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"I've heard things are gonna get messy soon."
"I don't know, Yuriy likes to take his time."
"No shit."
They walk past the plant, talking to each other while lazily checking their surroundings, and I quietly breathe out in relief. God bless the idiots.
"Hey, is that—"
Shit.
I look up just in time to see one of the guards turn his head over his shoulder and come to a stop, looking at me with wide eyes. Well, I guess it's time for action. Before the two of them come back to their senses, I lunge at the one looking at me and dig my dagger into his arm. While he cries out loud, the other steps back and takes out his gun, aiming at me, but I kick him in the stomach and send him into the wall.
While he groans in pain, I grab his gun, and the first guy jumps at me from behind, trying to catch my arms. But I blindly kick his knee and hit his face with the back of my head, forcing him to step back.
"What the fuck?"
Well, shit. I turn around and see a guy at the other end of the hallway, frozen in surprise. Our eyes meet, and he immediately grabs his gun—but I'm faster to aim at him with the guard's gun and take the first shot.
The thunder of the gunshot echoes across the hallway, deafening me for a moment, but I focus on the guy who managed to jump on the ground at the last moment. I sharply move away when he aims at me, avoiding his bullet, when one of the first two men grabs my ankle and tugs me down. Fuck off! I kick his face, barely balancing on one foot, when the second bullet flies a few inches away from my shoulder. Goddamnit. This is getting dangerous.
I look up and blindly shoot back at the guy at the other end of the hallway, still struggling to get my ankle out of the grip of the one on the floor, when I hear footsteps behind me. Shit. I only have enough time to look over my shoulder when someone barrels into me from behind, catching my elbows and pushing them back. I curse out loud and start thrashing to get out of the grip, but another guy appears from behind me and punches me in the face.
Goddamnit! The pain is so strong it blinds me for a second, but it’s enough for them to force my hands behind my back and grab my hair to make me stand up. Shit.
“You know how to treat a lady,” I spit out, squinting at them. I know pretty much all of them, although I doubt it’ll help me this time.
“What should we do with her?” Yar asks, holding his bleeding shoulder, and Lev hums from behind me.
"I'll take her to the old man while you two check the perimeter. I don't want to get in trouble for letting her in."
"Or you could be gentlemen, let me go, and pretend like it never happened," I murmur, feeling a weird urge to piss them off. Maybe then I'll be able to fight them again and run away.
"Shut up, you Italian whore."
I roll my eyes, stumbling toward Father’s cabinet. "Your master forced me to join them."
"Whatever," Lev huffs. "You're not a Russian anymore."
"It doesn’t work like that."
But nobody's listening anymore. Yar knocks on the door of the cabinet and, when we hear a rather annoyed offer to come in, peeks inside. "Sorry for interrupting you, sir, but it's rather important."
"More important than my stupid son-in-law raiding the streets?"
I blink and raise my head, tensing up. What? Louis is here?
But it doesn’t seem to surprise anyone else, and Yar only visibly hesitates in the face of Father’s anger. "Uh, I'm not sure…but I think it is. We caught Alexandra."
There's a short pause, a clear indication of Father’s surprise, and I can imagine him frowning in confusion. What, he didn't expect to see me so soon after the wedding, huh?
"Let her in," he finally orders, and Lev pushes me past the doorstep and into the room. I guess my task can officially be counted as a failure, but for some reason I don’t feel too angry about it. There’s an odd sense of confidence in my chest as I step into the beast’s lair.
As always, Father is in his favorite armchair, leaning on the desk with his elbows, and even though he doesn’t show much of his distress, I can see it in the tightness of his locked hands and the scatter of papers on his desk. The air in the room is dim and suffocating from the cigarette smoke, and I can feel my eyes start to sting as soon as I enter.
In front of Father are the recruit and the guard I’ve seen before. They’re both staring at me in bewilderment until Father clears his throat, and everyone immediately turns back to him. But of course, he’s looking at me, squinting his eyes in displeasure, and I stand up straight and hold his gaze.
“I didn’t expect you to miss me so soon.” Father tilts his head slightly, mimicking Yuriy’s calm and amused attitude. It took him a while to pick it up, and now I’m kinda glad he doesn’t let himself be as violent as before.
