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These are the sacrifices we have to make. Even if they hurt.
And there’s more pain to come.
“There,” I say, handing the binoculars to Sean.
Down on the road, headlights stab through the blackness. The cars rumble forward then stop, pulling off to park in the grass. Sean counts quietly. “Fourteen in total.”
“He packed them in,” I say. “How well armed?”
“Well enough.” He hands the binoculars back to me.
Fourteen men are spread out around the cars, including Rustik. They begin toward the field, the bulk of his warriors splitting off from the main group to check for danger and screen their boss’s arrival.
My fighters are out there. Forty in all, every man I could pull together on short notice, including some of my best. Tonight, I have to trust in them.
Rustik’s entourage gets closer. They angle toward where Sean and I are crouched in the darkness. He can make us out, but I don’t think he recognizes us yet. They slow before they get into range, obviously worried about a trap.
But there’s nowhere for him to go now. They’re too far from the cars to escape, and there are at least fifteen men between them and the road.
Slowly, I stand up, drawing myself to my full height. “Rustik,” I call out. My voice sounds harsh in the otherwise cold silence.
Nobody moves. His men raise weapons, all of them aimed at me. If they open fire now, I might not make it. While I’m in a bullet-proof vest, one lucky headshot would end everything.
But instead, Rustik comes forward. “Liam,” he says. “I thought I was here to meet with my unruly farmers.”
“You’re not.”
He comes close enough that I can see his expression. It’s grim, and his eyes dart around the dark. He knows what’s happening, and he knows there’s nothing he can do to stop it now.
“How did you turn them?”
“All I had to do was show them the truth of what you are, and offer them a better deal. That was enough.”
He makes a noise in the back of his throat. I keep myself on my toes. Cornered animals are the most dangerous. “I knew this felt wrong. When that bitch said she wanted to show me what you did to her fields, but she wanted to do it in the middle of the night so we could safely discuss business without any prying eyes—” He stops himself. “She told me half the farmers in my stable would be here.”
“She lied,” I say with a vague gesture. “And now you have a choice to make.”
Nobody moves. Rustik’s men look uncomfortable. If they haven’t figured out what’s going to happen, they will shortly.
“You’re alone out here,” he says. “I outnumber you.”
“Please, don’t be pathetic. We both know that isn’t true.”
Another silence. I feel every eye in the field locked on me, waiting for the signal.
“What do you want?” Rustik asks. “I’m more useful to you alive.”
“I’m not so sure about that. Maybe that would’ve been true a few weeks ago, but you made it abundantly clear that you aren’t interested in being a worthwhile partner.”
“That was before.”
“Before what? Before I outmaneuvered you? Here’s the thing, Rustik. If you had just tried to kill me, I could work with that. I understand how these things go. But you hurt my wife. You hurt the mother of my child. And that I cannot abide.”
His eyes widen. “She’s pregnant? You’re serious about her?”
“Unfortunately for you, yes, I am very serious about her.”
I raise my hand and drop it, and suddenly a dozen shapes appear in the darkness.
Hell breaks loose. I hit the ground the moment my men appear. Gunfire erupts, tearing into Rustik’s entourage. I fire at the man himself, catching him in the chest. He screams in rage, growling his frustration as he tries to level his weapon at me, but I fire again, again, again, and the bastard drops to the blackened earth.
The shooting continues. There are a few scattered pockets of resistance as Rustik’s scouting party gets caught one-by-one and murdered. But once they’re all down, I stalk through the field, checking on my men. I lost three, and more are wounded, but overall, we came through as unscathed as possible.
Rustik’s corpse lies at my feet. Sean joins me, holding a bloodied arm. When I gesture at it, he only waves me off and points at my rival’s body. “What should we do with that?”
“Nothing special. Dispose of it.”
“You don’t want to make an example of him?”
“And do what, put it on a spike outside of my castle? No, toss him in a very deep pit with the rest of this trash and make sure nobody ever finds him. The city will know what happened.”
“There’s going to be heat.”
“We’ll weather it. Everyone here gets a bonus and a free trip back to Boston. Make the bonus very worth their risk.”
