Chapter 53
Alessa
“Alessa!”
I barely hear someone yelling my name, but I can’t focus from all the ringing in my ears. I don’t know what hurts worse, the sound from the explosion or getting football tackled by Ryder.
“Alessa!” I hear it again and realize it’s coming from my comm.
“Move,” I grunt at Ryder, shoving at his huge chest.
He lifts his head and sits back on his knees. I take a big breath and start hacking from the smoke from that room.
“Shit,” Leo grunts. “You’re a huge fucker.”
“Goddamnit! Alessa!” I finally register the voice and realize it’s Dex. Holy shit!
“Dex,” I cough out.
“Thank fuck,” he breathes. “The door is locked.”
All of our heads snap to the door we walked through. How the hell did it get locked?
The explosion seems to be contained in that one room, so what is he hiding there, or did he just sacrifice his wife to save his own ass?
Ryder gets up and creeps to the door sweeping the room as he walks. Leo jumps up and pulls me to my feet, both of us ready for anything.
My whole body hurts from getting knocked down, my face hurts from that fucker punching me, my ears are still ringing, and I have a splitting headache. And still no sign of Nina. Or Viktor.
I run through every possible scenario and come back to one. Did Alexey and Dmitri set me up? My heart immediately says no, they’re friends. But my brain is yelling at my heart, telling it not to be stupid. They’re the sons of my biggest enemy.
Ryder jerks the door, jamming his gun in the closet guy’s face. Dex scoffs and knocks it away. “It’s just us.”
They all come strolling in, all in one piece and also empty-handed.
“Anything?” I ask.
“Nope,” Gage answers, looking around. “Like what you did with the place,” he says, gesturing to the now-fried room.
“Why the fuck were they guarding these rooms then?” Ryder asks
“To hide what they’re really hiding,” Leo says, and all heads turn to him. “What?”
“You’re fucking brilliant, Baby,” Gage says. “We need to search this whole house. She’s here somewhere.”
“Let’s just hope she wasn’t in there,” I say, swallowing the bile threatening to rise. Is Viktor really that dirty?
The answer to that is yes. Yes, he is.
“We need every room searched. Every square inch of this property,” I command. “Holden?”
“Yes, Boss,” he answers automatically.
I smile behind my mask. “Any company?”
“All clear.”
“No more splitting up,” I say, rolling my shoulders to relieve some tension. I’m wound up so damn tight. This went in no way like we planned.
We start sweeping downstairs, hearing all clear from the guys outside searching.
Where the fuck is she? And did they really set me up?
Those two things keep running through my head after every room we search, and it’s clear.
Is Viktor even here? There is no way he would let me ransack his house without his presence being known; his ego is too big for that.
We clear the downstairs and head upstairs, stepping over bodies everywhere. This house is huge, with at least twenty rooms to search. Ryder reaches for a door handle, and I grab his wrist to stop him. I hear a whimper coming from the room across the hall and listen closer.
“Is that what I think it is?” Gage whispers. So, I’m not going crazy if he hears it too.
I walk closer to the door, with them following closely behind me. I press my ear against the door and almost give up before it sounds again. It’s feminine, and they sound scared.
“Nina?” Ryder whispers, and I shrug. One way to find out; I reach for the handle only to be jerked back behind Dex.
“Stop fucking doing that,” I growl, getting pissed that they keep pushing me to the side.
“Remember what we talked about, Boss?” Dex reminds me of our conversation about letting them take care of me sometimes.
I wave my hand impatiently for one of them to open the door. Ryder reaches for the door, slowly twisting the knob and shoving the door open. He walks in with Dex at his back, guns at the ready. An ear-splitting scream echoes off the walls, making me cringe.
I rush in between them, pulling the syringe from my pocket. Nina is tucked beside the bed and wall, trying to scramble back from me, but she’s as far as she can go. Sending a silent apology, I jam the needle into her leg and push the plunger, cutting her off mid-scream.
“Let’s go,” I tell the guys. Ryder walks over and scoops Nina up in his arms after I step back.
“Holden, bring the van to the house,” Ryder says, walking for the door.
“What?” Holden croaks.
“You can do it, Bello,” Ryder soothes. “Now move.”
I hear rustling, and then a door shutting.
We make our way downstairs, and I survey the damage as I go by, kicking one of Viktor’s guards’ guns.
The asshole couldn’t even equip his guys with the best; they are cheap semi-automatics, and why they resorted to tackling and punching people when they jammed.
We hit the porch, and my eyes immediately search out Micah.
That hit he took scared the shit out of me.
I can’t lose him, and in an instant, I almost did.
Evander has him leaning against the side of the porch, crouched protectively in front of Micah, gun at the ready.
He swings it our way when he hears our boots scuff and immediately lowers it when he sees it’s us.
The van’s headlights flash across us before it comes to a screeching halt in front of the porch.
Holden jumps out and opens the back doors for us.
I climb in, and Ryder gently lays Nina down on the floor with her head cradled in my lap.
The rest of them pile in with Ryder and Dex up front.
Everyone pushes their hoods back, pulling off their masks.
I’ve never been so grateful than this very moment to see everyone’s face.
“Damn, Pretty girl,” Gage says from his spot in front of me. “Who got your face?”
I gently touch my nose. “Some asshole downstairs.” Evander is stripping Micah’s hoodie off and then loosening his vest, Micah groaning the whole time. “Micah?”
“I’m okay, shithead,” he says, then groans again when Evander pulls the vest over his head.
“Sorry, man,” Evander apologizes. “I need to see how bad it is.”
“It got the vest. It will just bruise like a motherfucker. I’m fine,” Micah says harshly, trying to push Evander’s hands away.
“Or you can quit being a dick and let me look,” Evander says evenly.
The rest of us exchange a look that witnessed what happened earlier in the kitchen before our eyes are pulled back to them. I’m more than intrigued at this point.
Micah drops his hands and huffs. Evander takes that as his cue, pulling Micah’s t-shirt up and hissing between his teeth.
The bullet hit Micah right in the middle of the chest, and the bruising is spreading rapidly.
“Fuck, man,” Evander says hoarsely, raising his hand like he’s going to touch Micah before dropping it to his side.
“How long to Marcella’s?” Micah asks, groaning again when Ryder hits a bump in the road wide open.
“Twenty minutes. Giovanni can look at it,” I tell him, pulling out my phone and shooting a message to Marcella that we are on our way, then calling Mani. “Status report,” I say when he answers.
“Five,” he responds.
“Go home and get some rest. We’ll be there later.”
“Yes, Boss”
The call disconnects, and my heart sinks. I lost five guys, five guys that probably have families, and I need to find out who so I can pay for everything and help the families. Not as if that matters to them, but I never know what else to do.
“Leo?” I say softly when I look up at him. He’s sitting beside Gage, just staring at the gun in his lap. His eyes lift to mine. “Are you okay?”
“I don’t know,” he answers honestly. “I killed more people tonight.”
This is what I was afraid of. “Bad people,” I remind him. Anyone who protected Viktor Orlov is a piece of shit in my book.
He shakes his head. “That’s not what I mean.”
“Baby, you aren’t making any sense,” Gage says, removing the gun from his lap and laying it gently on the floorboard.
“I don’t care,” Leo says and looks up at me. “Shouldn’t I care? I just killed in cold blood, and I can’t find it in me to care.”
Gage squeezes his shoulder. “You’re just in shock.”
“You took out the one that did this to my face,” I joke, pointing to the face in question.
“He fucking touched you.” Leo frowns.
Mateo slaps him on the back from Leo’s other side. “Dude. I didn’t think you had it in you.”
“This isn’t funny,” Leo grouches, jerking his arm away from Mateo. “I killed people,” Leo enunciates it slowly like we don’t understand.
“We all have,” Gage says. “Not a person in this van hasn’t taken a life. And I want to tell you it gets easier, but that won’t fucking help. All you can do now is either accept it and move on or don’t accept it and let it eat at you. But Baby, that last option is not what we want for you.”
“He’s right,” I say softly. “You know I never wanted you to take this path, Leo, not because I don’t want you there but because I want better for you.”
“Not one of us will judge you for bowing out,” Gage adds. “Just because you don’t come in the field with us doesn’t mean you still don’t have a place in our lives.”
Leo squeezes Gage's thigh with a nod and then falls back into silence, which we all need after what happened. Every so often, I check Nina to make sure she’s still breathing, relieved when I see the soft rise and fall of her chest. I have questions I need answers to, and none of that can be done over the phone.
I need to call Alexey and Dmitri and see what they know.
Like, where the hell was Viktor? Why did that room explode?
Why were his guards there with no protection and shitty weapons?
Sure, we had the element of surprise, and my team is damn good, but I lost five men, and he lost all of his that didn’t run.