Pressing his shoulder to the rough brick of the house, Gabriel took a couple of seconds to focus on slowing his breathing down. It had been a while since he’d had to work through so much damn snow. He was starting to think that maybe he and Justin should look into an extended vacation somewhere tropical before they worried about building a normal life. Gabriel was already sick of winter and the biting cold.
Gabriel moved along the house to the door that led into the kitchen. Using the key that Nadia gave him, he unlocked the door and quickly slipped inside. There was a soft beeping at the security control panel. Taking a deep breath, he typed in the six-digit code his sister gave him, willing his heart to slow. If this didn’t work, their entire plan fell apart. He wanted to believe that his sister wouldn’t double-cross him, that she needed Nicolai dead as badly as he did just to keep her son safe.
He hit enter and held this breath. The light changed from red to green, and Gabriel felt like his knees were going to give out. It worked. He continued with the rest of the instructions she provided, turning off the security system within the house. He knew that some of the doors would still be locked and the security on the windows would be in place, but the cameras, motion sensors, and alarms on the exterior doors were now down. That was enough for Justin and Colton to be able to enter without drawing anyone’s notice.
Turning away from the security pad, Gabriel stepped into the kitchen and his breath caught in his throat. It was the same. Some of the appliances looked as if they’d been updated, but in the faint light thrown from over the stove, he could see that the bland paint and fake plants he remembered from his childhood were the same. There was a hint of spice and oranges in the air. His father always demanded that they have fresh oranges in the house, both for his morning juice and a light afternoon snack.
As he walked by the stove, he glanced at his watch. He needed to get going. Justin and Colton would be reaching the house at any second, and he was supposed to be farther along. His job was to move in a straight line toward the master bedroom after disabling the alarm system. Justin and Colton would follow, checking each floor, getting rid of any guards that might stumble across Gabriel.
From the kitchen, he walked down the servant’s hallway to a set of narrow wooden stairs that led to the far end of the second floor. He moved as slowly as possible, trying to avoid any creaks in the old wood as he put his weight down. The walls were lined with more dark wood that smelled faintly of lemon polish. He could only shake his head. One fucking man lived in the damn house with an army of servants to do his bidding, and they still kept the house spotlessly cleaned and polished as if the man was expecting to suddenly entertain the czar and his family.
On the second floor, a long Persian rug ran the length of the hall. There were several closed doors. The spaces in between were filled with old oil paintings and priceless vases. There was a regal feel to the house, but it also felt empty like a museum or a mausoleum. A place better suited to honoring the dead than providing a refuge for the living.
Standing in the shadows, Gabriel could remember walking down that hall so many times. When their father was out of town, he’d run to the grim double doors and push them open in search of his mother. He would stand at her elbow as she sat at her vanity, applying her soft perfume and putting up her hair. He would look through the shiny baubles in her jewelry box, helping her to pick out earrings or a necklace.
But it seemed like all too soon, he was back at school and she was gone.
Then he’d walk the halls with his shoulders slumped, trudging back to his own bedroom exhausted after a day of training. During those horrible years, he’d avoided even looking in the direction of those double doors. He never entered that room after his mother’s death. If he’d had to see his father, it was always in his study on the first floor. And then, it was never a good visit.
Being called on the carpet was about grades that weren’t as high as they should have been, training that didn’t go as well as it should have, or he had been seen talking to someone that he shouldn’t have been associating with.
Even after so many years, his heart still skipped a beat to see the closed double doors. Gritting his teeth, he tightened his hold on the gun in his left hand and crossed the hall. Slowly he turned the knob, careful to not make a sound. He pushed the door open a crack and then a little more so that he could look inside. A thin shaft of light was thrown across the foot of the bed, likely from a curtain that had been left partially open. There was a lump in the massive king-sized bed.
Not a sound could be heard beside the pounding of his heart in his ears. There was a small part of him that felt bad about killing his father in his sleep. He felt like he should face the man that had single-handedly orchestrated so many of his personal nightmares. A bullet in the back of the head felt too impersonal and quick. After being beaten and tortured, he should have been able to return the favor to Nicolai, but it was too dangerous. It wasn’t just his life on the line. By now, both Justin and Colton were lurking in the house, taking out guards.
Pushing the door open farther, Gabriel stepped into the room with the gun pointed at the bed. His father didn’t move. Indecision had him hesitating. He had to see him, meet his eyes. There was no pulling the trigger and escaping into the darkness. He had to be sure that it was done correctly the first time. There wouldn’t be a second chance at this.
At the bedside, he reached for the lamp to flick on the light, but before he could even touch the little chain something hard slammed into the back of his head, sending him to his knees. The world flashed white for a second and then went to black as he desperately clung to consciousness. The gun in his hand was ripped away and a set of hands grabbed both of his arms, pulling him up to his feet.
A different light in the room flashed on. An old man sat slightly slumped in a large leather chair, his wrinkled hands folded in his lap. Gabriel glanced over at the bed to find that what he’d thought was his father’s body were actually pillows under the sheet. Such a lame old trick and he’d nearly fallen for it.
“I expected better,” the old man said, but Gabriel ignored him and the throbbing in the back of his skull. He’d been betrayed. Double-crossed. Justin wasn’t safe. He couldn’t be sure if it had been Nadia or Colton, but it didn’t matter. He had to get out of there and find Justin before Nicolai’s guards did.
He looked around the room, taking in the four other muscled men dressed in black turtlenecks and cargo pants. Two of them held him in place while the other two stood behind his father with their submachine guns pointed at his chest.
“You’ve built quite a reputation for yourself, but it was obviously all exaggerations and lies.”
Gabriel flashed his father a cruel smile. “You’ll have to tell Uncle Sacha that when you see him in Hell. Oh, and Dimitri, Anatolii, Vanya, Leonide, and Uncle Filip. I’m sure they’ll agree with you.”
Nicolai’s watery pale blue eyes narrowed, and his thin lips flattened into a hard line.
Yes, tell yourself that you’ve got me. That you’ve beaten me. I’ve taken out most of your family, and you’re just my final stop, Gabriel thought.
Turning in his seat, he looked up at the guard on his right. “You two, search the house. We still have one other uninvited guest prowling around. Get rid of him.”
Gabriel’s smile dimmed. Justin. But just as quickly as the fear swelled in his chest, he squashed it down. This was what Justin trained for. His lover was just as skilled as he was. He would have no trouble getting rid of the guards…unless Colton was the one who’d betrayed them. Then he couldn’t trust the man guarding his back. Gabriel needed to take care of his father and find Justin as quickly as possible.
“You were never one of us,” Nicolai sneered when the door closed behind the guards.
“Thank God for that,” Gabriel muttered while counting in his head.
“You’re a disgrace. A stain on the great name of Krestyanov! I devoted years of my life to your training so that you could b
ecome something great.” His voice shook as it rose, but Gabriel started to tune him out. He’d heard this speech before. He was slightly disappointed that his father was falling back on an old standby. If this was going to be their final moment together, he could have at least prepared some fresh material. He deserved at least that.
But it took only a glance at the old man to see that he wasn’t well. He was too thin and his hands trembled ever so slightly. Nicolai was at least in his late sixties. When Gabriel had been living at home, his father had always been incredibly fit. He worked out regularly and always ate healthy. He never gave in to overindulgence or drinking. Vices made a man weak, he’d always spouted to Gabriel, disgusted by his son’s drinking habits.
The man sitting in the chair before him was dying. He didn’t know if it was a matter of months or years, but Nicolai’s time on earth was marked even without the threat Gabriel offered.
It didn’t matter. Another day alive was too long.
“I’ll give you a final chance,” Gabriel said, cutting off his father’s rant. “Stay away from me and mine. Stay away from Alexei. Forget we exist and I’ll let you live.”
Nicolai barked a harsh laugh that gave way to thick, ugly coughing that bent him forward in his chair. He straightened again, face flushed, and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “You think you can still escape? Even if you were standing with a gun to my head, I wouldn’t agree to let you go. You are—”
“God, I was hoping you’d say that,” Gabriel said with a relieved sigh.
Stepping backward into the guards behind him, Gabriel lifted one foot, slamming his heel into the guy’s balls with as much force as he could muster. The bastard instantly released him and went down to his knees with a loud howl of pain. The other man continued to hold his arm, but that was just fine. Palming the blade hidden in the sheath on his wrist, Gabriel swung around and plunged the knife into the guy’s throat before he could even react. Blood sprayed across his face. Gabriel turned away, trying to avoid getting the warm, sticky liquid in his eyes.
Shots rang out in the room. The bullets thunked loudly on the old drywall. He hadn’t seen the gun, but he’d known his father would be armed as soon as he saw him sitting in the chair. Pulling the dying guard in front of him, Gabriel used the man’s large form as a shield while he grabbed the automatic weapon hanging from his shoulder. He quickly squeezed off three rounds into the chest of the guy with the injured balls.
Turning toward his father, pain ripped through his shoulder as one of the bullets sneaked through his shield. He fired two quick rounds, placing both in Nicolai’s abdomen. The old man cried out and the gun clattered to the ground.
Gabriel cautiously looked around the man’s body he was still holding up. The poor fucker was dead. The blade in the throat had started it, but his father had been kind enough to put several bullets in his back. The gun was on the ground. His father was lying in his chair, both hands pressed to his stomach as blood spread across his white button-down shirt.
Dropping his makeshift shield with a heavy thud, Gabriel crossed the room and quickly picked up his father’s gun from where it rested at his feet.
“You were born nothing,” Nicolai gasped. “I made you into this. Into something.”
“And I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life being something else,” Gabriel replied with a smile. He lifted the gun, ready to put a bullet in his brain and end it all forever, but one last thought poked around in his brain. “Is my mother still alive?”
Nicolai’s eyes widened for a moment as he stared at his son. His trembling lips spread into a smile and he said, “No,” before succumbing to more coughing.
Was that the truth?
It didn’t matter. Gabriel knew that it was the only answer he was ever going to get out of Nicolai, regardless of whether the man lived for another thirty seconds or thirty years.
Growling in frustration, Gabriel squeezed the trigger, burying one bullet in his father’s head. Better to be sure and safe.
Nicolai slumped dead in the leather chair, blood and brains splattered across the fine material.
But he didn’t have time to soak in the overwhelming relief he’d expected to feel. The other guards didn’t know of Nicolai’s fate. He needed to find Justin. To make sure that his lover was safe.
Turning quickly, Gabriel raced out of the room and down the long hall toward the main staircase to the first floor. Pain radiated from his shoulder, and he could feel the blood soaking into his shirt, starting to run down his arm. The wound would have to wait until he found Justin. His footsteps were heavy on the floor as he no longer tried to mask his movements. He didn’t give a shit about the noise he was making as he pounded along the marble stairs. The noise was likely to draw the guards to him and away from his lover.
At the landing, two dead guards lay sprawled across the floor, blood pooling beneath them. He paused for only a second to look them over before turning toward the next set of stairs when a gunshot rang out. He jerked, dropping behind the railing for protective cover.
“Shit! Sorry about that!” Justin called out in a loud whisper.
Gabriel nearly laughed in relief. Apparently his lover was doing just fine. Cautiously, Gabriel pushed to his feet and poked his head out from behind a banister to find Justin climbing the stairs from the first floor, a sheepish look on his handsome, slightly blood-splattered face.
“Is that how you get out of a relationship?” Gabriel murmured.
Justin’s smile returned. “You’ve gotta admit, it’s easier than one of those ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ conversations.” Gabriel wrapped his good arm around Justin’s waist and pulled him in tight, stealing a hard, demanding kiss that held just a hint of relief.
“I take it you’ve had a lot of experience with those,” Gabriel said when his lips were free.
“Too much.” He stepped back and frowned at Gabriel’s shoulder. He gently grabbed his waist and turned him a little toward a small shaft of light. “Apparently, you ran into some trouble.”
“A little. Nicolai is gone.”
“And your shoulder? And the fucker who did that?”
“Nicolai got off a lucky shot through my human shield. I think it went through just the meat.”
Pulling his backpack off his shoulder, he quickly pulled out some padding and a roll of gauze. With some grunting and hissing from Gabriel, he pulled away his coat and allowed Justin to quickly bandage the wound. The padding would help to slow the bleeding enough so that he would safely get out of the damn house.
“Where’s your companion?” Gabriel asked when they finally reached the first floor.
“I gave him two minutes alone in your dad’s office. Thought he’d earned it.”
Gabriel held his smile in place. That thought was questionable. Someone had warned his father that they’d be coming. He’d had interactions with only three people prior to arriving in Moscow that could have—Grunt, Nadia, and Colton. All of them could have struck a nice deal with the information. Grunt was the least likely since he’d been looking forward to Nicolai’s death for years. Gabriel also had no idea if the man was still alive. For now, Gabriel had no proof to condemn Colton or Nadia, but he was confident that he could get it.
“I’m here,” Colton called softly as he jogged down the hall to them. He grinned broadly at Gabriel. “Any trouble?”
“Nope. You?” Gabriel replied. He could feel his smile becoming almost sharklike.
“Nah. Just a few guards and they were all pushovers.” As he got close, his eyes widened in surprise. “You’re hit!”
“It’s just a scratch,” Gabriel said. Turning his attention to Justin, he smiled as he looked into the concerned eyes of his lover. “Let’s get to the hotel, and you can sew me up.”
“You mean it’s Operation time. It’s my turn to poke around in you. You’ve got a deal.” Justin’s reference to the first time either of them was injured had him chuckling as they quickly crossed back through the house to the do
or they’d entered. Getting sewn up in a dingy Russian hotel might not be how he wanted to start his new life, but at least he was with the person he loved most in the world.
Chapter 18
Gabriel sipped his tea and released a contented little sigh. One of the perks of using London as a base of operations for so long was his ability to easily find a good cup of tea. Something that was sorely missing in the United States. And particularly this place where Justin was living. The people tended to like a super sweet iced tea rather than a nice hot tea with a splash of milk or lemon.
But new adventures in life demanded that a person make some changes. The iced tea was never going to be something he favored, but he was getting pretty damn skilled at making his own hot tea.
Glancing out the large window in the front of the café, Gabriel took in the gray, overcast skies. People were rushing about with umbrellas tucked under their arms and thick scarves wrapped around their necks against the brisk wind that was blowing up across the Thames and snaking its way through the city. Spring was slowly poking its head out with little buds starting to appear on trees and green shoots pushing up through the earth and appearing in flower boxes.
There was a part of Gabriel that was sad that he wasn’t going to be in London to watch spring turn into summer, but his new life was finally coming together, and that new life was going to take place in the States.
Killing his father had not proved to be the great finale to his long career as a mercenary and assassin as he’d thought. As Nadia had hinted in Mykonos, there was some fallout as others rushed to fill the power vacuum in the Russian government that had been left by Nicolai’s death. His remaining uncles and cousins scattered. From what he’d been able to follow, most headed straight into Asia.
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