But no one does. Every man in there stays silent.
Some look nervous. Some look resigned. Some look eager.
They all look loyal.
“I know this house,” I tell them. “So do many of you. We’re going to spend the next two hours planning our method of attack. Then we storm the compound.”
I turn towards my office, but halfway there, I glance back over my shoulder.
“Oh, and one more thing,” I say. “When we do manage to take the compound, the men who declared loyalty to Budimir are to be given a choice.”
“What?” Adrik asks in shock.
I don’t hesitate, though. I head into my office and close the door. The door stays closed for maybe five seconds tops, and then it flies open and Adrik enters, along with a handful of my unofficial underbosses.
The last to enter is Kian, but no one asks him to leave, and the door closes behind him.
“You want us to give Budimir’s men a choice?” Adrik demands, jumping right into it.
“Yes.”
“They fucking betrayed you!” he practically yells.
I stare him down until I see him swallow. “I… I just mean… there should be consequences.”
“And there will be,” I say. “But the consequence doesn’t have to be their lives. I have it on good authority that many of them were threatened into choosing Budimir. Their families’ lives were on the line.”
“And you believe the source?” Vasyl asks.
I nod.
I can tell Adrik is not happy. A few others don’t look convinced of my decision either, but I don’t take back my words.
I plan on being a leader who listens to everyone’s opinions. Like my father raised me to be, even if couldn’t see the wisdom of that back then.
But there are some issues I cannot and will not compromise on.
Every man deserves a chance to right his path.
“Get the men organized into groups,” I say. “I want teams targeting the compound’s exterior. Once we get inside, those teams need to turn their firepower outward. We don’t want Budimir’s allies and reinforcements trapping us on the inside.”
“That might happen regardless,” Adrik points out.
“We’ll see,” I reply, confidence bolstering my tone and brooking no argument.
My eyes twitch to the small makeshift bar in the corner of the room. Once upon a time, I would have craved the whiskey. The reassurance of it.
Now, all I see there is weakness in a bottle.
My wife.
My son.
That’s where my strength lies now.
“We’ll need an extraction team,” Luka says. “For…”
“No,” I say, cutting him off. “I will extract my wife and son myself. Budimir is going to rue the day he ever thought of taking what was mine.”