Page 67 of Kept By The Agents

"Affirmative."

I glanced over at Matvey and he nodded. There was a grim expression covering his face. I was sure it matched my own. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Suave lift his hand in acknowledgement of my silent question. He and Weaver were ready. "Go."

Pure unadulterated chaos erupted. As our teams moved in and confronted the men the Raleka had stationed all over this building, gunfire rang out. We were all of the same mind about what was happening here, every person involved deserved to die. None of us would lose sleep by sending them to their maker.

I kicked open the door in front of us and a grim smile spread over my face. "Don't," I ordered as Semyon jerked toward a gun lying on his desk. There were two more men in the room, but my team and Matvey outnumbered them. I cocked my head, my M4 pointed at his head. "It's up to you what happens here, Semyon."

His eyes narrowed as he studied us. "Matvey," he said, addressing the Bratva leader. "I thought we had a deal?"

Matvey snorted. "Our deal was only good as long as you didn't take any family of my men. Instead, you took my daughter."

Semyon frowned. "I don't have your daughter."

"No?" he growled.

More static sounded in my ear.

"Matvey," came a heavily accented voice. "We have her."

"Then why did my men just find her in your fucking cells?" he snarled.

Semyon's surprise looked genuine. It made me wonder whether he truly didn't know that one of his men had taken the Bratva leader's daughter. It didn't matter.

"You're going to pay for every daughter you took," I told him.

Semyon's eyes strayed toward the gun once more. Then he looked up at me with a smug look on his face. "Why don't we settle this the way men do?"

Matvey handed his pistol over to his right hand, but Semyon stopped him. "Not you," he said. "Whether you choose to believe me, I didn't know your daughter had been taken. You are not my enemy."

"I am," Matvey told him.

Semyon shrugged. "Be that as it may, you should go to your daughter."

I glanced over and saw the indecision on his face. "Go," I told him. "I'll take care of this."

Matvey met my eyes. "Make him bleed."

Nodding, I waited for him and his right hand to leave. Frye walked in behind him. "Want us to get these guys out of here Brando?"

"These two," I told him, pointing to the men sitting in the chairs around the room.

"What about him?" Frye asked, eyeing Semyon.

"Not him," I said, holding Semyon's gaze. This fucker had stolen women for years. Too many fucking years. He'd ripped families apart. Enslaved women. And my tipping point was that he'd sent his men after my woman.

He was a fucking rat. And he was hoping to make it out of this building alive. He knew that all it was going to take was the slightest wrong move and I was going to kill him. If I didn't, Matvey would. If somehow he managed to get by us, then Boykov would likely do the deed himself. He'd made enemies of us all. His options were limited. So he was trying to worm his way into a safer situation.

It didn't surprise me. Men like this always tried to find a way to never pay for the consequences of their own actions. If he thought he could get away with it he would have offered us a bribe. He just knew that wouldn't fly with me. And it wouldn't work on Matvey any longer. His men fucked that up for him.

"You have somewhere we can do this?" I asked. If he wanted to fight for his life, I'd take him up on it. That would allow me to take out all the anger and frustration that'd been building up the last couple weeks as we searched out the men who threatened Cat. Searched for this man.

He smiled and stood up.

"Gun stays," I told him. He lifted his hands in an act of compliance. We followed him from the room. The sound of gunshots was dying down. Semyon knew he was fucked. This was a hail Mary. He was either going to jail, or dying. I wasn't about to let anything else happen. But jail was probably his end goal. He figured he could pay someone off to get out. And he probably could.

That was the biggest reason I was agreeing to this. If he got out, he'd come straight after Cat. No way she'd be safe with this fucker still breathing. So I planned to put an end to that. No one would rat me out to the higher ups for killing him. They'd corroborate my story just for a chance to be rid of him.

We stepped into a large room that had seating all around. I was choosing to believe that it was for meetings, and not anything else more nefarious. The idea of what they might have done in this room made my stomach churn.

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