Chapter 36
Nothing
I knew better than to ask questions when the Captain was as engrossed as he was, and I caught Hope’s eye to warn her off, but she was just as intent as the Captain was when it came to what was going on, on the screen.
“Pyro, Gator, get in here!” The Captain barked and we ranged out behind him. He had Skype up and ready to rock and roll. It looked like, for all intents and purposes, it was show time. We all dropped expressions into neutral badass territory and he triggered the call. We waited, and the screen flickered to life, the scowling face of someone who was clearly in charge filling the screen on the other end.
“Who is this?” he demanded in heavily accented English.
“Well, now! By and far, I’d say your worst nightmare. Now how many more men of yours you want to keep throwing in our direction, eh? Because we can keep right on disappearing ‘em. By my tally, we’re winning this game, and from what I hear, you really can’t afford to lose any more personnel, now can you Mr. Tsaritsyn?”
The man on the other end looked suspicious, a glint of something akin to anger mixed with fear in his eyes.
“I do not understand what you mean…”
“Aw, cut the bullshit, will you? This is a secure line, I’ve got the best of the best on that. You stop sending your men to my town, you forget the girl, and you’ll never have to think about us again.” Cutter cut right to the chase, and I felt myself go on edge, hoping the Captain knew what he was doing here. This was a dangerous game and these were dangerous people that weren’t prone to just letting it go…
“Let me ask you this, what is this girl to you?”
“Family,” Cutter replied without missing a beat, “I’m sure you know what that’s like, having family you would do absolutely anything for, am I right?” Cutter demanded.
“I do, yes. And what about my family?”
“You send some out here?” Cutter demanded.
“Niet, but my men, are they not family like your men are family?”
Cutter scoffed, “Not even fucking close, my friend.”
The man scowled, “We are not friends, Mr…”
“Cutter.”
“Mr. Cutter.”
“No, no we are not, but there’s no reason to not keep it friendly, despite our little difference of opinion. Now, your men took someone who didn’t belong to them, and we tracked her down and took her back. That needs to be the end of this now, because I can’t have y’all traipsing into my town. We can keep adding to the body count, or you can just let sleeping dogs lie. We got what we wanted and left y’all alone, it’s time for you to do the same, now. Y’hear.”
“I do not like to be told what to do,” the man said.
“That makes two of us, but we ain’t givin’ her back, so you can just forget about that.”
“We do not want the girl, she has become too much trouble,” he said waving dismissively, and I could see Hope tense where she was standing off camera.
“Then I think that settles it then, now don’t it?” Cutter asked and we all held our collective breath.
“I have lost many men, what is in it for me? As you Americans like to say.”
“You don’t lose any more, and you stop dividing your man power.” Cutter said succinctly and the man frowned.
“I don’t understand, how do you mean?”
“You’re not a stupid man, Mr. Tsaritsyn,” Cutter said leaning back nonchalantly.
“I am not,” the man agreed.
Radar tapped his watch and held up three fingers off camera, “So, you leave us alone, and we’ll leave you be and we part ways, here and now, before things get even bloodier,” Cutter said.
“I do not think so,” the man said with a sneer, and Cutter laughed.
“I think you’re missing the point here, Mr. Tsaritsyn. I’m not asking, I’m tellin’ you this is what you’re gonna do.”
The man’s nostrils flared and his eyes sparked and ignited with rage, but he held his composure. Radar held up one finger and Cutter cocked his head to the side, waiting the man out, whose chest rose and fell with deep even breaths in an effort, I think, to calm down. I gritted my teeth, and hoped like hell our Pres knew what the fuck he was doing here.
“What d’you say, Mr. Tsaritsyn? We have a deal?”
“Niet!”
“Well, I thought you’d say that,” Cutter said sitting up and readjusting his position, just as the door behind the man crashed inward, a blur of black leather, some rapid gunfire and when the smoke cleared and the laptop righted on the desk, Baby Ruth’s face filled the screen.
“Well! Thank you kindly, Cutter, my friend. I do believe we have helped each other out tonight.” I felt my shoulders sag with relief.
“No problem there, Ruth, sorry it took my guys so long to get through the fire walls, of course, the cheap bastard should have realized, if we could get through to call him, it meant we could get through to locate him. Nicely done, my friend, nicely done.”
“Again, why thank you, kindly. Sorry you had to keep him talkin’ so long.”
“No worries, let us know when you boys want to head our way for that R&R, you hear?”
“Absolutely!” We could hear groaning behind Ruth and he turned and let off a few rounds at the floor. “Oo-we! These Russians can be tough bastards! We gotta go, talk soon.”
“You have a good night, now, y’hear?”
“Oh, I’m bettin’ it’ll be one hell of a party!” Ruth declared and the call ended.
“Atlas, wipe all traces of us out of that system,” Cutter ordered.
“Already on it, Captain.”
“So that’s it?” Hope asked, and she was just as poleaxed as me.
“I do believe that’s it, yes. Grigori gave us what we needed; it was just buying Atlas and Radar the time to do it in. Unfortunately, that gave Tsaritsyn’s men the time to rally for an assault, but like always, these dumb motherfuckers underestimate us,” Cutter said and sighed.
“Oh, I am so gonna fuck your brains out,” Hope said, dropping into the Captain’s lap. Hell, I would never admit it out loud, but if he told me to drop and blow him in that moment, I was so grateful, I’d seriously consider it. I shook my head and scoffed a laugh.
“You did it again, you clever bastard,” I muttered, and Cutter held up a fist, his mouth glued to his woman’s. I knocked mine into it and went to find my own woman, heading up the stairs, two at a time.
I knocked twice on the door, and popped it open to find Charity sound asleep, her hands tucked beneath her cheek like some kind of angel. I wanted so badly to wake her up and tell her it was cool, that she was safe, that her sister was safe, but I just didn’t have it in my heart to do it with how peaceful she looked.
Instead, I got undressed, tucking my clothes away neatly on top of my bag, and I got into bed with her, laying down so I could just stare at her, and stare at her I did, probably for an hour or more until she turned away from me in her sleep. I smiled then, and carefully pulled her back into the protective curve of my body, hers warm and soft where it fitted against mine.