Chapter 34
Killian
We silently cut through the woods and down the hill with our weapons by our side. The only noise between us comes from the leaves and sticks under our boots. We keep a steady pace, not wanting to waste any time getting to the house before someone comes to check on the guards outside.
As the house comes closer into view, we slow down, and I signal to the three men on my left to stop before Malakai and I break away from them. We walk down the rest of the hill to make sure that everything is clear before the rest of the men will proceed.
Malakai and I walk to the back of the house first and see the first guard that I hit. Malakai bends down to check on him and looks up at me.
“He’s out, boss,” he confirms.
I move to look around the area where we know we want to enter and find a door we could go through. I come back over to the guard and search his pockets until I find a set of keys.
I tap my watch and give the rest of our team the “all clear” for them to join us. I go through the keys one at a time until I find the one that fits the lock. I wait and make sure everyone is ready before I push in the door.
A small chime sounds as the door opens, announcing that someone is coming inside but I know that it will be assumed it’s just one of the men that were guarding the perimeter of the house.
We all enter inside a dark, large living room and scan our surroundings as we go. My earpiece crackles to life and Davi’s voice comes through.
“Dimitri’s bodyguard is in the front of the house in the security room. I don’t have a visual of any cameras upstairs, so be careful, boss,” he informs me.
“Copy,” I respond quietly.
I motion for everyone to follow me and we weave our way around the furniture to a long hallway filled with expensive looking paintings on the walls. I find the security room up front and look at each of my men to make sure they are ready, before I slowly turn the doorknob.
It opens silently and I see the back of a large man sitting at a big desk. There are monitors in front of him showing the camera views from around the house, but he’s not looking at any of them. He’s laughing at something and I realize that he’s staring down at his phone.
Apparently, despite obviously spending money on his house and the lavish contents inside of it, Dimitri didn’t invest as much in hiring better protection for himself, or his home.
I turn to Malakai and he steps forward and takes aim, firing off a single shot. His silencer muffles the sound of the bullet hitting the man in the back of his head.
We walk backwards out of the room and make our way to the large staircase next. We leave one man downstairs to keep watch while the four of us ascend the staircase quietly until we reach the landing.
I stop at the end of a hallway and carefully peer around the corner that leads to the bedrooms.
My jaw tightens when I see another man pacing at the end of the hallway.
Apparently Ivan got his numbers wrong.
I shouldn’t really be surprised though. It would have been a stretch to imagine that he would be able to count properly.
I hold up one finger to the group and motion to the hallway. I turn back and crouch down slowly, moving only my head and hands around the corner until I get a good angle.
As soon as the man turns around to pace towards me again, I fire off a silent shot, sending him collapsing to the floor. I get up and we all hurry to check all of the doors in the hallway together.
I’m sure that Dimitri is in the back of the hallway here where the guard was stationed, and he has no kids that we know of that should be in these other rooms. But we still take it one room at a time, swinging the doors open and checking the space to be positive that there are no more surprises lurking around.
We finally make it to the double doors of the master bedroom, and Malakai opens the door carefully. Three of us go inside and leave one man at the door.
The room is dark and there is a large ornate four poster bed with two sleeping forms on it under a blanket. Dimitri stirs as I come closer and I notice the woman sleeping next to him.
Malakai places a gloved hand over her mouth and pulls her out of the bed. Her eyes flutter open and grow wide when she realizes what is going on.
Her scream is muffled by Malakai’s hand, and Boden helps him get her to a corner of the room to duct tape her mouth, then secure her hands together.
Finally after all of the commotion, Dimitri stirs back to consciousness to find my Glock between his eyes.
He instinctively tries to scramble to sit up but I shake my head at him.
“Down boy,” I warn darkly.
His eyes dart over to where his woman is sitting on the floor with Boden’s gun aimed on her, and his face turns a dangerous shade of red.
“Put your hands up,” Malakai warns, moving over to tie up Dimitri’s hands next.
“Who the hell do you all think you are?!” Dimitri shouts, as Malakai grabs his wrists. “My guards-“
“Are all dead,” I interrupt, “And it doesn’t matter who we are, Dimitri. What matters is what you have threatened to do to my woman.”
His dark eyes narrow and I can see the anger vibrating through him.
“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about!” he seethes.
I blow out a breath wondering why these men always want to play games when they know what the conclusion will be regardless. It’s like mice playing a game of chase with a cheetah.
“Don’t you? You ordered your henchman, Ivan, to shake down a target named Crowell for half a million dollars over a sex tape and some photos he and one of his girls were able to set up,” I explain in annoyance.
Recognition flashes in his beady eyes before he schools his features, remaining silent.
“You got the initial payout but you still weren’t satisfied though, right? So you threatened his woman, Celani,” I continue, pressing the gun harder against his face. “Your problem is that she is my woman. And I take great offense to you threatening her.”
Dimitri scoffs at me defiantly trying to hold on to his act of being unaffected by this ambush. “Yeah? And I ask again. Who the hell are you?”
I stare at him for a moment, then step back and slowly begin to remove my left glove.
“I go by Killian, or Kill, if I like you. But I don’t, so you wouldn’t know those names,” I say, pulling at the fingers of my gloves.
“Years ago I developed a reputation for my work completing contracted hits as a sniper. One of my clients decided to run his fucking mouth about this tattoo that I have. He broke our contract requiring him to keep my anonymity. He was the only man that ever went from being a client, to my target.”
I pull off my glove and hold my hand down so the back of it faces Dimitri.
His eyes trace over the scythe tattoo there and I watch the blood drain out of his face with satisfaction. I lower my hand and raise my gun at him.
“I think you may have heard my other name that was spread around after that incident. Reaper.”
Dimitri’s jaw goes slack and for a moment I think he may have stopped breathing. His frightened eyes move between Malakai and me.
“No, no. No, that's impossible. Everyone said that you were d-dead!” he stammers. “You were taken out by the Italians after your last hit.”
Malakai chuckles and I let out a sharp, cruel laugh that makes Dimitri wince. I hold my arms out at my sides.
“Do I look dead to you, motherfucker?” I ask, aiming back at him. “I planted that story so I could move on with my life. The Italians and I have a great relationship, so there were no hard feelings.”
There is always a moment when you look at a man that’s in trouble, and can tell he knows that he has dug himself so far into the Earth that he will never climb back to the surface again.
Looking at Dimitri now, I can tell he knows he’s reached the bottom, but yet he refuses to stop digging his hands in to get out.
“Reaper. Killian, listen,” he pleads, his voice filling with anxiety. “We didn’t know Crowell, or his woman- I mean your woman! I didn’t know she had any connection to you in any way! Of course we didn’t! We never would’ve threatened her.”
I give him a blank stare so he continues to ramble on. “We..I made a mistake, ok,” he says, letting out a hysterical laugh. “I-I won’t go after Celani. None of my people will. I’ll call the whole thing off. And as far as I know you’re still dead, right? Right.”
He presses his lips together tightly as if this should reassure me that he won’t tell the world my secret.
“This is a simple misunderstanding with an easy solution. Trust me, ok,” he says, nodding jerkily.
I look over at Malakai who gives me a slight shake of his head. I step closer to the bed and tilt my head at Dimitri’s pathetically hopeful face.
“That’s one thing I’ve never been able to do easily.”
Dimitri’s face wrinkles in confusion. “What?”
“Trust people’s word,” I respond, looking away from him. “Get the woman out of here.”
The woman whimpers as Boden pulls her to her feet and walks her out of the bedroom. I look back at Dimitri and see the look of defeat on his face.
“Men like you and Crowell, you're never satisfied,” I say calmly. “No matter what you’re given, steal, destroy, it is never enough. And your greed is always your demise.”
Dimitri’s eyes fall to his lap and his shoulders shake until the soft pop of my silencer quiets his cries.