Page 90 of Savage Obsession

His expression hardens. “Enough. The decision is made. Go.”

End of discussion, and really, it’s his call and he’s probably right. I get to my feet, my wife cradled in my arms.

“Wait,” Julia groans.

“What is it?”

“Her, too,” she whispers. “Bring Rosa, too.”

I glance over at the girl, now also coming round with a soft moan. Rosa?

“She’s one of them,” I point out.

“No, no, she’s English.”

“And?” I take a few paces toward the door.

“She’s a prisoner, too. We have to help her.”

“We’ve got what we came for,” I growl.

Julia starts to struggle. “No, I won’t leave her here. Please, Baz…”

For fuck’s sake. “I turn to Krzysztof who is following us outside. “Bring the girl.”

As I emerge from the cottage, Aleksy and his men are sprinting from the shelter of the trees, guns at the ready. I raise a hand to signal that the fighting is over.

They lower their weapons, and I continue on towards the chopper which has settled on the ground about a hundred metres away. “Report?” I yell over my shoulder.

“Three down, one fatality,” Aleksey replies.

I pause. “Who?”

“Marcin,” he informs me. “The injured are Pavel and Adam.”

“Shit. He was only nineteen,” I mutter. It will fall to me to inform his family.

“He died well,” Aleksy adds, as though that might comfort his mother.

It might, but I daresay the generous pension we’ll award her will be of more practical use.

I reach the helicopter and am about to load Julia into it when there’s a resounding crack of gunfire from the cottage. A single shot.

Julia flinches. Rosa lets out a scream.

I bundle the pair of them inside, then turn to wait for Kris. He emerges a few seconds later, half dragging, half carrying Adan San Antonio. The prisoner is bleeding from the leg.

“You kneecapped him?”

“Just one leg. Stops him running away anytime soon.” He summons the closest soldier and dumps his burden on him. “Take this piece of shit back to the warehouse and secure him in the kill room there.”

I make no further comment. Clearly, I already made my point.

“Aleksy, see to the cleanup, will you?”

I issue the order, and Aleksy nods. Our own casualties will be evacuated, along with Marcin’s body. The other corpses will be disposed of at sea, and the cottage torched, leaving nothing of use either to the authorities or any remaining Domingos.

Kris hops on board and settles himself next to me. “Take us to Firebird,” he instructs the pilot.

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