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Chapter Twenty-Five
Jaxson
“I’m going in there with you,” Hazel demanded as we breached the property.
I didn’t have time to argue. While I wasn’t keen on another hostage, she was also the bait. The one thing that Nikolai wanted and the only way to ensure Izzie’s safety along with Ariella’s was to dangle the carrot in front of the rabbit.
“Stay out of the way,” I warned. We had climbed in through the back window in the bathroom, and Declan had hacked into the security system through the wiring outside to offer a distraction.
I snuck inside the house through the window. Declan stayed on the roof, keeping a lookout while Aiden and Lincoln followed behind me. Hazel was in the rear, with no weapons, but she did have a bulletproof vest on to protect her.
Nikolai wouldn’t shoot his own sister, would he?
Declan played my recording that we made a few minutes earlier outside over the speaker system attached to the alarm. While the alarm had been disabled, it hadn’t been destroyed. “No one is touching my little girl.” It was strange to hear my own voice and dangerous to alert him of our arrival, but we had to do something.
From the window, I’d seen the bastard with a gun positioned on Ariella’s forehead. I couldn’t take the chance that he’d shoot her or Izzie.
I kept my head down; they’d be looking for the team and for me.
“Nice try!” Nikola’s voice shouted through the downstairs of the house. A single shot rang out as Nikolai pointed the gun at the speaker and blew it away.
We came around from the kitchen, Ariella’s back to me, the sofa pointed toward the front door.
“Freeze!” I shouted, my gun drawn and poised on Nikola.
Aiden and Lincoln held their firearms up, three men versus one.
“Don’t even think about it,” Lincoln said. “Put your gun down slowly.”
“Give me Hazel and I’ll walk away. You’ll never have to see me again,” Nikola said. He held up his gun in a surrender maneuver.
I didn’t trust him. We’d heard from Declan that the sheriff had received a call about the compound being shot up by two mafia fellows. One was inside my house, the other, I assumed was the dead man in the vehicle out on my driveway.
“That’s not how this works,” I said. I kept my gun trained on him as he came around into the living room, blocking Izzie and Ariella.
Aiden pulled out his handcuffs that he’d attached to his belt. “Put the gun down slowly. Arms up.”
Nikolai held one arm up in surrender and the other that he slowly guided down.
The front door handle jiggled open, grabbing our attention. Who the hell was on the other side of the door? Declan was supposed to up on the roof still.
Skylar pulled the door open and stepped inside, coming face to face with Nikolai.
With his free hand he reached for Skylar, yanked her against him, and gripped her hair, shoving the barrel of the gun against her neck.
“Let me go!” Skylar screamed.
“Daddy!” Izzie shrieked in terror.
I couldn’t turn around and look back at my little girl and assure her everything was all right. My focus had to be on the monster standing just a few feet away from me, with my sister as his hostage.
Skylar had no formal tactical training. She’d never been in the military or spent a day doing self-defense. I couldn’t count on her to get out of his clutches.
“You don’t have to do this, Nikolai,” Hazel said. She trailed out from around the hallway and came up beside Lincoln and grabbed his spare gun from his holster at his hip. She pointed the gun at herself, lifting it to her temple.
“Hazel, what are you doing?” Nikolai’s eyes grew wide, and his voice was frantic. “Think about what you’re doing, Sis.”
“If you kill her,” Hazel said, her voice quivered as she spoke, “you’ll never see me again.”
