She jumped on his back, her legs wrapping about him as she pressed the gun to his head. He stepped away from Dontell, and then Leon stepped in. He pulled Dontell back away from the man, cocked his fist back and gave him a nasty right hook. I kept my gun raised to makeshift shack they were in front of, ready to take out anyone who stepped through that fucking door.
A gunshot sounded, and I looked over to find the man Mina jumped on falling to the ground. I looked beside me to find Nik’s back to me, her gun pointed down the narrow alley we’d just come down.
With a grunt, Dontell took a blade out of Leon’s wearable arsenal and jammed the blade into the man’s neck, right into the rose tattoo. Dontell grabbed the man by the collar as he choked on blood. “Your boss here, buddy?” Dontell seethed.
“Move with me,” I ordered Nik. We moved as one, and when we were close, I was able to hear the bastard begging for his life. I rolled my eyes and shouted at him in Russian. The man’s fading eyes meet mine, widening at the sight of me.
“He feared you would come,” he pushed out, blood trickling from his mouth.
Leon and I shared a look.
“Well knock knock, motherfucker,” Mina hissed as she pointed her gun at the man's forehead and pulled the trigger. Dontell sighed and dropped the man onto the ground as she spat. “We’re here.”
“Jazzy, I wasn’t done with him,” D told her, his voice hard.
She looked at him, her face softening as she took a step closer to him. She cupped his face with her hand and wiped a drop of blood from his cheek. “No one touches my man,” she whispered.
Leon smirked.
“Alright, guys,” I called. “How many have we got left?”
“Two.”
“They’re most likely with Kavi. The coward never goes anywhere alone,” I told him. I pulled Nik in front of me, gripping her chin between my fingers as I forced her to look at me. Her gun fell to her side as I studied her. “Tell me you’re okay,” I ordered. “Even if it’s a lie, tell me you’re okay so I can kill this bastard.”
Her bottom lip wobbled.
My jaw hardened.
“Lie to me, clover. Say the words I need to hear so I get this done.”
Leon, Dontell, and Mina were a few feet from us now, giving a second of privacy while keeping a lookout.
“And if I can’t?” she whispered; her voice unsteady.
“If you can’t, then I burn it all, Collin and Agent Garner’s plan be damned.” I lowered my voice. “But you and I both know I can’t do that. There are very bad men in here who need to be brought to justice.” I cupped her face in my hands. “Lie to me, baby. Just this once.”
She let out a soft breath. “Kiss me and tell you any lie you want to hear.”
I bent, pressing my lips against hers, and when I pulled away, she gave me what I wanted.
“I’m okay.”
“You sure there’s no other Bratva back there?” Leon asked as we entered another tunnel. This one was just underneath the streets above, the sewer grates giving a peak at the shred of daylight we had left. The rain had apparently stopped, but the sun would be setting soon.
“Yes,” D answered. He was behind Nik and I, with Mina beside him and Leon tailing us.
“You guys made a fucking scene,” Agent Garner sighed in my ear. “We got people running out of the tunnels.
“Wasn’t about to sit there and let my woman be purchased,” I shot back through a whisper.
“My team is going in there in five minutes to pull out the victims Nikki spotted. You have five minutes to get Kavi and get out,” he ordered.
“Fuck,” I bit off, raising my gun and pointing it straight ahead. Nik mirrored me, her footsteps steady, but it was her panting that had me worried. The fear she was feeling was killing me on the inside and every bone in my body was telling me to set this hellhole ablaze.
We continued walking for a few minutes and then came to a stop in front of a structure built within the tunnel. There was electricity on this side, and orange flood lights were scattered along the walls, stretching past the structure and disappearing further into the tunnel. People lingered around the place, and those people weren’t lost. They knew where they were and what they were doing. To our left, there was a man fucking a young woman from behind. The word “teal” was on the tip of my tongue, but then she started moaning the man’s name, crying out for him.
The boys and I shared a look and decided to leave it. I looked down to Nik and saw her staring. My lips brushed her ear in the next second. “Eyes straight ahead, baby."