Page 177 of Darling Wildfire
Northern Tacticalwasofficially a reality.
“And so it begins,” Atlas murmured.
“Hoorah,” Nyx said. “Now let’s go celebrate. We need to christen your office with whiskey.”
It was time to build. It was time to plan. And one day, it would be time to execute and show Vetticus just how much of an enemy he’d made in me.
We were free, there were no rules, and it was time to playone last dangerous game.
Our game.
Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand,
Blood and revenge are hammering in my head.
WILLIAM SHAKESPERE
ABOUT 3 YEARS
Before Present Day
86
THERON
MOSCOW, RUSSIA
We were fresh off a job as we pulled into the loading bay of aNorTacwarehouse in Moscow.
The blood and dirt had barely dried on us as we all climbed out. Nyx popped the trunk and I walked around, tearing off my vest and tactical gear with a sigh of relief. I frowned as I watched Atlas round the vehicle.
“That probably needs stitches,” I said, nodding to a nasty gash on his jaw from where someone had caught him with brass knuckles.
“Yeah, hurts like a bitch,” he grumbled. He pulled off his gear, followed by his t-shirt and looked down at the bruises littering his ribs. “Probably a broken rib too.”
“Need to work out those abs more,” Viktor teased.
“At least I have abs,” Atlas fired back.
Viktor’s twin, Konstantine, appeared around the other side of the car and chuckled as he socked Viktor playfully in his stomach that very much already had a six pack.
“I’ve told him he needs to follow my workouts.”
Viktor replied in Russian which turned into good natured bickering between the two of them. Or at least I thought it was good natured—my Russian was still elementary at best.
As the years passed, together with Nyx and Atlas, we built upNorthern Tacticalto be a global enterprise. Lachlan and West joined us full time and a few years later, we were operating heavily in Syria and that’s where the rest of our team rounded out.
Knox Taylor—Macy’s husband—we found rotting away in a Syrian prison. I’d sent someone back to check on Macy a few years after our escape. She’d avoided Vetticus although she did say that he terrorized the area for a fewmonths, convinced we were hiding out somewhere. I couldn’t stop thinking about her missing husband and as thanks for helping us, I decided to put some resources into trying to locate him. After we rescued him, he moved Macy to New York and became a part of our team.
After that, we were hired to do a security job in Syria. The Russians attacked and that’s how we met the Volkov Brothers. They were taken prisoner during the attack and I decided on a whim to break them out. Well, it wasn’t a whim. I knew who they were and I knew I wanted that favor owed to me when I got back to the states. They were Bratva royalty and having the Russian mob owe me a favor was very appealing.
Once we’d stripped off all our gear, we headed into the warehouse, Viktor and Kon led the way towards the most recent shipment ready for one of our Russian contractors. Demetrius was standing at a pallet with a gun case open on top of the merchandise. He turned at our arrival.
“Privet, droog moy,” he grinned, greeting me warmly.
When I’d met Demetrius Volkov, I’d just killed his previous arms supplier and inserted myself as the replacement. Demetrius wasn’t too happy about that and was going to kill me when the twins arrived just in time and told their brother who I was. At the time, Demetrius was the new leader of the Bratva and although he grudgingly accepted the terms of our agreement then, over the years we ended up becoming close and partnering on many ventures—of which included dealing illegal weapons.
“What do you think?” I asked.
