“On the floor,” I shouted at them.
They both dropped, hands up on their heads. Oleg watched the stairs, Reid moved further toward the kitchen.
I checked the guys for guns. They weren’t armed, but I did take their wallets.
“Johns,” I said, nodding at the guys. “Leave them.”
Oleg nodded. “I hold here. You go.”
I followed Reid. He crept toward the kitchen and went to move around the corner, but I grabbed him.
Gunfire erupted from inside right where his head would’ve been.
He looked back at me and grinned. “Good save,” he said.
“You’re welcome.”
I crouched down low and looked around the corner. A guy stood across the room, gun up. I shot him once in the leg, again in the gut, then pulled back as he sprayed wildly. There was a scream, a yell of pain, then the shooting stopped. I came around the corner with Reid, guns leveled.
A girl wearing a pink shirt and a pair of tight pink sweatpants stood over the guy with a long kitchen knife. Blood dripped from its blade as she stabbed him against in the neck.
“You fucker,” she said. “You fucking fucker. You deserve this and worse, you fucking shit.” She spit on him then threw then knife down on her body. She turned to me, hands in the air.
“What’s your name?”
“Ursula.”
“You’re Robin’s friend.”
She tilted her head. “And you’re the man. Leonid.”
“Follow Reid,” I said. “He’ll take you out front. Get as many of the girls as you can.”
“They’ll be hiding upstairs.”
“How many more men?” Reid asked.
“Four. All upstairs.”
“Guns?”
“Lots of guns.”
I nodded. “You first. Get going.”
Ursula strode past me and back into the living room. She saw the dead guy by the door, walked to him, spit on him, and looked back at me. “Three,” she said.
“Three upstairs,” I told Oleg.
He grinned. “Good. Fun time.” He moved up the steps.
Gunfire burst out. He held on the stairs, gun up, and moved slow. The gunfire paused and he poked up, fired a few rounds.
“Get moving!” he yelled.
I came up next as he put down suppressing fire. It was a tangle of rooms at the top of the steps. I made a dash for the first open door I saw and caught sight of scared girls hiding behind beds. I jumped inside and motioned at the girls to stay quiet and to stay down.
I leaned out the door. As Oleg fell back, one of the Volkov guys started shooting. He gave me a nice target and I put two bullets in his head.
Two more. I turned to the girls.
“Ursula’s waiting downstairs,” I said. “If you want to get the hell out of here, run now.”
The girls hesitated, looked at each other, then took off down the hall.
I moved behind them. I saw a shadow of someone move in another room and ran at it as Oleg and Reid came up. I found a man crouched next to a closet, hands over his head, shaking like a leaf. He looked up at me, his eyes wide.
“Please,” he said.
I killed him. I didn’t bother to find out if he was a john or not. I gestured at the girls hiding nearby and told them to get moving. I went on to the next room, cleared it, and heard gunfire from the room at the end of the hall. I found Reid standing over a dead Volkov guy, his gun kicked aside.
More girls spilled out of doors as they began to yell at each other in Russian.
I cleared the last room and nodded as Oleg approached.
“Empty now,” he said. “But I found this.” He grinned and opened a black duffel bag.
It was full of rolled-up cash.
“Good work. Hedeon will be happy.”
He slung the bag over his shoulder. “Now we can afford some furniture.”
“Maybe start with a few plates first.”
Oleg laughed. More girls made a break for it from a side room. I turned to follow and had to stop fast as one of the johns from downstairs stood at the bottom of the steps with a gun raised.
“What the fuck,” I managed to say just before he fired.
One bullet tore into my leg. I growled and fired back. I was more accurate. His head snapped back and he fell down into a pool of his own blood.
“Fuck,” I growled.
“Come on.” Reid appeared and took my arm. “We’ve got to get moving.”
He helped me down the steps. Oleg brought up the rear, his gun up and moving. We reached the front door and found the girls gathered out front with Ursula standing in their midst. She frowned at me, frowned at my bleeding leg, then nodded.
“Where now?” she asked.
“You’re with them.” I gestured at Oleg and Reid.
“No. I want to go with Robin.”
“That’s not happening.” I slipped out from under Reid’s arm and staggered but kept my balance. “We don’t have enough space for you all. But they have two vans and a safe house you can stay at.”