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“Thank you,” I say in a dry tone as I finish buttoning up my suit jacket.
Vadim comes in to get dressed. He’s barely spoken to me today. As much as it gets under my skin, I understand. His men are loyal to him. He’s loyal to them and no one else.
I run my crew the same way. My men are my family. Anyone else outside of our crew is just someone we need to deal with to make money.
“You don’t have to leave right away,” Vadim says. “If there’s any lingering affairs you want to wrap up, you’re welcome to stay at our compound as long as you need.” He sounds disappointed too, but in a different way than Adrik.
Again, not my problem. I would have liked to use the time as a chance to build a relationship with my last remaining blood relative, but it’s clear I’m in hostile territory.
“Maybe we can talk business sometime,” Vadim says in a distant voice, shrugging a shoulder. “See if there’s something our crews could help each other out with.”
“I am sure we will,” I say through a chuckle before slamming my locker and walking away.
I doubt that’ll ever happen. I trust nothing here because all I can see is a group of men oozing with their own selfish motives.
I toss my towel in a basket on the way out and head for the exit, ready to leave as a free man and go home. When I reach the front door, I push it open and walk outside, bracing myself against the wind. Sunlight beats off the snow that’s accumulated overnight, blinding my vision. I find Vadim’s car and head towards it, craning my head back when I hear Adrik walking behind me.
When I reach for the door handle, I hear a crack erupt from the distance, shattering the passenger window just in front of me. Two more cracks of gunfire fire ring out, piercing our windshield.
Fuck.
I spin back, ducking and shielding myself with the car next to us. Adrik sees the car’s been shot and dives behind another car for cover.
My hand instinctively reaches for my gun, only to come up empty.
Shit.
Vadim steps out the front door and a rapid series of cracks erupts, louder than the first few, splintering the tinder-beam doorway he’d just stepped through. He dives to the ground, rolling behind a row of parked cars towards the front of the lot, far from me and the car we drove here in.
I peer between the cars and can spot Adrik and Vadim. Vadim is kneeling, using the front end of a car as a shield while he looks for the sniper shooting at us. His pistol is trained and ready to fire at what comes into view.
All of us wait and watch, looking for movement. After what feels like an eternity, a head appears through the window of a stopped car across the street. The shooter points his gun and begins firing trails into the asphalt, up to the row of cars Vadim is hiding behind, blowing out windows and flattening tires, mixing into a deafening blur of gunfire headed directly at him. A few shots come close to the car he’s hiding behind. He stands from his crouched position with a gun in each hand, returning fire and exposing himself in the process.
“Viktor!” I hear behind me. Adrik makes his way to me, staying as low as he can, and passes me a spare gun before he springs up and joins Vadim in returning fire.
I fire a round of shots but am too far to trust my aim. I roll over the hood of our car, crouch to the ground, and reach a spot with a better view of the sniper. Vadim is closer to me now and I see him duck down to reload. A bullet pierces the hood of his car close to his head.
My arms tense as I return fire, not waiting to aim. I blow as many shots at the attacker as I can, flattening the tires of his car. The dark hoodie covering the sniper’s head covers his face as he crawls to the passenger side. He tumbles out of the other side of the car, using the open passenger door as a shield. The barrel of the gun is pointed at me as he blows off rounds. Vadim juts out from behind the car, firing to give me cover. I dive behind a car closer to Vadim.
A bullet sails past Vadim, piercing through the meat of his upper arm, followed by a spray of blood.
That’s fucking it. Every murderous instinct within me roars to life in a way I only feel whenmymen are shot.
I couldn’t save my parents. That guilt has stayed with me through my life. I’ve dreamt about an alternate reality where I could have gotten revenge and killed the people who murdered my family. Vadim and I are not allies, but we’re brothers.
The blood in my body pounds through me as I walk directly toward the sniper’s car, unloading my clip at him. The rage from my futile wishes as a child return to me in an instant. I see nothing but my target, ignoring the periphery, determined to kill this man.
“Viktor, stay down!” I hear shouted behind me as I march toward the sniper, who’s hunched behind his car for cover as I continue firing at steady intervals. I don’t care if I miss. I want to be an arm’s length from him so I can kill him with my own hands.
The top of his head appears, and I fire, narrowly missing him before he disappears again. I pull the trigger of my gun and hear a click and try a few more times.
Click.
Click.
Click.
Fuck.
