28. Alex
ALEX
This won’t be like the last time that we came to Slavik’s home. We’re not in disguise and we’re not about to handle things with any measure of stealth.
At the dock, Rikki handed me a gun as soon as I was in the passenger’s seat, while Kostya explained that reinforcements would meet us there.
“It’ll be tricky,” he said in the car, “being that he lives in a high-rise. He might even have his guys roaming the halls waiting for us to retaliate for your supposed ‘death’.”
Rikki scoffed. “I can’t wait to see his face when he sees that you’re still around. I hope it’s the last fucking thing he ever sees.”
Everything I’m being told is being filed away in an autonomous part of my mind.
I know the layout of the hotel. I know how many men will be at my back when we do walk through those doors and I know that any one of them that stands in my way will be taken out.
This is the part of my psyche that has been drilled into me. I know it like breathing.
It’s also the part that has to make the break through all the rage and pain so that I can do what needs to be done to save Nona.
The one thing I can’t let myself think or imagine is what she could be going through right now. Slavik’s sick missive to cut out our baby threatens to echo through my mind and if I let that take over, I’ll lose myself in my anger.
The most important part of all this is that I can’t allow myself to think that when we get there, we’ll be too late. Slavik is my target and before the dawn comes, either I will have his head or he will have mine.
Our car pulls up at the same time as my men do.
Four or five cars stopping traffic and lining up in front of the high rise.
I see the doorman’s eyes go wide as everyone starts stepping out and each of us holding .
I can only imagine how it must have looked for all of to step out of these black cars, the rain coming down all around us.
“Can I… help you gentlemen?” he asks as we walk up.
“We’re here for a party,” I say. Behind me I hear footsteps and the cocking of semi-automatics. “Slavik Sokolov’s expecting us.”
He looks around at all of us, then his eyes settle on Rikki and get that much larger. I lean into him to get his attention.
“You really don’t want to hold us up,” I say to him. “That wouldn’t exactly be wise, would it?”
He shakes his head, his full cheeks jiggling with the movement.
“Good. You wouldn’t happen to know if any other party members are up in his apartment waiting for us, would you?”
He pauses, his eyes getting watery like he’s about to cry. “Um,” he says, “I didn’t see him come in tonight. B-But I have seen some of his people leave a little while ago.”
Hmm. He must have come in through the service elevator. That makes sense. Even the most jaded New Yorker would take notice of a bleeding man dragging a woman into an apartment building against her will. “I see,” I say to him. “Well, then, we’ll just go on up.”
He doesn’t move for a second, then, seeing the hard look in my eye, he steps to one side.
We walk through the door, then I step back, getting back in his face.
“By the way,” I say, “Should anybody like, say, the police come around asking about us, I can trust you’ll keep this under your hat, right” —I look down at his nametag— “Henry? See, there are a lot of us in New York and really, all over the country. We don’t want to have to have another conversation with you. ”
“Of course,” he says. “I haven’t seen anything all night.”
I smack his face lightly. “Atta boy. Have a nice evening.”
Once we were in the lobby, I assigned two men to find security and take care of them and any surveillance that might be recording. The rest I posted by the elevators, including the service one and the door.
Rikki, Kostya, and I head to the elevators. While waiting for them to come, Rikki says, “Maybe we should take the stairs. Better odds that they don’t get the jump on us.”
Kostya snorts. “If you want to take a brisk jog up twenty-three floors, be my guest.”
One of my guys comes back through the back of the corridor and says, “Service elevator’s not responding.”
A chill runs up my spine and I tell him, “Keep your eye on it anyway. If it starts running and anybody comes out, handle them.”
He nods and slips back down the hallway. Kostya looks at me, reading my face. “It probably doesn’t mean anything.”
I don’t know if it does or doesn’t. Either way…
The main elevator doors open and for just a split second, I see the sleeve of a black suit.
Rikki puts an arm in front of me and pushes me back. With lightning fast reflexes, he reaches into the elevator and grabs one of two men by the collar, dragging him out into the hallway.
The other is caught off guard for a split second, then he raises his rifle and aims it. Kostya grabs the muzzle, lifting it over his head. It goes off and bullets spark against the elevator opening and break the glass in the mirrored ceiling above us.
Our guys swoop in, grabbing the two men and yanking them into the hallway, soundly disarming and beating them senseless. Rikki nudges me forward to the elevator. “Time to go, Boss.”
The doors slide closed, blocking out the chaotic scene, and suddenly, we’re plunged into silence.
The car moves and I take a breath, pulling my gun out of my holster.
Rikki and Kostya do the same. We don’t know what we’re going to find when we get there.
Slavik could have men posted at the elevators, waiting for us.
We could be walking into a web of enemies right now.
It doesn’t matter. I’ll plow through them all if I have to.
“First priority is finding Nona,” I say.
“We don’t know what we’re about to walk into when these doors open.
We might have to get through a few guys before we even reach the apartment.
But at the end of the day, I don’t give a fuck who you have to kill.
If you see Nona, you grab her and get her the fuck out of here. ”
“Got it,” said Kostya.
“The only person I want you to find some restraint on is Slavik. You run into his ass, you can beat him to a pulp if you want, but you’d better save some for me. That motherfucker is mine.”
“You got it.”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Rikki adds.
I nod in acknowledgement, and I mean what I’ve said. Whatever happens, I want Slavik to suffer and I want it to be at my hands. For all that he’s done and tried to do, the least he deserves is my vengeance.
The elevators slows to a stop and the doors open. All three of us ready ourselves for anyone waiting and we’re not disappointed. One man stands before us as the doors slide open. He’s got his head turned, talking to someone just out of sight.
I don’t waste any time. The moment he faces forward, I put a bullet in his head. The gun pops and his head jerks back. He’s dead before he hits the floor.
Rikki steps halfway out, pressing his back to the elevator door to hold it open, then he aims and gets off two rounds. Shouts and curses come back at him and he flinches as a row of sparks from their return fire flies around him.
Kostya kneels and leans out, shooting three shots in quick succession. No more gunshots come flying at us, but someone is cursing loudly in Russian.
“Fuck! My fucking leg!”
We all step out to see three more lying in the hallway. Two of them are dead, one with a bullet in the chest, the other in the head. The third guy is on the ground, his hands on a bloodied hole in his leg.
He sees us and starts to crawl away. Rikki says to Kostya, “Your aim is slipping. A chest and a leg shot, Kostya?”
Kostya walks up to the bleeding one and he starts begging for mercy. “Please! Don’t! Please!”
“Shut up,” Kostya says as he shoots him in the head. Not sure if he was talking to Rikki or this poor bastard.
We march to Slavik’s door. Rikki takes point and shoots the lock. The doorknob sparks and comes apart completely, leaving the door to swing open.
“Should have done it like this the first time around,” Rikki muttered as we walk into the foyer. “Maybe we could have flushed the bastard out sooner.”
“Shoulda, woulda, coulda,” Kostya answers back. We walk all the way into the living room and take a moment to get our bearings. Hallways lead to other rooms, other places to hide. A staircase leads up to the second level…
“I’ll take the upstairs,” Kostya says.
“Her bedroom’s the first door on the right,” I tell him. “Check there first. Rikki—”
We all collectively hear a sound, a strangled yell followed by the tell-tale noise of struggle. Shuffling, thumping feet against a floor or a wall. I start toward the noise and Rikki yells, “Three o’clock!”
To my right a door opens and one of Slavik’s men walks through, gun in hand. He aims it at me, but he’s slow on the draw. I turn and shoot, hitting him in the neck. He stumbles back, hand going to his neck as blood spurts through his fingers.
And more show up, some through the front door behind us, one on the landing. Kostya jumps behind a couch as the one on the landing opens fire while Rikki shoots at the two coming out of the foyer.
I hunker down, returning fire to give them some cover. Rikki shouts back at me, “We got it! Get to Nona!”
He doesn’t have to tell me twice. As much as my instinct is to give them backup and fight with them, I take to the hallway behind me instead, to follow that sound we just heard.
And just like that, I recognize this area.
This hallway leads to the parlor where Rikki got jumped the first time…
which means it leads to the panic room. My mind races as I pick up the pace.
The only other person who would definitely know about that room is Nona, and if she was able to get to it and Slavik found her…
Hold on, Nona. I’m coming.