Andrei
As soon as my car, the first in our caravan, arrived on the scene, I opened the door and tumbled out. “Let’s move,” I said.
We parked out on the street around the back of the asshole’s place. We could drive up to the front gate, ram it through with a car, and storm the place easily enough, but no way did we want Vasilev to lock his gate and trap us in here. Vasilev had to be paranoid or else he wouldn’t have loaded up on firearms, and he had to have at least considered my men and I might show up uninvited. If he knew me at all, he should be waiting for us all to arrive. There was no way in Hell I would bring him the ransom money.
I looked around for surveillance. The back of the house looked inconspicuous enough, and it didn’t look like he had any guards out so we hopefully had the element of surprise on our hands, though there very well could be some guys hiding away, which was why I waved my hands down, telling my men without words to sneak on in.
Climbing over a metal fence while carrying guns wasn’t easy, and it sure wasn’t a quiet undertaking, but we all made our way up and over. I was there first, and I loved the weight of the gun in my hand. I had been shooting since I was eight. Some might consider that irresponsible, saying kids shouldn’t shoot weapons, but when your parents were murdered, you had to try to do whatever you could to reclaim a little bit of power and control back in your life, and for me, that meant going to the shooting range and learning how to master guns of various sizes.
It was impossible to really sneak up to the house since it wasn’t nighttime and there weren’t any shadows, but we made it to the back door without a single shot being fired. I considered that a win.
Nathanial, one of my men, picked the lock of the back door and swung it open.
That’s when the first gun went off — one of theirs.
Nathanial slumped over without even gasping first. There wasn’t time to move his body out of the way. It was either push our way inside now or allow them the chance to pour out of the house, and we pushed our way in all right. We forced our way inside the door, and from the sounds of glass shattering behind me, it sounded like some of my men forced their way inside through windows, too.
I had expressly forbidden any of them to bring along semi-automatics or full automatics. I did not want to risk a wild shot hitting Kelly. The same couldn’t be said of Vasilev’s men, however, and I ducked behind a side table and took my time, using my gun as if it were a rifle, and I mowed down those firing the mega rounds off.
Vasilev himself wasn’t anywhere around that I could see. He had been busy, those years after he killed my family, and the sheer number of men he had in his house meant he had definitely planned for an attack, and damn it all if he wasn’t adequately prepared for it.
My ears were already ringing. There was a reason why people wore mufflers when firing at a shooting range.
Each time one of my men fell, I winced and sent up a mental prayer for them. I hadn’t wanted this. I may have wanted my revenge, but I had wanted it to come down to Mikhail Vasilev and myself. No, that wasn’t completely true. I had drawn it out myself by wanting to ruin him through his family, as he had done with mine. If I hadn’t been so damn selfish, if I had just sought out my revenge immediately instead of playing bullshit games, none of this would have ever happened. Kelly would still be safe. Kelly never should have ever been involved in this at all. Once again, Vasilev had found a way to hurt someone I cared about.
I shot and shot and shot some more. My hands didn’t shake, and I hit more than I missed, but inwardly, I was trembling with rage. This was all my fault. I wouldn’t blame Kelly if she blamed me for this. It really was my fault. She would be better off without me. What can I give her but more of the same?
If she wanted out, if she wanted to be free, I would let her go. I never understood the saying about loving someone and letting him or her go so that if they came back, you would know it really was love. But now I did. If I had to let her go, I would hope and pray she would come back to me. I would do anything for that. I would change. I would become a better man. Hell, I wanted to be a better man for myself. All of the rage and anger I had been living off of for so long had blinded me to how good my life had been. I hadn’t cared about my money or my family — my men, my mob. Out of the tragedy of losing my parents, I had forged myself a new family, but that hadn’t been enough for me and it should’ve been. I never should have been so caught up in revenge.
Bullets flew, and one whizzed so close to me I had to duck. We were in the house, but none of us had left the entranceway. It was time to move forward, to press the attack. I nodded to my men and signaled for them to fan out. We moved onward and pressed inward, and I darted into the first room I saw, closing the door behind me just in case anyone was following me. It was a bathroom. Empty. I turned to leave, when I heard rustling.
I shoved aside the shower curtain. Cowering in the tub was one of Vasilev’s men. “Please,” he begged, his eyes wide, his hands raised. My ears were still ringing from all of the gunshots, but I could hear him, even if just barely. “Please don’t kill me. I…I have a family. A wife. Two young kids.” He reached toward his side.
I aimed my gun at him. “Don’t move.”
He winced. Maybe I was talking too loudly. “I just want to show you… their picture,” he said. “My wallet…”
“Where?”
“Back left pocket.”
I made him stand up and turn around and grabbed out his wallet. He slowly turned back around as I opened it. Cute pictures of a little boy and girl playing in the sand, a picture of the guy and a beautiful woman in front of a nice but small house.
Not lowering the gun, I handed him back the wallet. “I’m—”
“I know who you are. I…Mikhail’s my cousin and…” He winced. “Shouldn’t have said that…”
“I’m not here to kill just anyone,” I said hotly. “You fire at me, and I’ll fire back. You haven’t, but if you want to live, I suggest you start talking. Where is the bastard?”
“My cousin? Last I heard, he went out to buy more bullets, but he should’ve been back by now.”
“Where is he?” I growled, jabbing him with the nozzle of my gun.
The guy winced. “Probably upstairs. Look, I know I’m a coward. I shouldn’t have dashed in here, but…when push comes to shove, I pick my family over my cousin. Maybe that’s not right, but…yeah, it’s not right. I take his money. I do what he asks of me. I’ve done things…”
“We’ve all done things. Upstairs where? His bedroom? East, west?”
“Last door on the left. But he might be holed up in the basement. That’s where he keeps his armory. You really don’t want to go down there.”
“His wife and kids?”
“Aren’t here. Haven’t been since…” The guy glanced away.
“Since he realized one of my guys was involved with one of his daughters.”
The guy nodded.
“Is she…”
“Sent to live out of the country was what I heard. He won’t hurt one of his own. I don’t think. His vendetta against—”
The door opened. One of Vasilev’s men stood in the doorway. He raised his gun.
I grabbed Vasilev’s cousin and shoved him down as I ducked and fired. My second shot got the guy in the temple.
I turned to the cousin. “Get the hell out of here,” I barked. “Too many loose bullets, and you have a family to get back to.”
He nodded, pulled out a gun from his boot, and handed it to me. “You didn’t deserve all of this.”
Maybe, maybe not. I definitely played the game, and now a ton of men were caught up in the crosshairs, dying for a pointless war. Vasilev deserved to die for what he had done years ago and for what he had done now, but the others…who could say if they should be killed, too?
I left the bathroom and fired shots to cover my ass as I made my way toward the stairs. It might be smart to sabotage the armory, but I had come here first to save Kelly, not for revenge. She was what mattered most.
A few of my men followed me upstairs, and I did whisper to Dima about the armory so he could look into it if he found the opportunity to. There were even more men upstairs, which made me believe either Kelly was up here or maybe his cousin had been right, and Vasilev was, or maybe they both were.
Kelly. I’m coming for you. I’ll save you. If it’s the last thing I do.