AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Acurtainemergency?” he asks, but his tone is very sharp. “How the fuck does one have acurtainemergency?”
“BJ ordered these bright yellow-green curtains, which are going to look great with the scheme she picked for the living room,” I say, trying to make light of the situation as much as possible. “When the curtains came, Lane sent a picture of them, and they were green-yellow instead. So, yeah, a curtain emergency.” I put a big smile on my face looking at Stryker, but his expression does not change. The room is so quiet, you could hear a pin drop.
“My poor Rainbow Sparkles, such a travesty she is going through,” Alexie chimes in.
Stryker closes his eyes and tilts his head toward the ceiling. After taking a few deep breaths, he opens his eyes and looks back towards the table. Everyone is watching Stryker, waiting to see how he will react.
“Fine,” he says.What? Really? There has to be a catch somewhere.“We will fill BJ in later after she takes care of her,” he pauses, “curtain emergency.” No one says anything, so Stryker continues, “I have a plan that I think will work. Conrad, what did you find out about the security system in the building?”
“I was able to hack into their system,” Conrad responds. “It was really easy, and I’m starting to think these guys are too cocky for their own good. Should be quick work to disable any cameras or manipulate them how we want.”
Stryker looks pleased with this information. “Sounds great. What about cell service in that area?”
“We got lucky there,” Conrad says. “There are no major businesses or emergency services in the surrounding area, so we can use a jamming device and they won’t be able to call out. We won’t have to worry about backup coming for them.”
The tension that existed in the room during the whole current situation seems to lift. What Conrad is telling us is great news, but there’s still that part of me that knows it can’t be that easy. It never is with Andrei, and especially Ivan. We now know that he is in there. That thought sends my heart into a quick pace because Ivan could walk up to any one of them, and they wouldn’t know.
My attention is drawn back to Stryker as he continues to explain the plan. “What we know from the stakeout is that the building is only two levels. The first floor is three separate business spaces that are not being used because they are under construction. This is a small disadvantage because there are no cameras inside the construction spaces, and we can’t see if anyone is inside those areas. The second floor, and the space that Andrei is working from, is a two-bedroom apartment that spans the entire floor. Our biggest advantage is that the building is not too big, so we should be able to stay close together.”
Stryker looks to Conrad, and without saying a word to him, Conrad knows what to do and projects an image of the building. He then moves the image around and brings up another image of the building’s blueprints next to it.
Stryker moves to the projected image and points to a back entrance on the blueprint. “This door will be our main entry point,” Stryker says. “It opens up to this back hallway,” he runs his finger down the image showing the hall, “that connects to all three business spaces and leads to a stairway to the second floor.”
“We’re all going in one door?” King asks. “That seems risky.”
“It is,” Stryker replies, “but we’re going in together. If you look at each business space, they consist of one open room. We’re not sure what Andrei was planning to do with these spaces, but that allows for each of us to scan a room, clear it, and move upstairs.” King nods back at him in agreement, so Stryker continues, “King, you will clear the first room here with Alexie,” he points to the first door we’ll come to in the hall. “When clear, let us know, and Alexie will move to door number two, where Nat will be waiting. Nat,” he looks to me, “when King clears one, you go into two with Alexie. After you clear it, I will go into room three, and Alexie,” he looks to him, “same thing. By the time I clear that space, you should all be waiting by the stairwell.”
“Why is he going into all three?” King asks.
“We need someone to be able to take out any of Andrei’s men quietly. Since he won the knife-throwing competition between you two,” a smirk pulls up the corner of Stryker’s face, “he seems like the perfect man to take anyone down without making a sound.”
A large grin shows on Alexie’s face as he beams with pride. “That does sound most fair,” he says while looking at King.
King glares back at him as though he wants to reach across the table and tackle Alexie but stays put. “Fine, send him to all three. Increase the chances that someone could take him out,” King taunts as he leans back in his seat, looking pleased with his response.
A laugh bursts from Alexie before he calms down enough to speak “That will not happen, Prince-y. I bet that you will die before me,” he declares.
“Hell no!” I shout, bringing everyone’s attention to me. “You two are not competing over who gets killed and who does not. No one is dying, and there will be no competition during this mission! Do you both understand?” I scold, looking across the table at King.
“Fine,” he says while still staring Alexie down.
I lean forward to look down the table at Alexie. His focus is also still on King, so I clear my throat to draw his attention. He looks over to me and says, “Whatever you want,Malyshka. We will not compete to the death.”
“Can we focus?” Stryker asks. “We get this plan down, then no one has to worry about dying.” This grabs everyone’s attention, and their eyes swing back to Stryker so he can continue telling us his plan. “When we all get to the stairs, I will go up first with Nat behind me, then King and Alexie in the back. There is a small landing at the top of the stairs here,” he points to a small space on the blueprint. “We are wasting no time, and when we breach the door, fan out. Nat will cover me, heading to the left. Alexie, you will cover King to the right.”
King and Alexie look at each other again but say nothing, just nodding at each other.No one is dying today.
“We need to cover the entire space, and we don’t know how many men he will have up there or–” Stryker stops.
Conrad is the one to interrupt this time, “From what I’ve picked up on the security cameras, there’s not a lot of movement in or out of the building. We know from Vegas they like to have a hidden exit plan, but I’m not seeing one. I’ve hacked into the cameras in the surrounding area as well, and it’s showing maybe five to seven men coming and going.” A series of six pictures of different men appear on the screen. “Anyone look familiar?” Conrad asks.
“None. These must be low-level or new recruits, but you say only six or seven?” Alexie asks. “That is a sign that his men are leaving him. When there is an obvious threat to him, he will surround himself with a small army. It seems that after him running away in Vegas, his men are doing the same and jumping the ship. I knew that many of them would never go for the skin trade.”
“Where do you think they’ll go?” I ask Alexie.
“Some of them will flee back to Russia, and some will try to regroup,” he says. “When this is done, it will make a splendid opportunity for someone new to take over the braTVa.”
“Is that what you want to do?” I hadn’t thought about Alexie taking over the braTVa, but this is his legacy and what he was raised to do.
