Page 45 of Born into Darkness

“Two live bodies inside,” Val says, and the relief in his voice mirrors exactly how I feel, but then he adds, “One dead,” and I swear my knees nearly buckle right in the middle of this tacky goddamn mansion.

“I’m going in,” I say, grabbing the handle and opening the door. The others stay at my side, scanning the room to make sure it really is clear, but I can’t take my eyes off the sight in front of me. Max is laid out, and if it wasn’t for his heat signature showing up, I’d swear he was dead. He’s unconscious, and I feel like I can’t breathe. I walk closer, surprised to see a tiny scrap of a girl positioning herself in front of my son. She has a knife in her hand, and despite the fact that she’s clearly not trained to use it, I can tell she’s not going to let that stop her from trying. The room is pitch-fucking-black, but she heard the door open, and she knows she’s no longer alone.

“Don’t you dare come any closer!” she yells at me. Her voice shakes, but there’s a determination in it that makes it clear she’s willing to fight to the death to try and protect my son. I immediately like her.

I hold up my hands, even though she can’t see me, and say in as calm of a voice as I can manage, “He’s my son.”

“Talia?” Vasily says, and when she hears her dad’s voice, she starts crying, but she refuses to take her hand off my son’s chest.

“He needs help,” she cries.

I kneel down by my son and use the mic in my earpiece to say, “Niki, you hear me?”

“I’m here,” is his immediate response.

“I’m with Max. He’s alive. I need you to turn the power back on in the mansion.”

“Thank fuck,” I hear him whisper.

Everyone else can hear us in their ear, so they all pull their goggles off, preparing for when the lights come on. Within seconds, the room is flooded with bright light, and we’re all left blinking and trying to adjust to it.

Talia’s still gripping her knife, covered in dried blood, and when I look past her, I see a man on the ground with a hole in his neck. He’s obviously dead, the darker color showing up on the thermal imaging had proven that, and I’m guessing she killed him to protect my son.

Vasily pulls his daughter into his arms while I run my hands over my son, trying to assess the damage. His hand is completely disfigured—swollen and a deep purple color, fingers fucked up and bent out of shape, and I want to burn the whole goddamn world down for what they’ve done to him. Tony kneels beside me, quickly checking Max’s vitals, while Roman comes over and squeezes my shoulder.

“He’s going to be okay,” he reminds me. “We’re going to get him home and fixed up.”

Tony turns to ask Talia. “Is he on anything?”

She nods from where she’s standing by her family. “I thought it was aspirin, but he’s been like this ever since he took it.” She scurries back over to a sad pile of water bottles and granola bar wrappers and holds up the bottle. “It’s in Spanish.”

Tony looks at it and then shows it to me. “It’s fine. It’s a high dose of morphine, but he’ll be fine.” He looks back at my son’s ruined hand and then meets my eyes. “We need to get him out of here.”

Val leans down and squeezes his cousin’s good arm. “Time to go home, Max,” he tells him, but my son doesn’t respond.

I can’t stand the thought of Simona worrying for a second longer, so I send her a quick text telling her our son is alive and safe and that I’ll text more as soon as I can. I have to force myself to pocket my phone again, wanting to tell her every detail but knowing now isn’t the time.

Tony starts unpacking a soft stretcher from his bag. He’s just straightened out the canvas when I hear Lev say, “We’ve got trouble out here.”

“What is it?” I ask, staying by my son’s side just like Talia had done. I refuse to let more than a couple of feet separate us. Vitaly and Matvey scoot closer, guarding Max from the sides while Tony stays focused on getting everything set up so we can move him.

“Lorenzo and a shit-ton of his men,” Lev says, and then he yells out the door, “Don’t fucking move!”

Alessandro relays what’s going on through the radio, getting status updates on the other groups still fighting outside while Lorenzo hollers back, “We want to talk.”

“Fuck you, Lorenzo,” I holler back at him. “I’m going to fucking kill you for what you did to my son!”

“He’s alive, isn’t he?” he yells. “I could’ve killed him, but I didn’t.”

“We just want to talk,” another voice hollers. “I’m Mateo, his son.”

“He helped us,” Talia whispers to her dad. “He gave me the medicine and the knife. Don’t trust his dad, though. He’s the one who ordered this,” she says, pointing at Max’s hand.

“Can the two of us come in?” Mateo asks again. “Your guns will be on us the whole time, and we’re not going to try anything. We just want to see if there’s a way out of this for everyone.”

I don’t bother telling him that there’s no way in fuck for them to get their asses out of this. Instead, I say in Russian, “Let them in. It makes no difference if we shoot them in here or outside.”

“Fine,” Lev tells them. “Just you two. If your men come any closer, I’m shooting them.”

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