Page 59 of My Merciless Don

I waited silently, but no one said anything.

I nodded in acknowledgement and went on. “So, we divide into groups of three…” I took them through the plan, trying to think of every contingency and plan for it. Not easy when we were essentially going in blind.

This was the kind of operation that usually took weeks to plan. But we didn’t have that time so we’d just have to do our best.

“Ready?” I asked.

“Yes.” Various voices replied.

“Then let’s go.”

I retrieved my weapons from their cases, two guns and a knife, and deposited them in my gun belt. I placed the knife on a holder inside my sleeve. Then I started my vehicle and got into formation. We had a massive truck to ram through the gate. We knew it was likely we wouldn’t have the element of surprise so we weren’t being subtle.

The truck flew through the gate, scattering a few security guards. Immediately, they were gunned down by the second man in the truck. As anticipated, several guards poured out of the house right away, their guns cocked, shooting at us. We immediately spread out to create a more difficult target and all swarmed from our vehicles, shooting back while using our bullet proof doors as shields.

We cut about half of them down before they even got a clue and dived for cover. We moved forward - shooting every time they showed themselves – in a v-formation. Along our sides were men with bullet proof shields blocking bullets as we moved forward.

They’d left the door open so we entered the house without difficulty and immediately split into three, one group going towards the kitchen, the other towards the bedrooms. I led the last group forward to the living room, shooting to kill as I went. I kept careful count of my bullets, crouching down to reload while two of my deputies took over. We swept through the sitting room ascertaining that Audry was nowhere around there or the dining hall. I continued on down the darkened corridor, towards the den, mentally thanking Valerio for having obtained the house blueprints.

As I walked, I smashed open doors and then stepped back for my two deputies to clear the room while I covered them from the doorway. Once we were sure a room was empty or it was taken care, we moved on to the next. Just before the last door, one of my deputies got shot in the leg and I immediately had the other one tie off the wound before insisting that he take him out to the car. I headed for the last door on my own, both guns ready. I kicked the door open with my leg, immediately pointing my guns, ready to shoot.

I froze at the sight before me. Aleksandr Yegorov was choking Audry, her beat up and swollen face turning almost blue.

CHAPTER FORTY

AUDRY

Iopened my mouth to tell Aleksandr that the obvious care in Marco’s voice was part of my plan - that that was what a mark was – but I saw immediately that he would not believe me. My heart was thudding hard as he bore down on me. I knew that whatever pain he’d inflicted on me before, it was going to be nothing compared to what he would do to me now.

Knowing that Marco cared for me seemed to have given him even more motivation.

I tried to back away. The huge desk behind me served as an impediment to my goals.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “You're a fool if you think that harming me is going to harm him. You'd be doing him a favor, because I was in the process of stealing from him.”

Yegorov threw back his head and laughed. “Of course you were.” He stopped, laughing abruptly and stared at me with diamond hard eyes, “Is that how you got him to fall for you?”

“He's playing you.” I said with a sneer, “he wants you to think that you'd be hurting him by killing me.”

“Is that so?” Yegorov sneered back but there was a hint of uncertainty in his eyes.

“It is so.” I stared steadily into his eyes so that he would know I wasn't joking. It helped that I wasn't at all sure if Marco really cared for me or not. For all I knew, what I was saying was true.

He hesitated, clearly caught in the indecision of doing something that Marco wanted done and wanting to do it himself.

“No,” he said finally. There is no way that he wants to kill you. You are his second chance.”

I wanted to insist that, ‘no I wasn't!’ but I knew that would just engender the opposite reaction. He would think I was protesting too much… which honestly, I was, but I was just out of ideas.

He continued advancing towards me, and I continued to sidle away. It wasn't long before he caught up to me, his hands sliding around my neck and squeezing. I dug my nails into his skin, trying to make him let go, but he just squeezed tighter.

We struggled together, him squeezing and me fighting. I did some damage. His arms were bleeding, but that didn't seem to move him. He simply continued to strangle me. Suddenly the sounds of gunshots broke the silence. Both Yegorov and I jerked in startlement. He even loosened his grip on my neck a little, but I was too surprised to use it as a chance to get away. By the time I thought to start struggling again, he had resumed strangling me. He lifted me off the ground, my legs kicking as my vision began to blur.

I began to think that whoever had come to rescue me might just find me dead. I struggled in earnest, digging my fingers between his hands and my neck to no avail. I began to choke, gasp, and sputter. My chest ached with the lack of oxygen. My vision began to darken.

The sound of gunshots came closer and closer, they might have been almost deafening if I hadn’t been too busy dying.

The few brain cells I could spare took a moment to marvel at just how completely Yegorov was ignoring what was clearly a major gunfight taking place right in his house. I figured he was counting on the other henchman in the room to defend him. If I could have spoken, I would have asked him if this was really the time to be killing me, when his own life was in danger.

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