Page 179 of Ripped Lace (Ripped Bratva)

Phoenix needs me.

“Matvei,” I say, stopping him before he can walk away. “Be careful out there, too, okay?”

He nods and heads off with the bulk of the men.

Konstantin and I head around to the back of the building and watch the side door that leads into the innards of Wild Night Blossom.

I check my watch again and again as the seconds tick past. At three minutes, I brace for the explosion and plug my ears, as per our plan.

But it doesn’t come.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, glancing at Konstantin.

More minutes whisk away. Nothing goesboom.

“Bombs are tricky things,” he responds patiently. “Don’t worry. If it takes longer than fifteen, I’ll go—”

A second later, my ears are ringing with a strange whistling. But I don’t immediately notice because I find myself on my back, staring up at the peaks of buildings and a little slice of sky.

Then I see Konstantin’s face hanging over mine. He’s speaking but I can’t hear a thing.

A second later, the whistling fades and I hear his rushed words come pouring in.

“Quickly! The fight will spill out here in moments. We need to be inside before it does.”

Marshalling my courage, I grab his hand and tugs pulls me back to my feet. Then we both run towards the back door. It’s locked, but Konstantin shoots at the handle twice and then kicks it open.

Immediately, we’re met with two armed guards. But Konstantin has them both dead on the ground instantly with a pair of rapid shots.

We jump over them and rush into the darkened alleys of the club. The ringing has all but cleared now. Just in time for me to hear the sounds of war.

Bullets. Screams. The crunch of exploding concrete.

“When this is all over, you’re going to have to teach me to shoot,” I tell him. “Your aim is fantastic.”

He shoots me a pleased smile. “Damn right. I taught Phoenix everything he knows.”

If my lungs weren’t about to burst from our sprint through the meandering hallways, I’d have laughed.

We come to a stop at a junction of two corridors. Konstantin looks at me. “Which way?”

I’m not a hundred percent sure, but I go with my instincts and vague, drug-tinged memories of this place. “Straight. I think.”

He’s alert. He hears the sound of oncoming footsteps before I do.

When he grabs my arm and pulls me back behind the wall, I stumble into him, panic starting to get the better of me.

“More guards?” I mouth.

He nods and holds up four fingers.

He presses a finger up to his lips, and then, without any warning, he darts out of his hiding place and starts shooting. By the time I lift my gun, he’s already taken out two men. He turns his focus on the third, but I’m determined to help.

I take a deep breath and aim at the fourth man.

He hasn’t even seen me, so it’s not exactly fair, but to hell with that. None of these men deserve a fair fight.

I shoot three times. The second bullet ends his life. The third one just adds insult to injury.

---