Page 27 of Savage Little War

“Of course, that coward fled,” Andrei mutters from the couch. “What do we do now?”

“Take a trip,” Dmitri easily replies as he crosses his arms. “We finally know where the bastard is. Before he goes too deep into hiding, we need to go after him.”

“Go all the way to Italy? Do we even know what city he’s in? We can’t comb a whole country before he disappears again,” Andrei asks.

“He’s in Amalfi,” Luca speaks up. “Lovely place. A little crowded with guards right now.”

“His family must have a home there,” Sean says. “He’s trying to hide.”

“His men will be crawling all over the place. He wouldn’t be there unguarded,” I comment. “We could track one of his guards and follow them back to wherever he’s hiding.”

“We’ll have to be observant. They’ll try to blend in with the locals and tourists,” Luca adds as he drops down on the couch next to Andrei. “And we should try to do the same.”

Sean nods. “Having the element of surprise will help us, especially if he has a lot of guards. If they know we’re coming, it’ll be even harder to take them all down.”

“And Ferro could flee again,” Dmitri says. “We don’t want to have to keep hunting him down. He’ll just get smarter and craftier, and we may never find him.”

“So, what’s the plan? Find his place and storm it like we did at the farmhouse?” Andrei asks.

Given the fact that I’m here right now, it’s safe to say that plan worked out well.

“We do this smarter than the farmhouse,” Dmitri says, his tone dropping as his eyes darken with fury. “This time, we surround the place; we don’t let any of the bastards escape. We end this once and for all.”

“Agreed,” my father says. “But Ferro is the top priority. He can replace his bootlickers, but it’ll be hard for them to replace their leader.”

Dmitri nods before turning to look at me, the corner of his mouth twitching as I immediately flash him a warning glare. “Relax. I’m not telling you to stay home, milaya.”

“Even if you did, I’d find a way onto that plane, regardless,” I tell him. He knows that I deserve to go, even if it’s going to be dangerous. This is my fight too.

Dmitri clicks his tongue as Luca and Andrei smirk. “You won’t be involved in any of the fighting, but I need the bastards from the farmhouse identified, and only you can do that.”

“Unless you’re picking them off one by one for questioning, I’ll have to get closer to the fight than you’re comfortable with,” I point out. This is going to move faster than he thinks.

Dmitri’s jaw tenses as he peers at me. I can see the uncertainty in his eyes, but he can’t bench me for this.

“We’ll protect her, Dmitri,” Andrei speaks up. “We’ll bring all our men with us. She’ll be guarded.”

“Nothing will happen to her,” Sean confirms confidently.

Dmitri exhales long and slow before nodding. “You don’t leave my sight, Cara. I mean it. I’m not losing you to this son of a bitch again.”

The glint of fear in his eyes makes my heart ache. Losing me might destroy him, but Ferro will kill us both and everyone we care about if we don’t all work together.

“You won’t,” I say as I walk closer to him, wishing that I could promise that to him. But I can’t. And he can’t promise me that he’ll make it out of this alive.

But I won’t ask him to stay. And even as me and my father slowly repair the damage done to our relationship over time, I won’t ask him not to go either.

This is something that we all have to do together.

Dmitri sighs and pulls me into his arms, his chin resting on the top of my head as I press my face into his chest where I feel the safest. “If we’re bringing that many people, we’ll need two private jets.”

“I know of another one we can use,” Sean replies. “Maybe we should stay in Italy for a few days after we kill Ferro and his men. We all deserve a vacation.”

“I don’t think that I want to be around anymore Italians when it’s all said and done,” Andrei says.

“As if you Russians are the best company. No offense, Dmitri,” Luca replies.

Dmitri points his finger at the men. “Enough. We’re in this together. Start acting like it.”