Chapter 63

Yaroslav

A s with any good plan, it’s all in the preparation, which means that Thomas and a team have gone to the seaport where the ship is due to set sail in three days. Filip has taken some men to stake out Sharkozi’s house. I have a sick feeling that Kim being ‘out’ meant that she’s gone to do something reckless, like try to rescue her grandmother whilst Sharkozi is with Innokentiy at my Orlando home.

I do not doubt that following my escape, Sharkozi would have headed straight home for fear that would be my first port of call. If Artem, Ivan, and I weren’t injured, I probably would have. If Sharkozi finds Kim there, all is lost.

Both Thomas and Filip were insistent that Andrey, Sergei, and I stay home with our injured comrades. I agreed, but only in the interest of not wasting time.

The second they left, Andrey turned to me and said, “We’re not actually going to sit and wait here while they go and try to claim back our business are we Boss?”

“Fuck no we’re not,” I reply. “There’s no way I’m hiding like a coward while Kim could be at Sharkozi’s place. But we need transportation. Gillihan and Nowak have been good friends to us, I won’t piss them off more than we need to by stealing one of their cars.”

“So what do you propose? We can’t exactly take the plane again, they’ll see us coming a mile off,” says Sergei.

“Don’t you have some old biker friends who ride nearby?” I ask.

Sergei’s face lights up with recognition as he realizes what I’m suggesting. “Ah fuck yeah, let’s get us some hogs!”

***

Less than an hour later, we’re blazing down the highway toward Sharkozi’s place where Emma Walsh was being held. All of us are strapped with guns and ready to fight should the need arise. If Kim isn’t there as I suspect, I intend to free her grandmother for her. It’s about time Bogdan Sharkozi learns he’s picked the wrong fight. Innokentiy is a schemer and a coward. He’s about to meet the real Volkov alpha wolf.

As we’re nearing our location, my phone starts to ring incessantly. Whoever is calling is desperate to get hold of me. Worried that it’s Gillihan or Nowak calling with bad news, I signal for us to pull over and answer.

“Took you long enough,” I hear Filip say on the other end. “We’ve got a problem here.”

“What?” I say, feeling panicked that we’re going to be too late, that something’s happened to Kim.

“The good news is, Sharkozi’s wife is dead. The bad news is, the guys who took her out are still here and Sharkozi and his men just rocked out. It’s bound to turn ugly fast.”

“Shit. Are Kim or her grandmother there?” I bark, desperate to know if she’s safe, that Kim got out with Emma already if she went at all. “What do the guys look like?” I add, wanting to confirm if it is Jackson or not.

I hope Jackson didn’t let Kim go with him. But I also know my woman. When she’s determined to do something, nothing will stop her. I can’t imagine that she’d be willing to wait around while her grandmother was being rescued.

“I can’t see her, but she could be out of view. The guys look like well-trained, assassin types, but they’re still heavily outnumbered. How do we proceed? Do we engage?” Filip asks.

As he says this, I hear the sound of gunfire as all hell breaks loose there. My thoughts immediately are not only that Kim and Emma could still be in there, but that the team taking out Amelia has to be Jackson’s. I can’t let anything happen to him. He’s family. Marta might be gone, but I have to honor her memory still. I can’t leave the man she loved to die for my family.

“Engage,” I order. “We’re close, we’ll be there in five. Call in backup.”

“Affirmative,” Filip replies, not even bothering to question how I can be so close. He knows me well.

I quickly explain the situation to Sergei and Andrey and they call our remaining loyal men who weren’t in Orlando when the coup went down, instructing them all that a war is about to go down and to get there as fast as they can. With as much reinforcements as we can muster in place, we set off at full speed. I just hope we aren’t too late. After all we’ve been through, I can’t lose Kim now.