“It’s thirty-two degrees out! What do expect? Sunshine and rainbows? It’s eleven at night.” I can’t believe he’s bitching about the coldness, “If you move a bit faster you’d warm up. It’ll help you lose some of those pounds you’ve put on!”
“Asshole. Jealous?” Sam fires back.
“Of what? You’re fat thighs?”
He sucks in an exaggerated deep breath, “Fuck you asshole! It’s my fat month!” We all chuckle at Sam’s dramatics, “How is Skye handling everything?” His worried tone makes me turn to him.
“She’s doing okay, I think she’s blocking everything out. She’s just focusing on finding Addison, nothing else matters. She’s cried, and she’s hurting but she’s not letting it fester, she refocuses herself.”
“It’s going to hit her.” Sam tells me something that I already know, “She’s doing what she did when we were in Afghanistan.”
“I won’t let her break like she did back then.” She’s one of the toughest women I know, but she held everything that happened in Afghanistan locked up tight until it finally hit her all at once and she broke. Locked herself in her house for a week and wouldn’t let anyone in, she lost about five pounds in that week.
“I know you won’t, but this time it’s her sister, and she’s pregnant.” It sounds as though he’s giving me a warning, one in which he doesn’t need to give me. “Just tread carefully. Otherwise she’s going to get hurt.”
“I fucking know how to look after my wife. I know what she needs.” I say through gritted teeth, I don’t like being questioned, and I certainly don’t like the assumption that I’ll be the one to hurt her.
“Hey, I never said otherwise. All I’m saying is Skye’s been through enough. Unlike Sophia and Winter, she never lets anyone in.” He’s so worried about her; I can hear it in his voice.
“She’s never had anyone she can fully be herself with. She’s always guarded, and that’s going to change.” I vow no more will she feel as though she’s on the outside looking in on this family.
“Good, now let’s see what’s waiting for us on the other side hmm?” The smirk on his face lets me know that he’s hoping one of the band of misfits is inside, so he can let some of his worry and frustration out.
Oscar leads the way; each one of us has our gun drawn as we approach the entrance to the warehouse. I watch as he uses his fingers as a countdown, 3, 2, 1… It’s a go! We storm into the warehouse and find it completely empty all except for the body lying in the middle of the floor. Cautiously looking around to make sure there are no surprises lying around like a bomb, I make my way over to the body.
“Area clear,” Sam informs us, and the team start walking towards me and the body.
Looking down at the body I let out a low whistle. Damn, he's pissed someone off, he’s been beaten to a pulp, and it's going to be hard to make an identification because his hands have been cut off and by the amount of blood around his mouth I’d say his teeth are gone too.
Look up when the others approach, and I see Patrick has a smile on his face. He must sense me watching him, “Boss, does he look familiar to you?” I don’t answer him; this isn't the time or the place for twenty questions. “Boss we’re looking at Matija Subotić.”
“Well fuck me! He's right. Wonder what the asshole did to end up like this?” Sam says as he bends down and picks up a bit of paper.
“What I want to know is who's taken over the band of misfits?” I take the paper from Sam and see that there’s an address written on it with a date and time. 18th October 1:15am. “Where's this address?” I ask Oscar as I shove the piece of paper in front of his face.
He frowns as he takes out his cell. “That's the strip club, and that's tonight, well tomorrow morning.”
“Well, we know where we’re going next. God don't fucking tell the women we’re going to a strip club. I like my balls where they are.” We all laugh at Sam, but he's right. If the women found out where we’re going to next without them, it will be the start of world war three.
“Are we going to leave him here?” Will asks, and I must admit he's impressed me tonight. He's usually the laugher and joker, but tonight he's kept his head down and done his job.
“Yes, we're all wearing gloves, and there's no CCTV. So, it's time to go, hopefully, whoever killed this fucker can do us a favor and kill the rest of the gang.”
Will smiles, “Sounds good, so we’re going to the strip club next?” I nod, and his smile widens as he rubs his hands together, “Awesome, I haven’t been to a strip joint in a while. It’s good to check out the talent globally.” He’s a douche again, just when I had gotten to the point where I didn’t want to break the fucker's neck every time I looked at him, he goes and says stupid shit like that!
I start making my way to the exit when I hear Oscar tell him, “You can go back when we’re not working,” I hear a scuffling noise outside and hold up my hand in a closed fist, it’s our signal to stay quiet and be on alert. I move so my backs against the wall of the warehouse, and the others follow suit, the scuffling noise turns to heavy footsteps, and there’s nothing around here except this warehouse. We’ve got company. I hold up my hand again and open and close my fist three times, everyone’s on alert. And I move quickly, each positioning ourselves at opposite sides of the door.
Voices grow louder as the footsteps do; I think it’s the Brezhnev brothers. I don’t know Russian, but it sure sounds like that’s what they’re speaking. I hold up my fingers indicating there are two incoming bogies. With my gun drawn and pointed at the door, I wait for them to enter. It doesn’t take long; they stupidly walk into the warehouse not even looking to see who’s around. Doesn’t sit right for so-called KGB members, hell it doesn’t ring true for anyone who has any sort of military background. You should always be aware of your surroundings. We wait in the shadows as the men make their way further into the warehouse. Something about them isn’t sitting right with me, and I can’t put my finger on it.
“Nyet!” One of the men shouts as they see the dead body on the floor.
I lift my hand once more and count to three, once I hit three we all move as one, “Get on your knees or I’ll shoot you!” I shout and wait for them to do as I say, but nothing instead they smirk.
“He said get on your knees!” Travers gets up close to them, breaking rank. Something that is against my rules, I don't allow my team members to be in a one on one situation. I've seen the destruction one person can do, especially a KGB member.
“Will don't!” Sam shouts as Will pushes his gun against one of their heads. He should have seen it coming, but he didn't. The punch lands firmly on his chin sending him to the floor. “Get on the floor, on your knees and hands on your head!” Sam shouts at them, but they don't listen. He lifts his gun higher; he's aiming for headshots now.
“Nyet,” Misha says as he spits in Sam’s face. My anger starts to mount, and I know Sam’s ready to blow. Only scum spit in people's faces, this ass knows that he’s surrounded. There's only one way out for him, and that's in a body bag, and I have no problem being the one to do it.
“You think that's going to work? You think I'm going to run away crying just because you spit in my face? Think again asshole.” Sam pushes Andrei out of the way, and he falls to the ground with a sickening thud, he’s going to have one hell of a headache tomorrow. Well, that’s if he makes it out of here alive. Once Sam has Andrei out of the way he throws a punch in Misha’s direction, but Misha expertly dodges it. Sam goes into his boxing frame of mind; we all learned how to box along with learning the arts of MMA, jiu-jitsu, karate, and Krav Maga. We like to be prepared, we like to know that we can face anything and in doing so learning every hand to hand combat we could.
Patrick and Oscar pin Andrei to the floor and tie him up, he’s not going anywhere and either way, we’re going to have one fucker who’s going to tell us what the fuck is happening and where the hell Addison is. My attention is turned back to Sam and Misha but
the sound of crushing bones. Thankfully not Sam’s although it looks as though one punch won't keep Misha down, he’s back up and swinging. It’s time to end this, I look to Will who looks mad as hell, but that’s a good thing, at least he’ll learn to stay in formation. I nod to him, and we move as Sam and Misha still trade blows, damn, but pretty boy Sam is going to have a shiner tomorrow. As Will and I start to surround him, I watch in amusement as Sam tackles him to the ground.
“Stay the fuck down!” Sam growls, his breathing hard. He looks up at me, and I see that light in his eyes, he’s having fun. “How about we interrogate these fuckers and see what they have to say for themselves?”
“I was just thinking the same thing!” My smile is sinister as I think of just how we’re going to get these fuckers to talk, them being KGB they aren’t going to roll over
Chapter Eighteen
Ryder
“What do you think the women are up to right now?” Sam asks as we set up for our interrogation. We don’t have long; we need to be across London in an hour, so this had better be quick.
“Hopefully they’re asleep. Winter and Maisey will keep Skye reigned in, I mean Winter’s quiet.”
He snorts, “Quiet? Winter?” He starts to chuckle, “She’s hell on wheels, now she knows how to use a gun, and she's not afraid to use it. She begged me for months to teach her how to shoot, I finally relented, and she took to it like a duck on water. I’m fucked if I do anything wrong now.” He’s shaking his head, but he has that stupid grin on his face, the one he always has when he talks or thinks about her.
I can’t help but laugh, “Damn, whatever possessed you? Did you not learn from Nathan and Sophia? I'm worried about that man, he never learns, he always put his foot in it. One of these days she's going to kill him; she’ll end up pleading insanity.”
“What about you hmm? Are we going to find you dead one of these days? Skye has a good excuse, she's pregnant! She can kill you and get away with it. It would do us all a favor!” He thinks he's hilarious, he’s even laughing at his own joke.
“We’d better quit playing around and get this done, Oscar doesn’t look too pleased! Not only that, we have to be at the strip joint in just under an hour.” That feeling I have hasn’t gone away, something's going to happen, I can feel it. I just hope that someone doesn't end up dying again.
“What the hell is wrong with Oscar these days anyway? He gets his man period?” He's right Oscar has not been himself lately, and I have a feeling it has something to do with Emma.
“If you are ready, we can get started,” Speak of the devil and he answers! He turns to the Brezhnev brothers who at the moment are both as still as can be. They’ve been well trained, and I don’t think we’ll get anything out of them, but we’re going to give it a go. “So which one of you wants to make this easy? All we want to know is where Addison Taylor is.” Oscar uses his ‘do not mess with me’ voice, the one he only uses when someone pisses him off.
The brothers don’t even flinch, there’s no recognition in their eyes at the mention of Addison’s name, and they’re completely stoic. “You’re going to pretend that you don’t know who I’m talking about? Funny seems as you we’re dating Addison’s roommate.” Oscar is mad as hell, and he looks as though he’s going to lose his composure at any moment, it’s so unlike him. Something is definitely going on and a lot more than it being Connor’s birthday.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Mischa says in a heavily accented tone.
Oscar’s finished with playing this game and decides it’s time to change things up, he moves to Andrei, “What about you? Have you not heard of her?” Andrei shifts slightly, oh, seems big brother isn’t as good at keeping his composure as his brother. “Hmm, I’ll take that as a yes. So, where is she?” Again, he shifts slightly. If anyone is going to tell us where Addison is, it’s going to be Andrei. Oscar looks at me, and I nod, it’s time to speed this shit up.
Patrick steps forward, knuckle dusters gracing his hands. He wastes no time in going for the kill, three punches to Misha’s face. The sound of flesh hitting flesh fills this empty warehouse, the sound bouncing off the walls. Yet again, Misha makes no movement or sound. Patrick throws two more punches, this time he connects with bone and the crunching sound is sickening, it makes Andrei take a sharp intake of breath. Good, this is affecting him, time to up the ante. I nod to Patrick who moves from Misha’s face and starts concentrating on his torso, landing blow after blow on his stomach, ribs and kidneys. Finally, we begin to get somewhere as Misha starts to pant, trying hard not to let us know we’re hurting him. We’re not stupid; the heavy breathing along with the panting is a huge giveaway.
“Stop,” Andrei shouts, but Patrick doesn’t, in fact, he quickens the blows, alternating between Misha’s face and his body. The sound makes Andrei flinch but, yet he says nothing more.
“Continue,” I order Patrick, although there was no need as he hasn’t let up once. “Don’t stop until I tell you.” Patrick nods, he too is breathing hard. He’s got a sheen of sweat coating his face, but he won’t stop, not until I give him the command. I wave Will over to me, “Find out what car they drove here in,” he nods, and does as I ask.
I hear Misha’s breathing start to become shallow; it’s not going to take much longer for him to lose consciousness. It’s up to them to end this onslaught but only when they tell us where the hell Addison is. We’re pissed that these assholes have managed to always be one step ahead of us. Now, well now the tables have turned. Their leader is dead, and we’ve got two of them to lean on for information.
“Damn, I thought he would have lasted longer.” The amusement in Sam’s voice has Patrick chuckling, “Who would have thought that a KGB member was a weak ass pussy?” Patrick takes a step back with his arms down by his side; he's waiting for a command.
“Boss, they came by a white van. It’s outside with the engine running.” Will says as soon as he comes back into the warehouse.
“Sam, you and Will check out the van. I don’t trust these fuckers. It could have a goddamn bomb in it. Oscar, Patrick, and I are going to finish this.” My voice has a hardness to it, one that I haven’t used in a while. I want to get home, I want Skye home, and I want us to finally be a family. The only way that's going to happen is to find Addison and end this shit. “Again!” I give Patrick the order. He looks hesitant, but he does as I ask, he punches Misha in his face.
“Stop, I'll tell you what you want just stop!” Andrei shouts looking at his little brother, who has blood everywhere. He’s unrecognizable at this moment.
I smirk, about fucking time. “Where is Addison?”
His eyes narrow, “I don’t know! I do not know where the girl is.”
“Bull-fucking-shit! Tell us where she is, and we’ll let your brother here live!” Oscar yanks Misha’s head up by his hair, showing Andrei that he’s not messing around.
“I don’t know! I only know where the others are! I’ve been trying to get my brother out.” Andrei sounds believable.
“Really? Is that why you’ve been following me? Because you’re trying to get your brother out of the crew?” I call bullshit; this fucker knows a hell of a lot more than he’s telling us.
“Yes, I’ve been pretending to be part of the crew, so I can crush it from the inside. I watched my little brother vanish before my eyes, and I want him back!” His Russian accent becomes thicker as he gets more passionate. He really does care about his brother; it's his weakness, one that I am going to exploit.
“Did you kill him?” I point to the dead body that is lying beside him.
“Nyet! I did not kill him; we did not know he was here.” He won't look at the body, his eyes glued to his brother's unconscious state.
“Hmm. What did you do to piss them off?” Oscars taunting him, he's trying to get into his mind and by the way Andrei shifts in his chair, its working! “So, what did you do? Sleep with one of their girls? Steal their money?”
“We didn't kill him, but it sure looks like you were set up! You have definitely pissed them off, you're a dead man and so is your brother!” Again, Oscar’s taunting him, I think, but this is helping get to whatever demons are eating away at him.
“Why? Why would they do this? What has my brother done to them? What have I done to them?” Andrei starts shaking his head, he’s in a state of shock at the moment, and we need to speed this up.
“It doesn't matter why, what matters is what's going to happen next. We can leave you here and wait for the cops to come. Let's face it they’ll be here soon, you'll be arrested for murder. Or you come with us and tell us what we need to know. That includes telling us where Addison is!” I tell him with a smile, he's fucked either way.
“Fine, get us out of here. I will tell you whatever it is you need to know.” He's being sincere, he knows he’s fucked and far from home. We’re going to find out what we need to know.
The door opening announces that Sam and Will are back and the look on their faces tells me they’ve found something. “Everything okay?”
“Boss, he's not the only dead body around here. There's a woman in the back of the van, it's not Addison, and this girl is barely legal.” Will walks towards Andrei without saying a word, and I can see what his intentions are, but I don’t stop him, we just watch on as Will punches Andrei in the face. Andrei’s head snaps to the side from the force. Will raises his arm, his fist ready.
“Enough!” I yell as Oscar holds him back, so he can’t get to him again.
“Boss,” His voice cracks, this is a side of Will I’ve not seen before.
“That girl, fuck Ryder! She’s been brutalized, there isn’t an inch of her that hasn’t been burned, beaten or bitten.” Sam looks just as murderous as Will, but he’s keeping himself calm because we don’t need any more dead bodies on our hands.
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