"On it," she says steadily, fingers already flying across her screen. "What am I telling him?"
"I'm texting him coordinates to Bora's place. My family's under attack. Tell him it's the Albanians."
She sucks in a horrified breath, rapidly relaying the information to Alexsey before she's cut off by his furious shouting.
Violet puts him on speaker. "Nikandr has another crew down at the docks. I'm calling them next," Alexsey says, voice tight. "Mobilizing them will take time."
"Do it, but we have to get there now," I say, before relaying the information to Dmitri.
Violet leans over to talk to Ivan and my head snaps back as he slams on the gas. "Boss, twenty minutes," he calls over his shoulder. "I'll make it in ten."
"Dmitri, we're close. You're going to hold on." The words spill out, urgent and desperate. "How many men do you think they have?"
"At least thirty. Thirty left," he amends. "We've killed at least ten. We've lost four guards."
"Is your position secure?" I ask, mentally willing this fucking SUV to move faster, to break the laws of physics and be there now.
"We've retreated to the walk-in freezer. It's acting as a barrier against the bullets. If they have explosives," he gives a humorless huff of a laugh, "it turns into shrapnel." He drops his phone. I can hear him shouting instructions to the guards before he fires.
Fucking Russian misfortune that my family decided to choose a restaurant out in the middle of nowhere for a business dinner! Why not downtown, where everyone would be calling 911? At this point, police intervention would be welcome.
The road flies by, the headlights piercing the darkness. I can see Alexsey's SUV just ahead of us as Ivan barrels through an intersection, narrowly missing a truck. I'm running through what I remember of the landscape around the restaurant and Violet pulls it up on her phone's map, holding it up for me.
"Good girl," I say, scanning it quickly. "Call Alexsey back."
He answers instantly. "Talk."
"Bora's has a little wooded area behind their greenhouses."
"I remember it," he says.
"Take the exit right before Bora's, go in from behind." We feel lifetimes away from saving our family. "Tell Vanya to follow me, we'll attack from the front, get these fuckers sandwiched between us."
"We're checking our ammo now," he says.
"I had four grenades…" I curse myself for my stupidity. We keep heavier firepower in a bunker at the airstrip. Getting pulled over by a bored highway patrolman when we have automatic weapons and explosives stacked in the back is an unnecessary risk. "We'll have enough," I say roughly.
"We will," Alexsey says. "We're going to going to cut these fuckers to ribbons."
"We're close," Ivan calls over his shoulder as Alexsey's SUV abruptly veers off the road, heading toward the back.
"Stop here," I tell him. "We've got to secure Violet and the girls away from the fight."
"I can help-" Violet starts, and I shake my head, pulling out my Glock.
"You're going to guard Rose and Iris." The SUV pulls off the road and I cup the back of her head, bringing her closer. "If you see anyone you don't recognize, you shoot them and you run. I'm sending Ivan with you."
"You are not," she says sharply. "You need everyone. These idiots aren't prancing through the fields, they'll never see us."
She checks the ammo clip, it's full.
"Good fucking girl," I whisper. "Now, get out."
She grips my shirt. "Ava and your mother are doctors. Your father is in good hands. You focus on mowing those fuckers down. Please," she kisses me once, fiercely, "be safe."
Rose and Iris have already scrambled out and Violet joins them, raising her hand as Ivan skids back onto the road.
Chapter Thirty-Three
