Chapter 3
Dmitri
Moonlight spills over the deserted warehouse district as Luca, my men, and I move into position around the Ferro smuggling hub.
“Hold,” I whisper into the mic attached to my collar picking up my voice and transmitting it to everyone’s earpieces.
Luca stops next to me as we crouch behind an abandoned, rusting truck about a hundred feet away from the front of the warehouse. “You’re a little crazy, amico. This place could be crawling with men.”
“Maybe so,” I say before pulling the microphone closer to my mouth. “Scouts, go ahead.”
Two shadows peel off from our line and melt toward the warehouse.
“We’re not here to start a massacre,” I tell him. “We’re here to burn the product. Anyone who gets in the way chose their own ending.”
“Some of my family aren’t very smart,” Luca replies with a quiet chuckle.
“How’s your sister doing?” I ask him as I wait for the scouts to get back to me.
“Good. She’s in hiding with our mamma,” Luca tells me. “Once we take care of Paolo and his men, they can live in peace. They don’t have to be scared any longer.”
That’s the goal. Paolo has already terrorized enough people with Enrico’s help, and he’ll continue to cause hell even with Enrico gone. This has to end with his death.
“We see about eight men inside,” Denis reports to me, his voice filling my right ear from the earpiece. “They’re mostly busy organizing inventory, though. They’re not even guarding.”
I can only imagine how many pounds of cocaine are in that warehouse. Unfortunately for the Italians, I’m about to turn millions into ash. That’s what they get for burning down one of the Bratva’s casinos.
“Alright, everyone knows what they’re supposed to do. Let’s go. Quickly and quietly!” I speak into the microphone before moving forward with Luca and the others.
Luca carries a gas canister by his side. “I haven’t committed arson in a long time.”
I smirk a little before picking up my pace, keeping close to Luca. I’ve broken everyone into teams.
Luca and I duck behind multiple vehicles, zigzagging our way toward the front of the warehouse where one of the large hangar doors is open. I can hear music playing from inside, along with scattered voices and laughter from the Italians inside.
“Ready to break up their little party?” Luca asks as we approach the front of the building to the right of the open hangar door.
“They don’t deserve to party,” I reply as I take a lighter out of my pocket.
Luca tips the gas canister, sloshing gasoline along the side of the building toward the far corner. He lets out a little chuckle as it streaks down the metal, the strong smell hitting us in the throat. “Shit is potent.”
This building doesn’t stand a chance.
Luca places the empty canister on the ground once he’s done and pulls a cigarette out of his back pocket. He holds it between his lips and leans toward me. “Would you? I’d love to do the honors.”
I click on the lighter and hold my hand up to block the light breeze from blowing out the flame as I light his cigarette. “Didn’t peg you for a smoker.”
“I’m not anymore,” Luca replies before taking a drag, the end of the cigarette glowing orange as the fire steadily burns through it. “I didn’t have time to get a cigar.”
I grin and shake my head when he offers the cigarette to me. I breathed in enough as a child when my father smoked at the kitchen table. “I’ll get you a cigar once we put Paolo in the ground.”
Luca grins. “I like the sound of that. I don’t think that he even deserves a burial, though. We should just tie a cinderblock to his foot and dump him in the sea.”
As long as we don’t get traced to his murder, I don’t care what we end up doing with his body. I’d toss him in a trash compactor if possible.
“Hey!”
Luca and I whip around to see a large man standing right outside of the hangar door. Luca exhales, smoke curling into the air. “Shit.”
I draw my gun at the same time as the Italian, but I pull the trigger faster, hitting him right in the chest and knocking him backward.
Voices erupt in my ear.
“They know we’re here. Wrap it up and run!” I say into the microphone before nodding to Luca.
Luca tosses the cigarette at the side of the building, which burns enough to cause a tiny flame at the base where the metal meets the dirt. It doesn’t take long for the fire to start spreading across the bottom of the building.
“Come on!” I tell Luca before running toward the first car nearby. We dive behind it just as more Italians pour out of the building with their guns drawn, smoke already lifting toward the sky as fire spreads on all sides.
“Over there! Behind that car!” one of the Italians shouts.
Luca ducks his head just as the window a few inches above him shatters. He gives me a sheepish look. “I didn’t think one of them would decide to take a smoke break too.”
“Just stay down,” I tell him before lowering myself onto my stomach. I peer under the car, seeing three pairs of feet heading toward us. Stretching my arm out, I aim and fire from beneath the car, shooting one of them in the foot.
“Ow! Fuck!” he cries out as he falls to the ground, blood spilling from his boot.
“Now!” I tell Luca.
Luca and I stand and point our guns over the car, aiming at the remaining two men. I shoot, the bullet piercing the leftmost guard in the shoulder.
He shouts in pain and misfires, the bullet striking the back window. Glass shatters and I duck. Still, some of the shards hit me in the side of the face making me stumble backward.
I hear another gunshot and a body hit the ground, but I don’t see who it is. My cheek burns, but I don’t think any glass got in my eyes.
“Luca? Luca!”
“Get down!” Luca says from behind me before his body slams into mine.
We both hit the ground right before another shot rings out. Luca looks over and sees the cuts on my cheek. “Shit. You got lucky.”
My face stings like hell, but at least I wasn’t blinded. “We need to get the fuck out of here.”
“Yeah, we do,” Luca replies before grabbing my arm and yanking me up to my feet. He suddenly cries out and drops down to his hands and knees, the sound of gunfire ringing throughout the night.
I whip around in time for a stocky Italian slam into me, tackling me down to the ground a few feet away from Luca. The air leaves my lungs, making my chest ache and burn as I try to breathe.
The bastard drives a heavy fist against my cheek, snapping my head to the side.
Blood wells up in my mouth, pain radiating throughout my entire face from the blow. I’m dazed for a second, but I quickly focus back on the man ready to kill me. I strike upward, hitting him on the underside of his chin.
His head flies back from the impact, his balance thrown off.
It’s enough for me to shove him off so that I can roll to my feet, blood staining my lips as I spit it out of my mouth. This was supposed to be a quick and clean operation!
The son of a bitch runs for his gun that he dropped on the ground, but I’m faster at grabbing mine nearby.
I shoot once to drop him, then again to make sure he stays down.
Luca groans off to the side, blood soaking the bottom of his right pants leg.
“Really? All of this over a little bullet to the calf?” I ask him as I hurry over to him.
Luca flashes me a glare. “Let me shoot you in the leg and see how you feel!”
I roll my eyes at his dramatics and pull his arm over my shoulders. “Limp as fast as you can.”
“I can run if I have to,” Luca assures me as I help him to his feet. Well, foot.
Together, we hurry away from the warehouse as the fire reaches the roof, roaring out of control already as the smell of gasoline and smoke fills the air.
At least we completed our mission.
I hear a few more gunshots behind us as Luca and I make it to the SUV that we took here. I throw open the door to the backseat and help Luca inside, blood dripping from his pants leg at this point because the material is so soaked.
“Bleed on my leather and I’m billing you,” I tell Luca.
“Ah, fuck you, Dmitri,” Luca mutters as he waves me away.
I shut the door behind him before stepping away from the SUV, my forefinger pressing against the discrete earpiece so that I can hear everyone’s voices better.
“We’re out of here!”
“Us too! Is everyone out?”
“This is Dmitri. Luca and I are out,” I report, my eyes lingering on the warehouse as the fire eats away at it and everything inside. The men guarding it are either dead on the ground or running off on foot.
Good. They should learn a thing or two about loss because after what they did to Cara, we’re only getting started. We’re going to take and take from them until there’s nothing left.
I throw open the passenger door and get inside as Denis starts the engine. “Luca, you probably need a doctor. I don’t need you bleeding out in the backseat.”
“I can’t go to the hospital,” Luca groans. “I’m starting to feel a little lightheaded, though.”
“Get him to our doc,” I tell Denis, who nods and drives back onto the road to follow the other cars back to the main part of the city.
“What now? What are we hitting next?” Luca asks.
“You’re not hitting anything. I can’t have you limping around slowing us down,” I tease him. I’d be more concerned if he was hit somewhere other than the leg, but he’ll be fine.
“Give me some pain killers and a pair of crutches, and I’ll be ready to go, amico,” Luca says with sheer determination.
“You’re going to get yourself killed,” Denis tells him.
“If I’m going to die, I’d rather it be while fighting to destroy Paolo,” Luca replies, sounding serious now.
My expression hardens as I glance in the side mirror, still seeing the glow of the flames behind us. In a world like ours, death is an eventual promise. If I had to pick how to go out, I’d also prefer it to be fighting the enemy to protect the ones I love.
“Don’t die on me yet. We still have a lot of work to do,” I tell Luca. He’s become an important ally to me, and I honestly see him as a friend now.
I already lost Mikhail and Gabe.
I’m not losing anyone else, not while Cara is still learning how to breathe again.