58. Andrey

58

ANDREY

"Where the fuck is Nikolai?" I roar through the pandemonium raging around us.

Leonty and Shura both reload as they back towards me, our tight circle drawing in even tighter as enemies press in around us. Leonty is bleeding and Shura is limping, but they look as feral as Remi.

The dog has proven himself to be a force of nature in the battle. His teeth are stained with the remains of Nikolai's men, fur stuck out in stiff, red peaks where they bled on him as he tore out their throats.

"I saw him," Leonty pants, raising his gun and firing as several more Rostov men run towards us. "He was here just a minute ago."

"Until he wasn't," Shura growls. "I saw him run."

I squint into the distance. I can just about make out a rickety, bronze gate through the smoke. It separates the front of the compound from the back.

"That has to be where they're keeping Grigory." I shoot two men in the head before racing forward with Shura and Leonty flanking me. "We have to breach those gates."

"Shouldn't be a problem," Shura coughs, wiping soot and ash off his face with his forearm. "All his forces are preoccupied?—"

He cuts off suddenly, his body going rigid, his face narrowing into a furious scowl as he stares at one of the watchtowers along the front perimeter of the compound.

"What is it?" I squint, trying to follow his gaze.

"I thought I saw…"

"Vladimir," I growl, finally seeing the man I've known since I was a child. I don't expect a warm greeting since I just killed his son, Efrem, for wavering loyalties.

Wordlessly, we close in around the tower. Leonty raises his gun to blindly light it up from below, but I grab his wrist to stop him.

"I have an easier way of weeding out rats. Shura," I say without ever taking my eyes off the tower, "smoke them out."

Nodding, Shura kindles a fire at the base of the watchtower. The beautiful, orange flames rise, consuming the aged wood hungrily.

Vladimir emerges on the upper platform, his face contorted with rage and drenched in sweat as he attempts to take us out from above.

We duck, avoiding his bullets as a few desperate men leap from the tower. Their bones snap as they hit the ground, but they aren't in pain long. We slaughter them where they land.

" Mudak !" Vladimir bellows, ignoring the flames licking his boots. "I will have my vengeance for Efrem!"

"Your son was a traitor," I spit back, twisting around to take aim at the legs of the tower.

A few strategically placed shots are all it takes for one of the tower's supports to give way. Leonty, Shura, and I scramble out of range as it collapses in a pile of fiery ash, taking Vladimir out with it.

Good fucking riddance.

As the smoke clears, though, I notice two figures on the other side of the wreckage. The taller of the two men is staring right at me. Before I even see his face, I know who it is.

"SLAVIK!" I thunder, raising my gun.

My father flees like the coward he is, weaving in and out of the fiery remnants of the watchtower. He scrabbles out of sight as my bullets bury themselves in burning wood instead of in his beating heart.

I don't think—I just take off after him.

But I don't get far before a blur of motion pops up in my peripherals half a second before it barrels straight into me.

I crash to the ground in a tangle of limbs, the breath driven from my lungs. Against all odds, I keep hold of my gun. I'm a millisecond away from unloading a clip into this bastard's stomach when I hear something that freezes my trigger finger.

"Dad?"

" Misha ?" I choke.

His teeth are chattering hard as he scrambles backwards on all fours, blinking furiously against the swirling smoke. "It's me! Don't shoot."

Rage I've never felt before rises up in me. I grab his arm and drag him behind a sheet of twisted metal so we're somewhat shielded from the fighting. My hands are shaking as badly as his. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

"Natalia is here," he blurts. "I came with her."

There's no time to discuss the depths of this nightmare or the fear squeezing my lungs. All I can do is ask the only question that matters: "Where is she?"

"She's in a shed around the back of the property. We found Grigory."

"Lead the way."

Turning on his heel, Misha runs in the direction of the bronze gate I spied earlier.

My heels pounding into the dirt hurt. Hell, just breathing hurts. Ignoring the hitch in my throat and the pain searing down my sides, I keep running until we're closing in on the bronze gate.

Misha slips through the thin opening of the gate, and I go to follow him, but before I can, a hail of bullets scythes through the air, missing my face by mere inches. My ears are ringing from the gunfire as I throw myself to the ground to avoid the second round.

Misha twists around, his eyes wide as he stares at me through the narrow bars of the bronze gate.

"Go!" I yell at him. "Protect them! I'm right behind you!"

Misha hesitates, but my concentration is stolen by the two men advancing on me with their weapons raised. The man in front has ice-blue eyes, burning bright amidst the swirling red ash. "Your head will fetch me a nice reward, Kuznetsov."

He doesn't wait for my response as he levels his gun at me.

Before he can pull the trigger, a furry rocket darts out of the smog. With a ferocious growl, Remi lands on the man's chest and sinks his canines into his face. There's a second of earsplitting shrieking before he goes silent.

Horrified by his comrade's half-eaten face, the other man tries to run. But I put two of my bullets in his back, not staying to watch what happens after he drops onto the sand.

I make a run for the bronze gates when more Rostov soldiers start materializing in the distance. I'm abandoning my own troops, and fuck only knows where Shura and Leonty are by now. It's just me and Misha, and I have no choice but to put all my faith in the boy.

With a grimace, I squeeze through the gates.

Don't let me down, son.