Chapter 16
Gavril
Yuri and I stood at the entrance of the house, the long driveway giving us a good view of what would be coming soon. “You did a good job with the phone call,” I remarked as I checked my gun. “I almost wanted to kill you myself.”
Yuri chuckled as he did the same. “I take it that she is going to be your wife in truth soon?”
“Yeah,” I said honestly, having no reason to hide it from him. “She is.”
“Good,” he replied, pulling the AK off his shoulder to ready himself. “Because any woman who can do that sort of shit and not be fucked up by it is a strong one indeed.”
He walked off before I could respond, and I dragged a hand through my hair. Anxiety started to creep into my bones over what we might be up against. If it was just Jon or the Krasnaya Bratva, that was one thing.
But if it was the fucking FBI, we were screwed. I didn’t want to tell Naomi that, of course, and I had a contingency plan in place in the event that the cavalry started down the driveway. She would get out.
I, on the other hand—it was up to the big man upstairs if he wanted me to see another day.
I shook out my arms, loosening myself up for the fight that I was going to have on my hands. Anatoly used to call it my pregame warm-up, almost like what an athlete would do before a big game.
Fuck, I missed him. I fought past the pain in my chest as I thought about my fallen friend and how his death didn’t mean anything if I couldn’t handle this shit and kill both the Krasnaya and Hampton. Anatoly had laid down his life for my wife, for my future, and I wasn’t going to forget it.
“Incoming cars!” Yuri shouted, catching my attention.
Sure enough, I could hear the sound of the approaching cars shattering the stillness around us and pulled the AK off my shoulder as well. “Make sure they don’t get through!” I shouted to Pavel, who was waiting for his command. “Take your men and go!”
He nodded, and the group of men followed him down the driveway, readying their guns for what we were about to face.
I whispered a prayer to watch over my men and me before nodding to the man near the entrance of the house, the one that was my contingency plan. He was a young Belaya member, one that had barely been with us for a few months, but he had a very important job.
He was tasked with getting my wife out if the shit got bad enough that I thought we weren’t going to win. I had a jet standing by, and she would be whisked off to Russia immediately and into the arms of my mother and sisters, putting her with my family, where she belonged.
I hoped it didn’t come to that. I wanted to say that we were going to pull this shit out, but I didn’t know.
I really didn’t know.
I motioned for Yuri to move into position, and I took the group of men waiting with me for my signal, taking the other side of the end of the driveway. The trees around the property provided cover for now, but it wasn’t going to take long for them to get to me.
I had to make sure they didn’t get inside the house.
The explosion of gunfire filled the air and I rolled my shoulders, gripping my gun with sweaty palms. War was never easy on anyone. I had been in my fair share of battles over the years, but each one still had me sweating like a fucking pig, waiting for something to go wrong. My luck was going to run out one day, just like it was going to run out for Konstantin and his men today.
One of the men with me cleared his throat, and I held up my hand as the sounds grew louder. “Not yet!” I shouted to them. “We are the last defense. We can’t go too early!”
Oleg stepped next to me, and we gave each other a nod. The brigadier already knew what was supposed to happen. He had my back, and his instructions were to keep me alive for as long as we were winning.
If not, he was to kill me. It was a hard decision, but since I had already secured Naomi’s escape, I wasn’t going to allow myself to be taken by Konstantin or the FBI.
That was the last resort, and the thought of not being there for her, for our kid, turned my stomach.
“Here they come!” Oleg shouted. I aimed and fired a few rounds into the oncoming car, shattering the windshield nearly immediately.
After that, a hailstorm of gunfire filled the air as we backed against the house and emptied our guns, ducking behind the low concrete wall in front of the house to reload and adjust. I tried not to pay attention to the men that went down around me, pulling one behind the wall when he was shot in the shoulder. “Stay the fuck down!” I yelled, pointing to the ground. At some point, one of the sides was going to run out of ammo.
Oleg was shouting orders as we darted into the trees, trying to draw the fire away from the house and toward us. Another man dropped to the ground near the car and I continued to fire, gun smoke filling my senses.
Finally, I motioned for us to make a front assault on the remaining car that was firing back, carefully stepping out of the trees with our guns firing on the car. We moved in sync with each other, almost like the special forces would, with Oleg to my left. “Throw down your weapons!” I shouted at the car, seeing two men still moving around. “Get the fuck out, or we will end you!”
“All right!” Konstantin shouted back as he reached for the handle through the shattered window. “We are coming out!”