Good. A distraction.
He checked the safeties on both guns one more time. He might be coming back in a hurry and didn’t want to deal with anything on either gun that would hinder bullets coming out at a rapid rate.
Both were still off. Nick set them against the wall again, grabbed the knife, and looked around the corner again.
Still quiet.
Nick stood up, took a deep breath, and ran, crouching, towards the car.
Anya pressed herself up against the side of the vehicle, as far from her captor as possible. Only one man had stayed with her. The other tossed her in her seat, slammed the door hard against her side as the first man climbed in through the other rear door, and disappeared. Back to the office with Alexander and her father. The thought made her wince.
She took several deep breaths and forced herself to think. The guard next to her had a gun, but she was not concerned about him firing it in the confines of the SUV. The noise and concussion would hurt him as much as her. Well, she thought ruefully, maybe not quite as much. But she was more concerned about the butt end of the pistol. It could do some damage against her skull.
She looked across the seat at the man. The gun was in his right hand, nearest her. He had a good grip on it, but with surprise and an element of luck she might be able to get her hands on it. She knew one thing for sure: she was not going back to Alexander’s house without a grab at that gun. Once behind his doors she was in big trouble, but she wouldn’t go without a fight.
A motion out the back window caught her eye. A figure ran towards the car. Instinctively she knew it was a man, but not one of Alexander’s. She kept her face composed and watched his progress out of the corner of her eye. It only took him a few seconds to travel the open ground to the car. A moment before he hit the car she screamed.
Her scream, ear-shattering in the car, had the desired effect of scaring the hell out of the guard. Immediately, and probably without thinking, he raised his right arm and started to swing it at her head. In that split-second she realized she was wrong: he wouldn’t use the butt of the pistol to hit her, but the barrel.
Then the door flew open and an arm swung in. Attached to the arm was a blade. It looked long and lethal for the brief moment it was visible. It caught a ray of light from outside, then the reflection disappeared as the intruder slammed the knife into the chest of the guard. It made a sickening crunch as it pierced the breastbone. A second arm came in and grasped the handle of the knife, giving it more leverage and jamming it up to the hilt in gore.
The guard’s hands flew up to grasp at the hands on the knife that now caused him excruciating pain. His mouth opened in a scream, a noise that was quickly muffled by Anya’s hand. She pressed her hand down hard, shoving his head back into the seat.
The guard struggled for several seconds as his life ran out over the blade and down his shirt. Then he was still.
Anya removed her hand slowly, wary of a resurgence in the man that seemed to happen so often in the movies. But his eyes were still, unblinking, and his hands fell down to his sides, limp.
“Took you long enough,” she told Nick.
Nick panted from the exertion. “Yeah, well, you’re lucky I tracked you down. You need to answer your phone more,” he said as he wiped the blade on the man’s pants. He was getting fond of his ceramic knife.
“Papa took it.”
Nick nodded. “Where are they?” He assumed Alexander, Gennady, and Andrei were all together.
Anya pointed out her window towards the building. “Back in there. Andrei’s down but seemed OK. Alexander wants blood.”
Nick snorted. “I plan to give him blood.”
“There’s more,” she said quickly. “I saw another two more cars. Big. Must be reinforcements.”
“Damn,” Nick said. “Which way?”
“Past us.”
“OK. I heard shots from the warehouse. Not these guys. So assume two carloads of bad guys. Probably eight men.”
“At the warehouse?” Anya said. She chewed her lip. “I sent Mikhail over to the warehouse to warn the guys there.”
“Good idea. That’s who’s putting up a fight then.”
“But there are probably only a few men in the warehouse. And they’re up against eight guys.”
“They’re gonna need help.”
Anya nodded. “I need a gun,” she said.
Nick stared at her, saw she was composed and likely wouldn’t shoot the first thing she saw, which would probably be him, and nodded. “I have guns. Come out this side so they don’t see you.”
Alexander slapped Andrei on the cheek again. Andrei had come to and was sitting against a wall, groggy. Blood obscured his left temple where the truncheon had hit, and his skin was a sickly grey. His glazed eyes dimly tracked Alexander as he squatted in front of him. Ilia had come back in and now stood behind Alexander silently, but Andrei ignored him.
“Time to go, Andrei,” Alexander said. He was still planning to kill the young bastard, but he wanted to get some information out of him first. It’d be easy enough to dispose of Andrei’s body when the time came.
Andrei coughed, then winced. He didn’t reply.
Alexander stood up, glanced at his last bodyguard, and motioned towards Andrei. “Pavel, take this piece of garbage out to my car. Put him next to the girl. They can have a last few moments together. Then come back here.”
Pavel walked over to Andrei and tried to lift him, but Andrei was too far gone to be of much help. Pavel faced Andrei and put his hands under Andrei’s armpits. He heaved but the body hardly budged. He moved around to the side and tried from a different angle, and got the same result.
He looked up at Alexander and shrugged, an embarrassed look on his face.
Alexander cursed again and turned to Ilia. “Are you going to be trouble for me?” he asked.
“No.”
“Want a job?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Help Pavel,” he said. Andrei’s former bodyguard, now ready to show his loyalty to the winning team, nodded and went to help Pavel.
With the issue of Andrei resolved, at least for the time being, Alexander turned on Gennady. Andrei’s uncle appeared to be in worse shape than his nephew, and for a brief moment Alexander felt sorry for him. It will be tough on the old man to lose a daughter and a nephew in one day. On the other hand, they had brought it all on themselves. And Rostov would be better off without these idiots in charge of anything.
Alexander eased his body down into the chair next to Gennady, who barely acknowledged his presence. “I know you don’t feel like it, friend, but it’s time to come to an understanding of our future relationship.”
“What future relationship?” Gennady mumbled. “You’re killing my family.”
“Not all of it, Gennady. You’ll still be able to stay in business. You’ll just work for me. I think eventually you’ll enjoy it.”
Gennady shook his head slightly. “I doubt it,” he said, voice a little stronger. He looked over at his nemesis. “I doubt that very much.”
“Safety here,” Nick said, showing Anya the switch.
“Won’t need it,” she said.
Nick nodded and moved on. “OK, here’s where you set single shot, double shot, or full automatic.”
She nodded. “How many rounds in the magazine?”
“Forty-five. I have two extra mags.”
“So probably not full auto.”
“Right, at least not for now. I’m on double. And there’s no recoil after the first shot so you’ll do some damage. A double tap oughta do it.”
She looked at the gun with admiration. “Nice.”
Several shots rang out from the direction of the warehouse. Nick and Anya looked at each other, each one thinking the same thought.
“They have to wait,” Nick said.
Anya nodded. “I know. I don’t like it, though.”
More shots. Mikhail and his men may have been outnumbered, but they weren’t going down without
a fight. Nick felt frustrated but he knew what they had to do.
He handed her the AN-94 but kept his hand on the barrel until she looked at him. “Now remember, we’re not here to kill everybody. Let’s get Gennady and Andrei.”
She pulled at the gun until he let go. “Papa and Andrei are the priority, but Alexander’s a bad man, Nick.” She looked around the corner of the building, towards the car and, beyond that, where her relatives and enemy were together. “You should’ve seen him. He really enjoyed beating my men up. He’s a monster.” She said the last bit through clenched teeth.
“Fine, he’s a monster,” Nick replied. “He’ll get his. We just have to be smart about it.”
“Shut up,” she replied.
“Hey,” Nick said. “No need to—“
“No, shut up,” she hissed. “Somebody’s coming.”
He fell silent. Sure enough, he heard footsteps on the gravel from the other side of the truck. Somebody coming to check on Anya, or the dead guy.
No good. He took a deep breath and flattened himself against the wall. Anya stood next to him and they waited.
The footsteps stopped. He heard a mumbled question, and a reply. He heard the car door open. A second later there was a curse and heavy steps on the gravel, coming closer, around the car. The other door swung open.
Nick and Anya looked at each other and nodded. She swung out and he crouched down, both pointing their guns at the car.
There was a man in the open doorway, checking on the guy Nick had killed. He was bent over at the waist, digging around in the back seat. It wouldn’t take him long to realize his buddy wasn’t coming back to life.
“Hold your fire,” he whispered. “Let’s see what he—“
His words were interrupted by a quick burp from her gun. Immediately the car’s rear quarter panel, a foot to the man’s right, smoked and a large hole appeared in the metal. The man jumped out of the car and turned towards Nick and Anya. His action was understandable but probably the dumbest thing he could have done. Both guns barked and he went down with four bullets in his body. Anya shot again and the body twitched on the ground.
Nick heard a curse from the other side of the car, but the second man was smarter and didn’t show his head. Nick heard the crunch of gravel as he hustled back to wherever he had come from.
He swung on Anya. “You need to control yourself,” he said through clenched teeth. “We can’t just go barging around, shooting everybody we see.”
“That’s exactly what we should do!” she retorted, eyes blazing. They stared at each other for a long moment. The other man had disappeared, and they were safe for the time being. She took a deep breath and continued. “I saw a chance to kill one of the men threatening my family, and I took it.”
“And now whoever is with the guy by the car knows we’re here!” Nick yelled.
“So why are we standing here arguing?” Anya yelled back.
“Because you’re being a bull in a china shop and you need to keep it together. Plus you lied to me and I’m still pissed off about that!” He swung the gun towards her, so she got the idea, but stopped short of pointing it at her. “I can’t have you running around like a crazy woman. I’d rather shoot you in the leg and leave you here, out of the way, and I’ll go get my daughter myself. I’m half-tempted to do that anyway!” He stood there, panting, red in the face, glaring at her. “The daughter I should be playing with at the orphanage right now, not tracking down at some goddamn warehouse because your fucking family wants to rule Rostov!”
She went still and stared in his eyes. She put her hand on the muzzle of the AN-94 and pulled it towards her. He resisted, hands clear of the trigger. She pressed the muzzle against her breast.
“You won’t shoot me,” Anya said softly. “You’d take a bullet for me. That’s who you are.”
Nick’s anger drained away. She saw his face and let go of the muzzle. He swung the gun away from her.
“I’m so sorry, Nick,” she said. She touched his arm. “I didn’t realize what Andrei was planning, what he was capable of. I just wanted to help him out—“
“I know,” Nick said. “It just got out of control.”
“And when I got to know and like you, I tried to distance you from him, you know. I told you to stay away.”
Nick forced a smile. “I wish I had listened to you then, Anya. You were right.”
“Am I forgiven?”
He chewed his lip briefly, then sighed. “Of course. It’s done, and we need each other. We need to get out of here and come up with a new plan,” he said. “They’re probably ready to come after us.”
She squeezed his arm, then nodded and moved out. Nick followed, and they sprinted towards the other side of the building, away from the car, Nick expecting a bullet in the back the entire way.
Chapter 40
Alexander looked up as the door flew open and two figures stumbled in. Ilia still supported the groggy Andrei, but this time he did it alone.
“Where’s Pavel?” Alexander asked.
“Dead,” Ilia said. “So’s Vadim.”
Alexander swore and slammed his fist on the table. “What about the girl?”
“She’s gone. Escaped.” Ilia dumped Andrei unceremoniously into a chair next to Gennady. Andrei was starting to come around, but gripped the chair with both hands to keep from sliding off. Gennady looked at him without expression.
“She overpowered Vadim? I don’t think so,” Alexander replied. Vadim was one of his biggest bodyguards and wasn’t the type to get taken down by a woman. Alexander thought for a moment, then slapped his hand on his forehead. He swore again. “She had help.” With mounting dread, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed Vitali’s number. He willed his assistant to answer the phone, but it rang. And rang. And rang. And finally went to voicemail.
Alexander closed his eyes and clicked off the phone. “That damn American is here,” he said, voice strained.
Ilia looked surprised. “Wallace? I thought you’d kill him at the candy store.”
“That was the plan, dammit. Vitali was supposed to take care of it. Something must’ve happened.”
“So what do we do now?” Ilia asked.
“You find him and kill him. Kill them both.”
Ilia looked concerned. “He’s good. I’m not sure I should leave you. Especially with these two.”
Alexander thrust a finger in his face. “It’s your fault he’s here! You and this idiot Andrei. So if you want to get on my good side, you take care of it, now.”
Ilia nodded and reluctantly started towards the door.
“Wait,” Alexander said.
Ilia stopped and turned around, eyebrows up.
“You’re right, this guy seems to have a knack for not dying,” Alexander said as he pulled out his cell phone. He hit a speed dial number and waited as it connected. “Constantin, what’s your status?” A pause as the man on the other side responded. “Good. Can you spare two men to help round up the American?” Another pause, shorter this time. “Good. Ilia will meet you by my car.”
He hung up and turned to Ilia. “I want the three of you to find this guy. Nothing fancy. Just shoot him and dump his body in the river. Try to take Anya alive if you can, but don’t risk anything. Got it?”
“Yes, sir,” Ilia said. He looked uncertain. “Nick and the girl will be by your car.”
“I doubt it,” Alexander said. “They probably got the hell away from there as soon as you left. But in case they didn’t, keep your ass low to the ground.”
“Yes, sir,” Ilia said again, the uncertain look still on his face as he disappeared out the door.
After he left, Alexander turned to Andrei, who watched him nervously. “Now, in case they fail, you’re going to tell me where this guy’s kid is.”
Rounding the corner of the building, Nick saw a line of rusted cars along a green chain-link fence that marked the northern boundary of the complex. They took cover behind one of the bigger ones, where they sat with thei
r backs against a grimy trunk and breathed heavily.
“Two men down,” Nick whispered. The shots had ended and an eerie silence pervaded the area. “That would leave nine or ten of Alexander’s guys left, unless Mikhail took any out.”
“Plus Ilia,” Anya said softly. “I caught a glimpse of him after we shot the guy in the car.”
“Where?”
“On the other side of the car. He was carrying somebody.”
“He’s working with Alexander’s men?”
“Of course,” Anya said. “That snake will jump into bed with whoever is winning.”
“I’m surprised Alexander didn’t just shoot him.”
Anya smiled grimly. “Well, we’ve been taking out his men. He’s probably running out of bodyguards.”
Nick rolled to his side and peered out between two cars. He didn’t see any movement, but his range was limited. “Speaking of that, it won’t be long before they come looking for us.”
“Yeah, and we’re not in a good spot.”
Nick looked back at the fence. It was at least eight feet high, with strands of barbed wire on the top. Beyond the fence was a wall of trees. No escape that way. They’d be trapped between the cars and the fence if anybody found them.
“Agreed,” he said. “Let’s take it to them instead.”
“What’re you thinking?”
“They won’t be expecting us to go after them. They think they have us on the run. OK, maybe they do. Let’s go on the offensive.”
She looked doubtful. “By now he knows you’re here, and he’ll have everybody looking for you, with orders to shoot to kill.”
“People have been ordered to kill me before. I’m still here. They’re not.”
She chewed on her lip, still looking doubtful.
“Anya, I’m out of time. My contact from the adoption agency is probably looking for me right now. She’s not going to find me, and the adoption is off. I can deal with that. But Nonna’s not going to be a victim of my mistakes. I’m getting her out of here.”
“And then what?”
He looked at her.
“And then what?” Anya said again. “You can’t take her home. She can’t stay here. What will you do with her?”
Worth The Risk Page 27