Page 43 of Savage Little War

It doesn’t take long for me to hear glass shattering as the Italian guards storm the villa, busting down the front door to rush inside. Once all the guards are inside, I motion for my group to follow me. Cara, Andrei, Luca, Isaak, Damien, and Cillian move with me toward the front of the villa.

“Cut the power,” I tell Cillian, who nods and splits off to find the circuit breaker box.

I lead everyone around the side of the villa where there’s a balcony on the second floor above our heads. Thankfully, there’s also a tall statue of a man on top of a column for us to climb up to reach the balcony.

I grab the shoulders of the statue and haul myself up, planting my boot on the statue’s head to catch the balcony railing. Sucking in a deep breath, I pull myself up and over the railing, being as quiet as I can as I hear voices from inside.

Andrei comes up next before we both lean over to help Cara up. Luca, Isaak, and Damien follow suit until we’re all crowded on the balcony.

Luca works the lock until it clicks.

I hold my finger up, motioning for him to wait before opening the door. “This leads into one of the bedrooms. There’s a study to the left and a bathroom to the right. Luca, stay here with Damien. Hold this room.” I look at Isaak, Andrei, and Cara. “You three are with me.”

Everyone nods before I motion for Luca to open the door.

Luca holds his breath as he slowly turns the doorknob, gently pushing the balcony door open. He peeks inside before opening the door enough so that we can slip inside of the bedroom.

Once we’re all inside, I shut the balcony door, making my steps as light as possible. By now, the other groups should be preparing to quietly breach as well, and I’d rather not kick things off too early.

“Listen,” Andrei whispers as we approach the closed bedroom door.

Faint voices can be heard from the hallway before fading away. There’s silence for a few seconds until approaching footsteps break through, getting closer and closer.

I tense up, only to hear the footsteps pass the door before falling silent.

With a slow exhale, I try to calm my racing heart. That was close.

The handle turns. The door cracks open, and an Italian appears in the doorway. When he notices us, his eyes widen, and he raises his gun.

Luca acts first, slamming his foot against the man’s hand to kick the gun out of his hand.

I grab the man by the front of his jacket to yank him into the room before hissing at the others. “Shut the door and shut him up!”

Cara eases the door shut and presses her back against it, while Damien and Isaak jump on the guard, shoving a piece of cloth into his mouth to muffle his shouts. They pin him down against the ground, not letting him budge much, even as he writhes and thrashes.

“Fuck,” I breathe out as I rake my fingers through my hair. We’ve barely begun, and we were already almost caught.

“Stay quiet,” Andrei quietly growls at the guard as he leans over him. “If you don’t shut up, I’ll kill you.”

“Someone is coming,” Cara whispers, her eyes widening as she remains planted in front of the door.

I motion for everyone to quiet down as we hear another set of footsteps out in the hallway.

“Marco? Where the fuck did he go?” a man grunts in English, his accent still thick. He then coughs before clearing his throat and moving on.

Cara’s jaw suddenly drops; shock etched into her features.

“What?” I ask her as I move closer to her.

“I think…I think he’s one of the guys who guarded me at the farmhouse,” Cara tells me in a hushed voice, her words rushing out of her. “There was one guy always coughing. His voice was like sandpaper. He reeked of cigarettes.”

I dig my nails into my palm, forcing myself not to storm out into the hallway and put a bullet between the man’s eyes right then and there. “We’ll track him down again.”

Cara nods, her breathing bordering on shaking. “When you rescued me, I didn’t think that I would ever be around them again.”

I briefly place my forehead against hers, wishing that I could comfort her better. All that I can do is kill every single person who hurt her. “We need to deal with this Marco guy. He must be the one that guard was looking for.”

“What do we do with him?” Cara asks once I lean away.