Chapter 26 - Mikhail
The rundown storage yard is an endless sea of steel and winding pathways.
Standing just outside the open gates, our headlights cut through the dark while our men flood in, guns raised and ready for whatever might be ahead. The air is heavy with tension and the acrid smell of rusted metal while we breach the perimeter.
After Nikolai ran the plates and tracked down the vehicle that drove off with my wife, it led us here—a remote lot outside the city that’s both scrapyard and shipping container wasteland.
Somewhere in that maze, Lily is being hidden from me. She was taken, and I don’t care what it takes. I will get her back.
Our entrance sparks a chain reaction of shouting followed by gunfire on our lives.
I exchange a quick glance with Roman next to me, who nods and pushes forward with his pistol up. At the same time, we move quickly, cutting between the endless towers of metal containers that stretch far too high to give us a clear view of anything.
Visibility is a joke and certainly acts as a cover for both sides, but one side is more familiar with the layout. The blind corners and cross sections complicate things, and the containers offer far too many places to disappear behind.
But I push forward anyway, well aware of what’s at stake.
As the men appear, I pick them off with quick, decisive shots, and when they appear in groups, Roman covers for me.
None of us expected this kind of terrain. I had the feeling that Maxim was prepared with something bold, but this caught me off guard more than I anticipated.
While we move in, they just keep coming. Like rats pouring out from their hiding places, they run and fire blind, speaking in a garbled mesh of English, Russian, and Italian. The numbers are staggering, but not enough to put us at a disadvantage.
Roman and I bark orders at the units behind us, gunning down two more as they run up on Roman’s right side.
“You take the left, I’ll take the right,” I say as we reach another intersection of containers, this one being wider.
With his nod of confirmation, Roman peels the opposite way with a group following him, and I do the same on the left side.
If we can somehow surround them and box Maxim’s forces in, then at least we’ll stand to lose less of our own.
I hurry ahead, keeping my pistol up while I scan every turn and corner. The more I shoot and the more men I come across, the nagging thought only persists.
Maxim didn’t do this alone. He couldn’t have.
It leaves a sour taste in my mouth, but given how there seems to be wave after wave of them, I know these numbers exceed what he has ever been capable of reaching.
Filing it away, I urge myself to focus. It doesn’t matter how many men he sends in our direction; we will cut through them.
Darting through the rows, I catch a group heading straight for me, and taking quick action, I fire a few rounds in their direction before taking another turn, well aware that the guards behind me will be on them in seconds.
Our forces are handling themselves well, coming in like an inevitable wave, but the others just keep coming. They aren’t all Nikolaevs…I know that much.
Every second I spend in the yard feels more and more like a trap, but I refuse to let this place take me. I won’t let it bury me while knowing Lily is here somewhere.
Even thinking about her makes my chest tighten, and her face appears in my head. Her softness, her anger, her stubbornness…that determination she wears so easily, especially when it comes to going after what she wants.
I feel the ghost of her hand in mine, I hear her gentle tones, and I can’t shake the taste of her.
I see the way she kissed me the other night with desperation, telling of how she wanted to convince herself it was okay to want me. And now, she’s in this nightmare because I was distracted. Because I let her out of my sight when I shouldn’t have.
All because of me. Because of this life.
Footsteps move all around me, and my stomach ties into knots at not knowing if hers are tangled in the mix, or if she’s being held up somewhere.
The chaos is endless—more men, more gunfire, more casualties on both sides. The stench of blood and steel lingers heavy enough to choke on.
Turning another corner, my breath catches in my chest at the sudden impact of another body against mine, making me tense as my instincts kick in, prepared to fight back with any means necessary.
But I freeze. The recognition snaps into place at the shorter figure, taking a half step back out of fear.
Her eyes meet mine, and we both hesitate. Then we soften.
“Lily,” I utter, reaching for her and pulling her tightly against my chest. “Thank Christ.”
She forces out a shaky breath and presses against me with a newfound desperation, face buried in my chest. “Mikhail…”
Cradling her face, I look her over, scanning her quickly while I’m nearly breathless.
“Are you hurt?” I ask, well aware we don’t have much time.
Lily shakes her head, eyes wide and damp. Her hair is disheveled, and her dress is torn in some places. Then I realize her wrists are bound with rope. “No, I’m fine…but it’s not just Maxim.”
Brows furrowing, I pull out my pocket knife, snapping it open before making quick work of the bindings, before they eventually slide away, leaving her wrists bare but raw. I brush a thumb along the one.
Despite the immediate relief, she still looks frantic. “We have to go. He’s working with someone—someone with more resources.”
My blood runs cold. It’s no surprise, given what I’ve seen, but it's not good either. “Who?”
She searches for the name for a moment, hurrying over the words while the noise continues around us. “It started with an ‘A’…I think it was Aldo or something, but I’m not sure. I heard them talking, and they were hoping you’d come here. I’m the bait.”
I blink back at her, slipping my knife away while keeping my hold on her. I want to stop and celebrate, to bask in the relief of having her with me, but I know I can’t. We can’t stay still for too long.
Still, her words hit me hard. I knew it. After all this time, the manpower, the coordination, and the fact that Maxim was making moves despite hiding out…it wasn’t just him.
Whoever this Aldo person is, he surely has ulterior motives of his own, which means he’s another player to contend with.
“I have to get you out of here,” I murmur, skin cold despite the energy I’ve exerted. Keeping a solid grip on her hand, I keep her behind me. “Stay close…we’ll find the perimeter—”
Before I can finish, movement on either end of the container corridor stops me. Figures shift and emerge, armed and eerily calm.
Keeping Lily behind my back, I press against one wall and look between them. A flicker of panic moves through me, but I swallow it back, forcing my training to take center stage.
To my left, Maxim stands with his gun arm raised, eyes trained on me. He looks smug, assuming he has already won.
On the other end is a man I don’t recognize.
He looks older than all of us, with black hair streaked grey, wearing a leather jacket over his somewhat hunched back.
Yellow-tinted glasses partially shield his eyes.
He doesn’t grin like Maxim. Instead, he’s stern and not nearly as smug.
From the look of it, he’s been in the game for quite some time.
One of his men stands beside him, armed with a rifle.
The pressure of the situation weighs heavily on me, but I remain calm. I have to be with Lily behind me.
“Looks like the bitch managed to escape,” Maxim says, grinning while he takes a step closer. “How lucky.”
Lily tenses behind me, but I keep my gun aimed in his direction, not taking my eyes off the other.
“You abduct my wife, and now you assume you can talk about her?” I growl out, feeling the adrenaline coursing through me relentlessly.
He chuckles. “I didn’t take you as a white knight, Mikhail. But does that really make you better than the rest of us?”
I grit my teeth and don’t say anything.
“If I remember correctly, you’re the one who abducted her first.”
So he was watching all along. At the very least, his men were. That makes me tense slightly.
“Shut your mouth.”
Maxim just laughs again, moving the gun idly in his grasp. “You can dress your crimes up all you want, but spare me the good guy act.”
“Enough prattling,” the other man says, presumably Aldo, keeping his tone cool.
He looks away from Maxim and focuses on me.
“You don’t know me, but I know you…I’ve heard quite the stories of you, Lukovs, even from New York.
I’ve been watching for a while now, and I’ll admit, Vegas is quite tempting. ”
I tighten my grip on the pistol, not knowing who to aim at. Maxim is a wild card, but this one has a cold confidence I don’t trust. “And who are you?”
His lip barely pulls. “Aldo Cattaneo. That’s all you need to know.”
While I stare him down, I remember what Lily said. How they’re working together.
“And you made a deal with Nikolaev?” I ask, unable to keep the disgust from my words.
“I did, for better or worse,” Aldo says, unruffled by the chaos unfolding around us still.
“We were in talks before you stormed him, then Maxim came crawling to me like a whimpering pup after he escaped your flimsy lockup. He needed firepower, and I needed a foothold in Vegas. With my interest in expansion, we expedited the deal.”
Maxim looks vaguely annoyed by his description, but he focuses on me. “While you were busy searching for me, the Italians were flooding Vegas, giving you the runaround. And now look at you…falling right into our trap.”
A cold hand grips the back of my neck at the realization, and at knowing how narrow-minded my assumptions were.
He managed to mislead us, even if he was an idiot.
Maxim laughs to himself again. “You made it too easy with your pride and your little wife. How disappointing to see just how soft you’ve become.”
Lily stiffens against my back, and I use my free hand to silently reassure her.
I can feel her fear as clear as day, and it only hardens my resolve.
“You’re proud of needing backup? You’re a joke to the Bratva,” I mutter to Maxim, watching as his eyes darken slightly.
He tilts his head, waving his gun recklessly. “Says the one surrounded by his enemies…”
He isn’t wrong. But it doesn’t matter.
They aren’t taking Lily, and I sure as hell am not going down.