Page 36 of Ruby Menace

“Please,” I gasp. “Please. You can’t be this evil. You can’t!”

“Why not?” Aleksei’s eyes are cold and empty. He’s enjoying this, enjoying the power he has over me. He traces the blade in a slow circle around my belly button, and I can’t help but flinch away from the sharp edge.

“You know, Boris,” he says, his voice low and menacing. “I’m starting to think our little friend here is telling the truth. She really doesn’t know anything.”

Boris chuckles, his eyes never leaving my face. “Then she’s no use to us, is she?”

“That’s right,” Aleksei agrees, pressing the blade harder into my skin. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun with her before we get rid of her.”

“You’re right. Petrov only told us to find out what she knows. He never said what he wanted us to do with her after that.”

“You have heard of death by a thousand cuts, have you not, suka?” Boris’s expression is baleful. The knife in his hand presses deeper. I scream, the sound echoing through the room and the hall beyond. I can feel the blood trickling from a series of tiny gashes he’s knicked into my skin, and I know I don’t have much time left. I have to do something. Say something. anything to get away from these monsters.

But before I can even try to move, I hear a noise coming from outside. Something that sounds like gunfire. It’s distant at first, but it quickly grows louder. Then, an explosion rings out. And then another. Aleksei and Boris exchange a glance, and I can see the alarm in their eyes.

They know what’s coming.

Kirill Vyronov is here.

Chapter Fourteen

Kirill

“Take no prisoners,” I say through gritted teeth. “We’re not going soft this time.”

“Soft?” Dima scoffs. “We wasted every one of those fuckers back there.”

“This time we’re going to make them hurt.” I run an eye over the dilapidated three-story office block in front of me. The red brick is worn, the path to the door sprouting weeds. Just like Petrov’s business. He runs a shoddy operation. It’s why his plan to trap me has been destined to fail.

Inside my head, all I can think about is Tiana. I must get her back, and make these bastards pay for everything they’ve done. This bullshit’s gone on long enough.

“It won’t be as easy this time, boss,” Dima adds. “If those guys back there were a diversion, then this is where they’ll put up a real fight.”

Dima has a point. Those guys back there were used as collateral so that they can win time. Typical fucking Petrov. Sacrificing several lives just to get a small advantage over me. Too fucking bad it won’t get him anywhere.

“They will if they know what’s good for them.” I flex my shoulders, fingertips trailing over the cold steel of my Tokarev. “Let’s move out.”

Yet again, we’re encircling a building filled with Vlad Petrov’s men. And yet again, I’m hoping he won’t be expecting our numbers. The previous skirmish had hardly diminished our forces – stupid of him not to leave more of his best men behind; the soldiers we’d faced were no match for us. Which means he’ll have his elites inside here, though. We’ll have to be more careful this time around.

Let them come.

I step forward. We can’t go barreling through the front door this time. We already played that card, and it won’t work again. Not here. While we’ve been waiting, a dozen men have silently made their way to the roof, preparing to rappel down and strike in through the top-floor windows. That will have Petrov’s men distracted as they run up there while the rest of us go in from below. Yuri has a team armed with smoke bombs and grenades to slow them down before we get in there.

It’s a good plan.

I nod at Dima, who radios the leader of the group on the roof. I don’t need confirmation to know that they’ll be doing exactly as instructed. I glance down at the Breitling strapped to my wrist, marking time.

Seconds later, my confidence in them bears fruit as the sound of breaking glass is followed by rapid gunfire. There’s a shout from below, and then several more as boots thunder through the lower floors of the building. Just as expected, the soldiers inside are rushing to investigate the commotion upstairs. I know they won’t be so foolish as to leave the bottom levels unattended, which is why we have Yuri waiting on standby.

I cast a look over at the stone-faced man who’s watching the events play out with eyes like a hawk. I’m leaving the timing of the next attack to him. He’ll know exactly the right moment to hit them hard.

It doesn’t take long. There’s a slight lull in the gunfire, and Yuri surges forward. A rain of bullets shatters the lower-floor windows, and then he and half a dozen men are ducking low, rushing forward and hurtling their payload through the shattered glass. An explosion has the remaining windows bursting out from their frames. Another follows, and then three more. Screams ring out as smoke billows from the ruined windows.

Someone flings himself through an open window and is cut down before he can get to his feet. Others have taken up positions beside the open windows, peppering shots out at us. But there’s still screaming, and their movements are uncoordinated. It’s bedlam.

Just the way it should be.

Swirling a hand overhead in a silent instruction to my men, I duck and rush forward, using random bushes for cover as I close the distance to the building. Someone tosses another grenade into a window, and the earth shakes beneath my feet, my ears ringing from the concussion of it. It barely slows me, though. I shake my head as the high-pitched whine in my skull eases, gritting my teeth as I plow on before diving through a window.

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