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“Igor!” Anton yelled.
“Careful! The world is watching.” I said, gesturing carelessly at the cameras still pointed at us. “If you stop us, your son is unworthy of inheriting your throne. If he loses against a woman, he’s unworthy of being in the bratva.” And they’ve walked right into the trap I laid down. “So choose your next steps wisely.”
Morosov made his choice. He tried to land a hook right into my bullet wound, determined to piss me off today.
Chapter 42
Alastair
“Noonewasatthe airport.” Eoghan said to me, urgency in his voice. “The motorcade went, but the plane was already empty and abandoned.”
“She got past us?” Jericho looked shocked, angry, frightened. Terrified.
“Where is she?” I asked, trying not to let the waver in my voice give away the sudden clenching in my chest.
“No one knows.” Eoghan said, shaking his head, his phone in his hand. “I’ve sent everyone in different directions, called in all our informants, but nothing.”
I pulled on my hair again, the sting on the roots the only thing that kept me centered. My phone buzzed in my pocket and I fished it out. The Caledonia app was pinging red with notifications.
The first was from Hugo:Your girl is crazy, she is taking us to Morosov’s fight!!!!
Then a few minutes later:We’re at an underground fight. She has a gun on my head!
I looked suspiciously at the exclamation marks. Hugo was not a man who spoke with exclamation marks. Frankly, he rarely spoke with any kind of expression whatsoever. His texts were the same. What had he done? If she had a gun to his head, why did he have access to his phone? Were they in this together?
“Where is Morosov fighting?” I asked Eoghan.
His head popped up, and he looked confused. “He’s fighting an Italian downtown in a factory. Not far from Anton Vasiliev’s compound, actually.”
“That’s where she is.” I told the room.
Jericho looked shocked. He fished his phone out of his pocket. He looked something up, and I could hear her voice come from his phone.
“You think you could beat me, honestly? Will you put your money where your ugly mouth is?” Her voice came through the small speakers, but it was unmistakably her. Cell phone footage was circulating social media of the woman who was challenging the Russian fighter. Her heels, her black clothes, the black lipstick made her look like an avenging witch.
“We’ll go now.” I told them. “She’s baiting Anton Vasiliev with this.”
Jericho’s face turned white as a sheet. LeBlanc clenched his fist. Then he went for the door, leaving me and Eoghan trailing after him.
“Bring up the cars!” Eoghan roared, and his men jumped to obey his orders. The rustling of shoes on hardwood floors, the grabbing of guns and donning of jackets were all we heard. The armory was conveniently at the entrance of the mansion, manned 24/7 by his guards.
“We need the long guns.” I used the casual term for rifles. I had learned it from some American Army reservist while in Afghanistan, and the term had always tickled me.
Eoghan nodded, grabbing an AR-15 for himself. I grabbed the same after donning plate carrier body armor. Jericho and Yuliya opted for AK-47. I wondered if that was a preference, or just another thing for the show to emphasize their Russian-ness.
We checked our earpieces before we piled into the armored SUV. There’d be nine in total, with five people in each car. Three belonged to Jericho. His military friends who had answered his call. The rest bled green like me and Eoghan. We were a platoon, going into this, ready to take over the building to get our girl.
The New York night was cold, and the ride to the city was short.
A strange calm came over me, knowing that I had training to rely on. No matter what, Jericho and Yuliya would speak a similar language as me because we had all been NATO-trained. The moments before combat were always meditative, as the act itself required a clear mind. All the little things didn’t matter in this moment, and that always de-cluttered the brain.
My phone pinged again. Another note from Hugo:Oh no. Anton Vasiliev has found us!!!!:-(
A frowny face? The man added a frowny face to his text message? Now I knew he was taking the piss.
Another ping.They have 12 men inside, unsure if there are others.
That was closer to the style of the Hugo I knew. Straight to the point. I’d unpack whatever he and Rose had going on some other time. I’m sure I’d punish her for it. That thought sent a small jolt to my cock, and I had to banish it to get the blood back to the head it needed to be in.
