Page 50 of When We Collide

“Grenade! Fall back!” Dean shouts, his voice sharp, commanding. “It’s a trap! Fall back and take cover, now!” An ear splitting bang almost bursts my eardrum as it erupts through the headphones, causing anyone wearing one to throw them off to shield their ears. My ears ring so loud it’s all I can hear for a good sixty seconds. I hate to think how it would have effected them out there being mere inches from it.

The words echo in my head, over and over, as chaos erupts in my ears. Hurriedly I pull the headphones back on and I'm immediately greeted with chaos. Gunfire—loud and deafening—drowns out everything else. My vision blurs as panic sets in, my heart slamming against my ribs.

The gunfire intensifies, and I hear the panic in Dean’s voice, the way it cracks as he tries to hold his team together. But it’s all falling apart, unravelling faster than I can process. My mind races, a thousand terrible thoughts colliding into a storm of terror. They’re going to die. They’re all going to die, and I’m powerless to do anything but sit here and listen to it all unfold. Dean was right, this is much, much worse.

After a while, suddenly, there’s silence. A silence so profound that it roars in my ears, drowning out the sound of my own frantic breathing. The comms crackle with static, but there are no voices, no shouts, no gunfire. Just… nothing.

“Dean?” I whisper, my voice trembling. “Dean, please… say something…” I know he can’t hear me. We all wait with bated breaths for some sort of noise. Command centre is trying to make contact with the team but we get no response. I’m onmy feet, my hands pressed to my mouth trying to smother the scream I can feel building inside me.

Please, please, don’t be dead. Please don’t be dead...

After a long stretch of silence, there’s a voice. But not Dean’s. A voice that’s cold, cruel, dripping with venom. “Well, Captain Dean Reyes. We meet again.” The room tilts, the walls closing in on me. No. No, no, no, this can’t be happening. My hands are shaking so violently that I nearly drop the headset.

But Dean’s voice comes through, strained, struggling. “Lukin.”

I hear the shuffle of boots, the rustle of clothing, and then a thump like someone has tossed a sack on the floor. They’ve got him. They’ve captured Dean. I’m frozen, paralyzed with terror, unable to do anything but listen.

“You took your time, I’ve been leaving crumbs for you to follow all over the place.”

“I wasn’t aware that you missed me that much, Lukin. Well, I’m here now, let’s finish this,” Dean utters through gritted teeth.

“No…” I whimper. Dean what the fuck are you doing?

“Finish? We’re only just getting started. I must say, that boy of yours is an absolute angel. Nothing like you at all, he must take after your lovely wife. We loved having him here, didn’t we boys?” There’s a murmur of voices that filter through the headphones. “Lucky for you I don’t believe in harming children, or I would have sent his tiny little limbs to you one at a time for every million you cost me.” Lukin states, his voice dripping in malice. My stomach drops and a sheen of cold sweat forms on my forehead as I visualise his horrifying threat in my head. “But your wife on the other hand…”

“Leave my wife out of this!” Dean growls irately. “You wanted me. Here I am. You can do whatever you want to me, but you leave my family alone. They have nothing to do with this.”

“Neither did my brother, but you shot him in cold blood anyway, didn’t you?” Lukin states, his tone ice cold. And then I hear another thump that sounds a horrifyingly lot like a punch and a groan from Dean. “He was just a kid, you piece of shit!”

“I wasn’t aiming at your brother, that bullet was intended for you,” Dean replies, his voice strained. “Your brother jumped in front of it to protect you. I didn’t intentionally kill your brother. If anyone is responsible for his death, it’syoufor involving him in your shady business in the first place.”

“Shut the fuck up!” Another distinctive ‘thwack’ sound emanates from the headpiece followed by a thump when Dean likely hits the floor, and my chest tightens with panic. I think I'm going to throw up. I can’t bear to listen to them assaulting him, but my heart refuses to remove the headset and leave the room.

Tears pour down my face, the salty water streaming like a river over my cheeks. The muffled sounds around me merge together, a cacophony of voices and whispers that I can't quite make out until I hear a familiar name; my own. My heart clenches in fear as I realize what is happening.

“I don't plan to kill you, Dean,” Lukin sneers, sending shivers down my spine. “Not right away, anyway. That wouldn’t satisfy me. I have had a long time to think of all the ways I can make you suffer. By the time I'm done with you, you'll be begging for death.” His tone shifts to one of pure elation. “First,” he continues, sadistic pleasure evident in every word, “you and I are going to have a little fun. I'm going to break every single one of your ribs while my guys go off to find your pretty wife. I wasgoing to spare her, but I can’t stop thinking about how good her mouth would look wrapped around my big Russian cock.” All the eyes in the room turn to look at me while I stare at the device sitting in front of me in horror.

I hear a deep sardonic laugh come from Dean. “You want to break my ribs, fucking go for it, but you’re not touching my wife. Do you really think I haven’t taken every precaution possible to protect her from you? Even if you did find her, she would bite that pencil you call a dick and spit it right back in your face, you ugly fuck.”

This time Lukin laughs, “You continue to underestimate me, Dean. You seem to forget that I like to think two steps ahead of everyone else. I already know that your wife is at the airbase not even ten miles from here. I also know that…” he trails off and then I hear his voice like he’s speaking directly into my ear and it chills me to my core, “she’s listening in right now.” The words barely leave his mouth before I hear a loud crunch and a pain-filled cry. Fucking hell. Did Dean just headbutt him and break his nose?

“Yebat!” Lukin spits out in what sounds like Russian. Deep down, I can't help but feel a sense of delight that Dean has inflicted some physical pain on the man who has caused us both so much suffering. If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t have lost an entire year. I wouldn’t have gone through all that pain thinking I’d lost him, and Dean would have been around to see his son be born. That raging fire of resentment in my heart for this man will never die out.

“That’s for thinking about my wife,” Dean hisses. “It’s the closest you’ll ever get to her, you prick. Go ahead, shoot me now while you’ve still got the chance because if I make it out of theserestraints, I’m going to rip your fucking throat out and shove it straight up your arse.”

No, Dean fucking stop, what are you doing? Why are you goading him? You’re going to get yourself killed. You need to stay alive God damnit!

“Your attempts to intimidate me are futile, Reyes. It's almost amusing that you think you have the power to take me down. Are you forgetting who you’re talking to?”

“You conceited son of a bitch. You think you’re more powerful than the United Kingdom’s Armed Forces? Oh, I’m going to take great satisfaction in wiping that arrogant smirk off your face. I don’t care what it costs me, I am going to end you.”

“And how do you plan on doing that when you’ll be buriedalivesix feet under, dying a slow and punishing death, hm?”

“Let me out of these restraints and I’ll gladly demonstrate how or is the great Viktor Lukin afraid of one measly soldier? Are you afraid that I will make good on my threat and drop you like a bad habit? Because let’s face it, you’re nothing without your goons back there protecting you.” Dean states with a deep anger filled chuckle. “I just broke your nose with my hands tied behind my back. You don’t even want to imagine the damage I can inflict if my hands and feet were untied.”

My eyes close and I’m desperately trying to keep my emotions in check. I’m shaking from head to toe with trepidation. What the hell is going on? Why is no one busting in there to save Dean?

“I would save your breath if I were you, Dean. You’re going to need to conserve every last drop for when I’m siphoning the life right out of you. Now, any final words for your dear wife before I gouge your eyes out and post them to her as keepsakes?”

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