No Remorse No Regret (Counterstrike Book 1)

by Ian Worrall

  “How?” Torres asks.

  “That little one you thought you did up in Revoun?”

  Torres starts shaking.

  “She was my secret weapon.”

  “So, you’ve killed her too?”

  “Not yet. Got a couple guys on that.”

  “Going to drown me in that water?”

  “It’s not water. Perchloric acid. Two days or less you’ll just be a brown sludge. But I get to have some fun.”

  Danil signals the crane operator to lower Torres. As this happens, he tucks his knees to his chest.

  “No. Please don’t!” he screams.

  Danil turns to the crane operator, “Before the next one you guys need to make a post to tie people to so they can’t lift their legs out.”

  Torres screams out, “What is it you want?”

  “I wanted my business protected. You didn’t live up to your end of the bargain.” He glares at him. Then in his attempt to sound like a James Bond villain, he adds, “So now I want you to die, Mr. Torres.”

  “You forget I’m a cop?”

  “No. I don’t care.”

  Danil signals to the crane operator to lower Torres further. He goes up to his knees in the acid and he screams out. Danil and Oleg clink their glasses and then raise them to Torres.

  “Cheers, my friend.”

  “Go to hell, you bastard!”

  “I’m sure I will. But not before you.”

  Danil then signals for Torres to be fully immersed in the acid. He dies within minutes as he sloshes around.

  “When he’s dissolved, dump it all out, I don’t care where,” he tells the crew as he and Oleg walk back to the limo.

  “And what about Melissa?”

  “It’ll look like a home invasion robbery gone bad. Any connection she has to me can be erased.”

  They get in the back of the limousine and pour each other another drink. They clink glasses. “Here’s to tying up loose ends,” Oleg says.

  “Here’s to that,” Danil replies.

  “Feel bad about getting rid of Melissa?”

  Danil shrugs his shoulders. “Plenty of fish in the sea, aren’t there?” he responds, laughing about the irony of how he fished her out of the water. It was a good ten years, but all good things must come to an end.

  “Will the two you sent be able to handle her? After all, you trained her.”

  “I had the cook at the restaurant put drugs in her food. And for good measure had some laced around the rim of her glass in the limo. By the time they do the job, she’ll be fast asleep,” Danil says.

  * * *

  The front door to 143 Darnell Road flies in, broken in five pieces by the SWAT team’s battering ram. Several heavily armed officers storm in. “Colton Harris, we have a warrant to search the premises,” Mitchell calls out as he and Jackie follow in behind them.

  With no answer, they begin their room-to-room search. The first site has the pile of women’s panties scattered all over the living room floor. Jackie’s eyes focus hard on the driver’s licenses he has glued to paper with the list of victims checked off. One for Melissa Vacelli is circled.

  “Looks like we’ve unmasked our man,” she says.

  Mitchell finds a door with a padlock on it. One of the SWAT guys takes a pair of bolt cutters and slices the lock off. Every single cop, even the hardened detectives, stop dead in their tracks, jaws dropping to the floor and hearts almost stopping when they see the two naked women hanging, one by the ankles the other by the wrists, next to the young man bound and gagged with duct tape lying on the floor. They all feel like their last meal is about to revisit them. One cop is unable to hold it in, but gets to a small garbage can just in time to fill it halfway with vomit.

  One of the women moans. Jackie yells into her radio microphone, “Get the medics. We’ve got three people still alive here.”

  As Mitchell starts to remove the tape from Jason’s mouth, the SWAT team members cut Sara and Michelle down with the bolt cutters and lie them down on the floor as the medical crew enter the room.

  “The guy who took us is . . .” Sara says.

  “We know he is The Drowner,” Jackie says sympathetically.

  “Did he happen to say where he might be going?”

  “To visit an old friend,” Michelle says.

  Jason sits up. “The survivor of ten years ago.”

  “Melissa Vance or Vacelli?” Mitchell asks.

  Jason pauses for a second. “I never knew her name. Just her address.”

  “And that is what?” Jackie asks.

  “298 Purcell Drive.”

  Mitchell turns to the SWAT team leader. “Keep four uniforms here in case we miss him there. We gotta motor out of here.” Into his radio, the SWAT team leader calls out, “Get two medic crews to 298 Purcell Drive.”

  The SWAT team leaves the medics to care for the three victims and follows Jackie and Mitchell out of the house. The police sirens blare out as the tires screech out and the police drive off.

  * * *

  Colton is smiling as Melissa gets to her feet, trying to keep her composure as the drug continues to affect her. The gun is at his side now. A little bitch like her is no match for me on her best day even when I don’t have a gun.

  “However did you escape death?” Colton asks.

  “You threw me into the water where a drug shipment was dropped from an airplane. The gym bag you stuffed me in looked like bags that cocaine was stored in.”

  “What a fluke that was.”

  “Almost found it hard to believe myself. But life does have a funny way of throwing twists your way.”

  “That it does.” He smiles as he strokes his chin. “Just thinking as to what I should do with you. Kill you here quickly. Have some fun with you then kill you here. Or do what I did the last time and take you home, have all kinds of fun with you, then kill you. I’ve got three others at home.”

  “If you don’t make your decision soon it will be the suspense that kills me.”

  Colton laughs. “You’re a brave little one, aren’t you?” he says as he starts to raise the gun.

  “Do me here and it would be one less murder they could pin on you.”

  “That it would be,” he agrees as he gets the gun to her eye level.

  Melissa steps to the side as her left-hand pushes Colton’s gun hand away from her and her right-hand slams into the inside of his forearm. The gun goes flying out of his hand smashing out the window to her SUV. On the follow through, she slams her right elbow into his face knocking out his front teeth on the top and bottom row. Blood starts gushing out. She slams her left elbow into his ribs with a loud crack. Colton grabs his side as he grunts in pain. Melissa then knees him in the groin and punches him three times in the face.

  Colton pushes her back and she trips and falls into the Cobalt.

  “What have you become?”

  “Only what you and my rescuer made me.” I can only hope the drug will act slow enough for me to win this.

  “And who wath your rethcuer?” he lisps before he lunges at her and she kicks him in the stomach. The force of the kick with safety toe boots causes him to double over. She grabs his head and knees him three times in the face, breaking his nose and jaw.

  “Russian Mafia head. He was also special forces in Russia.” She twists his right arm at the shoulder, tearing it out of the socket. To add more injury, she then, with full hip rotation, slams her forearm into his elbow breaking the arm there.

  Colton screams out as he sees the bone sticking out. “Stop! Stop, please!”

  “Isn’t that what I said? And all the others as we begged you for our lives?”

  She stomps on his ankle, breaking it with a sickening snap. Colton vomits and starts wailing. Neither of them notice the sound of approaching police sirens.

  “How does it feel to be a victim? Did all those girls you raped and killed cry like you’re doing now?” she chides.

  With Colton lying on the floor, she stomps on his ribs three ti
mes. More bones break. “Must really suck when the prey becomes the predator, doesn’t it?”

  Stepping away from him, the adrenalin overcomes the drugs’ effect on her as she manages to open her weapons locker. Taking out her KA-Bar knife, she walks back to him. Crouching down so she’s level with him she cuts him on the forehead.

  “Can’t handle a woman who’s no longer afraid of you?”

  She cuts his shirt open so his chest is exposed. Pressing her knife just under the collar bone, she smirks at him. “I still have the scar from where you stabbed me. Right about here, wasn’t it?” she stabs the knife into him. Colton cries out.

  “You didn’t answer my question as to how it feels to be on the receiving end of the knife. Not good, is it? Maybe if reincarnation does happen your next life will remember this lesson.”

  Pulling the knife out she grabs the back of his head, tilting it back, exposing the throat, “The end of the line for you, motherfucker.”

  As she raises the knife, the police storm into the garage and point their weapons at her. Three have automatic weapons, one has a Taser. They see a little woman wild eyed, teeth baring like a rabid dog and white knuckled fist gripping a blood-dripping knife.

  “Melissa Vance,” Mitchell says carefully from behind the four SWAT team members. “Put the knife down.”

  “Or what? You’ll shoot me to save him? Don’t you know what he is? What he did to me?”

  “I have a good idea. I’m the detective who interviewed you ten years ago in the hospital.”

  “I remembered you.”

  “I know what you’ve done too,” Mitchell says.

  “Then let me finish this mission.”

  “Can’t do that, Melissa. He’ll be taken away and punished.”

  “What’s he going to get? Death?”

  “Probably.”

  “I kill him and you kill me! Save the tax payers’ money!” she yells.

  She tries to stab him, but then goes into convulsions as she is hit with the Taser bolts. She falls to the floor unconscious.

  Mitchell walks over and crouches down next to her. “Fortunately for you, you are too valuable a source of information on the Russian Mafia to use anything other than a Taser on.

  Two ambulance crews enter the garage. Melissa is lifted onto a stretcher and handcuffed to the side rails. The other crew starts working on Colton’s injuries. He is crying in pain. Jackie crouches down so her eye line is level with his.

  “We rescued your latest captures. Thought you’d like to know. What kind of loser are you to do this to other people?”

  Colton says nothing as she shakes her head at him. She stands up, her eyes are watery as she and Mitchell embrace, “It’s over, isn’t it?” she says.

  “It finally is.”

  They separate, “It would have been good if it was Zach that put the handcuffs on him,” she says as they witness handcuffs securing Colton’s uninjured hand to the stretcher. The two prisoners are wheeled out of the garage as the door is opened.

  “Soon to be a bad day for the Russian Mafia,” Mitchell says.

  Chapter 64

  D ressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, Melissa is in handcuffs and leg irons, secured to the table in the police interview room. This brings back some memories of The Drowner’s prison. She has a black eye and cuts on her face and arms from her fight with Colton. Mitchell and a Federal Prosecutor are sitting near her. Mitchell is sitting at the corner of the table nearest her so he and the prosecutor can read her body language.

  “You have no proof of anything I’ve allegedly done,” Melissa says.

  “Not yet,” Mitchell says. “We can hold you in protective custody for as long as we want. We’ll eventually find something.”

  “Protection from what?”

  “Colton Harris survived the fight,” Mitchell says.

  “So. He’ll get death.”

  “Most likely. The man was stupid enough to keep trophies of all his victims so we didn’t need to give him a deal to avoid the needle.”

  “Enough of this,” the Federal Prosecutor loses his patience. “Give us Danil Burlomov and we’ll put you in witness protection.”

  “He’ll find me and kill me, if what you’ve said about him is true.”

  Mitchell turns on the video collected from one of Komorov’s thumb drives. He plays Melissa the video of Danil talking to Komorov and the other guy about taking out Melissa and Torres, the part where he gave Melissa liquid nicotine when she was pregnant to cause a miscarriage. Her defensive façade crumbles. She breaks down and cries putting her head on the table. The bastard’s betrayal is complete.

  “Now, my little lady,” the Prosecutor says, “You’re dead no matter what you do. Put you out in the street and you’ve got at most ten minutes to live. They’ve probably got a sniper on a roof somewhere outside this police station, and every other precinct.”

  Melissa looks at him as stone-faced as she can with her eyes red and tears still running down her face. With her arms in chains she can’t wipe her face. She puts her head back down on the table.

  “But before we continue,” the Prosecutor says, “you didn’t kill the cop Jared Torres, did you?”

  She looks up again her eyes still red and tears streaming down her face. “I have no idea what happened to him.”

  “OK,” Mitchell says. “We’ll try to believe you on that one. It will make it easier if you confirm what you’ve done.”

  She sniffs. “I can do that. And I can give you information not only on Danil, but enough to take out almost all of the Russian mafia.”

  “Really?” Mitchell says.

  “Only one way to find out.”

  “You got immunity,” the Prosecutor says.

  “Wait a minute,” Mitchell says turning to him.

  “It’s on condition that what she says is true.”

  “I want to close these cases,” Mitchell says.

  “Nothing gets closed until I get my deal,” Melissa says.

  The Prosecutor stands up. “I’ll do up the paperwork.”

  Mitchell leans back in his chair as he sees the crying woman in front of him attempt a smile. Fake or real, he wonders as he tries to gauge the look in her eyes.

  “Did you ever get help, Melissa?”

  “When would I have been able to?”

  “I suppose you feel what you’ve done is justified.”

  “What was I supposed to do? A nineteen-year-old girl, raped and stabbed. Next thing I know I have a gun to my head. And I’m forced to take a life. My life was over then. What was I supposed to do? I was terrified.”

  Mitchell taps his fingers on the table. “Had you spoke to me in the hospital ten years ago it could have ended then.”

  Melissa gives a meek smile and shrugs her shoulders. “I was–”

  “You were nineteen and scared.”

  He stands up knowing he’ll never get anything out of her now that the Feds are offering her immunity.

  “And now ten years later, never forget how lucky you are.” He turns back to face her when he gets to the door. “We started in on you when you left the dead junkie in the hotel parking garage. And using an Alberta license plate on your SUV. Should have kept a Florida plate on it.”

  “Well, I–”

  “Yes?” Mitchell says. “Do go on.”

  “Nothing.”

  Melissa attempts another weak smile. Free of men now. Not exactly how I planned it, but beggars can’t be choosers. Mitchell turns away from her and leaves the interview room. Jackie enters and sits down.

  “So, Melissa,” Jackie starts.

  “So, Detective,” Melissa answers back. “I knew you were a cop when you came in to my center.”

  “How’s that?”

  “You know a girl never reveals her secrets, don’t you?”

  Jackie smiles and nods. “How did you escape being photographed going in and out of Danil’s home?”

  “Like I said,” Melissa says to her.

  “You won’t
reveal your secret.”

  “Not until I sign my deal,” Melissa says. “Then you take down Danil and I can give you my information.”

  Jackie gets up from her seat knowing that the Feds tied her hands. When a prisoner who is looking at a massive prison sentence or possibly death for murder is given full immunity it’s like winning the lottery. A fresh start away from the life they had been living.

  With tears still running down her face, Melissa is smiling as the police detective leaves the interview room. I wonder how Danil will feel being on the receiving end of betrayal?

  Chapter 65

  M elissa wakes up in a cold sweat. Another nightmare? Her hands aren’t tied, and her mouth isn’t gagged. She looks at her mini statue of Jesus, which is illuminated by the light outside the window. Is this a sign, Lord?

  Turning on the bedside light, it’s the safe house, it’s all over now. Danil can’t get me here. She starts praying to the statue. “I couldn’t stop until now. I told you that there had to be someone who hits back. You made men who harm women. It was only fair that you made at least one who will fight back. So, my mission is over now. Will you stop those men from doing what they do? That’s the deal I made with you, Lord. Take it or leave it.” She next performs three Hail Mary prayers. Once finished, she turns on her tablet computer and marks down three more for a total of eight hundred and one.

  Back in her bed, her knotted stomach won’t seem to settle. The silence feels like the calm before the storm. My mission has ended. Or has it?

  * * *

  In her safe house over the next two weeks, Melissa watches news reports from across the country. Russian Mafia members are taken down in record sweeps of Organized Crime, outdoing even the raids done on the Italian Mafia and the various biker gangs done over the past twenty years. They got warrants for Danil and they arrest all the local ones in Florida with Melissa confirming the hits she had performed under his orders.

  She reminisced about sitting in the panic room she used to monitor guests at Danil’s home. She was guarded by four heavily armed agents. In leg irons, she was also secured to the wall with a chain around her waist. No escape this time. The police were all shocked about the extent of the tunnel and the security that had been implemented.