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“You’re doing the right thing,” he said.
I nodded. He’d always been a part of my life from as far back as I could remember, the father of Evelina’s best friend. It had been a tough pill to swallow when I first learned she was actually in love with him, but he’d proven to be the best thing for her. I didn’t mind when he tried to get fatherly with me every once in a while.
“Here we go,” I said, standing up from the bench on the tarmac when I saw our driver pulling into the lot. “About damn time.”
I got Evelina on the phone. “We’re heading there now,” I told her. “Start it up.”
“You got it,” she said.
“Is Samantha okay?” I asked.
“We’re about to put together a baby swing.”
“Don’t put her to work, Ev,” I griped, getting in the car. I tapped in the coordinates in the GPS, and the driver took off.
“He doesn’t want me to put you to work,” I heard her tell Sam.
“I don’t mind at all,” she called. Just hearing her voice broke through my tension, and a smile took over my face. I really couldn’t wait for this to be over. “Is he okay?”
“Tell her I’m fine. Don’t tell her what I’m doing.”
Evelina lowered her voice. “She can handle it. And she has to get used to our way of life.”
“Can’t do this right now,” I said and ended the call. “Your wife is giving me shit,” I told Mikhail, who only nodded.
“Been there. You might be wise to listen to her, though.”
I only grumbled and steeled myself for what was ahead. I couldn’t get cocky now. There was always a chance my number could come up on any of these missions. I had the same odds of survival as anyone else, and just because I felt like right was on my side didn’t mean I’d make it home to Sam. I turned around to look at Mikhail, who stared out the window, a muscle in his jaw working.
How did he still do this, with a family waiting for him at home?
I closed my eyes and remembered the attempted kidnapping, the two attacks in Florida. It wasn’t going to stop until I stopped it.
We pulled up close to the building Aldo was supposed to be in, and I double-checked my gun, turning to Mikhail. “Let’s do this.”
He looked around with a frown. “Where’s everybody else?”
I handed him my phone, showing him the message from Evelina saying she’d cleared everyone out. “We set up some false alarms, and most of his men are off checking on them. He should only have a couple of guys up there with him. We don’t need to go in with guns blazing.”
He checked his own gun with a slight frown. “Well, that’s a bit of a letdown.”
I tried not to laugh at him or call him an old man. “This is how we do things these days.”
“I still think the old way is more fun.”
We got out and headed toward the entrance, just strolling right in. “Since you're my sister’s husband and my nephew's father, I’d like to ask you to consider safer hobbies.”
He chuckled. “I haven’t been on a raid since I took out Novikoff. How’s that for safe?”
We quieted down when we were in the lobby of the building. We’d already determined that Aldo's floor didn’t have any other residents, so that was a relief in case we really had to do some heavy shooting.
We took the stairs, hoofing up eight flights before I peeked out of the stairwell door. The hallway light flickered, and the carpet was the short, old-fashioned kind with loud, dark-colored geometric prints. Good for hiding blood stains, I supposed, but ugly as hell.
“Two guys in front of the door,” I hissed to Mikhail.
He raised his gun and nodded. We stormed forward, each of us dispatching one of the men before they could register we were coming at them. I kicked in the door, and we burst inside.
I expected to have to shoot again, but the place seemed deserted. It was nice enough, just outdated and a bit grimy. Empty takeout boxes lined the kitchen counter, and everything was coated in dust. Did we have the wrong information? The men outside the door might have been decoys.
