Page 141 of Ivory Ashes

Raoul nods wearily. “You make the kill and we move out before they lock the theater down. The police are on our side tonight. They’ve agreed to give us a small window to flee. We could shoot our way out in a pinch, but neither of us want to do that.”

As nice as a full-out fight would be for the tension crawling under my skin, I have no interest in taking out innocent bystanders.

“It’s an execution. We get in, kill him, and get out. It’s simple.”

It should be simple, anyway. But just as we’re about to round the final corner to Yanis Drakos’ box, I know something has gone wrong.

There are voices in the hallway.

I peek around the corner and see two men standing guard outside the door. There’s the bulge of a weapon on one man’s hip.

Raoul freezes next to me. He’s as surprised as I am.

Yanis has never had guards outside of his box before. They definitely weren’t here during the first act, either.

He knows. Somehow, Yanis knows something is going on tonight and he’s prepared to fight.

Raoul is going to pull us out. He doesn’t like the looks of this and neither do I. If Yanis is expecting an attack, it means things just got ten times more dangerous for everyone involved.

But retreating now would be a sign to the Greeks that I’m intimidated. It would be like throwing open the gates of my house and telling them to take whatever they’d like. Letting them get away with an outright attack on the Novikov Bratva would be handing them Viviana and Dante on a silver platter. Because they won’t stop with the lounge they destroyed. They’ll keep coming until Viviana is out of the picture and Helen is stationed at my side.

But that isn’t going to happen. Ever.

Raoul reaches for my arm just as I whip around the corner. Before either of the guards can react, I grab the closest one and press my gun below his ear.

“Don’t make a sound or I’ll paint this wall with your brains.”

Raoul curses behind me before he pulls his gun on the second guard. “Don’t move, cabrón.”

I quickly think through logistics, but there’s no way we leave these guards alive. They’re a risk. I just don’t yet know how we kill them quietly.

Then the emergency exit behind me opens and killing them quietly becomes the last thought in my mind.

I pull the trigger half a second before Raoul does the same. The two guards drop dead, but two more charge into the hallway to replace them.

If I had any doubt that the Greeks saw this attack coming, it’s gone now.

There isn’t even time to wonder how they figured it out. There’s only time to kill the newest threat in front of us.

The guards seem shocked to have walked into the middle of an active fight, which gives us a one second head start. It’s enough for Raoul to shoot the first man to walk through the door between the eyes. His friend ducks and fumbles for his gun, but I kick him in the stomach. He sprawls on his back and I kneel down next to him.

I press my gun to his neck. “How many more of you are there?”

Before he can answer, I hear raised voices coming from the theater. So much for being discreet.

Raoul’s phone is buzzing nonstop, messages pouring in from the men stationed inside the theater. “We have to go.”

I kill the man on the floor and stand up. “Go if you want to, but I’m finishing this.”

He wants to argue. I can see it in his face. Then his expression clears and he nods. “I’m with you.”

I kick open the door to the private box. Beneath us, the theater is in chaos. One performer is still singing, either trying to keep people calm or completely unaware of what is happening. But my focus is on the small space in front of me.

Two guards form a human wall between me and what I know is Yanis Drakos.

“Don’t die for him,” I advise them. “Don’t throw your lives away for this asshole.”

But a woman hiding in the corner of the box shrieks, drowning out my words, and the entire theater erupts in panic.

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