49. Hawk
HAWK
I didn’t love that Cassie was with us as we drove toward the old service road below Kaprolov’s house, the headlights on the SUV lighting our way through the dark.
I wanted her tucked away somewhere.
Safe.
But Jagger was right. It wasn’t our call.
And Cassie was right too. I would have worried about her all alone in the cabin. I had no reason to believe Kaprolov knew we were coming, but I also knew how it worked in Russia: oligarchs were all powerful, eyes and ears everywhere.
I wasn’t willing to risk leaving Cassie alone.
“Remember,” I said. “You stay with me, and you do what I say, no matter what.”
“I know,” she said. “I got it.”
I’d issued the instructions more than once, like that might prevent something from going wrong.
We followed the beat-up truck Bram was driving, Vigo in the passenger seat, up the dirt road.
Some of the snow had been blown off by the wind, which carried it over the side and down the mountain, and some of it had been packed by other vehicles, but it was still touch and go.
More than once I felt the tires of the rented SUV — an older Russian model I’d never heard of — struggle to gain traction, and I tried to hide my relief when Bram finally stopped the truck along the side of the road.
We’d come this far. The last thing we needed was to end up over the side of the mountain before we even reached Dimitri.
I got out of the car with Jagger and Cassie, and we moved around to the back to gear up.
“Yo,” Vigo said, coming around to join us, his flak jacket already strapped over his torso. “That was a wild ride.”
He didn’t sound annoyed by the condition of the road, and I hoped he could keep his recklessness in check long enough for us to put a bullet in Kaprolov’s brain.
I looked down and groaned when I saw that he had his bat in his hand.
“What the fuck are you going to do with that?”
I’d known he’d brought it on the Kings plane, but after Capri, I’d hoped he’d forgotten about it.
He shoved the bat into his vest. “What the fuck aren’t I going to with it, is the question.”
“Stop fucking around,” Bram said, strapping his own kevlar. “This is serious shit.”
“I know it’s serious shit,” Vigo said. “Don’t worry, big g— ”
He stopped himself just in the nick of time, and I reached into one of the duffels and pulled out one of the kevlar vests, then unzipped Cassie’s coat.
She shivered as the cold air hit her body.
“I’ll be quick,” I said, pulling the kevlar over her head and tightening the straps around her body.
I helped her back on with her coat.
“That okay?” I asked. “Can you move around?”
She moved her arms. “I think so.”
“Good.” I reached into one of the other duffels and removed a handgun, then held it out to her.
She shrank back. “I’m not carrying a gun.”
I lifted her hand and placed the gun in her palm. “You want to come? You’re carrying this motherfucking gun, Cass.”
She hesitated, then took it, and I spent a few minutes showing her how it worked.
When everyone was armed and ready, Jagger shut the SUV’s hatch. “Let’s go.”
I went first up the hillside leading to Kaprolov’s property, reaching back every minute or so to give Cassie a hand. She held her own, scrambling up the hill between me and the rest of our entourage, slipping and sliding but staying on her feet.
It wasn’t as hard as it looked from the road. Trees grew out of the hillside. Their roots gave our feet traction, and their trunks gave us something to grab onto when the ground slid under our feet.
I was breathing hard when we reached the top, but we’d managed it without any injures.
“You good?” I asked Cassie.
She nodded.
Her cheeks were flushed, her nose pink, and in any other situation I would have wanted to press her against one of the trees, slip my tongue in her mouth.
Now all I wanted to do was get her the fuck out of there.
At the tree line, I reached into my backpack and removed my Hunt mask, then watched as Vigo, Jagger, and Bram did the same.
Cassie look confused. “What…?”
“It’s best this way,” Bram said to her.
Bram was always menacing, but he was menacing as fuck in the bone mask he used to hunt, the long snout and horns making him look like a creature out of a dark and dangerous wood.
I reached back into my backpack and removed one more mask: the one we’d given Cassie for Halloween.
“I brought yours too, but you don’t have to wear it.”
She hesitated, then took it from me.
I helped fit it over her head, then stood back to take her in.
“Now you’re hunting with us.”
Bram stared at her, like he couldn’t quite believe it, and some form of unspoken communication seemed to pass between them.
I turned my attention to the compound. Two of the smaller cabins were dark, but light glowed from the other two and I wondered again if they were quarters for Kaprolov’s personal security team.
“Time?” Bram asked.
“12:06,” Jagger said, consulting his watch.
We’d left our phones behind.
“The camera should be looping,” Bram said. “We have one hour.”
Halfway across the world, Aloha had hacked into Kaprolov’s security cameras, looping the footage so it looked like status quo on the compound. But he only dared to stay in the system for an hour, because he’d said, “The longer I’m in that shit the riskier that shit gets.”
“Let’s do it,” Vigo said.
“I’ll cover our flank,” Bram said.
Cassie’s eyes met him through the dark. “I love you.”
“I love you too, Cass.”
“I also love you,” Vigo said.
“Me too,” Jagger said.
“Wait,” Vigo said to Jagger, “you love me or you love Cass?”
“Cass,” Jagger said. “I mean I guess I love you too. Fuck… yeah okay, I’m secure enough in my masculinity to admit I love all you fuckers.”
“Can we please get moving?” Bram said.
I looked at Cassie. “Remember, stay behind me, follow my lead.”
She nodded and I moved across the clearing at a crouch, hoping none of the guards were looking out the windows of the freestanding cabins.
I glanced back just once and saw Cassie right on my heels, moving quickly, staying low like I’d told her.
We’d just rounded the back of the house when a guard stationed near the side door turned toward us. It was bad luck, and I clocked the recognition on his face, the realization that we didn’t belong there.
He raised his weapon in our direction and all I could think about was Cassie behind me.
I fired off a shot, muffled by the gun’s silence, and watched him fall.
I waved the rest of the group forward and eased open the side door, my gun at the ready in case someone was on the other side.
But when I looked through the open door it was into an empty mudroom, a series of men’s coats hanging on hooks, muddy boot trays empty except for one pair of rugged snow boots.
I slipped inside and everyone else filed in behind me.