toward the fragile rope.
“Maybe. Maybe not,” he replied. “But either way, you’ll lose because this right here is that masterpiece that will break you!” He gestured toward the hanging Blair.
My blood was boiling with rage as I aimed the gun at him while calculating my next move.
“Tell me, Nik, how does it feel to be powerless?” he asked. The mockery in his tone couldn’t be more glaring. “All that strength of yours…and you still can’t do a damn thing to save her. How pathetic!”
The rope loosened, and she dropped a few inches lower. “Nik?!”
I glanced at her, adrenaline pumping through my veins as I took off. Kane did the same, rushing toward me while firing his gun. I dodged his bullets and fired back until we met halfway.
The fight was intense—gunshots filling the air at close range, fists colliding, and boots scraping stones. The blasts were deafening, tearing through the silence with the sounds of our thick grunts. I fought him like a mindless beast, struggling to get to my Dikaya.
However, the bastard was determined to stand in my way. He stood his ground even when we were both out of bullets. Blows were exchanged, and bone-crushing kicks were thrown as the brawl intensified.
“Nik?!”
The sound of her voice fueled my rage, and I managed to knock him down. But before I could sprint toward her, he grabbed my leg tightly.
“You’re not going anywhere.” The bastard laughed, revealing the blood smeared over his teeth.
The fibers split again, prompting a gasp from her lips.
“You’re gonna watch her fall, Nik—you’re gonna watch her fall!” he taunted, spitting blood from his mouth.
The mere thought of losing her and our unborn child boosted my adrenaline. I roared like an angry beast and slammed my boot in his face. One. Two. Three. On the fourth strike, he was forced to let go, and that was when it happened.
Snap!
The rope gave way, and she dropped.
“No!” I bellowed.
Time slowed down.
My feet barely touched the floor as I moved swiftly toward her. She was screaming, her voice echoing in my mind as she fell, arms flailing in the air.
The wind brushed against my face, and my heart stopped for a moment. The world narrowed to just the two of us.
I leaped, high and calculated, arms stretched out in front of me as I flew toward her. In a heartbeat, I caught her mid-descent and wrapped my arms around her. “Gotcha.” The impact drew a gasp from her mouth and pulled the air from my lungs.
Seconds later, we collided and tumbled to the other side of the pit with her on top of me. Breathless, I checked her body to make sure she was okay.
“Are you okay?” I asked her, my heart racing in my chest.
She nodded, her whole body shaking in fear.
“No, no, no, no, no—no!” Kane cried out, struggling to his feet. “She was supposed to die, and you were supposed to be miserable!”
Blair’s face contorted into a frown as she got off me, her gaze sweeping across the floor. I watched her expression shift from fear to raw rage. She grabbed a long steel spike lying carelessly on the floor, covered in dust and grime.
With a raw, primal grunt, she threw the damn thing with all her remaining strength. The steel hissed as it cut through the air and then hit its target.
Kane’s eyes widened in shock and fear as the impact slammed his back against the wall with a sickening force. The steel was deeply embedded in his chest, pinning him there with his eyes and mouth open.
“That’s for my unborn child, you son of a bitch,” she murmured under her breath, her shoulders rising and falling as she glared at his dead body across the room.
“Nice throw,” I said to her.
She turned around to face me, and before I could say another word, Dikaya wrapped her arms around my back. “You saved me—you saved us,” she whispered, her head resting on my chest. “Thank you.”
Just as I held her close and kissed her forehead, the sound of heavy footsteps pounding on the floor shattered the silence. At first, I thought it was Kane’s men again, and I quickly pushed my Dikaya behind me, ready to defend her.
But I was wrong. It wasn’t more of his men; it was the authorities. They stormed the place in a heartbeat, armed with tactical gear.
“Stay close; it’s me they want,” I said, shielding her with my arms. “They’re not gonna harm you.”
A woman in a black suit stepped forward, waving her badge at me. “Nikolai Tarasov, you’re under arrest for human trafficking, kidnapping, and the murder of Richard Kane.”
I tilted my head to the side, shocked by the allegations. I was guilty of many crimes—but not any of these.
“Cuff him,” she ordered her men.
Four of them, all armed to the teeth, stepped forward and pinned me to the ground. They secured my wrists with the cuffs and then forced me back up.
“Good work, Agent Blake,” she added, her voice softening as she looked behind me. “I never doubted you for a second.”
Agent Blake? I felt my heart shatter into a million pieces when Blair walked past me and hugged the woman in the black suit.
Fuck.
“Are you hurt?” the woman asked her.
Blair shook her head.
My eyes fell on my Dikaya, her betrayal cutting deeper than any knife I’d ever been stabbed with. I was speechless, shocked to my bones, and weak-kneed. Overwhelmed by her own guilt, she couldn’t look at me—couldn’t lift her head to face me.
Why?
Why did she do this to me?
So, this whole time, she’d been working for the Bureau? This was all just some performance?
I felt like an idiot—a really big one at that.
It finally clicked: her fighting skills and fiery attitude—she was a damn agent sent to ruin my life. And I was stupid enough not to see through her. Turns out, I was right about this being a game—one I lost.
It wasn’t the arrest that hurt me. It wasn’t the betrayal that would haunt me for life. It was the one who did it, the one I was beginning to trust.
Blair Blake.