AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I was just about ready to kick it open, but Kieran pressed a hand to my chest. I paused, looking at him quizzically as Caden knelt and picked the lock in an impressively short amount of time. With his eyes sparkling, he opened it and winked in my direction with an earned sort of cockiness that I enjoyed very much.
The five of us funneled inside the abandoned storefront, making our way carefully across the floor and avoiding anything that might reveal our location. Cormac closed the door behind us, taking the tail position as we headed towards where the basement entrance should be.
It was pitch black inside the abandoned shop, so I drew my weapon out and flicked on the flashlight attachment. The brothers did the same as we opened a few doors, ensuring that there was no one in the vicinity. Once the main floor was cleared, we headed down the stairs into the basement. There were shelves full of old product, but none of that was our concern.
Cormac and Caden got to work setting up several small explosives along the eastern wall. According to city records, the cement walls between store fronts were beginning to deteriorate, not to mention it was poured only four inches thick when most structures needed to be at least double that to be structurally sound. The lack of much needed repair was going to work in our advantage tonight. I ran my fingers over the crumbling surface. Tiny grains of sand toppled to the ground at my touch.
“It’s not going to take a lot to blow through this,” I whispered.
“No. It won’t. Too much, though, and we’ll bring the entire place down on all of us,” Caden murmured.
“If we weaken it enough, we can probably use some of the tools down here to blow through the rest,” Kieran added thoughtfully.
“Don’t worry. We’ve got this,” Connor winked.
“Connor and I have had plenty of experience breaking into highly secure places. Something like this is child’s play for us,” Caden explained.
“You should tell them about the first time you tried to break into a vault,” Cormac laughed quietly beside them.
“Listen, we had some fucked-up intel and the wiring we sourced was faulty. It may have taken us three days, but we got the money in the end, didn’t we?” Connor chuckled. He seemed amused at his brother’s taunts.
“True enough,” Cormac chuckled, but the mood between them was light. They probably gave each other a lot of shit, but I could tell each of them was valuable to their family in their own right. Kieran and Cormac were both good at organizing and planning, while the twins excelled in brute force. Their skills would be useful for any organized crime family to have access to, and I was thankful that I was now a part of theirs.
I’d hate to have the Murphys as an enemy now that I’d seen how they worked from the inside.
“By the time we get in there, Ada is going to want to know why we took so long,” Kieran murmured quietly from behind us, and Cormac had to slap a hand over his mouth to keep himself from laughing out loud.
“You know, she busts my balls enough already, I don’t need to hear it from you too,” Connor mumbled, but the rest of them chuckled quietly along with him. He grinned as he pulled a few things out of a duffle bag. A few minutes passed in silence as the twins continued to work. When they were ready, they beckoned us to move to the other side of the basement, and we followed.
“Guns at the ready,” Kieran commanded, and we all prepared ourselves.
“Three… Two… One…” Caden whispered, and then he flicked a switch in his hand. Only a moment passed before a controlled explosion tore a hole through the wall. Debris flew everywhere and the air was clouded by dust for several heart-stopping moments before we burst through, guns at the ready.
The shocked faces of several Russian soldiers flew up, which I had to admit was far more satisfying that I had anticipated. They leapt to their feet, hastily pulling weapons from their belts, but they were much slower than us, and we were on them in an instant.
There was no need for stealth anymore. The explosion had been loud enough to shake the building’s foundation, which would have alerted anyone upstairs.
One of them got a shot fired, but his aim was so wild that it missed me by a landslide and struck the wrecked wall behind us, causing it to crumble more than it had already. I brought the butt of my gun down on his head hard and his eyes rolled back as he slumped to the ground.
The door at the top of the stairs burst open and our strategy to get in and out with the least amount of death possible went right out the window. I aimed at the man coming down the stairs first and pulled the trigger, hitting him right in the knee cap. He roared in agony and tumbled down the stairs, throwing another to the ground in the process.
Kieran, Cormac, Connor, and Caden did the same. Caught by surprise, the Russians were too unprepared to do much of anything before our bullets swept through the lot of them. One soldier had enough time to pull out his weapon and take aim from the top of the stairs, but both Kieran and Cormac already had their fingers on the trigger and took him out together.
After about ten minutes, the five of us were left surrounded by an alarming number of fallen soldiers. Across the room, a door swung open, and my entire world took a singular focus.
Ada’s form moved through the doorway. Behind her, Anton pushed her forward, a gun pressed firmly against the side of her waist.
I swore under my breath and aimed in his direction. His answering smile was cold and malicious. I loathed him. If it were up to me, I’d put a bullet in his skull right then.
Ada’s eyes met mine. Her eyes narrowed, glancing downward towards his hand. Her hand was on top of Anton’s wrist, and I looked down, watching an almost imperceptible movement with her finger right above the knuckle that was poised over the trigger of his gun.
Her brothers fanned out beside me, and I stepped forward. They may be her brothers, but this woman was my future wife. I was going to take charge today.
“Anton Kozlov,” I began.
“Shane Kavanagh. Kieran Murphy,” he spat.
His gaze swept across the Murphy brothers. Kieran stepped beside me, his gaze hard and devoid of the usual warmth. He looked as close as I was to pulling the trigger and ending Anton.
