“Is everything ready?” Hollywood murmured into his phone, one eye on the child sleeping next to him.
“Everything we can possibly think of.” Hannah confirmed, sounding utterly exhausted. “Of course, we can’t plan for every eventuality, because when you’re dealing with a narcissistic psychopath like Ilya, the possibilities for change are literally endless.”
“The latest is that he’s detouring along the route to meet someone about another deal he’s cooking up.” Hollywood confirmed. “Niko tried to ask him what the product was, but he wasn’t letting on. It could be drugs, or guns, even. We just don’t know what he’s up to. All we know is that he’ll be arriving late tonight.”
“That’s a damn nuisance.” Hannah sighed. “The Hungarian Special Forces team was hoping to have everyone inside the warehouse before they moved in. That way there’s less chance of them being spotted before they’re in position.”
“I can’t even tell you which direction he’ll be coming from.” Hollywood sighed. “Is there no way you can intercept him?”
“I’m not sure. I’ll have to check with the locals whether they can get a roadblock set up once you guys are all inside the warehouse.” Hannah confirmed. “Although from my memory of the map, the roads around the warehouse are very busy. He’d have to be pretty close to the warehouse before he could be stopped, and by then he’d probably be close enough to raise the alarm.”
“Well, if I hear any more I’ll let you know.” Hollywood shrugged, knowing there wasn’t much more he could do. “Do we know which of our guys are coming in with the Hungarian SF team?”
“Yeah, Alex and Jordan are already on the ground.” Hannah confirmed.
“Is Alex fit again?” Hollywood frowned. “He was still having physio on his shoulder last time I spoke to him.”
“He wouldn’t have been fit enough to rope in, that’s for sure.” Hannah chuckled. “But as that’s not necessary, he’s been passed 90% fit, which is about as good as he’s going to get. Luckily it doesn’t affect his ability to shoot or hold a rifle, so he won’t be limited. Besides, Sophia has flown over there with Ellen, so she can be on hand to check out the women’s health as soon as the situation on the ground is stable. You don’t seriously think he was going to let her fly out without him, do you? They’re still in the honeymoon phase.”
Hollywood chuckled. Hannah did have a point.
“So, Ellen is here as well, hmm?” Hollywood couldn’t help but marvel how all the Alpha-Stalwart women managed to get right in the thick of the action. “No Luke?”
“It was either Ellen or twelve separate translators. Not too difficult a decision really.” Hannah pointed out. “And Luke’s not there because his parents are on a cruise, and someone had to stay home and look after their kids. Two sets of twins are a bit much to foist on friends for days on end, even if they are great kids.”
Hollywood couldn’t imagine having one set of twins, let alone two.
“Anyway, Ellen won’t be on site while there’s still any danger.” Hannah explained. “She’ll stay on the fringes with Sophia, and only come in when all the action is over. Her main role will be to help interview the women after they’re rescued, to figure out where they all came from.”
“Fair enough.” Hollywood shrugged.
“Have you decided whether or not Niko is our informant yet?” Hannah pressed. “We’ve continued to get messages from them, right up until early this morning. They know what’s going to happen later, or the outline of it, anyway.”
“I honestly don’t know, but I can’t risk telling her anything yet in case she’s not. It’s so frustrating!” Hollywood ran his fingers through his hair. “Either way, I’ll wait until the last minute before I tell her. She’ll need to know so that she can protect herself and Roman.”
“Do you really think she’d tell Ilya if she knew what the plan was?” Hannah asked. “I thought you said she hated his world and was desperate to get out.”
“She does hate it, and she is desperate to get out.” Hollywood confirmed. “But she’s also petrified that he’d try and take Roman from her somehow, and she struggles to trust anyone. If she thought that our plan might go wrong, and Ilya could snatch her son away from her as a result, then there’s no saying what she would do in fear. She’s a mom, first and foremost. Roman’s safety is always her priority.”
“I understand where she’s coming from.” Hannah sighed. “Ok, then I’ll leave it up to you to get the timing right of when you tell her. Call me as soon as you arrive to give me a full description of the interior of the building. I need to know the layout and details of any new interior walls. I have the original blueprints, but they might have altered the layout in the fifty years since it was built.”
“Will do.” Hollywood said distractedly, watching as Roman started to stretch himself awake. “Gotta go.”
“Ok, talk soon.” Hannah confirmed before disconnecting the call.
Hollywood watched as Roman stretched again before opening his eyes.
“Hey, buddy.” He smiled. “Had a good sleep?”
Roman looked up at him with sleepy eyes.
“I gotta pee.” He said by way of a ‘good morning’.
Hollywood chuckled, before leaning down and picking the child up.
“Let’s get you to the bathroom.” He grabbed Roman’s shoes and slipped them on, not wanting the kid to go anywhere near the filthy bathroom in his bare feet.
He climbed down and spotted Kris and Kellen sitting guarding the entrance to where the women were being held.
Kellen met him halfway, taking Roman from him and turning the kid upside down, making him giggle.
“He needs the bathroom, so you might want to get him there before we have any little accidents.” Hollywood grinned.
“And you might want to speak to Kris and Yuri, as they’ve got some information you’ll want to pass on to Hannah.” He turned and walked towards the bathroom.
Hollywood glanced over to where his team-mates were standing guard, outside the door to the women’s ‘quarters’.
Kris stood up and walked towards him.
“News?” He asked when Kris was close enough to hear him.
“More like gossip.” Kris smiled. “But worth feeding up the line.”
Hollywood wasn’t big on gossip but was a firm believer in there not being any smoke without fire.
“What have you got for me?” He shoved his hands in his pockets to make it seem like they were just having a casual chat.
“Ok, well, Yuri and I have been very careful to only speak English in front of the guys in our truck. As they don’t know our names and have no idea of our background, I can only assume that Niko has kept that piece of information to herself.” He explained. “They speak a little English, enough for us to get by, so we haven’t had to resort to speaking Russian at all. Yuri even blanked them when they tried to engage him by calling him some rather unpleasant names, which I think has convinced them that we’re clueless as to what they’re saying.”
“Unpleasant names?” Hollywood grinned.
“Yeah.” Kris laughed. “They told him our mother was as ugly as a pig, and so short our father had to fuck her on his knees.”
“Nice.” Hollywood pulled a face. “And Yuri managed to not respond to that?”
Kris shrugged.
“As well as being quite pretty, our mother was almost six feet tall, and ruled the house with an iron fist.” He grinned. “Whilst I’ve never previously speculated on it, I’m guessing that my father would have fucked her exactly the way she told him to.”
Hollywood chuckled. Parental sex wasn’t something he’d ever given a thought to. Certainly, it was nowhere he’d want his thoughts to go to voluntarily.
“So, they don’t know you speak Russian, hmm? I’m guessing the point you’re going the long way to get to, is that they’ve had some sort of conversation in Russian that you’ve overheard which is of interest.” He suggested. “Something that could have an effect on our plans?”
“Yeah, one of them was talking about Ilya and some business deal he’s got on today.” Kris glanced around to make sure nobody else was in listening distance. “Apparently, this shipment is all about weapons like the ones we appropriated last night.”
“The AK-9’s? They all looked like they were military grade.” Hollywood frowned. “Like they’d been stolen straight from the Russian army or something.”
“Yeah, well it’s not just the AK-9’s. There are rockets and God knows what else. And from what these guys were saying, the Russian army is exactly where they’ve gotten them from, although Ilya is actually buying them from a third party.” Kris explained. “The problem is that he’s picking them up tonight with some of his goons, so there’s a good chance that they’ll bring them back here afterwards.”
“What are the chances that they won’t get their new toys out and start playing with them?” Hollywood wondered.
“Somewhere between nil and zero?” Kris snorted.
“The only thing we don’t know is what time they’re due to get back.” Kris scowled. “If it’s before us, then we’re fucked.”
“He told Niko that he wants us at the warehouse by dusk.” Hollywood remembered. “If I recall, the next part of the journey is a bit of a crawl, but as long as we leave early enough, there’s no reason we won’t be there by late afternoon, even with moderate traffic.”
“Then we need to let Hannah know what they might be facing on arrival.” Kris nodded. “They won’t want any surprises of the AK or rocket variety.”
“If we’re going to be of any help, it would be a good idea to have our new toys loaded and ready before we leave this morning.” Hollywood pointed out. “We might not get a chance later on.”
Hollywood turned to see Kellen coming back from the bathroom.
“Roman has an old soccer ball amongst his things.” He glanced at the kid. “If Kellen and I take him to play on the other side of the warehouse, to distract Ilya’s goons, maybe you can get Logan and Evan to watch the women, while you and Yuri get the guns loaded.”
Kris nodded his agreement.
“That sounds like a good plan.” He confirmed. “Back in the day, when we were in the Russian army, Yuri and I used to have to dis-assemble and reassemble those things with our eyes blindfolded. It will be interesting to see how quickly we can remember how it’s done.”
“How about trying it without your eyes covered?” Hollywood smirked. “You’d look a bit fucking suspicious standing next to the truck wearing blindfolds.”
“Point taken.” Kris chuckled.
“What’s the plan?” Kellen bounced up with Roman sitting high on his shoulders.
“Soccer.” Hollywood pointed to Roman. “We’re taking Roman and his ball over to the far side to have a quick game of soccer, while the rest of the team make sure last night’s acquisitions are ready to be used, just in case they’re needed tonight.”
“Excellent idea.” Kellen nodded, lifting the boy down. “Do you want to play soccer, Roman?”
“He means football.” Hollywood rolled his eyes.
Roman jumped up and down excitedly.
“I have a football.” He started to run towards the truck.
“Hold up there, pal.” Hollywood snagged him up. “Ken can get your ball. Let’s go over to the other side ready to play. There aren’t any trucks over there to get in our way.”
By the time they walked over to the empty part of the building, Kellen had caught up with them, and as he rolled the ball out in front of them, Roman chased after it in that funny run way that only three-year-olds can do.
“He looks like he’s going to fall over the first time he kicks the ball.” Kellen grinned. “David Beckham he’s not.”
Hollywood shrugged.
“I’m glad he’s not an aspiring soccer star.” He murmured. “It would make Niko’s life harder if Ilya actually took an interest.”
“Ken!” Roman stood waiting impatiently. “Come and kick with me. Hollywood can be the goalkeeper.”
“I think we’ve had our orders.” Hollywood grinned.
For half an hour, they played ball with Roman, Kellen lifting him high and flying him like an aeroplane every time they scored a goal.
If that didn’t have him giggling enough to make him sick, whenever he celebrated too hard, Hollywood would pretend to chase him, and it would take Kellen to pick him up and hold him out of Hollywood’s reach for him to ‘escape’.
Hollywood didn’t think he’d ever seen a child so happy.
Thirty minutes into their play he saw Yuri and Kris strolling over to Logan and Evan. Kris looked across, winked, and blew him a kiss.
As far as he was aware, Kris was solely into women, so Hollywood decided to take that as confirmation that their new rifles were loaded and ready to fire.
If Kris was trying to tell him something else, Hollywood guessed he’d soon find out.
“Roman?” Niko’s voice broke into his musings. “Come on sweetheart. It’s time we were leaving. Hollywood has to drive the truck for us now.”
“Aww, mama!” Roman stamped his little foot. “Another hour, please?”
Niko smiled.
“Roman, you have no idea how long an hour is.” She explained patiently. “But Uncle Ilya has said we must leave now, so I’m afraid that’s what we have to do.”
Roman looked as pissed as it was possible for a three-year-old to look.
Picking up his ball he muttered something and then stomped all the way back to the truck.
Hollywood and Kellen chuckled as Niko followed her son, shaking her head at his little tantrum.
When he was about twenty feet from the driver’s door he stopped and turned, annoyed to find them still halfway across the warehouse.
“Well?” He hissed. “Is one of you going to lift me up?”
Hollywood waited for Niko to answer her son.
“Roman, I’m disappointed in you.” She crouched in front of him. “Hollywood and Kellen were kind enough to play with you, and you haven’t thanked them yet.”
Roman turned and scowled at them.
“Thank you for playing football with me.” He bit out as though the words were killing him to say.
“And would you like to ask nicely for someone to lift you into the truck?” Niko was so reasonable, Hollywood wanted to laugh. How could the kid carry on with his tantrum when his mom was being so calm?
“Will someone lift me nicely into the truck. Please?” Roman switched on such a fake smile, Hollywood had to turn his back on the kid, so he couldn’t see him grinning his ass off.
“I’d be delighted to lift you nicely, Roman.” Kellen smiled. “And maybe, if we get to the next place early enough, we can have another game later.”
Hollywood heard Roman grumble something as he turned and trotted alongside Kellen as they made their way slowly back to the truck.
“I’m sorry he was rude.” Niko frowned.
“Hey, he wasn’t rude. He was just disappointed because we had to stop the game.” Hollywood shrugged. “That’s how three-year-olds behave all over the world when they’re disappointed.”
“I guess.” Niko frowned. “I just worry that he’s picking up his bad behaviour from Ilya.”
“Niko, he’s fine.” Hollywood stopped her by placing his hand on her arm. “Just because he acts out a little every now and then does not mean he’s going to take after your brother. Besides, you’d never let that happen.”
Niko smiled at him and looked about to step closer when a whistle from one of the trucks had them both realising how they must look, her smiling, and him with his hand on her arm.
“We’d better go.” She muttered. “We’re attracting too much attention.”
Hollywood tried to look disinterested and let her take a few steps before following, but unfortunately that only gave him an opportunity to stare at Niko’s ass, leaving him anything but disinterested.
How could this woman expect to walk anywhere without getting too much attention?
He dragged his eyes away from her sweet derriere and turned and glared at the few of Ilya’s men who had stopped to watch Niko as she walked.
If only he could punch each and every one of them who dared to look at her, he’d feel a whole lot happier, Hollywood thought.
Almost as happy as he’d be if he could get his hands on Niko’s ass.
There was probably a double standard in there somewhere, he mused, but he really couldn’t rouse himself enough to care.