Page 137 of Full Throttle

He nodded, his arm falling from me. He had his gun in hand before I had mine out, gunshots and shouts filling my ears. “Kavi is in the back,” Xander informed me, jerking his chin across the bar. My eyes landed on another door, this one painted black—with and actual door panel. How appealing.

“Cover me,” I told him, moving out from behind the wall.

“As if I wasn’t going to,” he muttered, following behind me.

I kept my body bent over, wincing with every gunshot that sounded off near me.

I heard a crash, and when I looked over my shoulder, I saw Cain rushing a man, pinning him against the wall. Mina was behind the bar now, shooting whenever she had the chance. Leon and Dontell were fighting two men. I saw a flash of metal, and my stomach twisted at the sight of Leon slashing a man’s neck open. More gunshots fired off around me as I dove to the ground, landing hard. Above me stood Xander, firing off round after round at three men who suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

I sat up, aimed, and fired. My bullet hit one of the men directly behind the eyes, and as he fell, Xander took out the other two. Then, he turned, grabbed my hand, and pulled me of the ground. A second later, we were in front of the door where the leader of the Bratva was hiding behind. “You open,” Xander ordered, “and I charge."

Nodding, we switched, guns ready as I wrapped my hand around the handle. The bar behind us was quiet now, bodies littered everywhere. The only thing that could be heard was the soft whimpers and cries of the flesh trade victims.

“On three,” Xander told me.

I continued nodding like a fucking idiot, my hand tight around the handle.

“One.”

“Two.”

“Three!”

Xander rushed in before I could even step into the room. I looked over my shoulder, meeting Mina’s eyes for a moment as my feet carried me into the room.

When I stepped inside, my eyes adjusted to the dim light to find a fairly large but intimate room, with a curved bench seat, chains on the wall, and a small table. My eyes lifted to find a man sitting in the center of the bench seat, smoking a cigar with his legs spread wide as some woman sucked him off. He was older, with slicked back silver hair, a nasty red scar down his right cheek that disappeared into the collar around his neck. Following that scar, I saw that his shirt was unbuttoned to reveal a soft stomach and the signature Bratva tattoo on his chest, taking up most of the space.

“Well, if it isn’t Stevens’ little bitch boy,” the man greeted as he chuckled, his accent thick.

Kavi.

Mina had told me about him in great detail, re-living the night Tiggy died so I could understand. She told me about how he looked, the way he talked and carried himself, the evil that seemed to loom over him like a curse he never wanted to break.

Xander had his gun pointed directly as Kavi’s face, but the man didn’t seem fazed. Instead, he yanked the woman’s head back by her hair before shoving her down onto the ground. My first reaction was to dive down and help her off the ground, but Kavi hadn’t noticed me yet.

“Leave me,” he barked.

She picked herself up, not even bothering to close her shirt before she scrambled by me. When she made it into the bar, she let out a scream. I looked over my shoulder to find Cain standing a few feet away, covered in blood before Dontell and Leon came into view.

All three of the Oasis drivers were covered in blood, their chests heaving, vengeance swirling in their eyes as they stared at the man who’d made their lives a living hell.

“And who do we have here?” Kavi mused, completely unfazed.

I looked back to him to find him staring at me.

My upper lip curled as I tore my hood off, lifting my chin. “The bitch you couldn’t kill,” I seethed.

Kavi didn’t look like the type of man to ever be surprised, and I was happy to have the satisfaction of watching a flash of shock cover his features, even if it was only just for a moment. I saw a twitch in his scarred right cheek as Xander ordered, “Get the fuck up.”

Kavi stared at me for a second longer before he looked at Xander. “Unless your boss is here to discuss business, I’d rather not. I’m quite comfortable here.”

That was when I felt it—the raw power, fueled by hatred, coming from the three men behind me. I shifted closer to the wall, my shoulder brushing against a set of chains as Cain stepped through the doorway with Leon and Dontell flanking him.

Kavi’s cool composure cracked, but it wasn’t completely shattered. “I see you’ve returned to me, boy,” he said to Cain.

“All six of the men you brought down here are dead,” Cain told him, his voice void of any emotion. My eyes snapped across the room to find Xander watching his brother.

“That’s fine,” Kavi sighed, bringing the cigar to his lips. “I have more.”

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