Dead reckoning, p.16
Dead Reckoning, page 16
Hank clears his throat. “With all due respect, can you two handle this after we get the girls to safety because time is not on our side?”
Wolf regards Hank with a look. “Our club is at your disposal. Whatever resources you need—men, ammo, a place to crash while this is all going on—it’s all yours.”
Parrish uncrosses his arms and slaps his palms against the table. “Great, now can we get the fuck on with it? What’s the plan?”
Reaper shifts next to me and leans forward. “I've located the warehouse where they’re holding the girls. Chaos, Mouth, and I sat on it all day yesterday, and we have a good feeling of their schedules and what we can expect going in when it comes to resistance. We also grabbed the blueprints that were filed with the city when it was built, so we have a good idea of the internal layout and structure. What we don't know is how many girls there are or how much help we’ll need getting them out of there.”
Hank shifts uneasily in his seat, his gaze darting from Parrish and over to us. “That’s going to be a problem.”
Reaper raises an eyebrow at him. “Why is that?”
“We have to get Anastasia and the kids to safety. If we go in for the girls and Yankovich somehow gets wind of that, all he has to do is call the guard he has watching her and she’s done.”
Parrish leans forward. “Yeah, and if we get her and the kids out first, he’s going to lock that warehouse down tight. He might even move the girls before we can get them. We’re fucked either way.”
Shit.
While this Anastasia woman has tried to assist us since Hank first made contact, I never thought about the fact that we’d have to worry about her, too, when the bullets started flying.
With an annoyed sigh, Reaper leans back in his chair and shrugs. “We hit them both at the same time. You and the Knights get Anastasia and the kids, and Chaos, Mouth, and I will go into the warehouse.”
Oh, hell no!
“You, Chaos, Mouth, and me.” I lean forward and turn until my gaze meets his. “Don't think you’re leaving me out of this raid, Reaper.”
The corner of his mouth twitches. “I wouldn't dream of it. If we hit them both at the same time, no one can issue a warning. We should have a chance of getting everyone out safely.”
A chance…
Those words don't instill a lot of confidence. Unease coils and tightens around my spine, making me shift uncomfortably in my seat.
Hank apparently shares my worry. “Are you going to be able to do it with just four of you?”
Reaper exchanges a look with his buddies. “We've handled worse.”
Somehow, I don't doubt that. I've seen the evidence of it permanently marked across his skin and in the way his buddies’ eyes constantly dart around the room, taking in every detail and missing nothing.
Still, it seems like a tall order for the four of us to take on potentially dozens of men at the warehouse alone, even if we do have the best-trained men in the country on our side.
There has to be more we can do. More I can offer to this mission.
“What if we stack the deck in our favor?”
All eyes in the room turn to me.
Hank shifts in his seat and narrows his gaze on me. “What do you mean?”
“Well…” I cast a hesitant peek at Reaper, who has gone stock still next to me. “We suspect I was the target of the shooting, right?”
Everyone nods their agreement.
I swallow and avoid looking at Reaper when I finally lay out my plan. “So, we know they would be interested if I showed up at the warehouse, right? Maybe I should draw them out of the building. It makes them easier targets if they’re out in the open on the docks.”
REAPER
“Are you fucking insane?” I don’t bother trying to hide the anger from my voice. Even if I had made an attempt to, I would have failed. Miserably. As it stands now, I wouldn’t be surprised if steam were coming out of my ears like in the old cartoons as I stare at Viktoria. “You must be completely unhinged if you think there’s any way in hell I’m going to let you be bait for the guys who tried to kill you once already.”
How can she even suggest such absolute lunacy?
Fisting my hands on the top of the table, I wait for her to offer some sort of explanation for her crazy, ridiculous, absolutely stupid suggestion.
Hank snorts from his place across the table and holds up his hand to point at me. “I actually agree with Dixon. That’s not happening.”
Viktoria has the nerve to look shocked by our reactions. “What? Why not? We know they want me.”
I slam my fist onto the table, making several people twitch in their seats. Maybe an unwise move around these guys. “Because I'm not going to put your life at risk again any more than we have to.”
Hank clears his throat. “Neither am I, Vik. I'm the one who dragged you into this. I’m the reason you got shot and you're risking your badge. I'm not going to let you be bait for a madman, too.”
At least Hank and I are in agreement with this insanity. If he backed her idea, we might have a very serious and bloody problem on our hands. As it stands now, Vik will undoubtedly tear into me at the first chance she gets once we’re somewhere private. But I can handle her, especially when I have her partner backing me—along with everyone else in the room, which I have to assume is true since no one is jumping in to say her plan has any merit.
Vik scowls and glances from Hank to me, shooting daggers at both of us with hard eyes, her arms crossed over her chest. “I'm a big girl and capable of making my own decisions on this.”
I slide my hand onto her leg and squeeze her thigh as I lean in. What I'm about to say isn't for everyone's ears. “We had a deal, Vik. You would stay by my side or at my fucking six so I can keep an eye on you the entire time if I was going to let you out of that room. Your idea isn't the deal, and it isn't happening. End of fucking discussion.”
Her mossy eyes lock with mine, defiance flashing in their depths.
Just fucking try me, Vik.
I won’t think twice about tossing her over my shoulder again, throwing her right back into that room, and keeping her locked up until this is all over.
And it looks like she’s more than ready to argue and fight this out. She opens her soft, pink lips to do it when Wolf bangs his meat mallet “gavel” against the table.
“I don't know what the fuck is going on with you guys, but if anyone gives a shit, I'm in agreement that it's best if we go in unannounced.” He shakes his head and narrows his gaze at Parrish. “And this is why we don’t do business with these types.”
Chaos finally speaks up from beside me. “This is what we do best, guys. We can handle it.” He cuts his gaze to Viktoria. “Without putting anyone at unnecessary risk.”
Her entire body goes rigid, her leg stiffening under my palm, and I know what she wants to say—that all of this is an unnecessary risk—but she bites back her comment and settles in her chair, huffing and re-crossing her arms over her chest angrily.
Parrish chuckles from his spot across the table. “Well, since that’s settled…it looks like we all have some more specific planning to do.” He looks at Reaper. “You let us know if you guys want any additional men or resources.”
Wolf shoots him a dirty look, but Parrish either doesn’t see it or doesn’t care. Whatever is going on with those two, I wouldn’t want to be stuck in the middle of it. Nor do I anticipate needing any help from the Satan’s Knights. After what Chaos, Mouth, and I saw when staking out the place, I’m confident we can get in and out without too much trouble.
I nod and squeeze Vik’s leg. “We’ll be fine.”
And I will have a serious conversation with Vik when we get back to the safehouse about the little plan she suggested. One she is definitely not going to enjoy.
Everyone pushes back from the table. I place my hand at Vik’s back to steer her from the room, but she glances over her shoulder at me with a scowl and inclines her head toward Hank.
“I need to talk to my partner for a minute. Alone.”
Her brush-off shouldn’t bother me. Hank has been her partner for a long time, and they had a relationship long before I was in the picture in any capacity. But still, the edges of my vision go green as she rounds the table and approaches him, dragging him to the far corner of the room where they can talk in private.
Is this what jealousy feels like?
It isn’t anything I’ve ever experienced because I’ve never allowed myself to care enough about any one woman to give two shits about who or what she does when she isn’t with me.
Hank wraps an arm around her shoulder, and I fist my hands at my sides to keep myself from crossing the room and doing something very unwise to Detective Grayson.
Chaos claps me on the shoulder. “You might want to wipe that sneer off your face if you want any chance of that woman ever letting you do what you did to her in the shower or what I heard you two doing the last few nights ever again.”
Fucking asshole.
I turn toward him and flip him off. “Fuck you, Chaos. What the hell would you know about how to deal with a woman, anyway? Didn’t your ex-wife leave your ass high and dry during your first deployment?”
Shit. Maybe that was going a bit too far.
He stills, and his lips press into a firm line as he leans in so the men lingering in the room can’t hear whatever he’s about to say—likely a good thing. “Don’t pretend to know my personal business, Reaper. You don’t have the first fucking clue about anything.”
This isn’t the time to delve into his complicated personal life, even though I stand by my assertion that he perhaps isn’t the best person to be offering love life advice.
I shrug off his hand from my shoulder and turn toward the door. “You’re right. My bad.” I try to shake out the tension building in my shoulders, but another glance at Hank and Vik whispering in the corner only tightens my muscles even more. “I just want this whole thing over and done with.”
Chaos raises an eyebrow at me, following my gaze. “What? The raid or your time with Viktoria?”
Fuck if I know.
And that’s the entire problem.
18
REAPER
The cool breeze off Newark Bay flutters Vik's hair around her where she crouches down next to me, gun in hand, eyes laser-focused on the warehouse in front of us. Despite the river being right there, that damn scent of summer flowers invades my breath, tightening my hand on my weapon.
How the hell can she still smell like that when she doesn’t have her things at the safe house?
It’s just how she smells, and it’s fucking with my head in ways we can’t afford right now.
Leaning into her only makes it worse, but I can’t risk being heard. I brush my lips against her ear. “I told you to put your fucking hair up.”
Vik turns her head toward me until our lips almost brush. “And I told you to fuck off.”
I grab her upper arm and drag her chest up against mine. “We don't need any distractions, including your goddamn hair tickling me in the fucking wind.”
Even though it isn’t in Vik’s nature not to argue back, she relaxes slightly and inclines her head toward mine in acknowledgment. “You could've just fucking said that.”
She hands me her gun, quickly pulls up her hair into a messy bun with a hair tie around her wrist, then settles back in next to me and holds out her open palm. I slap the gun into it with an annoyed glare at her before I return my focus to the warehouse.
The big, dark-blue conversion van they use to deliver late-night food to Yankovich’s men every night since we started watching the place pulled in a few minutes ago, and the food was unloaded and brought inside quickly. Now, all we have to do is wait for the agreed-upon signal to go in.
Viktoria shifts next to me. “You really think this is the right time to go in?” She glances at me with concerned eyes. “We shouldn't wait ‘til there are fewer men inside?”
It isn’t the first time she’s expressed her concern with the plan Chaos, Mouth, and I came up with. She wanted to go in while the two guys who always grab the food were gone, but we shot down that idea pretty damn fast.
I shake my head and lean into her again. “Like I told you before, when they're eating, they’re not going to be paying attention. Ten distracted men are better than eight men on full alert.”
She nods her understanding and shifts in her squat again, though whether she’s uncomfortable in the position or her nerves are getting to her remains unclear.
I scan the entire area around us, focus moving from building to building and the quiet docks that are basically empty this time of night. What we’re about to do could draw a lot of unwanted attention, and there's a good chance one or all of us may end up in cuffs on the way out of here. But it'll be worth it if the girls are safe. Whether because we set them free or because the cops show up at the sound of gunfire and intervene.
The former would be preferred, but either way, this might be the last moment I get alone with Viktoria—maybe ever. I didn't want to think about it last night when she straddled me and slowly rode up and down on my cock. I didn't want to think about it when she leaned down and kissed me, her dark hair falling around us like curtains against the world outside, keeping us in that moment just a little longer so we could pretend that the private world we have been living in wasn't coming to an end the next day.
Not thinking about it allowed us to ignore what we did over and over and over again until we both collapsed so exhausted we could barely move then wrapped around each other. It allowed me to keep ignoring the reality of what tonight would bring.
It was the best damn night's sleep I've ever had in my entire life. In the arms of a woman who simultaneously makes me want to strangle her and kiss her senseless. A woman who hates everything I stand for and stands for everything I believe in. A woman who's ready to go into that warehouse with us, guns blazing, to rescue innocent women and ensure that they're safe, even if it costs her the badge she's worked her entire life for.
I glance at her out of the corner of my eye. “Be careful, Vik. Remember, stay with me at all times—at my side or on my six.”
She opens her mouth to say something but then quickly presses her lips together and nods. It’s too late for any further reservations or concerns. We’re too far in to go back now. We don’t have time to scrap tonight and regroup. Not with the auction coming up so fast.
It’s now or never.
The light over the dock door where they pulled up the van goes out, a sign they've finished bringing in all the food and won't be back outside the rest of the night unless something draws them out. It's also our signal to go in.
If all goes as planned, they'll be so distracted eating that they won't know what hit them until it's too late for them to respond and formulate any sort of counterattack.
What I said in that meeting yesterday was true. Chaos, Mouth, and I have seen shit and faced odds a lot worse than this. I'm not worried about us, though. I'm worried about those women and Vik. One stray bullet is all it takes to end the life of somebody who doesn't deserve it instead of the bad guys. Which is why we’re going to be careful and stick to the plan.
I raise my hand and signal to Vik that we’re moving. She sends off a text to Hank to let them know to move that just says “now,” then we dodge out from around the buoys where we’ve been taking cover at the side of the dock and make our way through the shadows toward the warehouse where the Russians are holding the girls.
Vik stays directly behind me, her soft footsteps barely audible to anyone but me. But even if I couldn't hear her, I would feel her. Whenever that woman is within a hundred feet of me, my heart races, and my body responds.
It's more dangerous to both of us than whatever lies inside this building. Yet, I can't bring myself to regret anything that's happened since the day I met her in that club. Not when I have felt things with her that I never thought possible. It's why having her with us tonight ups the stakes so much. Because it isn't just about rescuing these girls and making sure the fuckers pay for their sins; it also means protecting this woman to ensure that when this is all said and done, she still has her life and her job.
God willing…
If I still believed in the big man upstairs, I might actually send up another prayer for what we’re about to do, but my faith in a higher power died a long time ago with my friends on a sandy road across the fucking world. It didn’t help them, and it didn’t keep Vik from leaving her apartment the other day, either.
We reach the side of the building and duck into the shadowy recesses of a side door. While Vik keeps her eyes on what’s happening behind us, I quickly pick the lock. These idiots didn’t even upgrade the security doors on this place. They’re so fucking confident no one would ever come at Yankovich that they’ve gotten complacent.
That just makes things easier for us.
Hopefully…
According to the blueprints we found for the building, this door leads to a small hallway filled mostly with janitorial closets and other small storage. There shouldn't be any reason for any of Yankovich’s men to be back here. More than likely, they’ll be in the kitchen or doing God knows what with the girls, who we assume are being held somewhere in the main warehouse area.
I would've loved to have gotten eyes inside somehow before we came in tonight, but we had to work with what’s available. Which isn't much. Still, with Chaos, Mouth, and Vik with me, I'm confident we can get these girls out of here safely.
As long as all goes as planned. And unfortunately, one thing my time in Delta taught me is that even the best-laid plans can go to shit in an instant.
Tightening my grip on my weapon, I ease open the door, listening for any noise on the other side, but all remains quiet. Only the sound of Vik's soft breathing behind me fills my ears.
I signal for her to follow me, and the determined look she shoots encourages me that she is one hundred percent on her game. Her bullet wound has healed well, and any lingering pain from it seems to be a long-forgotten memory.
