“Not so fast, motherfu—”
I’m about to end him when another bullet finishes the job for me. I step forward, just as a tall man with curly blonde hair steps through the open front door.
“Well, well, well,” Cillian remarks with a lopsided smile. “Look who it is.” He looks relatively put together. In fact, he’s barely broken a sweat.
“What did you do?” I ask. “Spend all morning getting your hair nice and coiffed, then wait ‘til the fight was over to join?”
He rolls his eyes. “I come all this way to bail your ass out of trouble, and this is the thanks I get?”
I smirk, moving forward to clasp his hand. “It’s good to see you, brother.”
“And you,” he replies. “Although you look like shite.”
Before I can respond, more men filter in through the door. The one heading the pack is a massive, dark-haired man who’s the spitting image of Phoenix, albeit aged forward thirty years or so.
“Decided to join the party, huh?” Artem asks me.
“Can we save the quips for when the battle is won?”
Artem shrugs. “There’s always enough time for a joke, friend. Your brother taught me that.”
“Yeah, well, my brother has a lot of dumb ideas. Best for all of us if we ignore him, I think.”
Cillian frowns and starts to say, “Hold on there; I think I—”
But I cut him off. “Phoenix is with Renata and Sarah,” I inform both of them. “Sarah’s been shot.”
Cillian jumps into business mode. He gestures forward two of his men. “Find Phoenix. Get Sarah out of the compound and to a doctor ASAP.”
They glance at me for further instructions. “Down the corridor, fifth door on the right,” I tell them. They nod and disappear down the hall.
“What’s the situation?” I ask.
“Rokiades is back there,” Cillian says, gesturing towards the rear half of the house.
“Then let’s go get him.”
I’m already walking forward when Cillian grabs my by the collar and pulls me back. “It’s not going to be easy getting to him,” he warns me. “Most of his forces have converged around him. We’re outnumbered.”
“But not by much,” Artem adds.
“Then what are we waiting for?” I demand.
“Kian,” Cillian says sharply, “I know you want to get this motherfucker. But the Marianis and the Lombardis have rallied around him.”
“The Marianis picked a side?”
“So it would seem.”
“Fuck,” I growl. “Still, that doesn’t change anything. We need to get in there. He’s backed into a corner.”
“With a fuck ton of men and a lot of ammo. It’s a dangerous corner.”
“But a corner nonetheless. We’ve got the brains,” I point out.
More Bratva soldiers rush into the foyer to await the next batch of orders. Artem gives them a curt nod and holds up a hand to keep them in place.
“Guess there’s no sense waiting any longer,” he says. “Kian’s right—we’ve got to move. First, we need to find other points of entry into the room he’s taken cover in.”