Page 37 of The Devils' Darling

He looks up, sees us, and, before we can put a bullet in him, using a silencer, he screams something in Russian.

Grigoriy’s men run toward us, weapons raised. They indiscriminately fire off round after round, puncturing holes in the trees and splintering wood. Jesus Christ, they are not the best trained, but the volume of gunfire sends us scattering.

Diego pushes me back, urging me to take cover behind one of the trees, but I scramble to get around him. I am not going to cower in the background. All I care about is getting to Mackenzie and Kirill.

I glance over my shoulder, trying to get eyes on Dom. I spot him a short distance away, two of my men flanking him. He seems unharmed. He jerks his chin at me, acknowledging that we’re both okay, and that we need to keep going. With every step, white spikes of agony jar up through my bad leg, but the pills I’ve taken make the pain seem distant.

Leon beckons with a curl of his fingers, and four of my father’s men fan out and raise their weapons. They take out Grigoriy’s men one by one. But one of the Russians gets a hit on one of our men. He goes down with a scream as his thigh bursts open like a watermelon.

“Fuck.” I catch the eye of another of my father’s men. “Stay with him,” I command. “Bind up that leg.” I won’t leave one of these men here to bleed out.

With the Russian patrolmen taken care of, I storm toward the building, Dom by my side.

“Wait,” Leon says as he races to catch up with me. “They’ll know we’re coming now, but we can still disorientate them.”

I nod and put my arm out, holding Dom back with me. Leon reaches the door first, and he lifts his foot and kicks it open. He glances inside, ducks back out, and beckons the men, pointing toward the cabin. Two of our men pull the pins on the stun grenades and throw them inside.

The noise is loud enough to hurt my ears even out here. There’s a blinding flash from inside, and it looks as if real grenades went off in there. Smoke billows out of the door and dissipates into the air.

Shit, will Mackenzie be injured by the blasts?

“Visual check showed me males only in that first room,” Leon announces, as though he’s heard my thoughts, and I breathe a sigh of relief.

Two men wait either side of the door, weapons raised. One cocks his fingers twice, and the men enter. Moments later, there’s the strange low thud of silenced fire, and then Leon beckons us through. I enter the cabin. A couple of bodies are sprawled across the floor, blood slowly spreading in a circle beneath them.

Our men spread out, searching the place. Heavy feet clomp around overhead as they check the second floor. To my side is a cloakroom. It’s empty.

Where the hell are Kenzie and Kirill? Then I see it, the door beneath the stairs. I pull it open and duck back as bullets whizz by my head. Trust Grigoriy to have them down there.

Fuck.

I need to distract him and his men, because I have no doubt he’ll shoot Mackenzie rather than let her go with us. I wave at Leon and indicate the stairs. He pulls two of the stun grenades from the belt slung around his hips. I shake my head. We can’t see down there, and if one of those things detonates right by Kenzie, it could still cause a hell of a lot of damage.

Leon purses his lips, but he nods and places them back on his belt.

“Give me one good reason not to shoot this cunt in the face.”

The voice is unmistakable.

“Hello, Grigoriy,” I say, trying to keep my voice calm. “We’ve killed your men, and we’re armed. You’re not getting out of that basement alive if you harm so much as a single hair on either of their heads.”

He knows exactly who I’m talking about—Kirill and Mackenzie.

He shouts up his reply. “We’re also armed, and if any of you try to come down here, we’ll pick you off before your foot even hits the second step.”

I grind my teeth and wish I could take a pill.

This is a standoff. How the hell are we going to play this without anyone getting hurt? I exchange a glance with Dom. His jaw is locked, and his eyes radiate concern. We need to get down there, no matter what. Even if it means putting ourselves in danger.

I call an offer back to Grigoriy. “If you don’t hurt them, we will come down. Unarmed.”

Maybe it’s stupid to hand ourselves over to Grigoriy, but we’ll still have our men upstairs. All I know is I want to be near Kenzie, to make sure she’s all right, and check on Kirill, too.

Grigoriy laughs. “And why would you want to do that?”

“So we can talk. Let’s find a way out of this without anyone getting hurt.”

There’s a pause as he considers this. “Very well. But if you bring weapons, we will shoot you.”

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