Page 42 of Savage Little War

I smirk at him. “Did the pizza bust your lip too?”

Andrei cracks an amused grin before we hurry to catch up with the others, passing through the busy lobby without an issue to reach the elevators.

When we get to the third floor, we knock on the door of the first suite, faintly hearing my father’s voice inside. The door swings open after a few moments, and we stride inside and shut the door behind us.

“It worked,” Dmitri reports as Sean and the other guards turn to us. “They’ll storm the villa in a few hours, and we’ll be right behind them to trap them inside and finish it. Every single one.”

“Get ready,” Sean tells the guards. “I’ll have our recon team near the villa stay hidden until we get there.”

I quietly take Dmitri’s arm, holding him to steady myself as reality sets in.

This is it. The big plan.

Our shot to end all of this.

If we fail, we may lose Ferro forever. We may all die in that villa. There are so many ways that this plan can go wrong, but if it goes right, we’ll get exactly what we want.

Revenge. Justice. Peace.

And a world our child can survive.

13

Dmitri

The moon is our only light as my group climbs the endless stone steps toward the cliffside villa in one long, silent line.

There’s a back road that leads to the villa, but Ferro’s guards will take that route to get there faster.

And they’re already on the way.

“Remember what I told you on the plane,” I whisper to Andrei as we slow down toward the top of the stairs.

Andrei stops next to me and nods.

“I’m serious,” I tell him, glancing behind me to see Cara crouched next to her father a few steps below us. I lean closer to Andrei so that only he can hear me. “Cara’s pregnant.”

Andrei’s eyes widen. “Yours?”

I frown at him for even asking such a thing. “Yes. Don’t let anything happen to her.”

“You don’t get to die either,” Andrei says. “Not now.”

“Trust me. I’m going to do everything in my power to stay alive for them,” I assure him.

Andrei’s face eventually softens as he nods to me. “Congratulations, Dmitri.”

I give him a grateful smile before looking ahead as I hear the sound of approaching vehicles. They have their headlights turned off, but the glow of the moon still gleams on their hoods as they roll up to the front of the villa. We already had one of our guards sneak inside and flip on a light to make it look like someone is inside.

Hopefully, they fall for our trap.

“They’re here,” I whisper before motioning for Sean, Leo, and Damien to move toward the front.

We’re not going to storm all at once. We’re going to sneak inside in groups, fan out to different floors of the villa, and then attack. If we can quietly take out guards along the way, that puts us at more of an advantage.

I look back towards the convoy as at least fifteen to eighteen guards pour out of the vehicles and surround the villa. My heart jolts to a stop at the sight of Ferro stepping out of one of the black cars. My hand automatically moves to the grip of my handgun, but Andrei places his hand on my arm and shakes his head.

Now isn’t the right time. Even if I manage to shoot from here and kill Ferro, his entire brigade of guards is going to come after us and kill us as we try to scale back down all these steps. I can’t put all our men in danger.