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I send Raff and Paulie to the back entrance and Carm to the front doors as he’s the least recognised of me, him and Luca. With his blue eyes, pale skin and blonde curls he looks more Russian than Sicilian. They deny his entry like we knew they would and he elbows the bigger of the two breaking his nose. With both men distracted, me and Luca rush them. I shoot the other while Carm finishes the big fucker.
We push our way through the doors into a dark dingy room with multiple poker tables. There's a bar at the far end of the room. I instantly recognise the three men sitting at the bar. Three of the Bratva's top enforcers. There's a couple of girls in the room, they all look cracked out of their heads. Luca starts shooting as soon as we walk through the door, taking headshots and bodies start dropping like flies.
I've got my sights set on the men at the bar, Andrei in particular. He's the most brutal out of the three and he’s Ivan Volkovs -the current leader of the Bratvas'- nephew.
Carmine starts shouting at the girls to leave as the bullets start to rain from both sides. The two fuckers next to Andrei start to shoot at us and I flip a poker table over, ducking behind it. I grab one of the fallen bodies from the floor to use as a shield, it won't stop many bullets but enough for me to get close. I don't want to kill Andrei with a bullet; he deserves a more personal approach, I want to feel his blood on my hands. Carmine is right behind me, he obviously has the same idea whilst Luca covers us from the corner of the room.
The body I'm holding takes two bullets, the third goes straight through and hits me in my vest making me stumble back a couple steps. I drop the body just in time to see Luca take out one of the guys next to Andrei. Carmine is already rushing forward for the third and they start fighting. I tuck my Glock in its holster and stalk towards Andrei. He's a big cunt. Not as tall as me but he is a pure slab of muscle.
He drops his gun, a grim smile on his face as he brings his hands up to motion for me to come forward. I didn’t realise he was as egotistical as me. He wants to be the one to say he took me out with his bare hands. Unlucky for him, dying wasn't on the agenda for today.
I run at him starting with a left hook straight to the jaw that shakes his head. That’s the thing with getting too bulky, you slow yourself down. His head snaps back, his eyes burning and teeth bared. I give him a cheeky grin. I want to get him angry. I want him livid.
He swings a few punches misses the first two but hits me in the side of the head with the third and fuck me his fist feels like a brick. My vision in my right eye starts to blur where his ring has split my head. I duck again and kick him square in the chest sending him flying backwards against the wall. He steadies himself quickly, lurching forward and sending a torrent of punches to my torso, I feel the crack in my ribs before I hear it. I send my elbow flying into his nose and I hear the crunch. I rip my knife out of my wrist holster just as his hands fly out to his nose. I slice him over his forearms and then go straight for the throat. Burying my knife in the side of his throat and ripping it straight back out, a gush of hot blood following.
He drops to his knees and I reach out and cover his throat with my hand, not to stop the bleeding. I just want to feel him take his last breath. His hands rip at mine on his throat and the gurgling noises start to bubble out of his mouth.
I kick him again so he falls to his back. His hands finally stop their pursuit and his eyes go blank. That’s my favourite part. When their eyes go blank.
Raff and Paulie appear from the stairs. I sent them back there because there's only a few bedrooms where prostitutes work and it would have been an easier fight. Me, Luca and Carms have done this so often we fight in perfect unison, like a unit. Paulie looks hurt. He's limping, hanging off Raff's arm.
“Let’s go.” Luca bellows. I look around the room, there's only one girl left cowering in the corner although her eyes are glassy. It's clear she's on something, probably crack. The Russians deal a lot of crack.
“You need to go!” Carmine shouts at her but she doesn’t even appear to have heard him; she's just shaking in the corner like a cowering dog. “Jesus Christ.” he groans, marching over and physically picking her up to take her outside.
Luca passes me a gasoline can and Raff disappears into the back room with a can of his own. After dousing the place we leave through the back entrance, Luca throws his zippo inside before closing the door. Carmine is standing by the back door awkwardly patting the girl's back.
He looks at me with a questioning expression as she hugs her arms trying to make herself as small as possible. She’s only young, nineteen maybe? I take one look at her and I know I can’t just leave her.
I crouch down in front of her and try to catch her eye which is hard because she’s pretty out of it. “What’s your name?”
When she doesn’t respond, I nod at Luca, begrudgingly he comes closer.
“??? ???? ????” ‘What's your name?’ He started learning Russian after our mother died and it’s saved us a lot of hassle over the years.
She flinches back. “I’m not Russian!” She snaps still shaking as her lip starts to tremble. “It’s Maddie.”
“We’re kind of on a schedule here,” Luca says as he points to the building behind us which is getting hotter and hotter by the second.
“Maddie, we really need to get out of here. Is there anywhere we can take you?”
She looks at each of us and then back to the building where the smoke is starting to seep under the door. We have seconds before the windows go. “You’re not going to hurt me?” She asks quietly, eyes all wide and unsure.
“We won’t, I swear.” It takes her a minute of searching all our faces and she finally starts walking very uneasily on her feet, it’s then I notice the marks. She’s covered in bruises all over her thin legs and around her throat. There’s even bite marks on her neck and chest, fucking animals. I should have made them suffer more. I don't deal in the skin trade. It’s just something I can’t fuck with. My father used to but I slowly shut it down when I took over. It’s one mark on my soul that I’m not comfortable with.
I take one look at Paulie limping beside Raff and know he needs to go see our doctor ASAP. “Raff, take Paulie to Antonio’s.” He grunts his acknowledgement before helping Paulie into the passenger seat of his Audi. “My seats are going to be ruined.” Paulie half groans half shouts. Raff huffs a laugh before closing the door and rounding the car to the driver's seat.
I open the back seat for the girl and she hesitates, looking behind her and back at the building. Luca rolls his eyes and slams his hands down on the car roof making her flinch. “Chop, Chop! We haven’t got all fucking day.” She makes a scared sound but jumps in.
I give him an imploring look to which he returns with a wink and slides in beside her. I get in the passenger seat and Carm slides behind the wheel peeling out of the alley. I flip down the mirror to assess the cut above my eye. The blood is running down my face and it needs stitches but it's not dire. My ribs are also definitely broken, one of them at least. My whole left side feels as if I've been hit by a train.
“Where the fuck are we taking her?” Carm asks quietly through clenched teeth, he’s looking a bit bloody himself but nothing that needs urgent attention. Luca on the other hand looks the same as when we went in. He stretches his arms out over the back seats making her shrink back into the corner to avoid physical contact with him. I catch the slight smirk when she does, he takes a cigarette out and lights it with his head thrown back like he’s at the fucking spa. “Have you got an address, any family?” I ask, glancing at her in the rearview mirror.
She nods a few times and lists an address in Brooklyn. I turn to Carms, “You good to take her?”
He flattens his eyes in annoyance. “Why me?”
“Because he has a date,” Luca says, tipping his head to me.
