Chapter 32
Dmitri
My phone goes off in the middle of the night.
I jolt awake in my bed, all alone, my head feeling heavy and woozy from exhaustion. I had only just fallen asleep.
With a tired groan, I snatch my phone off the nightstand and check the caller ID, seeing that it’s Leo. He wouldn’t call so late unless it’s an emergency.
“Hello?” I say as I sit up in bed, the sheets sliding down to my waist.
“Diamond Plaza is on fire!”
My heart lurches into my throat. “What? What’s going on?”
Leo breathes heavily like he has been running. “I don’t know. I was doing my nightly patrol of your properties, and I drove past it to see it in flames. It’s bad, sir.”
“Shit,” I breathe out, hearing the shock in his voice.
Diamond Plaza isn’t mine, but it’s a Bratva-controlled casino, one of our biggest Vegas assets. And it’s evidently going up in flames as we speak. Are the Italians crazy enough to go after such an important building?
“I’ll be right there. Keep your eyes peeled. This could be part of a larger attack,” I warn him.
“Yes, sir. I’ll call in some of our men,” Leo replies, his voice toughening up.
I hang up the phone and throw the blankets off me, scrambling to get up and pull my clothes on. I don’t know what to expect when I show up at the casino, but I can only assume it’ll be total chaos.
Millions of dollars of cash flow in and out every single day, and I know that this is a deliberate attack.
I rush out of the room and fling open the door, making Denis jump in surprise as he stands guard out in the hallway. “Call the next guard on duty. Have him come in immediately.”
Denis frowns. “What’s going on, sir?”
That’s when his phone buzzes in his back pocket. I can only assume that word is spreading like wildfire right now.
“Diamond Plaza is on fire. I need to get there and figure out what the hell happened,” I tell him, feeling my own phone vibrate multiple times in my pocket. “I need you and someone else on Cara. Don’t let anyone in, and don’t let anyone get her out.”
The words taste like poison, but I can’t risk her stepping into a hallway at the wrong moment.
Denis doesn’t look thrilled about being on babysitting duty, but he knows that Cara is the most important person to me. This isn’t something he can afford to screw up.
“Yes, sir. I’ll call Mark in,” Denis replies before pulling his phone out of his pocket and scrolling through his contacts to find Mark’s name.
“Dmitri.”
I whip around to find Cara standing at the entrance of the hallway in a tank top and a pair of silky pajama shorts. Heat flickers low in my gut, but I snap back to the crisis at hand.
“Go back to sleep. I’ll be home soon,” I tell her as I motion for her to head back to her room.
Cara frowns as she crosses her arms over her chest, rubbing away the goosebumps on her skin. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing you need to worry about,” I say, fighting the urge to throw her over my shoulder and take her back to her bedroom. Or better yet, mine.
Cara’s eyes sharpen. I think this is the first time that she’s looked pissed since she came back. “Are you ever going to tell me anything again?”
I blink at her in shock as I consider her words. “What are you talking about?”
Cara exhales heavily and shakes her head, backing away from me. “Nothing.”
I frown and stride over to her, my hands carefully cupping her face. “One of the Bratva’s casinos is on fire right now. I need to go see what’s going on.”
Cara’s eyes widen. “Do you think…”
“Maybe it’s the Italians. I don’t know, but I need you to stay here. Denis and Mark will be on guard outside,” I tell her as my thumbs brush over her cheeks. “Don’t ask to come,” I tell her. “That’s a hard no.”
Cara purses her lips for a moment, but she then nods. “I’ll stay here. Be careful.”
I lean forward and press a lingering kiss on her forehead. “I’ll be back soon.”
We’ll need to finally have a talk once everything has calmed down. If something is bothering her then I want to know.
Once Cara disappears back into her room, I whirl around and hurry out of the penthouse, checking the flurry of messages popping up on my phone as I head out to one of my cars. I hop into the fastest and gun it, tearing away from my place and toward the casino.
It only takes ten minutes of driving for me to see the first signs of a huge fire.
Orange light breaks through the darkness in an ominous glow up ahead, and I can already see the faint outlines of plumes of smoke.
I can’t count the firetrucks, ambulances, and police cars that blow past me with their lights on and wailing.
“Holy shit,” I breathe out when the casino finally comes into view.
Flames chew through the lower floors, and higher up, windows pulse orange, the smoke rolling out in thick, ugly waves. Debris tumbles through the sky and hits the ground where first responders are quickly working to help people out and figure out how to quell the growing fire.
I pull into the parking lot of a nearby store plaza and park before hurrying across the street to get closer. Countless people stand on the sidewalk and watch, and traffic is nearly at a standstill because drivers can’t help but slow down and take in the sight.
I don’t see how they save it, not before it takes half the block with it.
“Dmitri!”
I look down the sidewalk and spot Leo, then slip through the crowd to reach him. “Where are the others?”
Leo waves his hand toward the building. “Scoping out the area around the casino to see if they can find anything suspicious. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I heard there were some Bratva men here tonight.”
My eyes lift to sweep up the flame-ridden building, the heat of the fire rolling over us. “If they didn’t already make it out, I don’t think they ever will.”
“I started asking around to see how the fire started, but no one is sure,” Leo tells me as we watch firefighters in full gear rush through the entrance into the smoky lobby. “Some people smelled gas. One person told me that they swore they heard a loud boom.”
“This was deliberate,” I say with a shake of my head, dread souring my stomach.
If these people are ballsy enough to burn down a casino, what the hell will they do next?
A shadow hurries alongside the building and sneaks past the police cruisers as officers talk to witnesses and help injured guests. Once the light of the blaze hits the silhouette, I realize that it’s another one of my men.
Abram nods to me as he reaches us. “The others are still searching, but I wanted to let you know that I spotted two black vans on the street behind the casino. When I came into view, they took off.”
“I wonder if they’re the same vans that attacked our shipment truck that night,” Leo wonders aloud, his forehead creasing in thought.
“When Cara was hit and driven off the road, she said it was a black van,” I say, steadily piecing more and more parts together.
The more I think about it, the more I realize just how much the Italians could’ve possibly been behind. We suffered numerous attacks before Cara was ever kidnapped. There’s a high probability that most or at least some of them were done by the Italians.
“Bastards,” Abram mutters. “We need to stop them before things get any worse.”
Before I can reply, I hear brakes squeal behind me, followed by a loud crash and the crunch of metal. I turn around along with everyone else on the sidewalk to see the front of a sedan crushed into the back of a large truck.
“Whoa! Hey, stop!” someone from the sidewalk shouts just before another car rams into the back of the sedan.
My eyes zero in on the driver in the sedan. A young woman barely in her late twenties.
She grimaces in pain and touches her head as blood drips from a cut on her forehead. She then whips around in a panic and looks into the backseat where I see a boy around ten and a car seat.
“Shit, is it smoking?” Leo asks from beside me.
That’s when I finally notice the smoke rising from underneath the woman’s hood. Something is on fire.
I look behind me to see that the first responders are still so focused on the fire and getting people out of the building that they don’t even know what’s going on. The car’s going to catch fast, the fuel line could go.
“Damn it,” I mutter. I didn’t come here to play hero. But I’m not letting a car with kids burn ten feet from me. “Come on, you two.”
Leo and Abram follow me without question.
“Abram, get her out. Leo, get the kid,” I tell them as we circle the car on all sides. My eyes lower to the window right next to the baby, who peers up at me with wide eyes. “I’ve got you.”
Abram tries the handle of the driver’s door. “The door won’t open! I think the impact crushed something.”
“Tell her to turn away and break the window!” I call out to him before casting a wary look at the dark smoke pouring from the hood. We’re running out of time.
“Look away!” Abram shouts before bundling up his jacket around his elbow and slamming it against the window, making the glass shatter. He wipes the glass away from the bottom of the window frame and reaches inside, grabbing the young mom and pulling her through the window.
Leo is able to pull open the door for the young boy. He quickly unbuckles him and pulls him out. “You’re fine, kid. I got you.”
“Oh, Kenny,” the mom sobs, blood still trailing down her face. She drags her son into her arms. “I’m so sorry. He stopped so suddenly! Where’s Jenna? Jenna!”
I yank open the door and look down at who I assume is Jenna.
She gazes up at me with big eyes, her little feet kicking as she makes a small whining noise. I probably look like a scary, unfamiliar monster to her right now.
“Watch out!”
A loud boom sounds as a piece of the building hits the ground near one of the firetrucks, making shouts and screams fill the air. People start running, knocking into each other and rushing into traffic.
“Dmitri! Come on!” Abram shouts at me from the other side of the car. “It’s going to blow!”
“Jenna!” the mom cries as she clings to her son.
I unclip the harness, scoop the girl out, and cradle her tight. She barely weighs a thing.
Holding her against my chest, I cradle the back of her head of light blonde hair. I hurry around the back of the car away from the smoke and flames that are burning beneath the hood, dodging past people running away from the building.
“Thank you! Thank you so much!” the mom tells me as she takes her daughter from me, tears streaming down her face.
I nod to her then tell her, “Leave the car. Get them out of here!”
She doesn’t have to be told twice. The little girl, Jenna, stares at me over her mom’s shoulder as they rush away. I still can’t believe how fragile she was in my arms. It must be terrifying trying to keep something so small safe every second of the day.
“You good?” Leo asks.
I tear my eyes away from Jenna and nod. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“We should get the hell out of here too,” Abram says as people continue running in all directions as burning building pieces break off and fall to the ground.
There’s nothing left to do. The damage has been done, and the message is clear. The Bratva are under attack.
I can’t wait for the Council to blame me for this.
“Listen for updates. If you hear anything, and I mean anything at all, report back to me,” I tell them as we push through the crowd to get back to my car.
“Yes, sir,” Leo and Abram answer as they escort me.
“Should we call the others off?” Leo asks me once we safely cross the street and break away from the rest of the crowd.
“Go ahead. If there was a trail, it’s ash now,” I reply. I already have suspects in mind, and if this was a warning, they won’t try so hard to conceal their identities. They’ll attack again or leave a clearer message.
Leo gets on his phone to make the call.
“Maybe we should increase patrols around your properties,” Abram suggests to me. “This might be one of many.”
“I still want the highest concentration of guards around the penthouse,” I tell him. The most precious person in my life is there, and if anyone tries to light that building on fire, I’ll set them ablaze.
“Of course,” Abram replies with a nod. “I’ll make some adjustments to the patrol schedule.”
I stop next to my car and turn to face them. “I don’t know what we’re up against but just know that this is probably one of the biggest threats that the Bratva have faced in a long time. Maybe ever.”
They both nod, their faces hardening. Their lives are at stake working this job. They know that, but things are going to get a lot more dangerous.
“Keep your eyes open and be careful about who you trust,” I warn them.
I get into my car and shut the door, hiding behind the darkness of my tinted windows. I hate not being able to do anything, but it was too late by the time I arrived.
Diamond Plaza is gone.
And if this is the opening move, the war just became official.
To be continued in Savage Little War…